BUCYRUS—Bucyrus resident Vicki Dishon tried to express her concerns about the scheduling of the special committee meeting held Wednesday at 4 PM but was met with resistance.

Dishon told the committee that at 1:38 PM on Tuesday (November 1), she received an email saying a special meeting was scheduled for Wednesday (November 2) at 4 PM to discuss tax credits and the city budget. She noted that she received that email hours before the regular city council meeting took place. “In other words, we have an announcement saying there’s a special finance committee meeting however the tax credit wasn’t even referred to the finance committee until after 7 PM. How can you do an announcement and say this is what we’re going to talk about when it was never referred to the committee or put on the agenda?” Dishon asked.

Chairman Dan Wirebaugh pushed back on Dishon:

“We can call a meeting for anything we want. It doesn’t have to be in committee before we call a meeting. I thought you’d know that.”

Dishon told Wirebaugh he was contradicting himself. She pointed out that he had refused to discuss the topic at a previous meeting because it had not been referred back to the committee for discussion. “How do you give a proper notice about something that is going to be discussed at a special meeting when the subject hasn’t even been referred to a committee for discussion, “Dishon asked.

Interim Law Director Brian Gernert told Dishon: “So when you call this meeting you have to give a 24 hour notice which we did. We are in compliance with your Sunshine Laws. I know it’s hard to believe but we are in compliance.” Gernert said.

Dishon said she found the timing of the meeting questionable.

She said she thought the committee should not have had the special meeting that close to a regular committee meeting. “As always (to Gernert) I disagree with you on how you handled your announcement. I am not going to argue with you because I will win. You are in violation of the Sunshine Laws.” Dishon said.

Before she could complete her thoughts, Wirebaugh stopped her. At the outset of the meeting, he promised to stop input if people “went off on tangents.”

Crawford County Now reached out to Dishon to allow her to complete her thoughts and received this response:

“When I questioned Interim Law Director Gernert why the matter of the “Income Tax Credit Reduction” was not held at a regular Finance Committee meeting, he replied that “previously we had said that they would hold a Special meeting to consider solely the income tax purposes so that people wouldn’t have to come here and sit through an entire committee meeting if all they wanted to do was comment on the income tax.”

When I returned to the podium (at which time I was “shut down” by Wirebaugh), I wanted to point out to Gernert that the Finance Committee has, on occasions, had its regular meetings placed “first” on the Committee meeting agenda to accommodate Auditor Schifer and other special speakers so they could present legislation requests and/or their program first and then leave the meeting, thereby eliminating the need for them to sit through the remainder of the Finance meeting and all other committee meetings. Finally, if Finance wanted to have a “Special” meeting to consider “solely” the income tax purposes, why was the “City Budget” also placed on the agenda for discussion?

So, in my opinion, and based on the above, Gernert’s reasons for having a “Special” meeting were meritless.”