By Andrew Walsh
awalsh@wbcowqel.com
Members of Galion City Council decided to hold off on a vote to override Mayor Tom O’Leary’s veto of a resolution asking for a state investigation of Prairie State contracts. But just for the time being. The vote to overturn veto was pushed back two weeks to the Galion City Council meeting set for Sept. 24.
O’Leary had vetoed the vote by council to contact the Ohio Attorney General in a request for that office to investigate the Prairie State Energy Campus Long-Term Take or Pay Contracts. Member Mike Richart put forward the motion to postpone which passed 5-2. Richart’s reasoning was that these types of votes are supposed to take place 10 days after the veto occurred, and with the September 10 date of the meeting, the amount of time elapsed was only six days.
“We were wanting to get this out in the forefront after the veto of the mayor,” Richart said. “The next full council would be the most opportune time to bring this back forward. That’s mainly why I moved this back.”
Matt Strickler and Tom Fellner voted against.
“I just wanted to bring it to a vote and put it to bed,” Fellner said.
Council began the process of establishing, and funding, a severance reserve fund in the event the City is hit with an unexpected retire or retires. The is available should a retirement situation arise. It will appropriate from various other funds, such as the electric and general funds, based on the level of investiture for employees in those departments.
Once appropriated, these funds can be returned from where they came as long as it is on a dollar for dollar basis.
O’Leary joked that when this idea was first floated, he called it, “A bad idea that shouldn’t see the light of day,” but admitted that after some time to consider it, the idea from Andy Daniels and the finance committee was a good one.
“This is a smart thing for us to do,” O’Leary said.
In more utility talk, Ordinance No. 2013-64 was passed on the second reading with the rules suspended for the third reading, meaning it is set to take effect. This ordinance repeals ordinance 2011-79. This ordinance, like so many of Galion’s ordinances recently, was spurred by the change in government structures. It looks to streamline the utilities and collections systems in the Mayor’s office.
“I anticipate this revised ordinance to be able to improve our payment policy,” O’Leary said.
Also in utility news, O’Leary revealed that he and auditor Brian Treisch have been working independently of one another to review the possibility of utility rate reductions. O’Leary added that even though they have been working independently, they seem to have come to similar rate reductions.
“Now’s the time to really focus on utility rate reduction,” O’Leary said.
During other business, Jon Kleinknecht had a message for his fellow administration members. While calling their terms in office a “difficult three months,” he asked everyone to consider their words in the public carefully.
“It’s toxic. Mutual respect goes a long way. If we’re going to be respected by the community, we need to respect each other,” Kleinknecht said.
Upcoming committee meetings are as follows:
Finance Committee at 7 p.m. Sept. 19,
Utility Committee at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 11,
Police and Fire Committee at 7 p.m. Sept. 18.