BUCYRUS—Bucyrus Mayor Jeff Reser sent the following letter to the council members on Friday. Mayor Reser vetoed the legislation for the hiring of the new City Council Clerk last week.
Council members,
Monday’s vote to override my veto is important for many reasons. I would like to briefly summarize my opposition to the legislation.
First, you are ceding authority over 8 hours (or 20%) of your council clerk hours to the Council president in an unprecedented and unnecessary move. Look at the history of the city council and ask yourselves why this is necessary.
Second, the proposed salary range of the personal assistant is an insult to those city workers who have worked many years for us and still may not make the proposed wage. Council president can hire anyone he so chooses and that person does not have to take a civil service test or be interviewed. Where is the fairness to our workforce?
Third, please ask yourselves why the council president feels the need to bypass the law director’s office in writing this legislation. Do you think this trend will stop? Not a chance.
Fourth, the council clerk’s position has historically been a forty-hour-a-week position. Our new council clerk wants a full-time-forty-hour position. Let’s honor tradition and Rebecca by giving her forty hours a week to do her job.
Finally, you are representing taxpayers and citizens of Bucyrus. In good conscience, I don’t believe that you can cast a vote to override without harming the trust that the good citizens of Bucyrus have put in you…a trust that you will do the right thing for them.
There are no valid reasons to have passed these significant changes and I hope that you have been open to my reasoned opposition to the recent legislation and vote to uphold my veto on Monday.
Mayor Jeff Reser
The Ohio Revised Code Section 731.27, states that Council may reconsider the legislation ten days after the veto is announced. To override the Mayor’s veto would require a two-thirds majority vote of the council.