Bucyrus – In response to Bucyrus Mayor Jeff Reser’s Proclamation of the Mayor Emergency Declaration dealing with the closing of city buildings until December 6th. Council President Kurt Fankhauser sent out the following email.
Dear Mayor Reser,
I have at least 2 council members and possibly 3 refusing to attend virtual council meetings until City Hall is opened back up. This lacks the quorum of 6 required to pass legislation with waiving of the 2nd and 3rd readings. And it lacks the quorum of 5 to pass legislation as emergency.
Question from me on this $95,000 of “additional Cares Act Funds.” When were we notified of this and how were we notified and what line item is the administration “suggesting” that we as council appropriate this too? Also when is the deadline for this? There is a lack of transparency from the your office on what is going on at city hall right now especially in regards to city finances and several council members are not comfortable with passing of financial legislation without meeting in person.
I fully stand behind council members on all of this. There needs to be transparency with city government. The public has a right to attend meetings in person. I am not going to deprive them of that right. City Hall and everything in it is an “essential service” to the citizens of Bucyrus and should be the LAST place in Bucyrus to close down not the first. If any of the city employees are worried about catching Covid-19 then you need to find a way for them to work from home and/or install additional plexi-glass barriers at City Hall.
As Far as I know Bucyrus City Hall is the only government building in Crawford County that has been closed to the public. This is a dis-service to the public and is un-necessary. City Hall was shut down once before and look where we are, it backed up a ton of city business and it didn’t stop the virus at all from ending up here. What is the point of closing city hall if every other business in Bucyrus is still open? This will not change anything.
And as far as the your proclamation of when and how Bucyrus City Council will meet, you do not have any authority to tell the Legislative Branch of government how we will handle our meetings. You can-not prevent the legislative body from meeting as we see fit, that would be a violation of the Ohio Constitution. I am requesting that you immediately fully open Bucyrus City Hall back up. If you refuse then council may look into any legal means it has to over-ride your decision to keep city hall closed.
-Sincerely,
Kurt Fankhauser
City of Bucyrus Council President
Crawford County Now has reached out to the Mayor and he will be sending us his response tomorrow.