*Note: This is a reader-submitted opinion piece. Opinions and letters to the editor can be sent to news@crawfordcountynow.com

Dear Editor,

As we can all see, the issues/problems with the Bucyrus City Council are growing each and every meeting. Let’s put one issue aside until the legal process is done by the law.

What are the major issues/problems facing our city? Finances is by far the largest one that needs to be addressed first. Is the city spending more than it takes in? It currently looks like this is what is happening. Why was the Budget passed and now they are looking at ways to save money. This seems like a backwards approach to this issue.

The numbers are not adding up and now the council is looking at a deficit of over

$300,000.00 plus. Is this a true and accurate figure? Maybe they don’t even know how bad this could possibly get. I understand that everything is projected for multiple sources of revenue that the city receives from different funds. And that different things are paid out of these funds, ok I can agree with this. However, you can’t spend money on expenditures that you don’t really have in the account.

What are some of the key factors that could be affecting this: The Insurance plan that a commission decided to get out of the current plan and go with another Insurance Company. The administration and the auditor do not know the final cost of this issue.

We might not know until March or even 6 months out before the final numbers are disclosed. Has this been put into the budget or is this going to be another expenditure that we will not know about until later. The auditor stated that some projects might not get done or that cost for services could go up.

Has the current wage increases affect this issue? The $4.25 per hour or in some positions got more than this. What about the 4% increase for the Firefighters Union contract? Are the rest of the city employees going to get a $4.25 per hour raise? How can you give these types of raises without knowing all the facts? Our Police Officers took around a $2.15 per hour increase, and worked with the city on this. It was suggested that city employees take the same and that they would be retroactive back pay if the funds were available. This was a no deal I guess, these employees didn’t

want to work with the city on this. Now they are looking at the Out-of-Town Tax Credit, which two members of council stated for the record – not going to happen while I am on council. Can we really believe this at all? Are they going to wait until after the Street Levy passes and then attack this option again? Did someone make the statement that if this street levy fails, we are screwed? Maybe some people should have looked at the total picture of everything, before you give big pay raises to employees. You can’t rob Peter to pay Paul, then Peter doesn’t have the money to pay for it.

There is so much more that could be discussed and issues that could be addressed on this matter. It would take a Series of Articles to complete this task with this current council. We might never know all the truth behind everything for some time.

In closing, the Finance Committee has not clearly been up front with the citizens of this community. The Budget was done on December 11, 2024, but was not made public for anyone to see. Then a rush to get it passed on December 19, 2024, along with the additional raises of city employees. Then another mistake was made, but they tried to cover this up at the December 26, 2024 meeting.Yet, they knew about this back on December 20, 2024 and still wanted to sneak it by. Who is incharge of this mess? Or better, who is creating this mess? Why can’t anyone tell the truth about anything? What is still being hidden for the public? These are just a few of the many questions that this council needs to address to the resident’s of this community. Because in the end, you the taxpayer will be paying for all of this.

Respectfully submitted, Greg White

1125 Hillcrest Dr.

Bucyrus, Ohio 44820