By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com
During Wednesday night’s meeting, the Crawford County Regional Planning Commission (RPC) decided to go forward for the time being after making Director Mike McBeth’s layoff official.
As a result of the layoff, the RPC will be liable for $17,650.72 to pay for McBeth’s layoff. As it stands the RPC has $7,231.01 with $10,419.71 left of the liability to owe McBeth.
Bucyrus Mayor Roger Moore, who was the only board member that voted against the move for a layoff, explained his vote saying, “I voted no and wanted a termination, not because using the finances of RPC as an excuse, but his inability to administrate the grants that he was given for CDGB and it put the city at risk for losing grant money.”
Explaining what actions Bucyrus had to take Moore continued, “We had to beg the state for extensions and hire the outsource of a company to administrate the CDBG grants to go forth. So far we have been successful of getting the extensions. The state has worked well with us, but that had to depend on the demolition of up to five homes, and that meant a lot to us, because we have got a lot of deteriorating homes in the city we want down and we were in jeopardy to lose that grant money. So I felt strongly enough to vote no for the lay off, and if it ever came down to it I would vote for a termination only on principal.”
One of the issues raised during the meeting was that the per capita fees for the RPC had not been sent out to the townships and municipalities. Crawford County Auditor Robin Hildebrand explained to those in the meeting, “had the invoices came in, the layoff might not have happened.”
Notice of financial issues for the commission had been looming earlier in the year when Hildebrand wrote to the Planning Commission Members on March 14, 2013 that financial concerns for the fiscal year of 2013 had come up as early as 2011. In her report she recommended that the commission review its statutory goals and objectives, operating costs, as well as grant administration services in order to move forward and that without a review the RPC would end up in deficit by 2014.
After voting for McBeth’s layoff, discussion was held with the RPC Board deciding that until the future of the RPC is known, Pat Rhodon, Doug Weisenauer, Robin Hildebrand, and Dale Sipe will handle the day to day operations, while Ron Miller and Dale Garverick will handle any documentation that needs signatures.
The 33 entities that make up the RPC will have less than two months to speak with their local officials to decide the fate of the commission, with the next meeting scheduled for Wednesday, October 23, at 7 PM.