Fall ‘22 Updates
Here are some noteworthy topics that have transpired in the past few months.
Phase 2
At the July 19th meeting we voted to withdraw the authorization granted to enter into a purchase and sale agreement with Fairmount Properties, LLC for the sale of property located in the downtown area adjacent to First & Main. This passed 6-0, with 1 council member absent. During the months since this proposal was initiated, Council worked with Fairmount on plans that resembled the conceptual plans that were presented to the community. Council was concerned that the plans set to go before the Planning Commission were too different from what the community bought into, and did not see a clear path forward. I felt that, with more time, we could’ve gotten there, but my colleagues didn’t feel the same way.
Although I have been a huge proponent of moving forward with Phase 2, I voted yes along with my colleagues to sever the agreement. I respect Fairmount and value their contribution to Hudson with their investment in First & Main, and did not want to see them dragged along only to have the rug pulled out from under them even later in the game.
City Manager Search
Following the politically motivated ousting of Jane Howington by the current Council majority, Council went through a long process of interviewing candidates for the position of City Manager. We interviewed candidates from many different states, and I was incredibly impressed by each of them. We eventually settled on two candidates as finalists, one of whom was Thom Sheridan who was already serving as Interim City Manager.
We held final interviews with both candidates at City Hall. The interviews were structured in a roundtable format, with the groups of interviewers consisting of three council members, two city staff members, two Hudson business leaders, and a member from each city board/commission. There were two groups of interviewers, and the candidates traded off rooms halfway through to give each group the opportunity to interview each applicant. Score sheets were collected at the end of the interview.
Finally, at the October 4 meeting, Council voted to appoint Thom Sheridan as City Manager, which passed 6-0, with 1 council member absent. Welcome Thom!
Prohibiting City Employees from Serving on Boards and Commissions
This first arose months back when it came to Council’s attention that language in the Charter actually precluded city employees from serving on boards and commissions. This somehow slipped everyone’s attention, and we had employees serving on boards and commissions (mainly volunteer firefighters for the City). We discussed this in a workshop, and the general consensus was to codify it so that there would be no confusion in the future. It seemed reasonable enough.
But then, I noticed that a provision was added which stated that former employees could not serve on boards or commissions for 24 months after the end of their tenure with the city. This was never discussed in a workshop prior to landing on the agenda.
There were a number of issues with this legislation, the biggest one being that this was clearly politically motivated. The impetus for the last minute addition of the 24 month “cool down period,” as my colleagues have termed it, was the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee application process. Scroll down to read that section, these two issues are very clearly linked, so it is necessary to read both for context.
I had intended to make a motion to change the cool down period from 24 months to 12, but it became apparent that me doing so would be fruitless and would not be supported. Therefore I chose not to. At the last moment, Council President Foster made a motion to change the language from 24 months to 18 months.
This legislation passed 5-1, with one Council member absent at the September 6, 2022 meeting. I was the dissenting vote.
Amending our codified ordinances to add provisions governing the introduction of ordinances and resolutions on regular and special City Council agendas
I have written two blogs on this topic. They are linked below:
I look forward to the day the Council majority flips and repeals this detrimental ordinance which limits the voice of each and every resident in Hudson.
Comprehensive Plan update steering committee and consultant selection process
Let’s first start out with a full list of the residents who applied (in no particular order): Keri Zipay, Alex Kelemen, Sherif Mansour, Devin Gough, Todd Zedak, Jason Linley, Samantha Carothers, Marc Wolbert, Ron Stolle, Kathleen Mahoney, Matthew Ryan Peter, Barak Kraus, Scott Ruffer, Justin Picone, Kyle Brezovec, Sarah Norman, Charles Shaw, Pat Simons, Alexander Salimian, Jeffrey Keil, Walter Selden, Norma Clifford, John Workley, Paige Giannetti, Michael Donovan, Louis Wagner, Peter Frey, Chelsea McCoy, Charles Luzar, William Santos, Jane Howington*, Bill Sedlacek, M.Elaine Speck, Michael Beam, Bryan Rooney, Daniel Wright, II, Joshua Manley, Brian Battaglia*, Karen Farkas, Rebecca Benson Leiter, Kenneth Henry Jr., Benjamin Christian Petitti, Doston Jones, Robert Kahrl, Michael Grace, Jeff Wells, Johnny Carothers and Brian Hetrick.
*Indicates that they were not granted an interview because of legislation (which was pending at the time) prohibiting city employees from serving on boards and commissions. See above for a synopsis of this legislation.
Here is the list of 19 residents that Council appointed at the September 20, 2022 meeting:
Council group appointment (in no particular order): Rebecca Leiter, Todd Zedak, Doston Jones, Matthew Ryan Peter, Chelsea McCoy, Bill Sedlacek, and Scott Ruffer
The following members will represent their boards or commissions:
BZBA - Robert Kahrl
Planning Commission - Ron Stolle
AHBR - John Workley
Economic Growth Board - Ashley Fink
Parks - Walter Selden
Each council member was given one direct appointment. Those members are:
Jessie Obert** (Appointed by Chris Banweg)
Marcia Carsten** (Appointed by Karen Heater)
Brian Hetrick (Appointed by Nicole Kowalski)
Paige Giannetti (Appointed by Kate Schlademan)
Barak Kraus (Appointed by Chris Foster)
Josh Manley (Appointed by Skylar Sutton)
Jeff Keil (Appointed by Beth Bigham)
**Indicates that they did not apply, nor were they interviewed by Council, for this position.
Although I voted yes to the appointments we made as a group, and felt excited about a number of the candidates in that appointment, I also had reservations about a couple of them. I feel they have steadfast views on several important topics that may sway the direction of the comp plan, but I also want to trust the process and was trying to keep in mind that they each are simply one individual in the group. I believe diverse opinions in a group contribute to the discussion in a positive way.
For me, the decision on who to select for my individual appointment was incredibly difficult. I had ONE appointment.
So when we were told who the group appointments would be, I sat down and reviewed the candidates. I felt there were many holes to be filled, and without knowing who my colleagues would appoint for their individual appointment, it was difficult to decide what to prioritize. Do I prioritize even ward distribution? Do I prioritize representation/diversity? Do I prioritize the environment and environmental issues? Those are just a few of the many things I considered. I struggled with who to appoint because I saw so much value in each of those.
Note: The Hudson Environmental Awareness Committee was intentionally excluded from having representation on the Steering Committee.
This was one of the more difficult decisions I have made on Council to date. Ultimately, I chose Brian Hetrick for many different reasons, one of them being that he said several things in his interview that checked the most boxes on my list of things I believe the committee still needed based on the applicants Council President Foster planned to put forward.
I started with the appointments because I know that’s what we all came here for, but there is so much more that happened behind the scenes.
Do you recall that asterisk next to two applicants' names indicating that they were not granted interviews because of legislation that was pending at the time prohibiting city employees from serving on boards and commissions? Scroll up. Take a look at the two names with an asterisk next to them again.
If you haven’t been following along the past year, I’ll take a sec to fill you in. Jane Howington was the former City Manager who was ousted for political reasons by this Council majority this past spring. She applied for the Comp Plan Steering Committee.
You are all smart people. I need not say more.
The legislation prohibiting city employees from serving on boards and commissions was discussed at a workshop very early on in the process. Council discussed prohibiting CURRENT employees, but never discussed prohibiting past employees. The 24 month “cool down period” which precludes city employees who live in Hudson from serving on boards and commissions was only after Ms. Howington’s application was received, without notice from Council President Foster that he took it upon himself to make this change.
Over the course of the next few weeks, I sent correspondence to our City Solicitor inquiring about this. I got no response. It seemed that everywhere I turned, my questions were being ignored. This was not the first time I have felt shut out of information I need in order to make an educated decision to cast my vote. It became apparent that, despite following up, I was not going to receive any rationale for this change, or any information regarding why the last minute change was made mere days before the legislation was first published as an attachment to the agenda.
Meanwhile, Council member Banweg posts a thorough, detailed analysis of this exact section of the legislation to Facebook. I felt that his analysis went well beyond what I knew about this specific provision. Alarm bells went off, because I then saw that I seemed to be one of the only Council members without complete information on this issue.
So, what does a Council member do when their Council President makes significant changes to legislation at the eleventh hour before the first draft publishes, and the solicitor won’t respond? You submit a records request.
Let me tell you, the number of times I have had to submit records requests under the leadership of Council President Foster in order to get information I should easily and readily be able to get has absolutely floored me. No Council member should feel as if the only way they can get pertinent information is through records requests.
Fast forward to the day we vote on this. Because I constantly try to meet halfway to find compromise, I had stated all of my concerns the week before in the hope that we would be able to discuss it and find compromise. I hoped there were obvious, rational, innocent reasons that maybe I simply had not thought of for adding this provision in such a covert way. Instead, I was told by multiple colleagues that I just must not have read the legislation, or that I came unprepared. Never mind the fact that all of my efforts and records requests were attempts at being prepared. I felt like my colleagues were gaslighting me.
Refer to the summary above to see how the vote played out (Spoiler: the legislation passed).
The ironic part is that I went into this with compromise at the forefront of my approach. I wanted to meet my colleagues in the middle in an attempt to find common ground. And I did NOT have a person already selected to appoint using my individual appointment. I find it both interesting and problematic that they assumed who I would appoint with my individual appointment, and felt the need to introduce legislation to codify preventing me from doing so.
Creation of a subcommittee to explore the requirements of an RFP to establish a private partner for the expansion of Velocity Broadband into residential neighborhoods
Council President Foster appointed Chris Banweg, Skylar Sutton, and Karen Heater to the Ad Hoc Fiber to the Home Committee. I also threw my hat into the ring, but was not appointed. We will be reviewing the RFP very soon and will hopefully begin to explore a way to get fiber to each and every one of you soon!
Adoption of guidelines for the use and/or rental of space at city hall and at or upon other city property
The city has lease agreements with four people or organizations for space at City Hall, they are: Western Reserve Community Band, Hudson Senior Network, a nurse for the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Hudson Ministerial Association.
Our city manager came to Council and stated that they felt it would be wise to create new leases because the previous ones were not authored by an attorney. Council approved all four lease renewals at the October 18 meeting.
As Council was evaluating these lease agreements, Council member Banweg stated he wished to have a lease framework in place to assist Council and staff in the future if other organizations applied to lease space in a city-owned building. Mr. Banweg did not invite any other Council members to collaborate with him on this legislation, and when he brought the first draft forward I felt there were many significant issues with it. The opinions of Council members on leasing city space ranged greatly, but Mr. Banweg’s legislation was narrowly tailored to his opinion on the matter. We discussed this legislation at a couple of workshops, and each time, no real compromises were made.
I feel that, overall, the legislation is poorly crafted and much of it is left open to interpretation. The section that troubles me the most is a section that limits any one organization to a 3 year lease.
If we have non-profit organizations whose work benefits our community that needs the space, and no other requests for that space, then renting space to them would be mutually beneficial. Space that would otherwise be unoccupied brings in revenue to the city, and a non-profit organization can utilize that space at a reduced cost. This would allow them to put more of their funds towards the services that benefit the residents of Hudson. I would hate to see us turn an organization away in an instance like this because of a formality.
This framework and the 3 year limitation does not take into account any exceptions. A perfect example of an organization that should qualify for an exemption from this rule is the Hudson Ministerial Association. The Ministerial Association is a non-profit that provides resources and financial assistance with the collaboration of Hudson Community Service Association Helping Hands and St. Mary’s St. Vincent de Paul Society. Many of the people this organization helps have food and/or housing insecurities. The Community Resource Coordinator for the Hudson Ministerial Association works with the City of Hudson Code Enforcement department, because very often, where there is a code violation, the situation is more complex than that and goes much deeper. Having an office in City Hall, near our code inspector, is crucial to the wonderful service this organization provides to the community. If this provision is left in the legislation, the Hudson Ministerial Association will not be permitted to renew their lease in the future, and will be kicked out of City Hall.
Additionally, this provision is pointless. Council can simply choose not to renew a lease in the future.
Over time and through some of the questions, comments, and email exchanges that arose during discussion, it became evident that the Ministerial Association and other three organizations were going to be casualties in a bigger plan. This Council majority indicated that they have taken issue with Destination Hudson’s Visitor Center operating out of the first floor of Town Hall and the lease agreement that allows them to do so. After realizing that someday ousting the Visitor’s Center is the real purpose of this legislation, the Executive Director of Destination Hudson came to a Council meeting to correct blatant falsehoods spread by Council President Foster and other members of Council.
If the Visitor’s Center closes because certain members of Council have personal grudges against members of the board of directors, the whole community will suffer. It is unlikely that Town Hall would be staffed to keep the public restrooms open during community events like the Farmer’s Markets if this happens.
What started out as a rational framework for future lease agreements has turned into something ugly, and unless significant changes are made, I cannot support this legislation.
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Have questions? Want to share your thoughts with me on this issue or a different one? As always, I would love to have a conversation! Email me directly at nkowalski@hudson.oh.us.
