The Miami Township Board of Trustees met in regular session at 9:00 PM on Tuesday, October 05, 1999. Chairperson Joseph W. Uecker called the meeting to order. The Pledge of Allegiance was given. Miami Township Clerk, Eric C. Ferry called the role. Attending were Joseph W. Uecker, Jean Schmidt and Edwin H. Humphrey. Chairperson Uecker welcomed Mr. John Korfhagen, Miami Township Attorney, returning after a serious health problem.
Miami Township Administrator, David Duckworth acknowledged Gloria Condelles, Zoning Director of Miami Township, for 25 years of service. Mr. Duckworth on behalf of the Board and employees presented Gloria with a Waterford crystal vase filled with 25 red roses. Mr. Ray Cooper of the Myers Y. Cooper Co. presented Gloria with a plaque of accomplishment and a $500.00 check payable to the Miami Township Parks Department on behalf of Gloria. Margaret Keller, former Miami Township Police Clerk, offered her congratulations. Chairperson Uecker called for a 15 to 20 minute recess to allow everyone to join in the celebration of Gloria's achievement with cake and punch in the lobby.
Chairperson Uecker reconvened the meeting at 8:30. Jean Schmidt made a motion to approve the minutes from the September 28th public hearing and regular meeting of the Board. Mr. Humphrey seconded the motion. Upon roll call, all voted "AYE."
Mark Jaehnen of the Clermont County Engineer's Office brought the Board up to date on the water, sewer and highway projects.
Mr. Ferry reported that after reviewing the minutes since June 15 through September 28th , he found that a statement made in the September 28th meeting was incorrect. The statement was made that the Board had not discussed the police investigation since June 15th. Mr. Ferry stated he had found the topic was discussed during public comment on July 06, 1999. Mr. Ferry read a verbatim of the discussion. He also read the minutes of the meeting, which included mention of the discussion.
Mr. Ferry read a letter of thanks from Eva Wilson to the Miami Township EMS crew of August 23, 1999.
Mr. Ferry read a letter from Harry Scott of 5879 Wade Road addressed to the Trustees. Mr. Scott praised the Board and staff for an outstanding job in propelling Miami Township into the 21st century.
Mr. Ferry read a letter from James T. Canfield addressed to Chief James Whitworth. Mr. Canfield expressed appreciation for the courtesy, professionalism and true concern displayed by Fire/EMS personnel Todd Peters and Steve Wyan on September 28, 1999.
Mr. Ferry read a letter from Robert Baillie, Site Manger of International Paper directed to Jean Schmidt. Mr. Baillie included a press release announcing the relocation of about 30 more scientific and technical jobs to the Township and county.
Mr. Ferry notified the Board that he had received no bids for the surplus computer equipment. Mr. Duckworth recommended the equipment continue to be stored until the next Township auction in the fall of 2000. The Board concurred.
Mr. Duckworth presented the Board with a draft of the Lemming House Rules and Regulations for review. The Board tabled the discussion until the next regular meeting.
REMINDERS
Township Free Yard Sale Weekend October 8,9 and 10
Fall Clean Up October 15 and 16
Litter Clean Up of ST Rt 28 October 23
Annual Daffodil Planting?Wards Comer at 1?275 October 30
Trick or Treat October 31 6PM?8PM
Chief James Whitworth informed the Board that the Miami Township Fire and Emergency Medical Service Association, Inc. was one of the first to support the National Fire Academy's Fallen Fire Fighter Memorial in Emmittsburg, Maryland by purchasing a brick.
Mr. Duckworth requested the Board grant final employment to the following
candidates effective
October 05, 1999;
Catherine Brehm FFl/EMTP$9.50 per hour
Jeffrey Cantin FFl/EMTP$9.50 per hour
Joseph Hoerst FFl/EMTP$9.50 per hour
James Petry FFl/EMTP$9.50 per hour
David Stiles FF2/EMTP$8.55 per hour
Mr. Humphrey made a motion to grant final employment to the candidates listed effective October 05, 1999 at the rates suggested. Mrs. Schmidt seconded the motion. Upon roll call, all voted "AYE."
Mrs. Schmidt made a motion to move the November 02, 1999 meeting to November 04, 1999 at 8:30 PM. Mr. Humphrey seconded the motion. Upon roll call, all voted "AYE."
Mr. Duckworth presented the Board with a petition for the creation of a street lighting district for sections 3/4/5 of The Hunt Club. Mrs. Schmidt made a motion to hold a public hearing regarding the creation of a street lighting district for sections 3/4/5 of The Hunt Club on November 04, 1999 during the regular meeting. Mr. Humphrey seconded the motion. Upon roll call, all voted "AYE."
Mr. Walt Fischer, Service Director presented the Board with a request for approval of a change order on the Lemming House project. The change cost will be $1998.00 and includes an additional 2 feet of sidewalk needed to conform to ADA requirements. Mr. Humphrey made a motion to approve the change order for the Lemming House project in the amount of $1998.00. Mrs. Schmidt seconded the motion. Upon roll call, all voted "AYE."
Mr. Fischer requested approval to have the County engineer perform a traffic investigation into reducing the speed limit on River Road. Mrs. Schmidt made a motion to adopt RESOLUTION 99?41 requesting the Clermont County Engineer to do a speed limit study on River Road upper (T?300). Mr. Humphrey seconded the motion. Upon roll call, all voted "AYE."
Mrs. Schmidt apologized to Mr. Lynn Taylor for falsely stating that he was the Treasurer of TRIFOLDS during the last meeting. She also requested that Mr. Taylor apologize to her for inaccurate statements made at the last meeting of the Board.
Mr. Duckworth notified the Board that Kevin Hosea, a wheel chair bound marathon racer will be honored next month by the city of Loveland and has asked the Board to be a part of the celebration. The Board agreed they would like to be a part of the celebration.
Mr. Lynn Taylor of 1075 Bridlepath Lane requested the following statement be added to the minutes; "At the September 28th meeting of Miami Township Trustees, Jean Schmidt read into the public record a demonstratively false and misleading statement concerning the information she says she obtained from a newsletter of a political action group that recently endorsed my campaign for Township Trustee. She consumed township time and resources to publicly address what she characterizes as quote "some inaccuracies, so there is a public document for citizens to look at for accurate information" end quote. In fact what was submitted was a page and a half attempt to promote the campaign of her colleague, Mr. Uecker. Mrs. Schmidt is not a candidate for the upcoming election and would best serve the people of Miami Township by not consuming valuable time on these rather minor points. If Mr. Uecker needs information from me, I'm sure he's capable of contacting me directly. Now in order to correct the inaccurate record Mrs. Schmidt has created, I offer the following; 1. The biographical information that I provided for the publication states that I have been, and quote "a tireless worker for the effort to pass fire and EMS levies", I stand by that statement and the publication of it by TRIFOLDS. I have over the years been a tireless worker on behalf of all police, fire, and EMS levies and efforts. And that is an undeniable fact. Mrs. Schmidt boldly proclaims that she contacted committee chair of the public safety levy of 1997 and asked if I was a member of that committee and found out I was not. What a shock, Jean. I could have saved you the time in the first place. Because I have never made that claim. Whether I've been an official member of a committee as was the case in the 1989 police levy or acting as a concerned citizen, I've attended numerous meetings over the years supporting these efforts. This includes the contentious debate surrounding the plan to go to a paid fire department, build fire houses, all the way up and including the 1996 levy which by the way is recorded at the Board of Elections as the police, fire and EMS levy not the public safety levy. I have routinely been sought out by friends, neighbors regarding my opinion as to how they should vote on these issues because of my community involvement. And I have supported these issues consistently and tirelessly. It's typical of Mrs. Schmidt and her game of hard core politics to focus on a minor wording issue such as public safety versus fire and EMS and then try to create an issue out of it to confuse the uninformed and take attention away from the real issues. As a trustee who has sought my support in these issues in years past, it's at least disingenuous, if not outright dishonest to take the position she's now taking on my record. In addition to these points, Mrs. Schmidt contradicts herself by stating in one sentence of her public reading that we have never had a combined levy for fire and EMS and then goes on in another sentence to tell us that the only combined levy we ever had was in 1997. That levy by the way was on the ballot November 5, 1996, not 97'. Point number 2. In the next paragraph her statement. IN the next paragraph of her statement, she takes exception to my opinion regarding the land use plan of Miami Township and grossly misquotes me through the omission of half of my public statement. And I stand by that public statement. We need a comprehensive land use plan that's written that will build a better future for the community not the outdated document that exists from 1980. And if we're so content with that 1980 document, maybe someone can explain why we spend so much time, effort and money on a land use planning consultant in the early 90's and what became of all the hard work from that other than the writing of the zoning goals and policy statements that are basically not in use today. Third. In the third paragraph of her statement, Mrs. Schmidt takes exception to my opinion that the current zoning code, which has its origins in 1960, be reworked. And she spends considerable time extolling the accomplishments of the Board related to this topic. A review of the public documents submitted to the county planning commission for approval of the changes made to the zoning resolution paints a different story and different from the one she's trying hard to sell to the public at this time. Beginning with the RPUD overlay in 1990 which has led to some of the worse land use decisions in this township in recent years, all the way to the newest addition of this document, nothing has been done to address the single biggest concern of township residents, runaway development without proper support in terms of systems. The rewriting of the zoning book is a notable accomplishment. It certainly is much easier to read. I'd have to ask why it took a full time zoning director until 1998 to computerize and reformat the entire book. The list could go on, but I think I've made my point. Mrs. Schmidt will acknowledge what she thinks is good about what you've chosen to do as a Board in the last ten years, and I'm simply saying that I believe there's much more that is possible and we need to address it. It's my opinion and we may agree to disagree but that is the political process. Four. Once again Mrs. Schmidt resorts to a name game to deflect a perfectly legitimate question regarding the Lemming House. Whether you use the term recreational facility, banquet facility or multi?purpose facility, you're describing the same thing. In reviewing the public records regarding the current park levy you find very little information regarding this particular project. There was only one document that refers to a feasibility study concerning it. The argument is not about what you call it or whether it was promised in the last levy campaign, this is once again an attempt to lose everyone in a sea of small details while ignoring the larger point. The fact remains there is a legitimate public question as to whether monies outside the levy should be used to finance this project. This Board has said yes. General Fund monies will be spent on the project. However, it is within the scope of reasonable public debate to call that judgment into question. Fifth. Mrs. Schmidt's desire for public accuracy is strong and I will once again challenge her to support her statement and her repudiation of that a minute ago of the September 8 public discussion on the police investigation. The July 6"' incident that Mr. Ferry just read was in response from a public inquiry. Every comment on this item has been in response to a public inquiry except for September 28th. We were well aware of the July 6th entry under the public comments section and that is not what we have been debating. What has been debated here is whether you al as a Board are taking a pro-active effort in trying to inform the public as to where this investigation goes. Mr. Fatute was at the meeting. I was well aware of Mr. Fatute's presence here. Mr. Dave Lane was at the meeting although you will not find him on the sign in sheet. And you won't find him on tonight's sign in sheet. We were well aware of who was at the meeting that night. The July 6th reference in my estimation is not this board keeping the public informed. Therefore, I will still state that Mrs. Schmidt comment that there has been public discussion in the pubic record by this board about that topic is not correct. And while we're on that topic, the hastily arranged performance that was put on here September 28th by the representative of the outside investigation firm was hardly worthy of the term progress report. And in the private sector if a contractor working on a project of this magnitude submitted a verbal update that was a poorly prepared as the one that was presented on this topic they would be fired. It's time the board got serious about bringing this issue to resolution. In closing while I've enjoyed the verbal gymnastics that Mrs. Schmidt has put all of us though these past two weeks, agonizing over old history and word smiting newsletters I sincerely hope that in the future this blatant political activity will be kept out of this forum. If Mr. Uecker's and I wish to disagree on opinions or points of fact concerning the future of Miami Township the proper forum to do that in is the marketplace of public debate such as the forum offered by the newspaper recently. We should not be doing it at a public meeting paid for by the taxpayers of Miami Township. And while I note that Mrs. Schmidt is referring, it appears to me, to the typewritten transcript from last weeks meeting which doesn't appear to have been made public here tonight for everybody else's consumption. I will say this; I would like to commend the board on its amazing turn around of that typed transcript of last weeks meeting. In the more than ten years of dealing with this process, I've never seen that done so fast. Legitimate requests for those records are routinely met with delays of weeks and months due to processing time and workload. However, if it appears to suite a political agenda, it seems that miracles can happen. And I'm sure that no cost was spared at taxpayer expense to get that job done. Good evening and thank you."
Mrs. Schmidt asked that the following be placed in the record. "Mr. Taylor continues to make false statements about me. I never put my response to this newsletter in public record for Mr. Uecker's benefit. I did it so that the residents of this community could have a public way to find out what was inaccurate in this newsletter. This newsletter was not just given to the people that belong to TRIFOLDS. It was given to other citizens. No one knows who received it. How are they ever going to get the truth? What you have presented tonight are your opinions. What I presented were facts. Secondly. You just stated that you worked on fire and EMS levies. The last levy we had prior to the safety services levy which we called a safety services levy which was passed in 1996 but became effective in 1997, the last levy we had was I believe and I would have to check the records, a fire levy in 1985."
Mr. Joe Francis 6252 Forest Crest Court presented his opinion of disappointment in the proceedings tonight. He asked that in the future, the business of the Township, not personal disagreements, be discussed at these public meetings.
Tracy Robison 5715 Highland Terrace presented her opinion of the comments made by Mr. Taylor tonight. Ms. Robinson stated she supports the job the Trustees are doing and have done for the Township.
Patricia Hayden 6466 Park Wood Court commented she was appalled that letters to Ms. Shelly Higgins were read during the September 28th meeting. She stated she felt they should have been private.
There were no other public comments.
With no other business to come before the Board, Chairperson Uecker adjourned
the meeting at
9:30 PM.
ATTEST: __________________________________________________________________________ Eric C. Ferry, Clerk
__________________________________________________________________________ Joseph W. Uecker, Chairperson