Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Thanks so much Davey, Jeffy, Smitty and Wisniewski! We missed the Good Ol' Days.


Bickering holds back development
By TAMARIA L. KULEMEKA
The Eagle-Gazette Staff

PICKERINGTON - Pickerington Mayor David Shaver entered office with a desire for the city to forge economic development ties with Violet Township high on his agenda.
The city may be closer to entering into a comprehensive economic development agreement with the township, but it's stirring up some controversy in the City Council.

''I don't want to jump blindly into something all for the sake that we're cooperating,'' said City Council President Brian Wisniewski.

Shaver appointed Councilman Jeff Fix in January to work on behalf of the city in discussions with the township regarding economic development agreements and how Pickerington and Violet Township officials could work together.

Fix has worked with Township Trustee Gary Weltlich over the past several months and plans to present a comprehensive economic development agreement to the council's finance committee in September, with hopes the agreement can move on to council members for approval.

The agreement would mean the city and township working together on all potential projects, Fix said.

''Our community suffers from a lack of economic development,'' Fix said. ''The residential tax base in our community is one of the highest ... in the state of Ohio. Everyone I talked to last November when I campaigned said leveling our tax base has got to be our highest priority. That's my mission on council - to bring economic development to the city.''

While deals must be made, Wisniewski doesn't believe any deal should be made without impact or feasibility studies done by professionals. Wisniewski said studies would determine what advantages or disadvantages such an economic development agreement would have.

''As far as negotiations go, I definitely think they should be performed in public and by a professional versus a council person,'' he said. ''When negotiations are done in private and behind closed doors, it makes the whole process suspect.''

Councilman Mike Sabatino also would prefer if professionals handled any discussions concerning economic development agreements.

''I think it's a good way to handle this kind of diffuse volatility of what has happened thus far,'' Sabatino said.

Sabatino said the city's new economic development director, Tim Hansley and Violet Township Administrator Bill Yaple should assume those responsibilities.

When discussions began with the city and township, the city didn't have an economic development director on staff. Fix said he asked for Pickerington's city manager and director of development to work with him.

''Wisniewski made it clear he didn't want them participating,'' Fix said.

''So I took it forward,'' Fix said. ''I think this is something council should be working on, and once we have an agreement in place, it will be up to our development directors to work on the specifics - CEDAs (Cooperative Economic Development Agreement) and JEDDs (Joint Economic Development District).''

Councilman Keith Smith said there's nothing that would prevent him from supporting an agreement, based on the last draft he reviewed Thursday.

''Nothing's being done behind closed doors,'' Smith said. ''Drafts of the agreements have been given to every council member. (Fix) has used the input in discussions with Mr. Weltlich.''

The fact that not everyone agrees on the process is OK, Smith said.

''This is something that is so important that it's worthy of a lot of discussion and input,'' Smith said. ''I don't think any agreement we'd come up with would have every single member of council's concerns or wish lists in it. I don't think that's possible.''

Yaple said it's uncommon for elected officials to oversee economic development.

''But in this case, I would say it needs to be because we're trying to get on the same page,'' Yaple said.


By Tired of the BS

Sore Losers

Sabatino and Wisniewski sure seem sore that they weren't picked to negotiate. Based on their reactions, I wouldn't have picked them either.

Did I read correctly that Wisniewski wants to throw out all progress made and start from scratch?

It looks like somebody, maybe the City Manager or Development Director, needs to work on cooperation among council members.

Read the article not Headline

In moves of desperation the local media tend to print the headlines that attract the viewers and the readers. At the very least the headlines, time and again don't match what is actually written in the body of the story.

I think there is frustration and impatience on the part of some readers and voters. I believe there is progress being made on the Schools, the Township and the City on many fronts but they are not juicy enough to be reported. I would also suspect that there is more agreement than disagreement between the City and the Township than what is being characterized in the above article.

One issue that has been disturbing in this political posturing is the embellishment by some our elected leaders. Councilman Fix states that the commercial tax base in the PLSD is one of the lowest in the state. The facts from the Ohio Department of Education indicates that PLSD is near the middle of school districts in the state on the percentage of commercial properties in their tax base. I would advise our leaders to speak the truth when they comment. propagating a lie is not useful to anyone and especially when they are called on it. Creditability is a difficult quality to regain.



By Observer

No Jeff or Dave, you're wrong

I think they are saying that the city manager should have been the one doing these negotiations from the start and starting from there is the way to go.

And building consensus on council is not the job of the pathetic manager or her stooge. Council needs to grow up and do it themselves. But first they all have to agree to put the CITY, not the township or themselves first.