Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

I was hoping to get some current information from the City Council?’s minutes from their meetings that are supposed to be kept up on their website. Well, in spite of the Queen hiring her new Spin-Doctor, a portion of whose job it is supposed to be to maintain said website, there isn?’t, of course, any updates since September 18th. Well, maybe I?’m too optimistic for real-time data in today?’s technology.

I?’ll be short and open up the floor to the prospective candidates to respond.

Per the meeting minutes from September 18th, there were 11 issues up for discussion. Of these, 9 were declared EMERGENCY issues. Hmmm, that?’s 82%. Mr. Wright, Mr. Maxey or Mr. Parker raised all the issues. Hmmm, that?’s right, they?’re all up for reelection.

Per the meeting minutes from September 4th, there were 10 issues up for discussion. Of these, 8 were declared EMERGENCY issues. Hmmm, that?’s 80%. And of these, all were passed 6-0.

So, for the month of September, an average of 81% of the issues brought before City Council were deemed to meet the criteria to be declared an EMERGENCY. Would someone please explain to me the exact criteria that would mandate an ordinance to be declared an EMERGENCY in an average of 81% of the cases? Is there a possibility that something is going on, out of Council?’s control, that would force them to be 81% REACTIVE in the way they govern us?

Finally, Mr. Monebrake, why aren?’t you on the bandwagon? Obviously Council is pushing the aforementioned Councilpersons out in the forefront to get them the proper per-election exposure. Why are you left behind? Are you not supported by your peers for reelection? Are you the sacrificial lamb so that the Council might give the impression of balance by giving up your seat for a new face? Because you were appointed, does this mean you are being unappointed, so to speak? We understand Mr. Washington?’s role on the Council. Are you simply the second incarnation of him?


In an attempt to bolster my findings as well as answer my own questions, I typed in the following to the search engine for the City?’s website and got the same answer for all of them. Go ahead ?– try it for yourself. It?’s worth a laugh, if nothing else.

City Charter: The content index is corrupt.
Ethics: The content index is corrupt.
Emergency Legislation: The content index is corrupt.




By Voter

Listen to the Public

To Voter:

I understand your concern regarding the use of emergency legislation at the Pickerington City council meetings. However there are two issues here we must address. First before they pass an issue using the emergency declaration they normally will suspend the rules and have three readings in one night. Normally these readings would take a month (three council meetings) and a half to be completed. I subscribe to the city for their agendas to be mailed to me. Yet I received, the agenda for tomorrow?’s council meeting, today. The point here is that it may take some of us a little longer to read and figure out what the different issues are on the agenda. A good example tonight is that the city is going to authorize the city manager to enter into a contract with 8185 Farms. Obviously since I have no idea who or what 8185 Farms is it will take me a few days to gather information. If they had three readings I would probably have formed an opinion of this contract by November 6th. It will become law on October 2nd.

I fully understand that there are times that the city council must pass legislation and use the emergency declaration. However to use it for a zoning issue is totally out of place in my opinion. First; zoning is not a property right. It seems that these rezoning issues have been on the books for well over a year so what is a few more weeks going to hurt. It gives the voters the time to look at and a chance to speak out about the legislation. The fact is zoning is everyone?’s concern if they live in the effected areas. The current city council members claim they listen to every word that we say to them. They take into consideration all of our comments. If they cut us off by two meetings (by suspending the rules) how to they even get a chance to listen to what we have to say?

Continuing on the, ?“they listen to the voters.?” By passing the issue by emergency declaration the legislation becomes law as soon as the Mayor signs it. You can?’t run a referendum on existing law. So here again the voter is taken out of the picture. I know there would be filed referendums on the Painter/Kohler properties and the Diley Farm today if they had not passed these two zoning issues under emergency. I know that because my name would have been on both. The current city government claims the people that love what they are doing don?’t come it and tell them that. If the city government truly believes that they have the approval of the city voters, then by letting these two issues go to the voters for their decision would either affirm their claim or totally blow it out of the water. I believe it would be the latter.


The other issue here is that during negotiations with the builders/developers the city looses one of its negociating chips by cutting the voters out. Mr. Bain of Homewood set these three readings and out and use emergency as his first two terms on the offer he made to the city. Of course the city negotiators knees buckled and they passed it in one evening. Mr. Bain was very concerned that the city voters would turn this issue around. I am sure Mr. Bain is correct in his thinking. So who were the council members looking out for here the Pickerington Public or Mr. Bain?

I am a write-in candidate

It only takes two votes.

Voter:

No responses to my posting last night. Here in Pickerington Politics if you snooze you lose. I mentioned 8185 Farms last night. Well our dear city elders want to annex another 216 acres along 8185 Pickerington Road just north of Jefferson Woods. It will probably for with R-4 because the builder will ask for R-4. That is about 450 more homes to our school district.

Everyone in the school district should be alarmed. You should also realize that if the city elects David Shaver and Ted Hackworth next month then these emergencies for zoning will go away. It takes 6 votes to pass an ordinance as emergency. Think about it!