"Getting Personal"

Three Hour Council Session Turns up Heat on Next Stage in Charter Amendment Fight

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Hilliard City Council is to consider an ordinance July 10 that directs the Franklin County Board of Elections to place an issue on the Nov. 7 general-election ballot that would replace the city’s appointed law director with an elected law director and would provide City Council purview over the city’s finance director.

City Council President Omar Tarazi, who brought the ordinance forward, acknowledges that the ordinance likely lacks the support from a majority of City Council.

Tarazi said June 28 that if the measure fails July 10, he supports an initiative petition to put the question before the voters.

“We need this change to ensure there are appropriate checks and balances and accountability in the system similar to Dublin and Upper Arlington, and every other major city, which currently there is not (in Hilliard), particularly when a majority of City Council believes it is their job to serve the city manager instead of serving and representing the interests of the people of Hilliard,” Tarazi said June 28.

Under the current city charter, the city manager is empowered to hire and fire all department directors but the ordinance before City Council on July 10, if passed, would ask voters to amend the city charter in a manner that the city manager’s decisions concerning the finance director would require City Council’s confirmation.

It further would replace the appointed law director in lieu of a publicly elected law director.

Tarazi on June 26 asked for the ordinance to be amended to leave the law director as a city manager-appointed position but to make the law director, like the finance director, accountable to the city manager and City Council.

But the measure failed 4-3. Tarazi and council members Les Carrier and Peggy Hale voted for the amendment while council members Tina Cottone, Pete Marsh, Andy Teater and Cynthia Vermillion voted against it.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Therefore, the ordinance advanced to a second and final reading July 10 as originally proposed.

In advance of the June 26 vote, Teater said he would not support it and did not concur with either the original language in the ordinance nor the amendment Tarazi proposed.

Teater said the substance of the amendment “did not rise to the level” of a stand-alone ballot issue but should instead be something considered as part of an overall review of the city charter.

“We don’t need to go through the effort of putting it on the ballot (and) educating the people what they’re voting for, that takes time from our communications department,” Teater said.

“I don’t support either of the proposals,” said Councilman Pete Marsh, who cited the administration’s recent accomplishments.

“I don’t know why we would change what’s going so well right now, I wouldn’t be in support of any of these changes at this time,” Marsh said June 26.

Tarazi replied that the proposal has “nothing to do with (Crandall’s) performance and behavior. This has only to do with the balance of responsibilities as it relates to the law director. I have some serious concerns and I think it rises to the level of something that needs fixed and worked on. This is a simple way to fix the problem. Is has nothing to do with (Crandall but rather) do we have appropriate checks and balances when it comes to the legal opinions we are be given,” Tarazi said, who cites a recommendation from the Ohio Auditor’s Office in support of the proposed amendment and the policy of other cities as reasons why Hilliard should make such a change.

• In Dublin, the approval of City Council is required for the city manager to hire or fire the directors of law and finance.

• In Upper Arlington, City Council appoints the law director and confirms the city manager’s decisions concerning the finance director.

• In Columbus, the auditor and city attorney are elected offices.

Tarazi’s proposal also comes in the wake of a decision by Hilliard City Manager Michelle Crandall in February to fire the city’s former finance director, David Delande.

Tarazi on April 24 asked for a City Council inquiry into the reasoning for Crandall’s decision but the measure failed 4-3.

Delande addressed City Council April 24 and publicly challenged some of the findings of police and the administration’s investigations into a phishing scam- in which a fraudulent vendor obtained $218,992 from the city- that was at the crux of the Crandall’s decision to fire Delande.

If City Council had purview concerning the finance director, “things might have come out differently,” Tarazi said about the firing of Delande.

In opposing the legislation Tarazi advanced June 26, Vermillion challenged the motive of Tarazi and Carrier.

Vermillion said Tarazi’s pledge to launch an initiative petition in response to the ordinance’s anticipated defeat July 10 is not a “citizen led” petition but rather “spearheaded by two disgruntled council members.”

“Changes are usually made to solve a problem… what is being proposed does not meet those thresholds,” said Vermillion, who advocates for a charter review commission to review the entire charter before any amendments to it are placed on the ballot.

Carrier responded to Vermillion.

“I am not disgruntled, I am alarmed,” replied Carrier.

In further discussion, Carrier and Tarazi challenged Law Director Phil Hartmann concerning his responsibilities, workload and compensation, as well as his work providing legal counsel to other client municipalities in his auspice as a private attorney with the Frost, Brown, and Todd law firm.

Hartmann replied to Tarazi, “This is getting very personal; you attack my reputation. You’re making this a political show and it is inappropriate.”

Carrier said he believes the public should have a say in the differences of opinion.

“I think we can do better. Whether we do better with each other and fix it internally, whether we do better by going to the public and letting them sound off, the status quo can’t stand… One of the ways you clear all this up is on the ballot,” Carrier said.