Park Name Pathos
Latest proposal to honor former Mayor Tim Ward fails without a second; council seeks new policy defining public naming standards.
Hilliard City Council on April 14 rejected a proposal to rename a park in memory of former Hilliard Mayor Tim Ward.
The decision was made without any discussion and proposed resolution failed without a vote as no council members offered to second the motion made by City Councilman Les Carrier.
City Council moved onto other considerations with no discussion other than Carrier’s motion to adopt the resolution but later returned to the matter when Councilman Greg Betts suggested that City Council consider a policy for the naming of public infrastructures in memory or honor of any individual.
A new direction
Council President Tina Cottone- who on March 24 opposed the placement of the resolution on the agenda for April 14- promptly directed the administration, through City Manager Michelle Crandall, to write a policy that either prohibits the naming of public places for individuals, or narrowly defines conditions when City Council might consider such requests in the future.
Naming a park or other edifice for an individual while “honorable,” can “also be challenging,” Cottone said.
No deadline was issued for the administration to craft language for the requested policy but Cottone said after the meeting that City Council would prefer to have it sooner than later.
Carrier, the only council member who supported the proposal, said he was “disappointed in how it was handled” and “surprised” that a legal opinion on the matter was solicited.
Attorney-client privilege is attached to the legal opinion.
Crandall replied the administration sought the legal opinion and it was issued as part of the existing contract the city has for legal services of any nature and came at no additional expense.
Ellie Ward, the daughter of Tim Ward, was out of town and not present April 14 but was aware of City Council’s action on April 14 and said she intends to address City Council at a future meeting.
Ellie Ward first asked City Council to name a park for Tim Ward in January.
A winding road so far…
Several proposals have been offered, including renaming Hilliard East Park, on Schirtzinger Road, as well as naming an unnamed preserve adjacent to the Hilliard branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library.
On March 24, Betts moved to add a resolution to the April 14 agenda that would have named the preserve adjacent to the library as “Ward Park.”
That resolution passed 4-3 with Betts, Carrier, Councilwoman Cynthia Vermillion and Concilwoman Emily Cole, in favor of it while Cottone, Councilwoman Peggy Hale and Councilman Andy Teater voting against the measure.
Next, Vermillion made a motion to amend the resolution to name the East Park as Timothy A. Ward Memorial Park.
The motion passed 6-1, setting up the vote on April 14 resulting in its defeat.
Ward, who died in October at the age of 66 of cancer, served one term as mayor of Hilliard, from 2000 to 2003.
Ward was a U.S. Navy veteran of the submarine service and also served as director of the Madison County Board of Elections.
Tim Ward was a proud Freemason and a member of Avery Lodge #493 in Hilliard.
Can someone help me understand why this is so controversial? We've had 3 mayors and two have some sort of memorialization around town. Was Tim Ward somehow a controversial mayor? I admittedly did not live in Hilliard at the time. However, Cottone seems weirdly adamant about avoiding naming something for him.
Don't get me wrong, I don't feel like it's a massive moral failing or need for the city to have a park named for a one term mayor from 2 decades ago, but I fail to see the risk or harm, either.
Also, how did it go from 6-1 vote to add to the agenda to a functionally a 1-6 with no second on motion? Was there any sort of behind-closed-doors conversations about this? Wouldn't that directly violate Sunshine laws, kinda like the other lawsuit alleged that was filed against council a while back?
Also, I'm really curious about the legal opinion angle. If I were a tin-foil-hat type, that would look like a ploy to wrap it in attorney-client privilege to defeat any FOIA request by Ellie Ward.