AUSTINTOWN Trustees decide to delay asking voters for levy

Trustees need to trim about $1.2 million to avoid a budget deficit.
By IAN HILL
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- Township trustees have decided not to have a special election in August for a 2.5-mill continuing levy for the township's fire and police departments.
Instead, the levy most likely will appear on the general election ballot in November, trustees said.
The levy would generate about $1.4 million a year for township police and fire departments. It would cost the owner of a $100,000 home in the township about $76 annually.
Trustees rescinded a resolution Tuesday calling for a special election Aug. 5. Trustees approved the resolution, which has been submitted to the Mahoning County Board of Elections, at a special meeting May 19.
Not on agenda
The agenda for that special meeting did not state that trustees would discuss or vote on the special election resolution.
A state appeals court held in 1998 that trustees violate the state Sunshine Law if they take action at a special meeting that is not listed in the published notice of the meeting.
Trustees said last week they weren't aware the resolution for the special election had to be listed on the agenda.
Trustee Bo Pritchard, an attorney, said "it's better for the community to move on" than to get into a legal debate over the resolution. He said he accepts most of the responsibility for the May 19 vote, as he was the greatest advocate for having a special election.
Pritchard added, however, that trustees could have argued they didn't violate the law because the resolution didn't seem to have the "finality" of purchasing items or imposing regulations. The 1998 appeals court case dealt with trustees purchasing equipment.
Issue of money
Pritchard added, however, that there may have been debate over whether the trustees agreed to spend money without properly informing the public May 19. Trustees would have had to pay Mahoning County $20,000 to $25,000 for the special election.
Trustee Richard Edwards has said trustees wanted to have the special election in August so they could address the township's financial problems as soon as possible.
Township officials have said that because of increases in the cost of insurance, workers' compensation, wages and decreases in revenue, about $1.2 million needs to be cut from the budget to avoid a deficit.
Trustees already have laid off several employees and made budget cuts that included the elimination of the police department's juvenile diversion program.
The award-winning program called for case workers to work with the families of young people arrested for minor crimes.
Edwards added that if he receives a call from a parent who needs the program, he will direct the parent to the person who first noted the "gray area" in the sunshine law.
In a story last Friday, The Vindicator reported that the trustee vote on the special elections resolution may have violated the Ohio Sunshine law.
"Isn't it amazing how we can attract headlines?" Edwards said. "Is the gray area more important than a child's life? I don't think so."
The agenda for the May 19 meeting stated that trustees were going to conduct bargaining sessions with employees.
The negotiations lasted about an hour. Trustees then voted on the resolution for the special election. They said they had discussed the levy for several months, but didn't agree to have the special election until that night.
On May 20, the day after the vote, a Vindicator reporter, not knowing that the vote had taken place, asked Edwards if a levy would appear on the ballot.
He responded that "there's a good probability" that a levy would be on the ballot, but that a millage and a length for a levy had not been set.
In 1998, an appeals court agreed with lower courts that "the term special meeting [in the Sunshine Law] necessarily implies that such a meeting can only be held when there are specific reasons for holding it.
"It follows that the notice of a special meeting must refer to those specific reasons, and that those specific issues are the only ones which can be addressed at such a meeting."
hill@vindy.com