Episode Twenty-Six - Council Wrap Up (7/2/26) and Reflections

Thursday's council meeting produced two corrections to last week's preview: the CRA Housing Council appointment turned out to be two separate resolutions, and the data center zoning amendment did not reach final passage as expected. Matt covers what actually happened instead, including a legal conversation council members and the Mayor all asked about and none got an answer to, a building inspection contract increase that drew zero questions, curbside recycling vanishing from the agenda entirely, and the Mayor's extended remarks addressing Amazon negotiation rumors. Reflections this week: three different kinds of silence from Thursday's meeting, and why the difference between them may not matter as much as it seems.

Transcript

Opening

Speaker 0:01

Hey everyone, it's Matt. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend celebrating our nation's birthday. I took an extra day celebrating with family and friends as well. Thursday's meeting covered a lot of ground, so let's just get right to it. This is Wilmington Weekly with Matt Purkey.

Workshop - America 250

Speaker 0:25

The workshop opened with Trevor Shoemaker from Main Street Wilmington with a full rundown of the weekend's America 250 celebration. Parade at 1, park festivity starting at 5, fireworks at 10. The fireworks display alone is $50,000, two and a half times last year's show, and organizers are calling it the biggest Clinton County has ever seen. There's live entertainment throughout the evening, concessions, restrooms added in the overflow parking areas, and the whole thing was simulcast on local radio starting at five. So if you couldn't make it out to the park, you could listen to it at home. Trevor made a point of thanking the police department, city maintenance, mayor's office, and more for their help getting this off the ground, and it's worth passing that credit along.

Columbus St handicap parking

Speaker 1:12

From there, the workshop moved into legislation review. First up was a traffic control change on Columbus Street. The pastor of a church on the corner reached out to a member of council directly since he's a member of that congregation, asking for help with a couple of handicapped parking spots near the church's accessible entrance on the side of the building. Councilmember Wells' committee handled the legislative fix, removing some yellow curb across the street to open up parking on both sides of what is already a one-way road, still wide enough for that plus emergency vehicle access. Councilmember Tolliver stated plainly and unprompted that he'd be recusing himself from the vote since it's his church and his pastor. Someone called, council listened, and a fix is coming.

Warren County building inspection contract

Speaker 2:01

Next was the city's building code enforcement contract with Warren County. And this one's worth real attention. The current deal is a flat $6,166 a month, about $74,000 a year. The new contract text pays Warren County 85% of all building permit fees collected with a $100,000 minimum. It's a real cost increase, and here's what's notable. Service Director Crow never actually gave counsel an estimate of how much more this would cost. All he offered up was that the city looked at bringing inspections in-house, but in his words, our time will be up before anyone could get trained to that level. He was talking about this administration's own remaining term, which ends December of next year, not anything about the current contract expiring. Nobody asked why that timeline should determine what's best for the city long after this administration is gone. Liability for inspections also shifts to the county under this deal, which Crow called a plus. Nobody asked about the missing cost estimate either at the workshop or later at the regular meeting.

Supplemental appropriations and CDBG overrun

Speaker 3:28

A new EPA rule requiring full service line replacement on breaks involving lead or galvanized pipe, and a high volume of recent breaks. It also includes $58,000 to cover the city's share of a community center project at Bible Missionary Baptist Church, a project that's now running about $33,000 over its original $100,000 local match commitment after two failed bid rounds and rising costs. And it includes a few thousand dollars to true up the Treasury's salary, pension, and Medicare alliance for this year's pay increase, which hadn't been budgeted. A separate transfer ordinance moves $27,500 to set up a contract line for the city's new law director.

Treasurer’s office restructuring

Speaker 4:13

Judiciary covered three new ordinances. One restructures part of the treasurer's office, creating a new tax specialist position. The elected treasurer, Paul Fear, presented it but couldn't clearly explain what the new position does. The staff member expected to answer those questions. Deputy Treasurer Mark Jones wasn't present, so those answers will likely have to wait for another meeting. A second ordinance formally annexes the Elizabeth J. Looney Memorial Trail into the city, a contractual obligation dating back to the original land donation, mostly a formality at this point.

Fire department restructuring - data center question

Speaker 4:52

And the third is the fire department restructuring, which I'll get to in a minute, because the most important thing that happened with it happened right here in the workshop. Councilmember Knowles asked directly whether the fire department restructuring is connected to the proposed data center project. The answer from the safety director's office was a clear no. This is about general economic development, growth, not the data center specifically. And it's a framework for the next 10 to 20 years, not an immediate hiring plan. The department stays at its current 20 positions unless a future council votes to fund more.

Douglas St stop sign

Speaker 5:32

The workshop closed with a few other updates. Councilmember Snarr personally went door to door on Douglas Street this week ahead of a vote on removing a stop sign there. He talked to nine of the roughly 18 residents on that street. Most wanted to keep it, citing concerns about kids. The city's engineering analysis says that the intersection doesn't meet the standard for a four-way stop with less than one car a minute at peak volume, and that leaving an unwarranted stop sign in place actually creates liability exposure for the city if there's ever a crash. Snar then asked the engineer a sharper question. Does the city do any systematic review of traffic controls citywide? Or does it only respond when someone happens to call? The answer was we look at these as they come up, and if we don't know it's a problem, we have plausible deniability. Two other things got resolved cleanly. The Davis Drive bike path is finally under construction starting this week after the original grant fell short of covering the originally planned route, and the East End school property purchase, which has sat without a public update for a while, has a mundane explanation, survey work and a legal team transition on the school side. Nothing more than that. Kudos to member Snarr for asking about that.

Regular meeting begins - correction

Speaker 6:52

Now, on to the regular meeting. A quick correction first. I incorrectly reported last Wednesday that Knowles and Earley would be appointed to the CRA Housing Council on one resolution. It turned out they each had their own. R2627 for Knowles and R2629 for Earley. Both passed with emergency language so that the committee, quote, can actually meet without waiting for the standard 30-day window.

Public comment

Speaker 7:22

Public comment brought two Prairie Road residents back to the microphone, raising the same concerns they've raised before about the ASEX storage facility proposal. Truck traffic, drainage, and whether there's been any real water study done before this moves forward. Council referred them to the service director's office.

Mayor’s report

Speaker 7:42

Mayor Haley's report was the biggest news of the night. He spent a significant portion of his time addressing what he called misinformation circulating on social media about the city's negotiations with AWS. Here's what he said on the record. The city hired a consultant seven to eight months ago who estimated a new combined police and fire safety building at $28 million. Amazon's offer to help fund it has moved from $1 million up front to $10 million. The city is now asking for the full $28 million up front. No agreement has been finalized, no funds have been received. He denied any secret meetings and walked through Ohio's Jobs Ohio process where companies often use confidential code names during site selection and local governments learn their identity late.

Dep. Law Director’s request on O-26-33

Speaker 8:39

Deputy Law Director Horrin asked for patience on some outstanding legal opinions given her workload, then made a specific request that Ordinance 02633, the data center zoning text amendment, only get a second reading tonight, not second and third, because she still needed a conference call with Law Director and outside counsel that hadn't happened yet.

Safety Director’s report

Speaker 9:04

Safety Director Evelyn's report covered two things. First, tornado sirens. He mentioned he'd received pushback from his last proposal to phase them out, and the city was reversing course. They're staying up for now. Evelyn said the department already had this budgeted, so he authorized the money himself, no council vote needed, about $9,500 to repair and replace the battery citywide, and $3,500 more to upgrade the control computer, which was running an outdated, unsupported operating system that had been disconnected from the rest of the city's network specifically to prevent any security vulnerability. He also gave the clearest explanation yet of the malfunction that set every siren off at once back in May. A dispatcher, trying to cancel a stuck siren, hit the all clear button instead, which the system read as an activation command. He owned the mistake directly on the record. There won't be a siren test this Saturday because of the parade, he said, also uncertain weather, and noted that the county's EMA could eventually take over running this system entirely, though that's not yet decided. I will note that Saturday afternoon the test did commence as per schedule. Second, a letter from a county resident named Cody Pugh came up, sent to every council member, disputing the mayor's characterization that the current fire station is, in his words, ready to be condemned. Evelyn said that characterization isn't accurate, but confirmed the building does have real structural problems, and that new fire trucks don't even fit through the doors. He referenced an engineering report from KZF that council appropriated funds for last year. It is worth noting the building is over 60 years old.

O-26-33 correction and what actually happened

Speaker 10:54

Old business is where the second correction lives, and this one deserves more than a quick note. Last week I said the data center zoning amendment was likely reaching final passage Thursday. It didn't. Here's why, and it's not just a procedural mix-up. Deputy Law Director Horne told counsel she needed a private conversation with new Leaporian Law Director Cullimore before this goes on any further and asked for only a second reading tonight to give them time for that. Snarr asked what the conversation was actually about. She said she couldn't say. Service Director Crow was then asked directly whether he was comfortable with just a second reading, and he said he needed to know what that legal conversation was, but that he was okay with it otherwise. Then Mayor Haley himself asked Hornet to explain what was going on. She declined again to everyone, including the mayor. I don't know what that conversation is about. The obvious candidate is that this ordinance covers the exact same zoning classification currently being challenged in a court case. And it would be entirely normal for the city's legal counsel to want to talk privately with outside counsel about litigation strategy before advancing a vote on it. That's completely speculation on my part, not anything confirmed. What is confirmed is that three different people, including the city mayor, asked what was actually being discussed, and all three got the same answer. On top of that, the mechanics of actually handling it were genuinely hard to watch. The agenda listed second and third reading, but nobody formally moved to amend the agenda before the motion for second reading only landed on the floor. A couple of council members said plainly they weren't sure what was happening procedurally. It got sorted out eventually. Council passed a clean motion not to hold third reading tonight. Five to one with SNAR as the only no vote. The third reading moves to the next meeting.

New business votes

Speaker 12:53

New business was mostly the votes on everything we've already covered from the workshop. The Columbus Street handicap parking passed first reading. The Warren County contract passed all three readings as an emergency. The supplementals, the transfer for the law director, and the surplus vehicle resolution all passed. The Treasurer's Office restructuring and the Looney Trail annexation passed first reading, no discussion. The fire department ordinance also passed first reading. Knowles asked the data center question again and got the same answer in as in the workshop.

Curbside recycling absence

Speaker 13:26

Now, curbside recycling. I told you in the preview episode that this was finally getting a first reading after missing three straight meetings. It didn't. Sometime between when the agenda was drafted and when the official meeting notice went out, it was polled entirely. In fact, I even edited the episode right as it went out to address that. It wasn't on Thursday's agenda at all. Nobody mentioned it all night. Not once, including the committee it was scheduled to fall under. Now,

Upcoming meetings - planning commission reschedule

Speaker 13:58

what's coming up? The Planning Commission hearing on the AZAC Prairie Road site plan was originally scheduled for July 7th. It's been postponed to July 14th, which now puts it after the federal court's July 7th hearing on the preliminary injunction in the Sharp versus City of Wilmington rather than on the same day. I don't know why the date moved. I've heard it was staffing reasons, but I'll tell you it did, and that it now falls on the other side of that court date instead of alongside it.

Community note - America 250

Speaker 14:29

Quick thank you before I get into the reflections. Saturday's America 250 celebration was, by all accounts, a real success. So thank you to everyone who put it together and everyone who came out. I also reached out to Shelby Boatman McKay, director of the Clinton County History Center, since Trevor had mentioned in his presentation that events would continue throughout the rest of the year. She confirmed there's more coming, a history QR code walk, more projects tied to the three murals already up and around the county, and possibly a new mural marking the country's 250th on the old state centennial barn along Route 71. The full running list of events is available at Clinton County History.org under the America 250 section.

Reflections

Speaker 15:15

Now for the reflections. Three different things happened Thursday night, and even though they don't all look the same on the surface, I think they come down to the same basic problem. Start with the mayor's report. He addressed the Amazon rumors head-on, and I'll give him credit for that. Silence frankly would have been worse. But the way he did it followed a specific shape. I'll tell you what you need to know and treat everything else as misinformation. And here's the problem with that. Asking a public official an unanswered question and expecting them to answer it isn't misinformation. That's the system working the way it's supposed to. And there's still a real unanswered question sitting inside his own numbers. The city's ask went from 10 million to 28 million. Where's the other 18 million actually coming from? Did Amazon simply decide to pay more or is that money coming from somewhere else? Like the pilot payments the city would otherwise collect directly? I don't know. Nobody asked Thursday. So I'm asking now. Near the end of his remarks, the mayor began to explain council's role to the public, asking, How does city councils truly serve the best interests of the community? He answered his own questions, suggesting that opposition to the data center may represent a small vocal minority, and that council's responsibility is to weigh all twelve thousand four hundred perspectives in the city, not just the ones who show up to a public meeting. What sticks with me isn't that he said it, it's how he closed it. Council's job, in his words, is to listen, to understand, to carry the weight of this responsibility with the care it deserves. Council was sitting right there while he said that on their behalf, and not one of them said a word then or after. The meeting just moved on to the auditor's report. I don't know if the mayor has any actual standing to describe council's own diligence for them. What I do know is that if he doesn't, and council let him do it anyway, without a single word in response, that's not really his failure anymore. That's theirs. And if the mayor faces no pushback when he speaks for council in public, maybe that's part of why council has stayed so quiet on so much else this season. I'll add one more thing here, and I want to be precise about what it is. I served 10 years on that council. I don't have a document to hand you for this part, but I specifically remember a fire station replacement estimate being discussed last year. In the $6 to $10 million range for a fire station. Not a combined police and fire facility. That's my memory, not a record, and I don't have a document to prove it. A combined building is obviously a bigger project than a standalone fire station, so some of that gap has an obvious explanation. Whether all of it does, I don't know yet. But it's the kind of specific number that deserves a specific answer, not a general one. Another example. Before this ordinance even had a first reading, I asked why Section 12 of the fire department language declares an emergency when Director Evelyn told counsel directly that this restructuring is explicitly not an emergency. Thursday was the first time that actual ordinance came up for a vote. As far as I can tell, nobody else has raised that question publicly yet. Not on the dais, not from the public. First reading passed as written with that language still in it. I'll say plainly again why this matters. If that clause survives to final passage, the ordinance takes effect immediately and isn't subject to a public referendum, regardless of when the final vote actually happens. I'm not telling you what that means, I'm telling you it's still in there, unaddressed. A third example. This one didn't even get the dignity of silence. Six weeks ago, every member of council received a formal letter from the county's own solid waste coordinator, Jeff Walls, with real numbers, making the case that keeping curbside recycling costs less than ending it. No one has responded since then. Last week the item was set up for a first reading. Then just before publishing the official notice, it was pulled from the agenda with no explanation before anyone had the chance to stay silent about it again. One of these was a choice. The mayor chose to address what he described as misinformation, but the underlying question still wasn't answered. One might not even be a choice yet. Nobody has apparently noticed there's a question to ask about Section 12 at all. And one sits somewhere in between. Recycling didn't get silenced, it just disappeared, and I don't know which of those is actually worse. Doesn't matter which kind of silence it is, intentional or not, noticed or not, it still has the same effect. The public doesn't get an answer either way. I said something like this a few weeks ago, and I'll say it again because Thursday's meeting proved the point better than I could have written it myself. If you don't want Facebook to become the new town square, start listening to your constituents in the room and start explaining what's actually happening at these meetings before residents have to go looking for answers somewhere else.

Closing

Speaker 21:13

That's the wrap up. Thanks for listening to Wilmington Weekly.