Can The Piqua City Commission Find It's Way?

There is a difference between asking questions and wanting to know answers

At last Tuesday’s city commission meeting in PIqua, the Commission’s Committee on the Fire Training Facility gave their monthly report to the City Commission. The committee provided an update on their recent activities. The Chairman, David Roth, highlighted their ongoing productivity, notably their pursuit of independent legal counsel to address procedural questions.

Over the past month, the committee members reached out to various legal entities, in search of suitable outside counsel. The Committee outlined several reasons for seeking independent legal advice, including guidance on avoiding liability when discussing individuals or entities in public meetings, clarifying Sunshine Laws regarding executive and work sessions, assisting with FOIA requests, scheduling interviews, conducting legal research, and reviewing the final report before submission to the commissioners.

The Commission indicated that they thought it would be a great idea to bring the counsel on board, as long as the Commission had an opportunity to spend an hour with the new lawyer in an executive session. As one might expect, the Committee wasn’t wild about the idea. The Committee made a compelling argument that they needed independent help as they are moving forward with their investigation. Commissioner Thomas Hohman expressed concerns that there was an antagonistic relationship between the Committee and the Commission.

Yet, Commissioner Hohman pressed why the Committee was uncomfortable with them meeting behind closed doors with the lawyer they wanted. Yet, the Commission could never articulate why they felt compelled to meet with this lawyer in an executive session because, to paraphrase the Commissioner, “Well, that is how government works.”

So much for government transparency and a one-team approach.

The report then devolved into Commissioner Hohman trying to guilt-trip the Committee for not “taking their lives into their hands” when they visited the burn site. We covered that in depth here:

In many ways, it’s fascinating to see this situation develop (or perhaps devolve). Earlier this year, the City’s Top Bureaucrat here in Troy issued a Purchase Order to Dayton Lawyer for $20,000 without even a hint of knowledge by City Council. In Piqua, the City Commission argued with the Fire Committee for about a half-hour for using a lawyer for six hours. Such differences in bureaucratic ineptitude can’t simply be explained away by the difference in the way the two towns are governed; one by state statute, the other by city charter. What this small episode reveals is whether the City Commission wants answers to their questions.

Piqua Is At A Crossroads

Watching both meetings of the City Commission and the Fire Facility Committee, one thing is becoming abundantly clear — if these two boards don’t begin cooperating, the questions the commission put towards the committee will not get answered quickly or easily. Even a casual observer of the meetings could see that there are individuals that simply do not want this relationship to work.

If this relationship doesn’t work, it’s the City Commission, not the Committee, that is going to take the fall. Remember, it was the Commission that set the questions for the committee and set the members of the committee. The Committee came to the Commission every month to report on progress. One of the Commission members comes to every Committee meeting. If there is one governmental body that is operating in a fishbowl right now, it’s this Fire Committee.

Furthermore, citizens are seeing a committee that has worked nearly every Thursday night for the last three months, listening, talking and working through the issues that have been presented. It also appears that any reasonable request the Fire Committee makes to the Commission isn’t just met with more bureaucratic red tape, “because that’s the way government works”; Committee members are now also targeted with questions about not taking appropriate precautions being on Commission owned property. The optics for the City Commission are bad and getting exponentially worse.

And let’s be serious, if the City Commission really wanted to investigate this issue, they wouldn’t have put together a citizens’ committee of five individuals. The Commission was well within it’s rights to give questions to the Police Department or maybe even enlist the help of the Sheriff’s Department that have investigators on payroll that could help answer the questions it has about what happened.

The Commission has really created itself quite the mess. The real question that needs to be asked is if they can find themselves out of it.

What do you think? Do you believe the City Commission wants their questions answered? Our paid subscribers are welcome to leave their ideas in the comment thread.

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