Piqua Settles With Residents

A Federal Lawsuit is Settled

Last week, this publication talked about how the Piqua City Commission met in a special session to change the rules of City Commission meetings and to also settle a federal lawsuit with residents. Yesterday, records from the Southern District of Ohio federal court indicated that a case between the City of Piqua and four residents of Miami County have been settled.

How Did We Get Here?

Four Miami County residents came together and filed a lawsuit against the City of Piqua and some city officials due to their actions that effectively banned the four from not only attending meetings of the City Commission, but effectively banning residents from even stepping foot within the City Building. One of the four plaintiffs provided an affidavit in court records the effectively showed some of the actions of city officials:

As stated earlier, the City Commission went to the effort of entering into an agreement with the four citizens that effectively settled the case.

The Agreement

Yesterday, the one of the four citizens released the signed agreement via social media.

The action taken by the City Commission at last week’s special meeting demonstrated they took action to uphold their side of the agreement; the Commission’s amended rules now open public comments to all county residents, allows up to seven minutes for public speaking and also now allows members of the audience to hold signs. It appears the City still needs to place a copy of the Constitution within the Commission Chambers and have officials go through a training on the First Amendment. The City will also pay $50,000 to the four plaintiffs and their lawyers. In reality, the City’s insurance cooperative will pay the settlement, after the City makes their deductible.

What Happens Next?

It’s not clear what the next steps will be; the lawsuit appears over and suited. Yet, yesterday afternoon the City Commission announced that they will have a special meeting tomorrow to enter into an executive session to talk about personnel matters specifically about the City Manager.

What’s the Lesson?

As the above story plays out, we have seen local governments take measures to silence citizens and their ideas from public forums. And unfortunately, the incidents of local governments behaving badly is happening with alarming regularity. Even in Troy, we have seen a local non-profit shut down from sharing their comments on a pivotal policy document at a public hearing.

The question that needs to be asked is whether the leaders of our local government really want to hear from and work with those that they are sworn to serve. When government takes actions that show they lack basic respect for their own residents, residents will not take kindly to those actions. That is how expensive lawsuits tend to start. Local governments are increasingly finding themselves operating with less and less of the public trust and many times, its local governments have no one to blame but themselves.

Every resident deserves a local government that will work towards solutions that will benefit the community — and those solutions can only come when the community is brought together in processes in which residents are heard and respected. Local government needs to learn that the trust of the residents aren’t an automatic given; it’s earned each and every day by the actions and the behaviors of those that are in a position to lead.

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