Saturday, November 12, 2011

Vacancy On Council

Councilman Matthew Danzuso previously announced his resignation, effective November 15th. It should be known that this announcement was made before the elections, and I am unaware of any purpose of it being held until November 15th, excepting that there is a council meeting November 14th and perhaps he had unfinished business to attend to. Benefit of the doubt. Otherwise, I see an ability for current council members to appoint who they want to council based on who did not get elected. The truth may never really be known, but it is something to consider.

The Mayor's Report in the November 2011 Villager states:
If you are interested in the position, please send a letter of interest and a resume to either the Mayor (mayor@minervapark.org), the President of Council (mpcurry@minervapark.org), or to any Council member by December 2.
You may also send your mail to the Village Offices at 2829 Minerva Lake Road, Columbus OH 43231.
Interested parties will be interviewed at the December 10 work session and appointed at the December 12 Council meeting.

The 2011 Rules of Council states the following regarding vacancies:
Filling Vacancies on Council
When a vacancy arises on council either through a council member vacating an unexpired term or because no one ran to fill a 4-year term, there will be an immediate call for citizens to indicate their interest in filling the unexpired or vacant term. Such call will be made through announcements in the village newsletter, phone calls from council members and others knowing of the vacancy, and announcements placed at appropriate places in the village. Such announcements will include the deadline for citizens to indicate their interest. The deadline will be within 30 days of the first date the vacancy was announced to the public.

To indicate interest, a citizen must submit a resume and letter of intent to the mayor or any of the council members. Once the mayor or council member receives the resume and letter, he/she will immediately see that all members of council receive copies. If no regular meeting is scheduled, a special meeting will be scheduled immediately after the deadline in order for the interested citizens to appear in person before the mayor and council to both ask and answer questions.

Every effort should be made to have all council members present to interview and select a new member. At least four members* of council must be present in order to call the meeting to order and select and vote to fill a vacancy. Filling the vacancy will be the first order of business on the agenda.

All candidates would be interviewed and a vote taken. Voting is to be done by secret ballot one position at a time with the vacancy of shortest duration filled first. Because there might be multiple vacancies (one, two or even three vacancies) on council at one time, there must be at least three council members present to proceed with the voting. Whether there are three, four, or five members of council present to select a new member, at least three votes must be cast in favor of any one individual for that person to be selected. In no instance would a person be voted to council with fewer than three votes. Once the vote is taken and an applicant has received three or more votes, that person can be placed on council by resolution and sworn in by the mayor and can begin his/her duties immediately. If there are still vacancies and still interested applicants for the positions, the voting can continue until all positions are filled. All members of council are required to vote unless there is a conflict of interest (see section on Voting), and , if a member feels there are no qualified candidates among those interested, that council member can cast a blank ballot that indicates "NO VOTE.”

If council is unable to select a replacement within the 30 day period, the mayor shall appoint a replacement or the mayor can decide that the position will be re-advertised and there will be another 30 days to fill the position.

Unless otherwise decided by the mayor and council, the person filling the vacancy will serve on all the committees as the person being replaced until the end of the year, however, if the person being replaced was chair of the committee, the mayor and council may appoint one of the existing committee members to serve as chair for the remainder of the year.

*In the unlikely event that there are three vacancies on council at one time, a meeting can be called to order with only three members with appointing a new council member being the first and only item to be acted upon with three members. In the case of three vacancies, if any one person receives all three votes of the council members present, that person is immediately placed on council by resolution and sworn in by the mayor. At that point there are now four on council, the new member may vote, and there is a quorum to conduct business.


To the best of my knowledge, this is the pattern of appointed council members in the past 11 years:

Darrell Kem appt 01/2000 replaced vacant
Don Champney appt 01/2000 replaced vacant

Dick Busick appt 01/2002 replaced vacant
Dave Stahr appt 01/2002 replaced vacant
Lou Busick appt 01/2002 replaced vacant
Donald Cox appt 10/2002 replaced Darrell Kem

Sharon Bierman appt 01/2003 replaced vacant
Brian Downey appt 12/2003 replaced Donald Cox

Ron Yarano appt 02/2004 replaced vacant

Marty Grosh appt 01/2005 replaced vacant
Chuck Gibson appt 08/2005 replaced Marty Grosh

Jeff Rigg appt 01/2006 replaced vacant
Todd Walter appt 09/2006 replaced Ron Yarano

David Way appt 06/2007 replaced Chuck Gibson

Matthew Danzuso appt 03/2010 replaced Jeff Rigg

? appt 12/2011 replaced Matthew Danzuso

9 comments:

  1. In September 2011, just days after returning from his termination and then suspension, Minerva Park Officer Jason Gross was on patrol in the Village of Minerva Park. Officer Gross observed a suspicious person on the lot of the Yasmin Market, located at 5444 Cleveland Avenue in Minerva Park. As Officer Gross went to investigate, three males ran from the business. Officer Gross then observed the front door to the business had been forced open. He quickly gave chase and aired the information to the dispatch center. Although there were no apprehensions, a surveillance video showed that suspects were in the business for only seconds prior to Officer Gross’ intervention. Patrolman Gross’ keen observations and personal initiative minimized the loss of property to the Minerva Park business owner to less than $5.00. Great job, Jason!!

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  2. And That My Friends says it all!Jason Gross is a great officer!!!! After all he went through he could have came back with a chip on his shoulder and drove by. But NO this is a good cop who cares about the park!

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  3. It does seem a shame that 6 council hopefuls ran for 2 vacancies. Now that there is an additional vacancy, will council appoint the 3rd runner up? Minerva Park residents made their voices clear- 1. Todd Walters 2. Dave Way 3. Jessica Rhoads 4. Tony Benedetti 5. Kent Stanley 6. Charles Legg.
    I bet council/ mayor will appoint Charles Legg, last runner up. Wait and see...

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  4. Why would you think council would not appoint someone other than Jessica Rhoads and Tony Benedetti, especially after all the trash talk they did during the campaign against Mayor Eisentrout and her Council? Not to mention the same concerning Police Chief Nuesse.

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  5. Your just as stupid as the people on council!!
    Wait till next year for that TAX HIKE!

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  6. I don't believe stating facts is trash talking. Choices made by Lynn Eisentrout and Chief Nuesse in their management styles are of their own accord and I have not personally "trash talked" them, I have brought about facts of the way they have chosen to do things. Often facts that are covered up or misrepresented.

    I'd also like to note how you phrase it "the campaign against Mayor Eisentrout and her Council"
    1.) there is a campaign "against her" ?!
    2.) Her council? Nope. Not hers. They're the same council if Marty Grosh would have won, or if I were Mayor. Same council, not Lynn's. Oh wait, this is Minerva Park's council we're talking about. So you too see that they are currently doing what she wants? That's what your word choice sounds like.

    I do not disagree with everything our current mayor or police chief do. In fact, I would have to say that in speaking to our police chief she is a nice person to talk to and I do think she works hard in what she does. That does not mean that I agree with all of her actions or her previous ones, but I also see that a lot of the issues I and some others have with "her" has little to do with her actions but those who hired her and their misleading residents to think that she was cleared of charges she actually was still appealing. There are issues I have with displays of her character and truthfulness, but I have yet to "trash talk" her and I hope as long as she is here she stands to better our community, and hopefully find a way to do it without clearing out our veteran officers.

    If anything, you may argue that I have disagreements with the way she has handled things and the way they were presented and feel that this blog is needed to share things that residents otherwise don't get exposure to. The Village and the MPCA has done their fair share of boasting the accomplishments of the two of them, and if you want to know all that great stuff, go to the MPCA. They'll never fail to tell you what great things they think are being done by their friends.

    But if you're not one of their "friends" they'll belittle your efforts and thank-yous, as Dick Busick publicly did of my thank you letter in response to Candidate's Night. They, as you, think that because I am not 100% in agreement with the current administration that I must be 100% against them. I am not.

    I think the point being made above is that the *voters*, the *residents*, decided with their support what they want to see in our government. It has nothing to do with who Lynn likes or who Chief Nuesse likes. At least it shouldn't. That isn't democracy. That isn't even honest representative democracy.

    If you can't see the issues going on in our dishonest government (or maybe less-than-honest is a better descriptor at times), and you haven't discovered them by reading this blog, you are being dishonest with yourself.

    Council will do what pleases them, not what pleases the people, and I challenge them to do anything different and please, prove me wrong.

    -Jessica Rhoads

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  7. On Sunday, November 20, 2011 Officer Jason Gross attempted to make a traffic stop on SR 161 when the driver pulled over and fled on foot. Officer Gross gave chase and made an arrest a short distance later. The driver later admitted he was under the influence of cocaine. I'm not sure why your supervisor told you not to charge him with OVI but great job nonetheless!!

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  8. This is what our new member of council put on his blog!! THE VOTERS HAVE SPOKEN!!
    Yes the voters have and the voters did NOT WANT Mr. Legg on council. He came in dead last. So all of the mayors people that do not have a back bone to stand up to her vote just the way she wanted. The person that got the third most votes from the people of the park should have got the job.Jessica Rhoads is right That isn't democracy! and these people wonder why no one volunteers in the village. The council and the Mayor think they own the park. Lets wait and see if they dont run it into the ground.
    Just like our so called code enforcer Dave Hays. He likes to tell people what the code is but does not even know how to interpret the code. He has said that chickens our aloud in the park. Chickens our live stock and it states that no live stock. But yes we have a council person and a person that works in the office that has them. NOW WE HAVE A COUNCIL PERSON CHARLES LEGG WHO RUNS A BUS.OUT OF HIS HOUSE A IS ON PLANING AND ZONING AND HE DOES NOT EVEN KNOW THE CODE!











    The Voters Have Spoken
    Nov 8

    Written by: Charles Legg
    11/8/2011 10:51 PM RssIcon
    I would like to congratulate the winners of the election. I would also like to thank all those who had faith in me and voted for me. Good luck to Mayor Eisentrout and her new Council member Dave Way.

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  9. It is not a suprise Legg was appointed to council despite two other candidates for council that received more votes than Legg in the recent election also applied. It is especially disappointing since the recent election provided a great opportunity to take into account votes that had been cast by residents when appointing a person, and was basically ignored. Even more disappointing that the person appointed previously spoke, how this is a republic and people elect representatives, did not seem to defer the appointment to be made based more on votes cast by residents in the recent election.

    It should not be a surprise that is how things are done by the MP council, .. the same council that for the most part sat idlely by when the mayor entered into a contract with the former clerk/treasurer, even though there was no workers comp or liability insurance as specified in the contract. At least the 3rd time in recent history some type of proper insurance was not in place for a contract. The same council which hired the current police chief Nuesse, a person that was fired from their previous law enforcement position of police chief in Sandusky for dishonesty, which was a decision affirmed by a former judge serving as a Civil Service Commission hearing officer, a Court of Common Pleas judge, and now affirmed by the Court of Appeals of Ohio Sixth Appellate District judges.

    Imagine how much better of a place this might be if the MP council and administration made better decisions.

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