After two initiatives failed to make the November ballot, Plain City officials are considering the termination of the village’s solicitor.
During Monday’s village council meeting, officials went into executive session to discuss the dismissal of a public employee or official. Afterward, council moved to vote on a new resolution to terminate Plain City solicitor, Paul Lafayette.
Council member Shannon Pine said the group chose to consider Lafayette’s termination because of missed deadlines for the November election.
“There were two things we were really hopeful would get on the ballot that didn’t: the charter committee and the police levy,” she said.
At a special council meeting on Aug. 5, council members approved the addition of a police levy on the November ballot. The levy was intended to create an additional $105,000 in revenue to be used for the hiring of another full-time police officer.
The measure was passed as an emergency in order to meet the filing deadline to the board of elections on Aug. 7.
The legislation was submitted to the Secretary of State in time, but was rejected because it was written improperly – an error attributed to Lafayette.
The levy was written for tax year 2020 to begin collection in 2020, but should have been written for tax year 2019 to begin collection in 2020. As a result, the levy was not permitted on the November ballot.
The village faced similar woes regarding the petition for a charter committee.
As Plain City is growing toward city status, the village has moved forward with petitions to create a charter committee.
Council members intended to have legislation forming a charter committee on the November ballot, but procedural errors prevented them from meeting the deadline.
Since neither piece of legislation will be on the upcoming ballot, Mayor Darrin Lane said it is “in the best interest of the village to pursue new legal counsel.”
Council then moved to waive the three readings of the resolution, which would allow for the immediate termination of Lafayette.
However, council was divided and the motion resulted in a 3-3 vote, with members Pine, Kerri Ferguson and Darren Lee voting no.
Pine said the three who dissented felt uncomfortable waiving further readings because they were unable to discuss the decision with Lafayette, who was not present at Monday’s meeting.
Since there was not a majority vote, the resolution will move to a second reading at the next council meeting, Sept. 9 at 7 p.m.
Despite this, council proceeded to discuss the charter committee with a goal of having legislation on the May ballot.
Council member Jody Carney insisted on developing a strategy to ensure they can move forward with the charter committee.
“Obviously, we have a bunch of finger-pointing as to what didn’t happen, but it could happen – and will happen – again if we don’t do something,” Carney said.
Ferguson said council needed to collect 400-500 signatures for the charter commission, but only collected about 300.
She asked Lee to come up with a timeline that allowed for “more than the three to four weeks we had” to collect signatures and finalize the legislation.
In the meantime, Pine suggested the creation of an “ad hoc” charter committee that would meet regularly, although not yet in an official capacity. She said the committee would include the 15 appointed candidates.
Council voted unanimously to approve the committee’s creation, with the suggestion that members help collect signatures for the petition as well.
Carney then asked whether the candidates for the charter committee were notified that the legislation would not be on the ballot.
Village administrator Nathan Cahall said the candidates were not made aware, but he would send correspondence to notify them.
He said notice letters will include information asking candidates to participate in the ad hoc committee, as well.
Carney suggested the charter committee be added to the list of regular reports, so every council meeting features an update from the group.