Members of the Commissioners Committee on the Fire Training Facility Jerica Drapp, left, and David Roth, right, discuss their progress with Commissioner Paul Simmons, background left, and other members of the Piqua Commission on Tuesday, June 4.
Eamon Baird | Miami Valley Today
By Eamon Baird
PIQUA — The Commissioners Committee on the Fire Training Facility provided its monthly report at the Piqua City Commission meeting on Tuesday, June 4.
Co-Chair David Roth and member Jerica Drapp addressed commissioners regarding challenges in the progress of interviewing city employees.
“We have been facing some obstacles to do this, so I guess our goal today is to ask for your help in some manner,” Drapp said.
According to the committee, a scheduled in-person interview with City Manager Paul Oberdorfer for May 22 was canceled the day of the interview. Roth said after the cancellation, Law Director Frank Patrizio informed the committee questions would be answered in writing, most likely via email.
Drapp discussed the issue with not being able to conduct in-person interviews.
“From a research perspective, you lose a lot of tone and the way that maybe they’re enunciating certain words without having that face-to-face conversation,” Drapp said.
The fire training committee said they had compiled roughly 300 questions for their scheduled interview with Oberdorfer.
“I think, we as a group definitely thought that we would be able to sit down with at least city employees and have discussions. I was hoping that I’d come down here and have the full support of the commission,” Roth said.
“You definitely have mine,” Commissioner Paul Simmons said. “Emails are all great, but you lose a lot of tone in emails, also you lose body language. If there’s anything I’ve learned in this room, it’s how to read body language.”
Additionally, there was some discussion about the neutrality and transparency of the committee.
“Why was the decision made to stop recording your meetings,” Commissioner Frank DeBrosse asked the committee.
“Because we were afraid that the discussions that were occurring in our meetings would dissuade individuals from wanting to be interviewed,” Roth replied, adding that the committee voted to record future meetings for the public.
During the commissioners’ comment section, DeBrosse addressed Patrizio and Oberdorfer regarding the fire training committee.
“I would ask each of you to work with me in a manner in which we can get the questions that the committee would like answered from city staff and city employees, so that they can ultimately complete their task, which is to compile the report. I don’t want to get stuck in semantics as to how we actually get these questions answered, but the important thing is they get answered, and they get answered in a prompt manner to which the committee can be able to do their work,” DeBrosse said.
The commissioners granted the request for the fire training committee to seek outside council, which will be discussed more at the next commission meeting.
In other business, the commission heard a third reading and made amendments to an ordinance regarding section 30.01 of the Piqua municipal code.
Under the new terms of the ordinance, the city manager will be able to approve claims against the city up to $25,000 without prior commissioner approval. The previous limit was $2,500.
The commissioners amended the amount, initially proposed at $75,000, which members of the public and commissioners agreed was excessive.
Additionally, the commissioners capped a maximum cumulative amount of $200,000 per year and for the city manager to give a monthly expense report to the commissioners once a month.
The commissioners voted 4-1 to approve the ordinance with Simmons voting “no.”
In new business, the commission unanimously passed the following resolutions:
• To authorize replats of in-lots 6956 and 6597 and dedication of new easements for the proposed redevelopment of the property.
• To authorize the sale and lease of city-owned real estate at the corner of Sherman Street and West Water Street, formally known as High Street Park. The terms of the sale are $1,870, which is 10% of the lot value.
• To sell parcel owned by the city of Piqua to a prospective purchaser who desire to acquire the property and construct a new one-family home at 1121 W. Water St.
