Miami County Commissioners elect leadership

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MIAMI COUNTY —The Board of Miami County Commissioners elected new leadership of the board during its re-organizational meeting on Monday.

The board elected commissioner Jack Evans as the president of the board to serve a one-year term, beginning Monday and ending at the organizational meeting of the board on the second Monday of January 2021.

The board then elected commissioner Ted Mercer to serve as the vice president of the board, also for a one-year term.

The commissioners also approved continuing to hold their meetings at the same time, which include two regular sessions per week at 9 a.m. on Tuesdays and 1:30 p.m. on Thursdays, as well as worksessions at 9 a.m. on Wednesdays.

Also during their meeting, the commissioners authorized the Miami County Department of Development Director Rich Osgood to pursue creating the Miami County Economic Development Corporation. The commissioners authorized Osgood to file articles of incorporation for a non-profit domestic corporation under Ohio Revised Code Chapter 1724, community improvement corporations, to establish this economic development corporation.

Osgood said the Miami County Economic Development Corporation will work to expand economic development in the county and create economic and workforce development partnerships throughout the county. Osgood said they are seeking to create a board of directors for this economic development corporation that will be two-fifths government officials with the rest of the board being made of a variety of other community stakeholders, such as representatives from the Troy Foundation, educational entities, the manufacturing sector, health care, retail, special interests, and more. The Miami County Economic Development Corporation will also establish a code of regulations, strategic plan, and funding model for the commissioners to examine.

Commissioner Greg Simmons asked about the goals of the Miami County Economic Development Corporation.

Osgood said there are a number of opportunities within the county for this non-profit to seek building upon, such as creating a business “incubator,” which is a type of organization that helps the creation and growth of new companies, as well as to help create an entrepreneur center, to push the opportunity zone located in the county through marketing, to build workforce development partnerships, to promote workforce housing, and so on.

“I think this is one more part that we’re adding to the economic engine of Miami County,” Mercer said, noting their goal is not to compete with similar economic development entities in Troy and Piqua.

Evans also commended Osgood’s work on pursuing this economic development corporation, including his time, which Osgood said has currently been an 18-month process.

Following that, the commissioners awarded and signed an agreement for professional design and engineering services with App Architecture of Englewood on behalf of Miami County Job and Family Services. App Architecture will be providing a facilities assessment of Job and Family Services, which will include a single line floor plan of renovated spaces, a site plan reflecting a proposed building addition with associated parking, and a budget reflecting a conceptual probable cost of construction. The total fee for App Architecture is not to exceed $20,800, plus reimbursable expenses of an approximate $175.

Director Teresa Brubaker of Job and Family Services said this will be an evaluation tool for the department, as it is currently operating out of two buildings since Children’s Services combined with Job and Family Services. Brubaker said the department is seeking to house both entities in one building to help both employees and clients, with many of the latter being served by both Job and Family Services and Children Services.

“This will be the first step to see what our options are,” Brubaker said.

Earlier during the commissioners’ re-organizational meeting, they approved establishing a formula for funds collected from the county’s one cent sales tax, effective Jan. 1, 2020. The breakdown of funds includes 77 percent for the general fund, 19 percent for central communications, 2 percent for the super fund cleanup, and 2 percent for capital improvement. The additional one-fourth of 1 percent sales tax that was renewed in July 2019 will be paid into the general fund.

The commissioners also adopted the 2020 pay grade compensation program, which includes Job and Family Services employees and non-union Communication Center employees. The new 2020 minimum rate and the new 2020 maximum rate is 3 percent higher than the last adopted wage scale from 2019. This is effective Dec. 21, 2019.

The commissioners also approved a number of annual and organizational items during their meeting. Those items can be viewed on Miami County’s website at miamicountyohio.gov.

The commissioners ended their meeting by going into executive session for the purpose of discussing litigation.

The board will not be holding its regularly scheduled general session meeting on Tuesday. Its next meeting will be a worksession at 9 a.m. on Wednesday at the Miami County Safety Building, 201 W. Main St., Troy.

Authorize pursuit of Miami County Economic Development Corporation

By Sam Wildow

Miami Valley Today

Reach Sam Wildow at [email protected]. © 2020 Miami Valley Today, all rights reserved.

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