During Tuesday’s work session, Huber Heights city attorney Alan Schaeffer warned the council about the appearance of some members meeting in a non-public way without proper notice due to Ohio open meeting laws — especially if a quorum (at least five) attended.
In a Jan. 6 email to council that referenced the contentious 2015 election process, Schaeffer wrote that “there is certainly an odor to this meeting scheduled.”
“It’s highly overblown,” Otto said. “It’s my opinion, I should say, that the members of council who were there prior to Jan. 1 are highly concerned with losing control of what they believe they had control over before.”
On Friday, Schaeffer said: “My point is the better practice is to take the safer route to eliminate the risk if at all possible. Have a public meeting if you’re going to have a majority of council.”
McMasters said only he and the three new council members had a “meet and greet” with Zimmers, so no majority was reached and no city business took place. The new members saw the meeting as a continuation of orientation, which included meeting city departmental heads.
City manager Rob Schommer emailed McMasters earlier in the week to say he was surprised when Zimmers told him of the planned gathering.
“The city manager’s concern is that he usually gets to control the conversation between us, and he didn’t like the fact that we talked independently about having the idea of it,” McMasters said Friday, then addressed the city attorney’s concerns by adding, “You never know what Alan’s thinking.”
Smith said that before she joined the council, she took a picture of a picture of six council members and a city worker meeting at an area restaurant after a council meeting.
Smith said this meeting was a different story, and that she wouldn’t have attended if a majority was there.
“It sounds like somebody’s got some hidden agendas,” she said. “That’s unfortunate, because moving forward I was hoping we could work as a team.”
McMasters said prior council’s social gatherings were common.
“It’s a shame that you shouldn’t go out and socialize after a meeting if you’re not announcing it as the other council was prone to do. For years, they’ve gone out after and pretty much all seven or all eight members would go out and have drinks after a council meeting,” McMasters said, adding he knows that kind of thing should not happen.
Otto said it’s amusing that Schaeffer didn’t have an issue with previous council gatherings.
“In a nutshell, he defended it and said, well, you know, there’s nothing wrong with them meeting as long as they don’t discuss city business, it’s not a big deal. No problem,” Otto said. “But of course, we plan a meeting just to get to know somebody that works with our city that we believe we should get to know, and suddenly he’s got a concern.”
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