St. Albans Township/Alexandria Merger Commission Meeting

Agenda/Minutes 7/3/2024

1. Call to order, pledge of allegiance

Chairperson Carianne Meng calls to Order the St. Albans Township/Alexandria Merger Commission Meeting of July 3, 2024 at 7:02PM.

Note: these meetings are for the Merger Commission to review findings and to draw up the conditions for a merger.

2. Committee Member Roll Call:  

Baer: Present / Not Present 

Barnes: Present / Not Present 

Burton: Present / Not Present

Lodder: Present / Not Present  

Meng: Present / Not Present 

Robertson: Present / Not Present 

Schiller: Present / Not Present 

Taylor: Present / Not Present

Thorpe: Present / Not Present  

Zanks: Present / Not Present 

Additional Attendees: 

Pam Hills, Mike Washington

3. Review and Approval of Minutes 

Minutes from St. Albans Township/Alexandria Merger Commission Meeting 6/26/24.

Baer made a motion; seconded by Robertson, to approve the 6/26/2024 minutes. All in favor?

Chair declares motion failed / carried. 

4. Old Business  

Elections – Question from Barnes to attorney Moncrief re: how to proceed with putting in place a new government.  Do we need to put the candidates on the same ballot as the merger or have a special election after/if the merger passes?  Can temporary members be appointed by the commission until an election takes place?  Can we have a flexible number of council members (5 instead of 7 for example)?

Email response from attorney Moncrief:By Code, a Village is required to have 6 council members (with a process for reducing to 5, as discussed below).  The 4 candidates who receive the greatest number of votes cast shall be elected for terms of 4 years, and the 2 candidates who receive the next greatest number of votes cast shall be elected for 2 years.  From that point forward, all terms will be for 4 years. 

I think it is important for the merger conditions to lay out how and when council members will be elected; however, the conditions should not include any language nominating or electing council members.  Anyone who desires to run for council must follow the same procedure as any existing municipality (organize signature for a nomination petition and file with board of elections at least 90 days before election).  With that in mind, we may want to discuss how this affects the timing of the merger approval.  While you will have until 90 days before the election to approve the merger conditions (assuming extension is approved), we may want to discuss moving that timeline up in order to provide time for future council members to organize their nomination materials.   I suggest the following language be included in the conditions:

            “The new municipality shall have a statutory mayor-council form (federal plan) on the merger date.  All municipal officers will be elected at large.  All residents of the new municipality who otherwise meet requirements for public office shall be eligible for election to the new municipal government.  Elections for the new municipality will be held in November 2025(?), with the municipal officers to be elected and the terms of office commencing January 1, 2026(?)”. 

For future reference, the Ohio Revised Code does have the following procedure for reducing the number of council members from 6 to 5: (1) the legislative authority of the village adopts an ordinance or resolution that requests the reduction of the number of members of the legislative authority to 5, and (2) the ordinance shall be filed with the board of elections no later than 90 days before the next election and the majority of electors shall vote to reduce the number of council members. 

Question: How are council members decided? 

Request for extension – status update:
Request submitted on 6/20/24 to the Village and Township respectively

Village Council meeting on July 2, 2024
Meng represented the request for extension. Baer and Meng abstained from voting as they both sit on Village Council; otherwise unanimously approved by Village Council to grant the extension.

St. Albans Township Trustees meeting on July 9, 2024
Who will attend on behalf of the Commission?  Burton, Barnes, Schiller, Lodder

Ensuring quorum for next meeting, July 10 – Elaine and Steph absent next week

Road maintenance costs: We are working to get this number – actual cost of maintenance/mowing/plowing, etc. Dave Sapp to get this information; Lodder reaching out to Mrs. Reeves.

Taxes/EIC: Schiller asked the Governor’s Office for the Township’s earned income (excluding the village). Requested the 2023 RITA numbers

REMINDER re: road mileage: Township Mileage: 26, County Mileage: 24, State Mileage: 13, Village Mileage: 10.035

5. New Business

Roberts Rules of Order
Lodder made a motion; seconded by Barnes, to accept/reject the use of Robert’s Rules of Order as the set of rules for running Merger Commission meetings.  All in favor? Chair declares motion failed / carried. 

Baer: Y / N / Absent / Abstain

Barnes: Y / N / Absent / Abstain

Burton: Y / N / Absent / Abstain

Lodder: Y / N / Absent / Abstain

Meng: Y / N / Absent / Abstain

Robertson: Y / N / Absent / Abstain

Schiller: Y / N / Absent / Abstain

Taylor: Y / N / Absent / Abstain

Thorpe: Y / N / Absent / Abstain

Zanks: Y / N / Absent / Abstain

Drafting Merger Conditions 

Zoning, municipal services (water), etc.

Other notes: 

General Updates:

6. Citizen Comments (3-minute time limit) 

None

7. Meeting Announcements 

The next meeting will be held on: Wednesday, July 10 at 7PM, location St. Albans Fire Station Community Room.

Future meetings are:
July 10, 2024
July 17, 2024
July 24, 2024
July 31, 2024.
August 21, 2024
September 18, 2024
October 16, 2024
November 20, 2024
December 18, 2024
January 15, 2025
February 19, 2025
March 19, 2025
April 16, 2025
May 21, 2025
June 18, 2025

8. Adjournment 

 Lodder made a motion; seconded by Baer , to adjourn.
All in favor? Chair declares motion carried / failed. 

Chairperson Meng declares the meeting adjourned at 8:35PM.