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Michael D. Pitman reports about Butler County, Ohio, politics, county government, countywide issues and Butler County people just like you for Cox Ohio Publishing (including the Hamilton JournalNews, Middletown Journal and several weekly papers in Butler County). He wants your suggestions and questions for more news stories. Leave a comment for him here or e-mail Michael at Home > Blogs > Butler County News and Issues > Archives > 2008 > December > 08
Monday, December 8, 2008
EMA head under fire from police chiefs, county
In a pair of scathing letters, Butler County leaders and police chiefs across the county expressed a lack of confidence in the county’s emergency management chief after his response to September’s historic windstorm.
In a letter to the Butler County Emergency Management Agency governing board Monday, Dec. 8, two county commissioners said EMA Director William Turner’s “service has become a divisive force instead of a unifying force in Butler County.”
Commissioners Donald Dixon and Gregory Jolivette called for “a change in management of the EMA.”
This followed a letter to commissioners Monday from the Butler County Chiefs of Police Association, which said police chiefs across the county see a “vacuum of leadership” at the EMA.
“Leadership, coordination, communication, direction, resources, as well as anything else that one might have come to expect out of the (EMA) in the aftermath of the windstorm were all absent,” said the letter, signed by Association President Richard St. John, Fairfield Twp. police chief.
Click here for the whole story.
Here is the entire letter from the police chiefs to the county commission:
(Click on the top right corner to enlarge)
Here is the letter from commissioners to the EMA board:
(Click on the top right corner to enlarge)
What do you think? Should the EMA board terminate Turner?
Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment | Categories: Emergency Management Agency
TweetCounty board to review appraisal
Here is the latest on the property value reappraisal conundrum (From this story):
The Ohio Department of Taxation has extended the deadline for Butler County’s contentious real estate reappraisal after a county commissioner says the county auditor nearly missed a step prescribed in state law.
That step requires county Auditor Roger Reynolds to submit his assessments to the county Board of Revision — consisting of Reynolds, the county commission president and the county treasurer — before final state approval.
Now the Board of Revision will get a stab next week at lowering appraised values, which some have assailed as too high in drafts of the countywide reappraisal completed earlier this year.
Has the law been followed in previous years? Is it followed elsewhere? That’s unclear, according to Commissioner Donald Dixon:
“It turns out that no one at the county level can ever remember a county auditor following this section of the law.”
And it appears Hamilton County Auditor Dusty Rhodes doesn’t follow this rule and has no intention to. Said he:
“In all the years I’ve been here, that’s never happened…After everybody has done all the work and the professionals have gone out … then here comes Johnny commissioner, who’s going to decide what’s right or wrong? Give me a break. The very idea that the commissioners are going to micromanage an appraisal is ridiculous.”
Here is the law, from the state:
On the second Monday of June, annually, the county auditor shall lay before the county board of revision the returns of his assessment of real property for the current year, and such board shall forthwith proceed to revise the assessment and returns of such real property. If the board finds that any tract, lot, or parcel of land, or any buildings, structures, or improvements thereon, or any minerals therein, or rights thereto have been improperly listed either as to the name of the owner or the description or quantity thereof, or have been incorrectly valued, or have been omitted and not yet valued, it shall make the necessary corrections and give to each such incorrectly valued or omitted tract, lot, or parcel of land, or any buildings, structures, or improvements thereon, or any minerals therein or rights thereto, their corrected taxable value.
The auditor shall not make up his tax list and duplicate nor advertise as provided in section 5715.17 of the Revised Code until the board has completed its work under this section and returned to the auditor all the returns laid before it with the revisions thereof.
Effective Date: 11-05-1965
What do you think?
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment | Categories: County Auditor
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