Mansfield City Council voted unanimously passing issues which will be present on the November ballot. Law Director John Spon also directed his support of a renewal agreement for Richland County Commissioners to for the criminal defense. Council also heard plans regarding their new voice and data system which will be up and running in four months. Currently, they are patching an old communications system which went down last Monday.
In a 7-0 vote, Mansfield City Council passed the question of adopting additional income tax rate of .25% for 4 years, to the electors of the city of Mansfield. “City Pride” levy, will appropriate funds to directly affect some hotbutton topics in Mansfield. Councilwoman Ellen Haring stated, “Specificity is particularly important. I think it’s good that we have the percentages here, for the constituents to understand, where those dollars would be divided.” Her discussion with the Ohio Municipal League informed her opinion, that the council should “make a concerted effort together, to help everyone understand how important this is to our revenue of the general fund, and how important it is to continue the services that our constituents expect.”
Mayor Theaker explained reasons why a general levy from last year needed changes toward specificity. In order to pass in the general election this year, the “City Pride” levy addresses four appropriations: safety which includes police and fire budget, Mansfield parks and recreation, turning on the town streetlights, and demolitions of potentially dangerous and uninhabited properties. “These four items are the hotbuttons of the citizens of Mansfield,” stated Theaker. He spoke with concern for safety, as his final statement to the council. “The safety forces are depleted down, the police force is depleted down, the fire department has a grant right now which will expire in November, and we need to keep our forces at a level where we feel safe.” Councilman Scott Hazen reaffirmed the importance of the levy’s specificity to the voters come general election time. Hazen stated, in regards to “City Pride”, “We all like good parks, and we like recreation programs, and we want our streetlights turned on, and so, that’s part of the consideration when the voters go to the polls in November.”
When Bill 207 came up on the agenda, Haring asked the expertise of Law Director John Spon, regarding the renewal agreement with Richland County Commissioners. This bill ensured the continuation of counsel fee payment for indigent criminal defendants. Spon stated “In our community we simply have a type of program approved by our police court judges, as well as our municipal judges. And it involves the entire BAR association of any attorney that wants to participate in being court appointed.” Spon, with his extensive background as county prosecutor assistant as well as criminal defense lawyer, explained to council and caucus the necessity of such a program within Mansfield. “I support this, because I think it distributes the resources in representing those who are charged with crimes, equal throughout the community to the attorneys that want to participate. And I further support it because our constitution requires that anyone that is faced with the potential of a restriction of freedom, is entitled to legal representation. So it’s essential to our community because it preserves due process, and preserves our institution ruled by law.”
Spon explained that the fund is paid for in part by every defendant, as part of final court costs. Law Director Spon said, regarding the program, “It’s traditional in many communities throughout Ohio, and I think for a city of our size, it is a better program than having a separate, bureaucratic, public defender’s program.”
They have just finished the first ever overhaul of the city’s radio communication network, and the voice and data overhaul will be up to date soon. The previous interface in the building, circa 1978, was updated in 2008. “So we knew it needed to be done,” Sergeant Newberg stated. “Bring everything up to speed, and actually place our return on investment with that purchase.”
At about 3:30 on Monday, Newberg stated “our Meridian One decided it wasn’t going to play nice anymore, and it crashed and burned. So, we got Century Link in, it is so old they actually had to scour the country for parts and fly them in,” the Sergeant said. This is still just a temporary fix to the problem they were already working on. As Newberg stated that with the patching efforts, “we can buy another 90-100 days to finish and present our plan and proposal for implementing voice over IP phones and combining our voice and data from point A to point B.”
Currently, 911 and other voice calls to the city are up and running, and serviceable.
