Controversy isn’t common at Bellville Village Council meetings, but recent tension over a proposal to reduce the mayor’s position to part time has brought raised voices and uncomfortable silences to the village meetings.
The first reading of an “Ordinance to Add a Section 31.08 to designate the mayor as a part-time position for the purpose of employment benefits and to set the annual salary for the same” was read on Feb. 3, and the final reading is scheduled for the upcoming council meeting to be held March 3.
It is still possible that council may withdraw or amend the proposition, and Bellville Mayor Darrell Banks is optimistic that at least a middle ground may be found.
“I don’t object to the part-time job, but we did disagree on what part time means,” said Banks.
He noted that the proposed annual salary is $7,000, and that the hours worked would be approximately 11.7 per week, which would not be enough time to fulfill the duties of mayor for the village of 1,918 residents.
According to Ohio Revised Code 733.03, the mayor shall be the chief conservator of peace within the city. Banks noted that his duties include administration of the village and a responsibility for law enforcement as an overseer of the police department. Banks also serves as president of council, serves on the Planning as well as the Shade Tree commissions, is a non-voting member of all council committees, and oversees Mayor’s Court.
As mayor, Banks also officiates weddings (over 100 to date in two terms), ceremonial proclamations, parades and other community activities, as well as speaking engagements.
Banks added that he has even helped the street department seal cracks when they were short-handed, helped with cleanup after storms, and gone house to house to check on residents during winter power outages and flooding.
He said that, as the current village administrator works only six hours per week, many of the administrator’s duties fall to the mayor, including overseeing the street and parks departments.
The proposed ordinance would allow more hours for a village administrator, council noted at the Feb. 17 meeting, but a specific number of hours has not been determined.
Councilmember David Griffon noted that the average village administrator salary for a village comparable to Bellville is approximately $34,000. The current village administrator’s salary is approximately $10,500, said Banks.
In comparison, Village of Butler Mayor Kevin Carr noted that the current population of Butler is around 1,000. Carr serves as a part time mayor with a salary of $7,200.
“We have a part-time village administrator,” said Carr. “He is required to work at least 15 hours per week and deals with the day to day operations of the village and its employees. His salary is $10,000 annually.”
According to the 2013 Ohio Municipal League Village Salary Survey, the neighboring Village of Lexington has a population of 4,822, has a part-time mayor with a salary of $20,000, and a full-time administrator with an annual salary of $58,178.
Carr also addressed the statement made by Griffon at the Feb. 17 council meeting in which Griffon suggested an administrator be shared between the two villages. Carr said, “I do want all to know that the village of Butler, including myself, was never notified nor do we have interest in hiring a village administrator and sharing with the village of Bellville. We currently have that part time position filled and feel it is in the best interest of the village of Butler to operate under our own administrator.”
Banks suggested, if a change is necessary, it could be done gradually over a period of four years, allowing him and others on staff with experience to train a new administrator.
Bellville residents present at the Feb. 17 council meeting noted that they elected the mayor, and were not comfortable with an appointed administrator filling the role.
If the ordinance is approved, it will not go into effect until January of 2016, which will begin the term of the mayor elected this November. Banks said he was unsure if he would run for a third term.
The village is currently operated under statutory law, and Banks has expressed that he feels the ordinance is part of a change to a charter system. According to the Ohio Village Officer’s Handbook, “as municipalities, all villages have Home Rule powers, but the extent of these powers differ depending upon whether the village has adopted a charter.
“By adopting a charter, the village may set up a system of government which differs from the statutory plans. It may provide for the officers and procedures for all governmental functions. Non-charter villages must comply with all state laws concerning matters of procedural local self-government.”
Griffon said that the village is not moving to a charter government. “Everything stays the same,” he said.
“The current administrator is retiring, so we need to replace him. The mayor, in the past, has always been part time, and we are just taking it back to where it was,” he explained.
The village has had only four mayors since 1960, noted Banks. Carolynn Studenmund, mayor from 1986-2008, was the first full-time mayor.
Griffon reiterated the proposal wasn’t personal.
“What it boils down to is, of the villages our size, the average salary of a mayor, and they are all part time, is $6,400,” he said. “$7,000 is what we proposed, that’s more than average. When everyone else is within that ballpark, I don’t think we are doing our job if we can’t keep our expenditures in line with every other village that’s our size.”
When asked what may happen if the ordinance passed but a new administrator could not be found before January 2016, Griffon said, “I think we’re pretty confident we’ll find an administrator. The one we have now, I think, is negotiable. Obviously with the hours he’s at now he can’t work as much, but if we take him back to the hours we originally designated, he’s slated to work through this year, could he work through more? Yes.”
“So we’re not locked into anything right now and we have some flexibility,” he continued. “That’s why I’d like to get it done now, so the mayor understands what that scope is going to be ahead of him, and we can put forth the effort to start finding an administrator and have an idea budget-wise of what we can look forward to.”
The next council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, March 3, at 6:30 p.m. at the Bellville Police Department, located at 320 Bell Street.
“What it boils down to is, of the villages our size, the average salary of a mayor, and they are all part time, is $6,400,” he said. “$7,000 is what we proposed, that’s more than average,” stated David Griffon.
