LEBANON -- Warren County commissioners backpedaled Tuesday on their threat to dissolve Deerfield Township, but said the ultimatum at least revived the prospect of negotiations between two warring governments. For the second time since Deerfield trustees passed a resolution Dec. 29 to withdraw from the Mason-Deerfield Joint Fire District, trustees and Mason City Council members stood in the same room Tuesday, voicing the concerns that imperil their partnership in the fire department.
In a standing-room-only crowd at the commissioners' office, heated debates between elected officials and residents centered on two underlying issues: annexations and distrust.
Controversial annexations have pitted the communities against each other for five years and culminated last year when Mason annexed a 25-year-old township business, Paramount's Kings Island.
Without some economic assurances from Mason -- sharing revenues indefinitely on annexations, for example -- trustees have said they cannot trust city officials to look out for the township's 19,000 residents in fire and ambulance services or in any partnership.
"We've never had a problem with the fire department. . . . But it's not in our best interest to be in a long-term economic venture with someone we don't trust," Trustee Bill Morand said, summarizing what sparked a 4 1/2-month controversy over the fire district's future. "We deserve the support of commissioners as township trustees in doing our job. We do not deserve a gun to the head."
Capitalizing on their authority to dissolve townships smaller than 22 miles, as Ohio law permits, commissioners strong-armed the trustees into Tuesday's meeting -- demanding that they revoke their Dec. 29 resolution and commit to a multiyear pact with Mason to preserve the joint district.
The tactic infuriated township trustees, who claimed the county's interference undermined their ability to do their jobs as elected township officials.
Minutes before the morning meeting -- and, unknown to county commissioners -- Mr. Morand and Larry Backus, president of the Deerfield Township trustees, brought a lawsuit against the county commissioners.
The lawsuit, filed in the Ohio 12th District Court of Appeals in Middletown, accuses commissioners of "usurping, intruding into, holding and exercising the authority and powers" of Deerfield Township trustees by threatening to dissolve the township in a strongly worded letter sent to trustees Friday.
The lawsuit asks the appeals court to issue an injunction, restraining the commissioners from further interventions.
After learning about the lawsuit, County Commissioner Michael Kilburn said he didn't need a judge's injunction to bow out of the township-city dispute.
"We made a gallant attempt to try and solve this, and I'm not encouraged that our meeting did a whole lot of good," Mr. Kilburn said. "In terms of this thing, I'm done with it."
Mr. Kilburn said dissolving or reconfiguring the township is not an issue right now.
More than 3,600 acres of township land have been annexed to Mason since 1988, according to Warren County records.
"We sympathize with all of the townships in our county over the annexation laws as they are written," Commissioner Pat Arnold South said during the two-hour meeting. "These laws do give municipalities an advantage in annexation cases."
Still, she urged both sides to "begin acting in a responsible manner and show sincere good faith at the bargaining table by each offering concessions that will be the base to start building trust." A new concession from Mason City Council -- which had vowed not to resume negotiations until trustees revoked their threat to split the fire company -- did result from commissioners' political maneuvering.
Mason Mayor Betty Davis said the city would reimburse Deerfield for 10 years on any township lands lost to Mason through annexation. "We have conceded more than what should be necessary, but we want to move forward. We want to keep the joint fire district together," she said.
But in an emergency meeting of the trustees that followed Tuesday afternoon, Deerfield homeowners cited the inadequacy of 10-year reimbursements, when tax abatements -- common for new Mason businesses -- could nullify property taxes for a decade.
"What happens after 10 years?" township resident Bob Cooney said. "The township cannot continue to expand if we're going to continue to have less and less money for the area we're trying to maintain."
Neither city council members nor trustees have addressed whether there is any middle ground between 10 years and forever concerning revenue sharing.
"We were willing to replace every dime for 10 years," Ms. Davis said. "I'll go no further."
Though the two-hour commissioners' session produced no immediate resolutions, it ended with both sides reconsidering calling in an independent mediator to help forge compromises that could save the fire district.
In January, Mr. Backus proposed hiring a mediator with no ties to Warren County, and city council refused. When county commissioners -- and other local leaders -- offered to mediate, council approved but trustees declined.
Though defiant at the commissioners' meeting Tuesday, Mr. Backus later agreed with trustees to consider commissioners' demands, including the rescinding of the Dec. 29 resolution.
"We will take the commissioners' suggestions under advisement. We need some time to look at the legal issues," the trustees' president said.
"We will continue to negotiate with Mason," Mr. Backus said, expressing hopes that a draft agreement that council rejected last month might be used as a springboard for future talks. "We don't want to start over again; we don't have time."
Sept. 30 is the proposed date Deerfield would start its own fire company, and both the city and township have voted to put replacement levies before the voters in August to fund separate departments. "It's going to have to be some give and give," said Mason resident Lee Hamilton, a former Mason councilman and former Deerfield Township clerk.
"Deerfield Township wants to keep the land; Mason wants to keep the earnings tax. Leave the property in Deerfield Township and let Mason have the earnings tax, and the fire district can go merrily on its way."
