Wednesday, March 15, 2000
Lebanon asks state to return buyout money
BY CINDI ANDREWS
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON — City Council asked Tuesday night that the state retirement system return $486,000 paid on behalf on three former high-ranking city employees.
The ordinance, passed 6-0 after a closed-door meeting with outside legal counsel Bill Gustavson, said the three were not members of the collective-bargaining unit of the city's electric department.
Therefore, the city has determined, they were not eligible for the electric department's early retirement plan.
Questions of ethics
City Auditor Debbie Biggs received $110,565, City Attorney Bill Duning $206,302 and electric department Assistant Director Bob Newton $169,549 through the early retire ment incentive program offered through the electric department.
Questions have been raised about Mrs. Biggs' and Mr. Duning's eligibility and the propriety of Mrs. Biggs' and Mr. Newton's signing off on their own buyouts. All three retired Dec. 31.
City Council referred the matter to the Ohio Ethics Commission.
Mr. Duning already has asked the Public Employees Retirement System to return his buyout money, and he said Tuesday night the retirement system has told him that was under way.
Mr. Newton and Mrs. Biggs have said they would not return the money.
The retirement system has said it would return the money if it were determined the employees were ineligible.
Also Tuesday, council again delayed action on Countryside, a 458-home development in southern Lebanon, after several members raised concerns that the developer had not considered a proposed landscape ordinance.
“The community supports the tree ordinance, and you basically said you're ignoring it,” Councilman Mark Flick said. “I've got a problem with that.”
Smaller lots planned
Preliminary plans for Countryside call for tree-lined boulevards, a 6-acre park and distinct neighborhoods of $150,000 to $400,000 homes.
The planned-unit development zoning that Countryside is seeking would allow smaller lot sizes and setbacks in exchange for at least 20 percent of the land being set aside as green space.
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