Saturday, March 18, 2000
Ludlow mayor vetoes budget
He expects override
BY CINDY SCHROEDER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LUDLOW — Ludlow's on-again, off-again budget hit another roadblock Friday.
Mayor Tom Stacy vetoed the eight-months-late city budget that council adopted earlier this month.
The mayor's veto can be overturned by a vote of five council members. Council members say it's too soon to tell whether they'll pursue such a move, but Mr. Stacy is expecting his veto to be overturned.
“I wouldn't expect them to do anything different,” he said. “It's definitely a 5-1 world. That makes me the underdog.”
In listing his reasons for the veto, the mayor said:
• The budget ordinance was read and voted on without public discussion.
Mr. Stacy said “the public deserves better,” after much time, money and effort was spent on a budget proposed by special counsel Robert Carran, only to have council reject it.
Five council members adopted a budget of more than $1 million March 8, but they said it was only a starting point, as record keeping is so disorganized in the city.
The city's clerk-treasurer and deputy clerk resigned in mid-February, and a temporary clerk-treasurer has spent weeks trying to organize city records and financial statements.
Mr. Stacy and Councilwoman Sharon Dietz did not attend either of the two special council meetings to adopt the budget.
• Ludlow Council Member Garry Hatter Sr., president of the Ludlow Volunteer Fire Department, voted on the budget, despite the city's ethics board advising him not to do so, which could make his vote illegal.
“It would be like letting (Police) Chief (Tom) Collins vote on how much money his department gets,” Mr. Stacy said.
• Some budget directives directly change personnel of the city's employ outside council's scope of duties, and resulting litigation, or the potential for it, has resulted.
Police Lt. Benny Johnson signed court papers last week charging council members Mr. Hatter Ben Cloud, Ron Wofford and Jack Redd with official misconduct. He said the four acted arbitrarily in demoting him, and did so because they have a grudge against him.
Lt. Johnson said promotions and demotions are supposed to be left to the mayor.
• Due to the tardiness of approving a budget, some line items are too high, while other line items that are necessary, such as unemployment, have zero dollars in them, the mayor wrote.
“I understand that we are operating under extreme circumstances that no one could have foreseen,” the mayor wrote in his veto. “However, with the actions I have undertaken, and from briefings from (temporary Clerk/Treasurer) Robin Garrison, the light is at the end of the tunnel. Until these issues can be resolved, I feel I owe it to the community to halt the progression of this ordinance.
“If I felt in my heart that council was of the intent to modify, adjust or amend a budget, it could have done so July 1, 1999, and could have continued to amend it every other meeting after that,” the mayor wrote.
“Based on past performance, I can only assume that this budget will never be amended and only put on hold to somehow be used as a political tool.”
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