Archive for Ordinance

Loss of our Voting Rights: A New Ordinance

Loss of our Voting Rights: A New Ordinance would eliminate two elected Mariemont Officials.

The Mayor has unilaterally and with no publicity introduced an Ordinance that would eliminate two elected officials; the Village Clerk and the Village Treasurer. These positions would be consolidated into a ‘fiscal officer’ that would be a Mayor’s appointee that served at the pleasure of the Mayor and could reside outside the Village of Mariemont. This would eliminate a very important check and balance in Village Government as well as an internal mechanism for audit and the loss of an advisor to Council and the Mayor. It would greatly enhance the Mayor’s authority.

The Mayor has tried to quietly push this Ordinance through under the radar of public scrutiny. Already, two readings have occurred at Council Meetings with an intent for final passage of the Ordinance with a third reading at the Council meeting on February the 10th.  The Mayor has made no mention of the Ordinance in his December and January Mayor’s Bulletins, has not held a Civic Association meeting to discuss the Ordinance, has not aired the Ordinance in the Community Press, has not assigned it to a Council Committee for consideration and, if you listen to the ICRC videos of Council Meetings, you will note that the Ordinance is only mentioned in passing.

This is the most important piece of legislation to come before Council in many years, and I encourage all concerned residents to e-mail or phone their representatives to at least delay passage until there has been thorough discussion of the measure within the Village of Mariemont.  We welcome comments on the Mariemont.com blog from all Mariemonters.

At the Council meeting on 2/10/2014, the Ordinance was passed unanimously by the Council after the third reading without discussion.

Village Contacts

Dennis Wolter, District 1, dwolter@mariemont.org

Joe Miller, District 2, jmiller@mariemont.org

Eric Marsland, District 3, emarsland@gmail.com

Maggie Palazzolo, District 4, magpal00@gmail.com

Mary Ann Schwartz, District 5,  maschwartz51@gmail.com

Jim Tinkham, District 6, jimtinkham@yahoo.com