“This was my favorite job I’ve ever had; I loved going to work,” he said. “We were really building the department and making great progress; we were doing things well and doing things right.”
Hensley’s contract was renewed in November 2023 for five years. But, just three months later, he and four other village leaders were placed on administrative leave.
In November 2023, New Lebanon voters had elected a new mayor and several new councilmembers.
What followed included a flurry of allegations of misdealing and wasteful spending against the previous administration, unexpected and broad stroke firings, and public displays of disdain aimed at political adversaries.
Credit: Bryant Billing
Credit: Bryant Billing
Political science experts say the forces that upended politics in this town of fewer than 4,000 people are tied to what’s playing out on the national stage.
President Donald Trump claims a November 2024 mandate from voters in his work to reshape the U.S. government, foreign policy and American society itself. The newly elected conservative leadership in New Lebanon likewise claim they are doing what the voters wanted and cleaning house.
On both levels, critics say the leaders are overstepping their authority and undermining government services residents rely on.
But while Washington D.C. politics can be dramatic, small-town politics can get personal.
Previous administrator sues
Last month, former New Lebanon administrator Glena Madden filed a lawsuit against the village council, the village solicitor and the village itself alleging she was improperly terminated.
In early 2024, Madden told the Dayton Daily News she was ousted as a “vendetta” lead by Mayor David Nickerson, whom she fired from the village in 2019. Nickerson denies this.
In 2019, while serving as manager, Madden terminated Nickerson from his previous position with the village service department, citing at that time issues with dishonesty, personal use of village equipment without permission, creation of a hostile work environment and animosity toward co-workers, and creating tension and a lack of trust.
Credit: Bryant Billing
Credit: Bryant Billing
Madden began her role with the village in February 2019. She fired Nickerson in December of that year. Nickerson was elected in November 2023 and took office in January 2024. The next month, he voted to place Madden on leave; she was fired in March 2024.
“I had no disciplinary issues, and no meetings with the new council to discuss my job performance or their expectation of my position,” she said in a recent interview.
Madden now says she’s worried about the direction the village is heading.
“As a resident of the village, the sudden loss of institutional knowledge is a detriment to all residents,” she said. “I am concerned about the future of New Lebanon’s older infrastructure, water and sewer, and lack of transparency of the budgets, expenses, and revenue under the current administration.”
A contentious election
Despite the village’s size, residents of New Lebanon had more issues to vote on in the November 2023 election than any other Montgomery County jurisdiction.
The election was paired with a growing sense of tension between residents and council that boiled over in 2023 — with public calls for transparency and accountability, and at one point culminating in the arrest of a resident during an open meeting.
Nickerson ran for mayor against a longtime incumbent on a platform to tackle “wasteful and unnecessary spending.”
Four other candidates ran for three other village council seats. Two were political newcomers: Timothy Back and Melissa Sexton. Both were elected.
Incumbent Christopher Sands predicted then, before the newcomers were sworn into their new roles, that Back, Sexton and Nickerson had “a hidden agenda” and intended “to fire the village manager and some service department employees.”
“With all the negative talk, who knows what will happen. If I were a business person looking at New Lebanon, I would be concerned about possible negative effects. They are hurting themselves,” Sands said at the time.
Sands ran only as a write-in candidate and lost the election (though he was elected in November 2024 to the council to replace another councilmember forced to step down after it was discovered she was in violation of the village charter because of delinquent taxes she owes the municipality).
Back and Nickerson denied having any sort of agenda.
“That’s a strong accusation Mr. Sands is making. I can’t speak for the others, but it’s not true,” Back had said. “It’s all about working together. The goal is to make sure we are using our tax dollars wisely and stretching them as far as they can possibly go ... I’m not going into this to fire anyone, but if they are not doing their job, that’s a different story.”
Shortly after taking office, the council placed Madden, Hensley, Chief Financial Officer Phillip Hinson, Law Director Ronald Keener, and Service Superintendent Scott Brock on paid administrative leave.
The vote was 4-3, with the three newcomers joined by councilwoman and Vice Mayor Nicole Adkins.
The next month, those on leave were fired, along with an administrative assistant, code enforcement administrator and seasonal parks coordinator.
‘You’re an embarrassment’
The village council hired McNamee Law Group to replace Keener, the law director, and appointed former Fairborn city manager Rob Anderson as interim village manager.
Council also launched an internal investigation into alleged misconduct of village administration, to be led by attorney Michael McNamee.
McNamee in March 2024 presented initial findings from his internal investigation, which included allegations against Madden of failure to comply with her contract renegotiation time frame; wrongful payments; violations of Sunshine Laws; and failure to post job openings.
Findings further claimed Madden herself drafted her new contract, as opposed to the village’s law director, and that she implemented self-dealing tactics when doing so.
Madden denies any wrongdoing.
In April 2024, New Lebanon’s village prosecutor abruptly resigned, a fact that became publicly known after the village failed to send someone to appear at a criminal court proceeding. The role was then taken over by an associate attorney with McNamee’s law office.
McNamee’s role in the village would grow over time as multiple of the fired employees, including Madden and former police chief Hensley, filed legal challenges.
Law directors for municipalities often work behind-the-scenes — representing the village or city in its civil and criminal matters and occasionally offering legal advice during a council meeting, while otherwise remaining on the sidelines.
But McNamee has taken a different approach. He sits near the center of the dais, between the mayor and vice mayor, and occasionally leads discussions.
McNamee does not shy away from confrontation. He has publicly chastised the former village employees who are now seeking court-ordered retribution, and locked horns with at least one seated council member.
When Councilman Gale Joy during a recent meeting accused McNamee and other municipal leaders of village charter violations, McNamee berated him.
“Mr. Joy, you haven’t given one shred of evidence (to support those accusations) ... you keep running your mouth, giving no evidence, and making no sense,” McNamee said. “You’re an embarrassment.”
Records obtained by the Dayton Daily News show McNamee law group has billed the village $163,200 since April 2024. This is more than the $105,000 salary of the current village administrator, and amounts to nearly 20% of what the village’s general fund balance — which has been shrinking for years — is projected to be at the end of 2025.
Small town America
New Lebanon was officially established in 1878, though it would be another 100 years until its village charter was put into effect on Jan. 1, 1979.
The village is described on its website as a “caring and sharing community,” with a “high quality of life accentuated by rural township surroundings,” and a ”friendly, down home neighborliness.”
The 2.05-square-mile town is bisected horizontally by US Route 35/Main Street, the village’s major corridor which connects it to the city of Dayton 10 miles east.
Main Street is home to the majority of the village’s businesses: a handful of restaurants, a few gas stations and medical offices, and the town’s only grocery store, Groceryland.
New Lebanon village council meetings are generally well-attended. Held twice monthly, the sessions typically draw a crowd of at least a dozen residents, often more.
The council chamber, located in the village municipal building, is a large, off-white room, florescent panel lighting overhead, with several rows of chairs along the back of the room.
One of the room’s walls displays framed, black-and-white photos depicting the village’s early days. On another wall hangs copies of four Norman Rockwell paintings from the artist’s 1943 set titled “Four Freedoms” (Freedom from Want, Freedom from Fear, Freedom of Speech, and Freedom of Worship).
Police chiefs fired
In May, the New Lebanon police bargaining unit issued a vote of no confidence in the new village administration, citing a “deep concern” in the leadership and management abilities of interim village manager Anderson, McNamee, Nickerson, and council members Adkins, Back, and Sexton.
The union was specifically troubled by the missed criminal court hearing and the department’s concerns remaining unresolved in the days following, which affected “morale, productivity, and efficacy.”
McNamee shot back: “(T)he ‘no confidence’ characterization is mutual,” further asserting that was the main reason for the administrative changes.
“A management change was made; period. Deal with it,” McNamee said.
The next month, the village fired then-acting police Chief Jim Chambers, who’d been appointed to the position after the firing of former Chief Hensley. Chambers was fired via letter from Anderson, which included accusations that Chambers conspired with the minority members of the council to have Anderson and McNamee removed.
In August, Hensley sued the village, McNamee and councilmembers who fired him. Among other things, he accused McNamee of making false allegations against him.
“I’d had no disciplinary problems, so it was pretty clear to me that my job performance was not an issue until this new council was seated,” he said in an interview with the Dayton Daily News. “I really did not expect to be collateral damage.”
Hensley said he’d heard a rumor that plans to remove Madden could be in the works after the 2023 election.
“I had a sneaking suspicion there would be a few people who would try to have Madden removed, but I had no reason to believe that I would be a part of that,” he said.
5 administrators in 1 year
The village has had five people appointed or serving as village manager in the past year.
Village council first hired Anderson to serve as interim manager after Madden’s ouster.
In September, Peter Sexton – husband of new councilwoman Melissa Sexton – was appointed to the job.
Councilman Gale Joy questioned the hiring process, which Mayor Nickerson said included the creation of a hiring committee. Joy said he was not told about the committee and that its meetings were not publicly announced.
Anderson and McNamee initially declined to answer questions from this newspaper about who was on the committee, how members were selected, and when the committee was created, but McNamee denied the hiring process was unlawful.
After the Dayton Daily News submitted a records request for any documentation regarding the committee – which went unfilled for four months – Anderson claimed there was an email inviting all councilmembers to join the committee. But he said no one could find the email.
Anderson did provide a copy of an Aug. 17 email from himself to Nickerson, Back, and Adkins, in which he confirmed the three were on the committee set to interview managerial candidates. But they claim there was no need for meeting notices or other requirements of the Ohio open meetings act because it wasn’t a formal committee and didn’t have a quorum of the board.
Sexton never took the job, pulling out days before he was supposed to start.
“I think what it all boiled down to was this is not an easy job anywhere, and it’s certainly not an easy job when you have financial issues you need to address, you have personal issues you need to address, and when you have the turmoil that’s going on in the community,” Anderson said at the time. “It’s a big thing to take on and it’s not for the faint of heart.”
Anderson quit the job in February after the village hired William Draugelis of Washington Twp. to take over. The village fire chief served as village administrator until Draugelis started March 10.
“We’re working on rebuilding a community that was not taken care of,” Councilman Tim Back said following the hiring of Draugelis.
‘Abuse of power’
Two councilmembers have been removed from the council since the 2023 election. In January, the council voted to remove Councilman Lyndon Perkins due to him not meeting the village charter’s 75% meeting attendance threshold.
The other, Tammy Loch, was removed after it was discovered she was in violation of the village charter because of delinquent taxes she owes the village. The tax delinquency charter amendment had been approved by voters in November 2023, and Loch said she was on a payment plan.
Credit: Bryant Billing
Credit: Bryant Billing
An attorney for Loch and councilman Joy in October wrote a letter to McNamee accusing village leaders of “blatant abuse of power” for allegedly removing duly elected members, preventing discussion of village business, approving unauthorized investigations, misusing budgeted funds, and improperly disciplining village employees.
McNamee pushed back, insisting the claims cited by Arnold are unfounded.
Meanwhile, he announced this month the internal investigation he spearheaded more than a year ago in February 2024 has wrapped up.
A records request for the investigation’s final findings is pending with the village.
Auditor investigation
Before taking office in February 2024, Nickerson reported to the Ohio Auditor of State Special Investigations Unit concerns he had regarding the village as he prepared to begin his term as mayor.
According to the auditor’s report, most of these allegations could not be corroborated. But the auditor team made several findings that were referred for further review:
- Comp time was being improperly calculated;
- There are questions about the timing of the renewal of Madden’s contract;
- Employees received education incentive payments in violation of the village’s policy;
- Improper backdating of new hire health insurance enrollment forms, which allowed an unnamed employee to begin receiving health insurance in January 2024 rather than February 2024;
- Potential check signing authority non-compliance.
Nickerson declined an interview for this story but issued the following statement:
“The current council, department heads, employees and first responders continue to move forward for a better and safer community. We will remain positive and focused to ensure this community is served to the best of our capabilities and always remain vigilant in our duties. We will meet every issue with professionalism and diligence, after all, that is what our community demands and deserves.”
He concluded, “In closing, ‘Characterize people by their actions and you will never be fooled by their words.’”
A broader cultural change
It may be no coincidence that the drama in New Lebanon in 2024 seems like a small-scale precursor to the Trump administration.
The shift toward the “nationalization of state and local politics,” as local political science expert Lee Hannah suggests, has been gaining traction for years, on occasion even permeating the smallest of governmental entities.
Fiscally conservative politics reminiscent of the populist social and political Tea Party movement of the late 2000s and early 2010s, merged with the hyper-political shift spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, and empowered by the first Trump presidency, have resulted in a well-organized, growing political energy, Hannah proposes.
“There’s this phenomenon, or this movement, in which people are being encouraged to run for office and take these hardline conservative positions in city governments where, historically, there’s been less ideology at play there,” said Hannah, a political science professor at Wright State University.
“There’s also been this wave of people who used to not be that political becoming hyper-political for the first time ever,” he continued. “Local government, state government, is telling them who can and cannot go to work, which schools are open or not, and suddenly, the stakes felt higher.”
This political rescript, Hannah opines, preceded an effort to reclaim government from the inside.
“It’s like, ‘go serve in government to destroy the government,’” Hannah contended. “So, people who were rather apolitical and joining local politics to simply provide a public service for a modest salary and decent benefits are suddenly being treated as if they might be part of some democratic cabal.”
The movement is also unique in its sustainability, Hannah reflects.
“What I’ve seen maybe more than previous movements is a kind of shamelessness to it,” he said. “It’s where, even if you’re caught being corrupt, or if your behavior is inappropriate — at least by any historical measure — there’s this never-apologize attitude."
Looking ahead
Most residents are ready to move past the controversy of the past year.
The village has aging infrastructure — roads that need repaved, parks that need maintained, and wastewater facilities that are due for significant upgrades.
“So much money has been wasted on this whole debacle; it would be great to see some accountability,” resident Rebecca Gabbard reflected.
“The (current leaders) keep saying the prior administration was stealing all of this money and doing all of these things; and while, yes, they found some things that they did wrong, it’s nowhere near the smear campaign that they’ve put against the old administration,” she said.
Lifelong village resident Keith Moody lamented that his hometown has turned into a “good old boys club.”
“Between the mayor and the law director, they do whatever they want,” Moody said. “I think the mayor is still holding on to a grudge for being fired, and now he doesn’t want to answer to anyone; he wants to run it all, and he’s got a law director backing him up, who will find every little loophole and say it’s legal.”
Moody hopes to see the village get to a point of stability.
“I want New Lebanon to grow past this; we’re stagnant and we’ve been stagnant for quite awhile,” he said. “At this point, it doesn’t matter whose fault it is; it’s time to be the bigger person and move forward.”
Kate Stacy, who moved to the village in September, said that while she’s new to town, she can understand why emotions have run high on both sides.
“People here are tired of seeing the city they once loved fail,” she said.
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