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» Next council will decide Huber Heights city manager residency issue
» Huber Heights manager will establish city residence under new deal
If amended during a meeting Monday night, the contract would be limited to five-years “so it doesn’t expire during an election year,” said Mayor Jeff Gore, who proposed the changes.
Late last year, council hammered out the contract for Schommer with a plan to get him a residence inside the city following extended controversy over him living outside city limits. The city charter, written in the 1980s, requires the city manager to live in the city, but Ohio’s legislature has passed, and courts have upheld, law prohibiting cities from enacting and enforcing residency requirements.
Under the original proposal, Schommer would have received a lump sum of $15,000 after signing. One year later, he would have then received $1,000 per month for two years. If Schommer didn’t follow the residency portions of the contract, he would have been allowed to keep half the payment and required to return the other half in a lump sum.
Council now appears to be ready to ditch the proposed contract’s residency sections, but keep the $15,000 settlement for Schommer in what city attorney Gerald McDonald called “release of any and all previous claims.” Council members Janell Smith and Glenn Otto questioned the need to settle with Schommer.
“This has nothing to do against Rob Schommer at all, but we want to write a check to a person to be our city manager and we want to write the check to them so they won’t sue us because we think they might?” asked Glenn Otto during a meeting this week. “I mean, it just seems odd.”
“Would it not be beneficial and maybe showing a little love of the city for Mr. Schommer to forgo that?” asked Smith. “It almost feels like extortion to me, and I’m sorry to use that word.”
Schommer did not address Smith’s characterization, but in a statement told the Dayton Daily News, “I am looking forward to at least the next five years being able to work with professionals to make sure the residents of Huber Heights get the service they expect and deserve.”
MORE: Huber city manager, councilwoman in dispute about heated phone call
Newly returned Councilman Seth Morgan said he felt “like I’m coming in at the end of a spousal argument.” He cautioned other members of council not to speak publicly of executive-session matters.
“In the world where I come from, the conversation we just had makes the $15,000 release more important,” Morgan said. “It seems to me that if we’re going to have this ongoing debate, we need to do it in executive session.”
The nature of Schommer’s claims against the city are not immediately clear outside a July letter from his attorney to the city law director stating, among other things, that Smith engaged in “extreme and out of control behavior.” Smith denied the claims in an interview with the Dayton Daily News.
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