Disclosure: I personally know two people running for Dublin City Council and am behind them 100%. I would have supported their efforts even if the events described in this blog post did not happen.
Anyone that follows me on twitter and this blog knows that I unapologetically support and promote Dublin, Ohio. It’s a great place to live and raise kids. I’ll proudly tell anyone I meet how great I think Dublin is.
A year and a half ago, I decided to apply for appointment to one of Dublin’s commissions. I was selected to serve on the Community Services Advisory Commission. Things went great for a year or so. And then it turned. City Council decided to merge CSAC with the Parks & Recreation Advisory Commission. In doing so, they cut half of us citizen volunteers. See below correspondences for the details. Bottom line, the message of City Council’s action is that they did not really want to hear input from the community. It’s been a number of months since I was sacked from CSAC. I’m still raw about it, but I’ll try to let the facts speak for themselves.
Email from the City of Dublin notifying us of the proposed merger:
Dear Members of the Community Services Advisory Commission:
We have scheduled a joint session of the Community Services Advisory Commission (CSAC) and the Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission(PRAC) at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, February 20 in City Hall Council Chambers. The purpose of this joint meeting is to discuss the proposal of combining the two commissions in April of this year.
As you have experienced, the number of projects assigned to each Commission over the past several years has diminished. As a result, there have been fewer meetings scheduled and/or an increase in “information only” presentations. The hope is that by combining the two commissions, there will be more substantive assignments for the newly formed commission to focus on. We value the time and talents that each of you gives to the Dublin community and want to ensure that your service is meaningful.
Should these two Commissions be combined, all current members of PRAC and CSAC would remain as members of the newly formed Commission. (The only exception would be any members whose terms end in March, 2013.)
Mayor Tim Lecklider plans to attend this joint meeting to provide some additional perspective on the proposal and gather input from the members of both Commissions. Please let me or Tami Moore xxxxxxxx@dublin.oh.us know if you are available to attend on Wednesday, February 20. If you have any questions or would like to discuss this proposal prior to to the meeting, please feel free to e-mail or contact me via cell phone (614)xxx-xxxx.
Thank you,
MichelleMichelle L. Crandall
Director of Administrative Services
City of Dublin, Ohio
I attended the meeting with Mayor Lecklider, who echoed the message of Michelle’s email.
Everything was great. Then.
Letter that Mayor Tim Lecklider sent to me informing me that I will not be appointed to the new CSAC:
The gut kick letter from Dublin, Ohio Mayor Tim Lecklider
Dear Al,
At the March 11 meeting, Council approved legislation, which combines the duties of the existing Parks & Recreation Advisory Commission and the existing Community Services Advisory Commission into a reconfigured Community Services Advisory Commission (CSAC). Council will appoint members to the reconfigured Commission at the March 25 Council meeting.
Council has completed their annual interview process for candidates for appointment to boards and commissions. As part of this review, Council also considers the status of all current board and commission members, including meeting attendance over their term(s) of service and related participation in the work of the board or commission.
After careful review of your attendance records for the past years, and recognizing that commitment levels for members can change over time based on job and family demands, we have determined that we will not appoint you to serve on the reconfigured CSAC at this time.
We thank you for your past service on the Community Services Advisory Commission and encourage you to consider other volunteer capacities for the City in the future, as your schedule permits. Should you have any questions regarding this matter, please contact me at 614-xxx-xxxx.
Sincerely,
Tim Lecklider
Mayor
I was shaken and confused. I missed one meeting out of five. Hardly poor attendance. So I contacted Tim. Then I sent some emails.
My first email to my fellow members of CSAC and select Dublin, Ohio officials:
Dear fellow members of the Community Services Advisory Commission and Dublin officials that were originally on this email chain,
As some of you might know, Dublin City Council has advised some of us (in a rather impersonal letter) that we will not be appointed to the proposed merged commission with the former Parks & Recreation Commission based upon attendance records. I was one of those people cut. This decision shocked me as we were told in this email chain and in our meeting with Tim that everyone would be retained except for those that whose terms were expiring this year. I was also confused with the decision since I only missed one meeting since my appointment last year.
I spoke with Tim briefly on Friday after receiving the letter. Since he was at the airport and didn’t have the attendance figures with him, he asked that I contact Anne Clarke. So I did. Her records indicated that of the three meeting in 2012 that I was eligible to attend, I missed two. But after consulting the minutes, it was discovered that her records were wrong and I only missed one in 2012. Even then, only considering my record in 2012 was such a small sample size. I asked Anne if Council will also consider my attendance record in 2013, which is 2 for 2.
Anne told me that Council will reconsider my appointment at the next meeting of the full Council, which won’t occur until April, because ironically two Council members will not be at the March meeting. (Yes, I know that they are in Dublin, Ireland on official city business, but the irony was just too rich for me to pass up.)
But this shouldn’t be just about me. It’s really about all of us. We were not given the full story about how Council will appoint the new members and I feel that our input to Tim would have been different had we known.
Thus, I am planning on attending the Council meeting on Monday to voice my concerns and objections during the second reading of the Parks & Rec ordinance. http://dublinohiousa.gov/council-meetings/council-agenda-monday-march-25-2013/
I will be speaking on my behalf, but welcome you to attend as well and provide your input. I still want to serve and hope that Council reconsiders the appointments for everyone.
Best regards,
Alvin
I received encouraging emails from my fellow commission members who shared the same concerns. And then I sent more emails.
My email to Dublin, Ohio City Council:
Dear City Council,
First, I want to thank you for your service to Dublin and appointing me to the Community Services Advisory Commission last year. I was honored to be appointed and proudly served. Of course, you know that I am no longer on the merged Commission because of purported poor attendance. I’ve spoken to Anne Clarke and discovered you were given wrong attendance figures for me. And she said that you had agreed to reconsider my appointment based upon the new figure.
However, in fairness to everyone, I think you should appoint everyone from the separate commission to the new merged commission. If you scroll down to the original email in this thread you will note that was our expectation:
Should these two Commissions be combined, all current members of PRAC and CSAC would remain as members of the newly formed Commission. (The only exception would be any members whose terms end in March, 2013.)
I attended the meeting with Tim and no mention of cuts other than those with terms expiring at the end of March, 2013 were made. In fact, our input was favorable to the merged commission with everyone excited about being part of a larger group with more responsibility.
I inaccurately thought that the second reading of the merger ordinance was upcoming this Monday, so I emailed the former CSAC asking them to provide input. Since the ordinance was already enacted, that point is moot. But nothing is preventing you from restoring our faith in you and doing what was represented to us in this email chain and our meeting with Tim.
I respectfully ask that you appoint everyone from the commissions on the newly merged commission.
Best regards,
Alvin
And then I spoke with Vice Mayor Amy Salay who graciously spoke with me over the phone. I passionately pleaded our case. Unfortunately, my efforts were for naught. Council voted 6-1 to proceed as planned (Councilman John Reiner was the lone dissenter). Meaning I and a bunch of other people ready and willing to serve were forced out.
In May, the City honored its outgoing volunteers for their service. In deference to irony, I attended.
At the ceremony, I reintroduced myself to Councilman Reiner and Councilwoman xxxxx (yes, I know, I’m redacting because I don’t want to be accused re-accused of being mean). I said I was the guy who sent the email. Before I could even say my peace, Councilwoman xxxxx said the email was mean. Ok, nothing further for me to do here then. I re-read my email to Council. I guess facts and a persuasive argument passes for mean in Dublin, Ohio politics.
And that’s why I’m not supporting any of the incumbents for re-election to the Dublin, Ohio City Council. Well, maybe with the exception of Councilman Reiner, who voted against the measure.
