Prepared Comments Made to
NORTH CANTON CITY COUNCIL
April 27, 2015
per Chapter 1177.11 of the City’s Zoning Code. Chapter 1177.11 states:
Any person who is adversely
affected by a decision made by the Planning Commission according to the
procedures set forth in this Chapter may appeal such decision to Council within
30 days of the Planning Commission's decision.
The appeal
was in response to the approval of a “Conditional Use” permit by the City’s
Planning Commission, on October 8, 2014, allowing expansion of the Hoover
District Parking Lot into an area zoned residential (R-2F).
Over the last six
months, numerous pieces of legislation have been enacted by Council, all
detrimental to the citizens they have sworn to represent and in derogation of
Council’s obligation to give residents an appeal hearing. The first, an
emergency resolution, No. 94-2014, passed December 1, 2014, redirected the
appeal to the City’s Zoning Board of Appeals. The resolution was signed by
Mayor Held.
This was followed
with yet another emergency resolution, No. 1-2015, on January 12, 2015,
rescinding the previously passed emergency resolution. The resolution was
signed by Mayor Held.
In the minutes of that January 12,
2015, meeting, the Chairman of the Community & Economic Development Committee,
Marcia Kiesling made a motion for passage of the second emergency resolution
stating, “We have decided to bring it
back to us and listen to it ourselves.”
That statement by Mrs. Kiesling
proved to be a misrepresentation.
On February 23, 2015, City Council voted
on yet another resolution, No. 2-2015, to deny residents an appeal hearing
before City Council. This resolution, unlike the first two emergency
resolutions, was passed with three readings with a second reading on March 9,
2015, and a third and final reading on March 23, 2015. Mayor Held again signed
the legislation.
Concurrently, on March 9, 2015,
City Council introduced two ordinances, No. 16-2015 & No. 17-2015, to strip
away entirely the appeal process from the City’s Zoning Code.
One thing that has been quite
apparent from the time this legislation was introduced is that City Council was
in flagrant violation of Chapter 1181 of the North Canton Zoning Code which describes
in detail the legislative process that must be followed to amend the City’s
Zoning Code.
Citizens in attendance at Council
meetings have been aghast at the temerity of this Council, to ignore the
legislative due process, as Ordinances No. 16-2015 & No. 17-2015, were voted
on. A first reading for a vote was on March 9, a second reading on March 23,
and a third reading on April 13, 2015.
Ordinance No. 17-2015 was tabled at
Council’s last meeting on April 13 but it is back on the agenda tonight for a third
and final reading.
All actions taken thus far on these
two pieces of legislation are meaningless. The rush to pass these two pieces of
legislation will have to begin anew to comply with Chapter 1181 of the City’s
Zoning Code.
Apparently, Councilmember Kiesling
agrees as Mrs. Kiesling revealed to a citizen after Council’s meeting on the 13th
that she has questioned privately the legislative path taken by Council to
amend the City’s Zoning Code. Mrs.
Kiesling, I and others wholeheartedly agree with you. My only question is why
did you not voice your concerns publicly on the floor of Council?
In legal parlance, Ordinance No. 16-2015
& 17, 2015, are “void ab initio.” Illegal from the beginning!
Amending any zoning code is a long
drawn-out process that is clearly defined by the code itself. How did this go
so wrong? From a legal perspective, this is basic municipal law.
North Canton City Council has been
utterly blind to the many missteps of Law Director Tim Fox. Amending the City’s
Zoning Code in violation of well-established law is not a misstep.
Leading City Council into the passage
of illegal legislation is misfeasance.
Whether Law Director Fox pleads
ignorance of Chapter 1181 of the City’s Zoning Code or whether this is another
adversarial action he has undertaken against the citizens of North Canton, it
is abundantly clear that Law Director Tim Fox should be asked to step down as
the City’s Law Director or barring that, City Council should remove him from
office.
The citizens of North Canton can no
longer endure repeated missteps and now orchestrated illegal legislation at the
hands of a City official who erroneously guides City Council into being a party
to his egregious illegal actions.
Thank you,
Chuck Osborne,
Resident
City of North Canton
