- On Monday night at the City Council meeting, two very controversial and financially expensive pieces of legislation were up for vote. One was to bring the College Twp Fire Station in Gambier under the control of the Mount Vernon Fire Dept. The second was the hiring of a Social Worker to work out of the MV Police Dept.
- After 2 weeks of discussion, it appeared that at least 3 of the 7 council members were leaning to vote ‘no’ on both ordinances. Julia Warga, At-Large Councilwoman, felt or was told that because of her employment status at Kenyon College (Kenyon contributes funds to help subsidize the Gambier fire station) she should abstain from voting for the legislation. Because Ms. Warga did not vote, the vote tabulation for this Resolution was tied 3 to 3 with the President of the Council, Bruce Hawkins breaking the tie with a ‘yes’ vote allowing for the passage.
- The second legislation was again the controversial hiring of a $100,000 (including benefits) a year salaried Social Worker who will work in the Police Dept and be paid from the ½% income tax levy funds that only 51.5% of the voters approved in 2017. To be fair a large portion of the salary expense was to be subsidized by an Area Development Foundation grant for the first two years. After that the voters are on the hook to pay. This legislation was passed by a margin of 4 to 3. Those members who want to add this additional position are Tanner Salyers, Mike Hillier, Janis Seavolt and Julia Warga.
- The story does not end there. City council roll call vote is called in an alphabetical order 1 thru 7; Francis - Woods. Each meeting starts with the last person on the list from the previous meeting moved to the top of the list; example, this meeting should have been Woods - Warga(7,1,2,3,4,5,6) then the next meeting would be Warga - Seavolt(6,7,1,2,3,4,5) and so on. This procedure keeps from having the same member starting the vote each time. Mr. Dzik knew that 3 members would vote ‘no’ on his ‘pet project’ with one or two on the fence. Those ‘no’ votes would have certainly happened early in the customary vote roll call order. Mr. Dzik told the Clerk to mix up the vote order to the following preset; 3,5,4,2,6,7,1 to affect how the ‘yes’ and ‘no’ votes were heard knowing that the easiest way to guarantee adoption was to make sure that a specific council member did not have the chance to follow too many “no” votes that could influence that council member's decision. Four votes are needed to approve the legislation.
- This unprecedented move is at least unethical tampering with the legislative process and possibly comparable to tampering with a jury in a civil court case.
- Mayor Matt Starr said that this manipulative move is not a serious offense. What do you think? Should Matt Starr fire Rick Dzik for this blatant tampering with the roll call vote? If the mayor does not take action, should the mayor be recalled. Mount Vernon residents should demand better from its Mayor.
- Only the Mayor has the ability to hire and fire the Safety-Service Director. Mayor Starr hired Mr. Dzik, Mayor Starr can fire. If you feel Mr. Dzik must go, call the Mayor’s office and voice your opinion. Office Telephone: (740) 393-9517.