Hillsboro City Council authorizes appropriation for 200-acre purchase, tax budget; mulls new social media policy

Hillsboro City Council members approved a $2.9 million appropriation ordinance and the 2027 tax budget during their Thursday, July 16 meeting.

Passed by a 7-0 vote, on its first reading, was a $2,950,000 appropriation for the purchase of 200 acres in the Land & Land Improvements line item.

As previously reported, an ordinance authorizing the mayor to enter into an agreement to purchase real estate located on state Route 138 from the Marvin L. Wilson and Mitzi J. Wilson Living Trust dated March 24, 2008 was approved as an emergency by a 6-1 vote, following a 6-1 suspension of the three-reading rule, at council’s June meeting. Council member Heith Brown voted against both motions.

The ordinance mentions the city’s “need to acquire additional lands that can be dedicated for economic development and public use.” According to the legislation, the land “abuts property owned by the City and currently used for Liberty Park.” It includes part of one parcel and all of three other parcels on state Route 138.

During the June meeting, safety and service director Shawn Adkins told council that the offer was made to the city as “a cash-only offer” at $15,000 per acre with a deadline of June 15.

Adkins confirmed in an email after the meeting that the city is “moving forward with the purchase of the property.

“We just haven’t had the closing yet,” Adkins told The Highland County Press. “We are having a housing study done to help determine how to zone the property. Then we will be going after grants to help pay for a main road that will connect state Route 138 to Diamond Drive at Liberty Park to help with the flow of traffic in and out of the park.”

Also approved Thursday was a resolution to adopt the proposed 2027 tax budget for the city of Hillsboro. A brief hearing on the tax budget was conducted by city auditor Dawson Barreras prior to the regular council meeting. 

“This is just a preliminary budget that is due to the county every year in July,” Barreras said. “This gives us a very good starting point for the budget for 2027 that will be passed in December, and this is just to ensure that our expenditures do not outweigh our anticipated revenue.”

In other legislation, an ordinance to repeal the residential fee schedule and commercial fee schedule had its first reading.

Council member Adam Wilkin said that the street and safety committee met June 25 to review the proposal and recommended its passage.

“Since its inception in 2017, the city hasn't raised its rates, which is causing the city to lose money,” Wilkin said. “Last year, with the fees from the OBBS, the Ohio Board of Building Standards, inspection fees, plans, examiner fees, the cost to complete the paperwork, the city lost nearly $41,000. 

“Basically, the idea and why this was placed into committee is to adjust the fee schedule so the city can come closer to breaking even. It didn't take much discussion to come to an agreement.”

Council member Mary Stanforth asked how the committee came up with the fees and if the rates were based off of comparable municipalities.

“There was only three or four companies that we can deal with around here because nobody wants to drive to Hillsboro to do it, so we've got their fee schedules,” Adkins said. “That's what we base it on, is the ones that would actually come here to do the inspections for us.”

“So we don't have a building inspector?” Stanforth asked.

“We do have a building inspector right now, which is Steve Rivera, which we had [previously],” Adkins said. “We had nobody that wanted to come to us, and we had 30 days to make a decision.”

Council member Logan Kelly asked if the city would “revisit this every year” instead of waiting almost a decade to update the fee schedule. Adkins agreed it “ought to be looked at every year,” and council president Tom Eichinger asked the street and safety committee to review the rates annually.

“We're not out to make money on this,” Adkins said. “We just would like to be closer to breaking even than costing taxpayers money, because people that's actually building should be paying for it, not the taxpayers that aren’t.”

A resolution adopting a social media policy for the city of Hillsboro also had its first reading, then was placed in committee for further review at the recommendation of several council members.

“The city's social media accounts are official government communication channels and are intended to share city information, not to serve as public forums,” Adkins said of the legislation.

City law director Hannah Bivens also spoke about the proposal.

“We've had some issues with some inappropriate content being posted on the city's official webpage, not necessarily by city officials or city employees, but by other people who may comment,” Bivens said. “It's important to understand that when you create a social media account, you create a public space, therefore it is subject to our public records laws. We can't delete comments unless we have a policy in place making this a limited public forum for informational purposes.

“We can then enact rules and guidelines that are spread to the community members who engage with that site that we can hide or delete comments or other postings that would create spam, threats or obscene material.”

The policy outlines how comments posted by the public do “not imply endorsement of, or agreement by, the City, nor do the comments necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the City.” There is a provision to “block or otherwise deny access to City social media sites for any individual or users who violate the City’s social media policy.”

The policy also lists 11 different types of “inappropriate content” that may be subject to deletion if posted on a city social media page and includes information on maintaining public records related to social media pages. 

Bivens said the policy “took it one step further” to ensure “that our employees and our officials are acting appropriately when interacting on social media through their personal accounts and not creating accounts and distributing information as being on behalf of the city, if it's not properly authorized.

“Lots of other municipalities in the state do this just to ensure that there's some guidelines and structure for employees, and also to make that a limited public forum to make sure that the use of the social media site is for the intended purpose, which is to disseminate information to our residents,” Bivens said.

The policy states that city “employees and public officials are not authorized to speak or comment on behalf of the City on non-City social media accounts unless expressly authorized by council. They must clearly indicate any opinions are their own and they are not speaking on behalf of the City.”

The policy also prohibits city employees from posting “anything related to the City, including but not limited to, employees, City property, or personnel, which may be disruptive or contrary to City operations or objectives,” as well as “non-public confidential information” nor “material which could be viewed as malicious, disparaging, obscene, harassing, discriminatory, threatening or any other content deemed inappropriate.” 

Several council members said they had questions and wanted more information included in the resolution. Brown said that the legislation needs “a definition of what’s considered social media” and “a listed point of contact or group of people” that would determine whether “disciplinary action will be taken.

“Some of this vagueness could be cause for issue, I believe,” Brown said.

Council member Cody Mathews also said that he wanted “some clarifications” and “guidelines for employees and public officials.

“I think those need more clarity so we can understand what that means and looks like, what kind of post would be in violation when you're trying to talk to and communicate with your constituents,” Mathews said.

Bivens told council members that “this is just a draft” and that it could be placed in committee. After a motion to that effect, Eichinger placed the legislation in the civil service and employee relations committee for further review. 

Council also approved two unrelated finance-related pieces of legislation, including a $262,516 appropriation for additional funds for an Ohio Water Development Authority loan and a resolution approving a “then and now” certification by the city auditor for the payment of $67,650.71 as an emergency.

In addition, council heard the second reading of an ordinance amending the compensation for elected officials of the City of Hillsboro, effective with the terms commencing 2028 and 2030.
In other discussion:

• In his report, Adkins said that progress was being made on Crossroads Park construction, as well as the Rails to Trails project and the new parking lot on West Main Street.

“They’ve poured walls on the event center, and flatwork has begun on the amphitheater [at Crossroads Park],” Adkins said. “For Rails to Trails, the crews have started putting down base for the paving. The West Main Street parking lot base is completed. They're ready for paving.”

Adkins added that construction on the splash pad and retaining walls at Crossroads Park twill also be starting in the next few weeks.

Adkins also discussed the long-planned Marriott Hotel development, as he reported in June that the bonds have sold. He reported that developers “resubmitted plans to the Planning Commission,” and Stanforth asked if they “have to reapply for all the permits” as well.

“They have to reapply for every permit,” Adkins said. “They didn't pay for the first permit, so they got’ve to pay for those half of those, and the way we've got set up is they have to pay up front before we move forward.

“I’ve been in phone contact every week. Either he calls me, or I call him, to make sure that we are moving forward.”

In response to another question from Stanforth regarding the hotel developers’ ongoing disagreement over a notice of default on a promissory note issued by county officials, Adkins said the matter “has nothing to do with us” but that “they’re working through their issues.”

Adkins also reported that the city issued 15 building permits, including six commercial and nine residential, in June, while the Planning Commission authorized a conditional use permit. 

There was no mayor’s report, as Mayor Justin Harsha was absent. 

• Before the regular council meeting, council met with members of the Hillsboro Planning Commission to discuss the status of the Imagine Hillsboro comprehensive plan and ideas moving forward.

As previously reported, after close to two years of committee meetings and public outreach devoted to implementing a comprehensive city plan, council voted in June 2020 to approve the original “Imagine Hillsboro” ordinance.

The City of Hillsboro, under then-mayor Drew Hastings and then-safety and service director Mel McKenzie, announced the Imagine Hillsboro comprehensive planning process in September 2018. The 44-page Imagine Hillsboro plan is described as “the official policy guide for public and private interests in the City of Hillsboro” and was developed through the McBride Dale Clarion firm, with input from a steering committee.

Planning Commission chair Rob Holt provided council members with a copy of the Imagine Hillsboro executive summary and budget recommendations.

“Since we adopted the plan, we’ve made significant progress,” Holt said. “The majority of the feasible objectives were achieved, and there's a chart on the back page that shows that, across our seven categories of infrastructure, economic development, mobility, beautification, public engagement, parks and recreation, and community identity. 

“Our 2025 update reflects a community that has transitioned from visioning and planning into implementation and measurable results.”

For the future of Imagine Hillsboro, Holt said the committee’s “recommendation is we need to relook at that comprehensive plan and look to adopt a new plan or update to move into the future.” Kelly asked about the “transition period” between the current and future phases of the plan.

“We’re recommending that it be looked into to design and implement phase two, because all we've got right now is the current plan and the current objectives,” Holt said. “It's been [six years] since that was adopted, and given the progress and the speed at which things are happening now, we believe that a formal review and audit of that plan is prudent for us to consider, so that we can keep up and keep that momentum.”

Kelly also asked about the time frame for planning for the next phase. Holt said that his “experience has been it takes longer than you would like” and is expensive to work with firms on designing the plan.

“It might be gather that data, build a plan in 2027 for implementation in ’28,” Holt said. “There's necessary and kind of like urgent items. I think there's more wish list. There are some wish list items, but there are items that we believe are going to help us move forward.”

However, Adkins added that the city is “trying to work on a housing plan right now” which could be included in the 2027 budget and be ready before the rest of the Imagine Hillsboro phase-two plan, in connection with the aforementioned 200-acre purchase.

In response to a question from Mathews, Adkins spoke about the success of the plan thus far, saying “most everything on our list, we were able to implement. 

“We're ahead of schedule,” Adkins said. “We've been able to get grants to do all the infrastructure, the sidewalk stuff. It's an ever-growing plan, and along with EPA mandates thrown in among this, is obstacles we're working around. But for the most part, I will say Justin [Harsha, mayor] and Bree [Abbott, former safety and service director] had a great plan coming in, and we followed it.”

Holt agreed, saying that things not accomplished were either determined not to be “feasible, or by the time that we got to them, they didn’t make sense to do.

“It was part of the plan, but plans evolved as we went through that process,” Holt said.

In response to a question from Stanforth, Holt said that part of the committee’s role is to make budget recommendations for items that “should at least be considered” by city council for the following year’s budget.

For the budget considerations included in the Imagine Hillsboro report, Holt said they include infrastructure improvements, particularly sanitary sewer work, estimated up to $4 million; parks and recreation, including trail development, estimated up to $250,000; community development, including gateway signage, landscaping and public art, estimated up to $400,000, and wayfinding strategies and signage, estimated up to $150,000; professional planning and development services, including an ADA compliance assessment, estimated up to $70,000; and housing and neighborhood development, including the housing needs assessment study, estimated up to $80,000. 

“These are planning-level estimates established for funding priorities to support future grant applications, engineering efforts and capital project development,” Holt said. “Individual projects requiring local funding commitments will be presented to council for separate consideration and approval as project scopes and funding sources are finalized.”

• Although there was no report from the community enhancement committee, it was noted that the city has a new website to promote their holiday lights display at hillsborowinterwonderland.com. 

The community enhancement committee had recommended the city join the Ohio Lighted Trail with a holiday lights display at the Highland County Fairgrounds. In April, council members passed legislation to take the first steps toward the proposal, allowing for bids up to $150,000 for the purchase of equipment.

“The website was really well done, and I've already got a lot of really positive feedback on that,” Mathews said.

Adkins added that council clerk and city administrative assistant Megan Blackburn “had everything to do with that website.”

• After the regular meeting, council attended a virtual informational presentation by Waterworth on water and sewer rates. No actions was taken as a result of the presentation, according to Blackburn.

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