Financial Plan: Marietta City Council directs mayor to produce proposal

Marietta City Council has formally directed Mayor Joshua Schlicher to provide a plan for the city's finances by next month.

On Wednesday night, council held a special meeting for the purpose of conducting the second reading of Resolution No. 16 (24-25), which calls on Schlicher to "provide a sustainable 'plan of recovery' concerning the finances of the city of Marietta, Ohio, to this council, on or before Monday, May, 20, 2024."

The second reading of the resolution was performed and council voted to suspend the rules and dispense with the third reading of the resolution.

All council members in attendance voted to pass the resolution. There were six council members at the meeting, which was enough for the resolution to be passed as an emergency. Only At-Large Councilwoman Cassidi Shoaf was not at the meeting.

According to City Law Director Paul Bertram, six council members must be present at a meeting in order for there to be a vote on suspending second and third readings of a resolution and for the resolution to be passed as an emergency.

An emergency resolution takes effect immediately after the mayor signs it.

No council members commented on the resolution during the meeting or during the special meeting held for the first reading of the resolution, though Ward 1 Councilman Michael Scales said at a joint finance and employee relations committee meeting April 15 that he "made the suggestion to my fellow councilors that, apparently (cuts) should be up to the mayor and the auditor and elected officials ... not us. We're legislators and apparently we don't know what is going on." Scales then suggested at that meeting that the mayor, department heads and city administration come up with cost-saving ideas to help get spending in line with revenue.

It was ultimately decided during the April 15 committee meeting that the mayor and city administration would have until May 20 to provide a sustainable plan.

The first reading of the resolution was held Monday night at a special council meeting, during which council could not take any further action on the resolution because not enough council members were at the meeting to vote on suspending the rules for a second and third readings of the resolution.

Previously Bertram described the resolution as a formal deadline and request to the mayor to provide the city with a solution that is sustainable and that any staff cuts or aspects related to the sustainability of cuts that might be put forward by the mayor would likely be issues council would vote on.

The council's direction to the mayor to come up with a cost-saving plan is a result of a city performance audit that predicts the city's general fund will be depleted as early as 2025. In March, council proposed cutting staff, merging the Marietta/Belpre Health Department and county health department and switching city income tax collection to a third party vendor and therefore reducing city tax department staff numbers as possible plans for cost-savings of $1.2 million.

In response, during an April 11 public audit meeting, Schlicher recommended no staff cuts and said the city would not open the Marietta Aquatic Center as one of a few cost-saving measures. This spurred a petition to save the MAC that gathered over 3,800 signatures and a press release from council imploring Schlicher to reopen the MAC. Since then Schlicher has reached a plan to open the MAC this year.

Schlicher was not at the special meeting Wednesday night but after the meeting he said he intends to sign the resolution.

He said that coming up with a cost-saving plan is going "good."

"We've had several meetings and we'll continue to have meetings," Schlicher said of efforts to make a plan.

He also said that the city administration has come up with a template for the plan and they are working on finalizing the plan, which will be ready by May 20.

"I'll be scheduling a state of the city address," Schlicher said, adding it will probably be after the May 20 deadline and will be open to the public.

He said the date, time and place of the state of the city has not been set yet.

The next city council meeting is at 7:30 p.m. May 2 in Room 10 of the Marietta Armory.