Salem Fire District Articles [Salem, OH]

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With lawsuit moot, Salem firefighters drop complaint
Story from the Lisbon Morning Journal on 11/4/2006.

LISBON — The union representing Salem firefighters has dropped the lawsuit filed last year that prevented the city from proceeding with plans to create a fire district.

The attorney for the International Association of Firefighters Local 283 filed a motion Friday in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court announcing it was dismissing the complaint.

The significance of the lawsuit was rendered moot last year after Judge C. Ashley Pike issued a restraining order against the city. In doing so, he also ruled the dispute was contractual in nature and the appropriate venue for resolving a labor dispute was the State Employment Relations Board (SERB).

Pike kept the lawsuit open, however, and SERB recently ruled in favor of the firefighters, saying the city violated the contract by failing to negotiate with the union on the issue of dissolving the fire department. In other words, the firefighters would have to agree do away with their own jobs.

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Officials seek answers on fire district
Story from the Youngstown Vindicator on 12/7/2006.

The city may look at eliminating a fire district in the wake of a state ruling.

By D.A. WILKINSON
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU

SALEM — City Law Director C. Brooke Zellers said he will study what can be done with the controversial Quaker Community Fire District.

Zellers' comments came after Councilman Earl A. Schory II raised the issue during Tuesday's council meeting.

Council and Perry Township had voted to create the district with a new department. The city has a full-time fire department and wanted to save money. The township has a volunteer fire department.

City voters signed petitions that would have allowed them to vote on the fire district, but council repealed the measures. Voters then defeated three fire district supporters on council and the council president.

The State Employment Relations Board ruled in September the city had broken state law by creating a fire district to eliminate the city department while it was in midcontract. The ruling left the city with a fire district with a ruling board but no fire department.

Raises the issue

Schory, one of the new councilmen who was elected who supported the fire department, asked what route should be taken to resolve the situation. He had raised the issue at a previous council meeting and got no response.

Schory asked if the city should discuss the situation with the township trustees, and whether the city should repeal the creation of the district.

Zellers said the situation is "something we ought to look at."

It's not clear if there is a legal process to eliminate the fire district board.

Schory also sparred with Councilwoman Mary Lou Popa, who scheduled a committee-of-the-whole meeting for Monday.

Schory protested that Justin Palmer, a college student who led the drive to put the fire issues before voters, has classes Monday.

"This isn't the first time this has come up," Schory said.

Popa pointed out that other council members have obligations that may conflict with committee meetings.

"I think that everybody has made adjustments," she said.

In the end, the meeting was moved to 6 p.m. Tuesday.

Revenue split

The committee of the whole is to discuss changing the split of revenue. Currently, 80 percent of income taxes goes to general expenses and the rest goes to capital improvements. Council has adjusted the split over the years.

Councilman Greg Oesch said the meeting also will look at taxes that the city is unable to collect because of bankruptcies. In other cases, the people who owe taxes have been dead for up to 15 years. Oesch said the city needs to clear the uncollectable taxes from its books.

wilkinson@vindy.com

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Salem council to abolish Quaker district
January 16th, 2007 10:14 pm by D.A. Wilkinson from the Youngstown Vindicator.

SALEM — Council members will start to look at ways to abolish the Quaker Community Fire District.

Councilman Earl A. Schory II said Tuesday that council’s traffic and safety committee will study the issue.

Law Director C. Brooke Zellers called it a “limbo entity of a district” and added that no party had any interest in the district.

Council and Perry Township had agreed to form the district to lower costs. The district would have eliminated the township’s volunteer fire department and the city’s full-time fire department.

But the State Employment Relations Board last year ruled that the district was improperly formed while the city fire department had a valid contract. The fire district only created rules of operation but never functioned.

As a part of the agreement, the city and township also agreed that township land would not be annexed into the city for three years. City officials estimated they’re about halfway through that period.

The traffic and safety committee will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

During the meeting, Mayor Larry DeJane, in his last state of the city address to council, said, “ At a time when every tax dollar of income is critical to the health of the city, this type of agreement will restrict growth. Annexations mean tax dollars that we desperately need.

“Residential, commercial and industrial annexations will bring much-needed property taxes and income taxes.”

DeJane has said he will not run this year for a fourth term. But he said his administration during the last 11 years had handled 22 annexations that brought 1.7 square miles into the city.

“This is a record which I am proud of and has not been equaled by any other administration,” the mayor said.

Several businesses have closed in recent years and some city officials have recently agreed to work with the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce to attract business.

In other business, Atty. David Raber of Columbus asked the city to use a state law to allow the Salem Wal-Mart to get a C1-C2 liquor license to sell carryout beer and wine. The store has a C1 carryout beer license.

Under the move, the store’s current C1 beer permit would be transferred elsewhere.

Raber said the law was not aimed at creating jobs.

The beer and wine permit could be approved under state law because some city precincts have lost population.

Councilman Greg Oesch said, “I don’t see where a wine license would be a boost.”

Oesch pointed out that there are a number of “mom and pop” stores in Salem owned by city residents and natives who have seen their  income drop.

Council approved the measure, with Oesch and Councilwoman Mary Lou Popa voting against it.

Council also agreed to change the split of income tax funds from 80 percent for operating costs and 20 percent for capital improvements, to 75 percent for operating costs and the rest for capital improvements. Council wanted to make the split to catch up on delayed projects.

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Fire district legislation may be abolished
Story By DEANNE JOHNSON Lisbon Morning Journal Staff Writer on 4/11/2007.

SALEM — Salem City Council will consider legislation to abolish the beginnings of the fire district.

However, the plan does not include doing away with the annexation agreement, which most Council members believe will remain in effect for three years.

The decision to bring forth legislation to abolish both the ordinance creating the fire district and then the ordinance covering the operations of the fire district came after about 30 minutes of discussion among members of the Traffic and Safety committee, along with nearly all members of Council who also attended.

Chairman of the committee, Bud Schory, who is also an attorney, told the other members of Council he has a problem with the legislation remaining on the books because there is no fire district and there is a ruling by the State Employee Relation Board prohibiting the district.

While Schory was in favor of doing away with all three ordinances, including the annexation agreement, the other two members of the committee did not agree with him.

Both Mary Lou Popa and Steven Andres talked of keeping the annexation agreement, noting that if the fire district did not materialize, the intention was still for the annexation agreement to remain in place for three years.

Andres also objected to Schory’s recommendation that the committee should go through the annexation ordinance piece by piece and determine which parts of that agreement they wanted to keep.

“I don’t see any point in altering and changing it,” Andres said. “Just leave it in place for three years.”

Andres, Popa and Councilman Greg Oesch in the audience all said they were in favor of doing nothing for three years. But Schory, along with councilmen Justin Palmer and Clyde Brown wanted at least the fire district ordinances repealed.

Schory said he felt the agreement leaves the city open for possible liability with insurance companies. He said it also could leave them vulnerable if the fire department pushed SERB that the city was not complying with the court order. Finally, Schory said having such ordinances still on the books when the fire district was not a reality was misleading to those reading the city’s codified ordinances.

Andres eventually agreed he did not care if they repealed the fire district ordinances as long as the annexation agreement remained in place.

“My personal feeling is they all should be abolished,” Schory said of the three ordinances, but added he would agree to leave the annexation agreement in place for “harmony.”

Andres pointed out recently Trustee Jerry Wolford attended their meetings, and they had talked about working together to bring more jobs and industry to both the city and the township.

Schory then said he would go to Attorney Brooke Zellers about writing the new ordinance to abolish the other two. Schory further said he would write to the township and voice the city’s intention to end the annexation agreement at the end of three years. The three-year period, which began when the agreements were made, expires Aug. 1, 2008.

djohnson@mojonews.com

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Fire pact’s utility deal will conclude Aug. 1
Story By D.A. Wilkinson from the Youngstown Vindicator on 4/16/2008.

Councilman Earl A. Schory II returned to council.

SALEM — The Quaker Community Fire District is either dead or close to it, depending on which councilman is talking.

Perry Township Trustee Larry Parker asked council Tuesday night whether an agreement that was part of the fire district pact between the city and township was still in effect.

Parker told council members some township residents planned to have a meeting in late May to discuss getting sewer service.

In 2005, council and the trustees had agreed to form a new fire district that would serve both the city and the township. The plan would have eliminated the city fire department.

The State Employment Relations Board later ruled the city could not dissolve the fire department in midcontract.

Parts of the district agreement allowed for Perry Township homeowners to get utilities without annexation into the city.

Parker said the township is now interested in getting sewer service from Columbiana County.

Last year, at the urging of Earl A. Schory II, a lawyer, council voted to repeal some of the remaining legislation to make sure the district was gone. “It’s dead and gone,” Schory said.

Councilman Justin Palmer said the utilities issues from the fire pact will end Aug. 1.

Mayor Jerry Wolford, who was a Perry trustee during the fire district pact, declined to comment.

The meeting also marked Schory’s return to council.

He had been elected two years ago. But at the end of 2007, he resigned in order to qualify for public retirement medical benefits at lower cost than private coverage. He’s had various medical problems.

Dan Nye of Salem, who had been named to fill Schory’s seat since January, resigned.

This will be Schory’s third term on council. He previously served as law director.

In other action, council gave a first reading to new wording in legislation that would give the city more power to raze dilapidated homes.

The language says the city can take action if the owner has “failed or refused to improve the structure” after orders from city officials.

wilkinson@vindy.com