The South Summit Council of Governments held a special meeting on December 19, 2025, at 1755 Town Park Boulevard, Green, Ohio. The meeting was called to order at 9:16 a.m. (the agenda listed 9:00 a.m.). The primary agenda items were the approval of the employment of Brian Huff as Treasurer and an executive session to discuss compensation of public employees.
Employment of Brian Huff as Treasurer: Mayor Adamson presented a motion to approve the employment of Brian Huff as Treasurer at an annual salary of $12,000, paid bi-weekly, with a start date of January 5, 2026. The position was advertised at $800–$1,000 per month, and the selection committee (Mayor Adamson, finance directors Susan Cook and Shelley Goodrich) unanimously recommended Mr. Huff after reviewing five or six applications. Mr. Huff currently serves as part-time finance staff for the City of Ravenna and part-time controller for the City of Kent. His acceptance was contingent on council approval. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously via roll call—Mayor Adamson and Mayor Yeargin voted yes. (Note: The transcript records the second mayor's name as "Jurgen," while the agenda lists "Mayor Yeargin." This may be a transcription error.)
Executive Session: Following the vote, the council moved to an executive session to discuss compensation of public employees. Invited participants included finance directors Goodrich and Cook, and New Franklin mayor-elect Steve Rector. The executive session lasted from approximately 9:16 a.m. to 10:09 a.m.
Reconvened Regular Meeting: After returning from executive session, the council reconvened and discussed a "revamp and revitalization" of the finance side of the organization, noting that the new treasurer will have a more active role and take over some responsibilities previously assigned to the fiscal agent. No further votes were taken.
We will call to order at 9 16 p.m. This special meeting of the uh South Summit Council of Governments. Uh ask you to Rice for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which he stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Roll call, uh Mayor Adamson is present. Mayor Jurgen. Present. All right. And I will note for the record that this uh special meeting was uh uh advertised and posted on city websites, uh City of New Franklin and City of Green and uh uh uh on the uh council doors um more than 24 hours prior to this meeting. Uh and with that uh topic of discussion is uh the employment of Brian Huff as Treasurer. Uh in fact, I'll just read the motion and we'll get a second, then we can do the discussion. Uh this is a motion for approval of the employment of Brian Huff as Treasurer of the South Summit Council of Governments at an annual salary of twelve thousand dollars to be paid bi-weekly with a start date of January 5th, 2026, and duties, responsibilities as set forth in the job description for the position. So moved. Second. Okay. Uh by way of discussion, um the council uh this council previously approved an amendment of the bylaws uh to fill the positions of treasurer and secretary from outside the two communities, uh by that meaning that the two communities would not be providing specifically those positions. It's conceivable that points in the future there could be employees of the city who also fill these positions, but they would they're gonna be separately employed. Uh and uh so that was uh adopted at our last special meeting. Uh the position was posted. Uh we received uh five or six uh uh applications, and uh one uh stood out, uh and that was Brian Huff, who uh is currently uh part-time uh with uh finance uh department of the city of Ravenna. He's also the controller on a part-time basis for the City of Kent, uh, and he has the time available to devote to uh to our needs. Uh and he we found him to be extremely well qualified in terms of his credentials. Uh and then uh we did meet with him. When I say we, I mean myself, uh the uh uh review committee, uh uh Susan Cook and Shelley Goodrich, the respective finance directors for the two cities. Uh and again at the conclusion of that meeting, we were unanimously in accord that to offer the position to Mr. Huff. Uh we had advertised it at $800 to uh thousand dollars a month, and we felt with his uh uh with his background um and his talents that it would make sense to go to the high end of that. And so we did uh forward an offer letter to Mr. Huff for the $12,000. Uh and he uh uh signed that uh accepting I accept the position of treasurer with South Summit Council of Governments. Uh he did that yesterday on the 17th. No, actually Wednesday, I guess where are we, the 19th? Yeah, Wednesday the 17th. The time flies when you're having fun. Uh so he has accepted, and we indicated in there that the acceptance was contingent upon uh approval by this council, and so that's the purpose of the motion. Um, I appreciate your taking the lead on the interview. Um I I've uh talked to uh finance director Goodrich, who was served on the committee, the selection committee, and um she's very happy with the selection. It I think it's a good fortune that we were able to find somebody so well qualified in such a short period of time. And uh it I think it's it made sense to have this emergency meeting to have that person be able to hit the ground immediately running so that we have a a currently filled treasurer position and not a vacant position. So thank you for your help in that. No, no doubt. And and I guess before we do the roll call, just uh um this really gives us an opportunity. Our first scheduled meeting is in March, uh, and there may not be any reason to have a meeting prior to that, but this does give an opportunity uh for Brian to acquaint himself with uh further acquaint himself with our organization, uh, and then to uh uh implement begin implementing the suggestions that are gonna come from the review from uh uh Julian and Groob. Uh the things we all that that our finance directors know and they've shared with us that need to be done that that haven't been done. And so I think we hopefully we'll have that window of time. We've explained that to Mr. Huff that that's really what the first push is going to be, and uh, he wasn't daunted by that at all. So this is I'll repeat what she said. Really, really good fortune that uh that this gentleman appeared.