Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
On Tuesday, August 11, 2026, the Whitehall City Council held its committee meeting, scheduled for 7:00 p.m. and adjourning at 8:26 p.m. The printed agenda listed seven committee-of-the-whole draft items; the chair said nine were before the council, and two additional items were considered under Administration and Financial Management. No formal votes were taken during the committee meeting; legislation was discussed and advanced to scheduled adoption dates.
Ordinance No. 076-2026 – Approved current replacement pages to the Whitehall Codified Ordinances, with an emergency clause. Staff explained the updates align local traffic and general offense codes with Ohio Revised Code changes; some items were added, amended, or repealed. First reading; adoption scheduled August 18, 2026.
Ordinance No. 077-2026 – Authorized exemptions from vacation and sick leave credit carryover limits to hire a highly qualified employee. Staff identified two hires: a facility maintenance laborer and a code enforcement officer, with 7 and 9 years of prior relevant experience. First reading; adoption scheduled August 18, 2026.
Ordinance No. 078-2026 – Same vacation/sick leave carryover exemption authority for another highly qualified employee. First reading; adoption scheduled August 18, 2026.
Ordinance No. 079-2026 – Amended the 2026 Table of Authorized Personnel to add an IT network administrator position. Staff described the role as budget neutral, funded by absorbing an unfilled IT technician vacancy and eliminating third-party maintenance contracts. First reading; adoption scheduled August 18, 2026.
Ordinance No. 080-2026 – Amended Ordinance 003-2025 to update section 161.38, including the network administrator pay range related to the personnel table change. First reading; adoption scheduled August 18, 2026.
Resolution No. 035-2026 – Approved the Tax Incentive Review Council recommendations for tax year 2025. Staff reported all companies met their benchmarks, except two that must establish chamber membership; the review is part of the annual monitoring process with the Franklin County Auditor’s Office. First reading; adoption scheduled August 18, 2026.
Resolution No. 036-2026 – Authorized the Mayor to apply for and accept a Community Development Block Grant from Franklin County. The city is seeking about $500,000 to move and bury electric lines at Broad and Hamilton, with the goal of starting October 1, 2026 and completing the underground work within about six months. First reading; adoption scheduled August 18, 2026.
Councillor Harcar raised resident questions about the lack of a posted application for the council president vacancy. The city attorney said he is investigating whether discussions about the vacancy may have violated open-meetings law and expects to finish by the end of the week; he cautioned against formal action based on a potentially invalid meeting.
Councillor Brown recommended opening a public application and interview process, similar to the recent treasurer and council appointment processes, saying it would demonstrate transparency. Councillor Harcar agreed; Councillor Morrison preferred to wait for the investigation before deciding, while Councillor Brown and another councillor argued that posting applications did not depend on the investigation and waiting would reduce the time available.
The city attorney clarified that council can direct the clerk to post the vacancy, and that the committee meeting is not a voting meeting. The resignation was received July 22, making the 60-day appointment deadline around September 20; if council does not act, responsibility could shift to the mayor.
Asked about self-voting, the city attorney said that while Ohio Ethics Commission guidance permits self-voting for president of council in some statutory cities, Whitehall’s separately elected council president position involves different pay and term implications, so voting for oneself would likely be improper and an abstention would be appropriate.
The committee opened at 7:46 p.m. and closed at 7:49 p.m. Although the printed agenda listed no drafts, the committee considered two additional items.
Ordinance No. 081-2026 – Transferring $1,000,000 from the General Fund to the self-funded insurance trust fund and making a supplemental appropriation to cover elevated employee health insurance claims. First reading; adoption scheduled August 18, 2026.
Ordinance No. 082-2026 – Supplemental appropriation of $4,000 for board and commission mileage and miscellaneous expenses. First reading; adoption scheduled August 18, 2026.
The finance director reported July finances: general fund revenue of $23.92 million and expenses of $23.89 million, a positive margin of about $27,000; July income tax collections of about $3.3 million, the largest July in 10 years; $6.95 million carryover plus $1.6 million in the budget stabilization fund, for $7.12 million in operating capacity; and income tax collections only 1.4% behind the record-setting 2025 pace.
The committee opened at 7:50 p.m. with no legislation. Chair Harcar thanked storm responders, urged drivers to stop at dark traffic lights, and raised food insecurity concerns after the power outage; staff were coordinating with food pantries and council members suggested resources such as 211 and local food programs.
Chair Harcar also apologized for not having an accessibility communication proposal ready and invited suggestions, especially from deaf or hearing-impaired residents.
Councillor McCann reported a community conversation event attended by 21 residents from across the city, with the next event planned for October and a possible Q&A email platform under development.
A heated exchange occurred among council members over public invitations, transparency, and perceived personal attacks; the presiding officer called for professionalism and the committee moved on.
The committee opened at 8:12 p.m. and closed at 8:19 p.m.
Ordinance No. 064-2026 (third reading) – Rezoning 4870 Poth Road from Community Crossroads District to Industrial District; property owned by the Whitehall Community Improvement Corporation. Public hearing and adoption scheduled August 18, 2026.
Ordinance No. 065-2026 (third reading) – Rezoning 265 North Hamilton Road from Community Crossroads District to Industrial District; property owned by BCORE Defender OH1M05 LLC. Planning Commission gave a unanimous favorable recommendation. Public hearing and adoption scheduled August 18, 2026.
Ordinance No. 066-2026 (third reading) – Amending the Planning and Zoning Code to limit construction or operation of gasoline stations. Planning Commission unanimously supported the change. Public hearing and adoption scheduled August 18, 2026.
Resolution No. 034-2026 (second reading) – Authorizing a Community Reinvestment Area agreement with Associated Plumbing & Hydronic Contractors of Central Ohio or a designee. Councillor Dixon announced a conflict and stated he would abstain from discussion and the September 2, 2026 vote. The executive director is expected to attend the vote to answer questions. Staff explained the designee language provides flexibility for the correct signatory, but does not allow transfer to an unrelated business.
All draft ordinances and resolutions were advanced on their scheduled readings, with adoptions set mainly for August 18, 2026; Resolution No. 034-2026 is set for September 2, 2026.
The CDBG application for the Broad and Hamilton utility work will be submitted by the end of August, with a target start of October 1, 2026.
No formal votes were taken during the committee meeting. The council president vacancy process remains open; a possible posting of applications is expected to be discussed at the regular meeting after the city attorney’s investigation concludes.
The meeting adjourned at 8:26 p.m.
I wanted to go to the fair box. Every other last time we were all in blue. Yeah. Yeah. I'm still going to be able to do that. Yes, we're saying last week. See, we got the memo on the cosmic prize. Good evening. Welcome to the Whitehall City Council Committee meeting agenda. Apologize for the uh light starts at 649, but we had a previous meeting that ran over due to weather conditions and stuff. So hopefully nobody's too upset about it, but uh we will continue our meeting now. Uh there are nine pieces of draft legislation on the agenda. Uh committee of the whole legislation issues. Uh draft number one is ordinance 76, 2026. It's uh first reading, adoption eight, excuse me, eight eighteen, twenty twenty-six uh and ordinance to approve current replacement page do the White Hall codified ordinance and declaring an emergency. Anyone wish to speak on this particular I think this was uh uh prepared requested by Ms. Hall. Ms. Do you wish is there anything you wish to add to this, Ms. Hog or these are the updates normally, they happen in May, but they didn't happen until uh July this time, and so um the next time will probably be in March of next year, and they're itemized, and the reason why we waited till July is because last year we had a request for an itemized piece of legislation, so they're all on there now. Changes, amending amendments, or uh additions. Thank you. Anyone have any questions or comments? Sure. Uh Ms. Alk, can you just clarify and and and add the context of these because you've got added added added, as you just said, uh some were amended and uh some were I think repealed. It looks to me like it was the traffic codes and the general offenses. Um they will be updated online in the next two or three days. So any of these like 301.02, you can go online to our codified ordinances and you'll be able to see what the changes were and what was added, deleted, or amended. And if I if I could add to that, basically um American legal publishing, which does our codified our codifications once or twice a year in order to keep our local codifications that are more or less identical to state law up to date. If the state law changes, they present us with these changes of what got added or amended to the state law so that our local ordinances uh traffic code a lot of times are uh identical to the state law charges, and that's what these are. I just don't understand uh I mean, yes, I can go look, but just generally I don't understand bicycle box, um you know why these things have been added, cabin closed, motorcycle. So those were those probably would have been things added to the Ohio revised code traffic code, and then to make our local traffic code the same as the state code, they add these in. So bicycle box would have been added, and then when you get to the amended ones, those would be the where things changed in the state code, they then change them in our local code. So that's when when when traffic offenses occur in Whitehall, whether it's cited under local code or state law, it's the same code. I just don't know why specifically some of these were added or taken away. Because they have to match to a while revised code.