February 28, 2016

TO: Joyce Saxe, Council Clerk

FROM: David R. Eva

Per section 3.05(D) of the citys charter, When the Mayor has disapproved an
ordinance or resolution or a part or item thereof as herein provided, the Council shall,
not later than its next regular meeting, proceed to reconsider it and if upon
reconsideration the ordinance or resolution or part or item thereof disapproved by
the Mayor be approved by the affirmative vote of five (5) of the members of Council, it
shall then take effect without the signature of the Mayor in the same manner as if he or
she had signed it. In all such cases, the vote shall be taken by yeas and nays and
entered upon the journal.
This is my written objection to Resolution No. 2016-R-01, A Resolution
Requesting the Administration to enter into agreement with the Office of the Treasurer
of Ohio that authorizes the City to participate in the Ohio Online Checkbook Program.
The states checkbook cost about $811,000 to set up, according to the
treasurers office. Treasurer Mandel requested to use $2.7 million from his office
budget to pay for the first two years of the local government checkbook project. That
covers a one-time $975,000 licensing fee and an annual maintenance fee of between
$400,000 to $950,000 depending on how many entities sign up. This is not a cost
which will be incurred by the city but as State of Ohio taxpayers, a cost we all share.
In my opinion, $3.5 million (set-up cost and 2-years project cost) could be used by
local governments for more critical needs. This is a substantial price and what value
added benefits do we get for this and how do we measure that?

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The reason for having three readings of legislation is to guarantee an open

system of government that allows residents to be informed, voice their opinions and
conduct oversight over their elected officials. In the case of this legislation, we had
several residents during the open to the public portion of council meetings voice their
opinion against this legislation-former city council presidents Troy Elam, Jennifer
Jakosh and Andy Rose along with resident Harry Burt. There were no residents at the
council meetings who spoke in favor of this legislation. If there were residents who
contacted council members and commented they were in favor of this online
checkbook program, why was this not mentioned during the correspondence portion
of the council meetings?
The Ohio Public Records Act allows anyone to make a request for public
documents in Ohio. The law explicitly states, all public records responsive to the
request shall be promptly prepared and made available for inspection to any person.
Nothing in the Ohio law requires a statement of purpose. In fact records requests
need not even be submitted in writing and can be made anonymously.
The state of Ohio audits our city on an annual basis. We have been recognized
by the state auditor, receiving in 2015 an Auditor of State Award. Our accounting staff
works very hard to make sure we are in compliance with all financial procedures and
ensure all funds are properly accounted for. A clean audit meets the following criteria:
the entity must file timely financial reports with the state auditors office in accordance
with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP); the audit report must not
contain any findings for recovery, material citations, material weaknesses, significant
deficiencies, single audit findings or questioned costs and the management letter
contains no comments related to ethics referrals, questioned costs less than $10,000,

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lack of timely report submission, reconciliation, failure to obtain a timely single audit,
findings for recovery less than $100, or public meetings or public records.
I give Josh Mandel and the State Treasurers Office a lot of credit for reducing
their expenses by millions of dollars in order to fund this program. It is an innovative
program. I feel there are many Ohio cities and school systems struggling with the
reduction of local government funds who could use these dollars for more critical
needs. The three entities I had discussions with about the program would not
participate in the program unless it was funded by the state We can not measure the
benefits we would receive from this program other than public validation. Our
annual audits are available to our residents for review. All of our committee meetings
are open to public. Our residents can request financial information at any time. We
continue to look at ways to reduce our expenses in the city. The Ohio Online
Checkbook program does not help us generate additional revenue or reduce
expenses.

cc: Members of City Council

Kip Molenaar, Administrative Director
Jim Lyons, Law Director

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