City Hall remains open despite mayor’s threats to close

Willoughby Hills City Hall remains open despite the mayor’s previous threat to close it because of his displeasure over the budget approved March 29 by City Council.

Mayor Robert Weger said in a March 28 memo to council that he was not going to support the actions outlined by the panel, and consequences would result in an April 1 shutdown of the city.

Although Weger said he disagrees with the budget passed by council, he signed it to avoid shutting down City Hall, because of repercussions that would have been felt by Willoughby Hills residents. The city was required to have a balanced budget signed by the mayor submitted to the state no later than March 31, or they would have no choice but to shut down.

Weger signed the budget, and then sent a memo dated March 31 to all members of City Council saying he was vetoing five sections of the budget. He also stated that he had serious concerns about council’s recent actions to pass the legislation — the budget and City Hall layoffs — on March 29.

A 2018 budget Council presented to the mayor included layoffs of eight city hall employees, but allotted more funds for road repair and hiring more firefighters.

Some of the concerns voiced by Weger in his March 31 memo include what he believes to be lack of experience of councilwoman Laura Pizmoht to evaluate a balanced budget; using general fund monies to pay for sewer fund work; an unfair or inaccurate assessment of Mayor’s Court and the Mayor’s office; expenditures made by council; and Union busting.

Weger said in the memo that he was vetoing Section 5 of the ordinance to pass the budget, which requested that the Finance Department provide the following to council on a quarterly basis this year: 2018 payroll detail, wage detail, wage hour detail, and wage-related benefit detail.

Weger said he was vetoing that section because those financial reports are not currently available from the Finance Department, which currently provides council and the residents with much of the same information, just in different formats. As a result, he doesn’t want to place unnecessary burden on the Finance Department.

Weger said he had presented a balanced budget to council to pass and instead, the panel choose to deviate from that in a manner he described as “disruptive and reckless.”

“There have been no studies done on salaries, and the evidence presented by Councilwoman Pizmoht was inaccurate, incomplete and just wrong,” Weger said in his memo. “I would hope that council would revisit my original proposal for a balanced budget as we continue to work for the best interest of our residents.”