Leadership transition has familiar players
Respected official Ron Hess brought stability to operations.
MIAMI TWP. — Many people would like to have the professional success Ron Hess has had this month. But Miami Twp. trustees say years of work by the administrator has paved the way for the recent good run.
On May 7, a solid majority of Miami Twp. voters approved a tax increase to add officers to the police department Hess led.
A week later, trustees named him township administrator — a role he had been filling for 18 months while also serving as police chief — and promoted his handpicked successor.
“The bar’s been set pretty high,” Miami Twp. Board of Trustees President Doug Barry told new Police Chief Charlie Stiegelmeyer. “But you’re walking into a great situation … due to the work that Chief Hess did to build that department up to where it is.”
A year after retiring as captain with the Miamisburg Police Department in June 2013, Hess took over a police department in turmoil on an interim basis.
He arrived seven months after voters rejected a police levy and four months following the firing of Deputy Police Chief John DiPietro after DiPietro was accused of misconduct.
The accusation stemmed from for his role in the decontamination of a naked 17-year-old female who
The Planning Commission had voted 3-2 to approve the new ordinance, but had attached certain conditions to it, including ECC being permitted on certain monument signs and requiring all permitted signs to be constructed with noncombustible materials.
Council ended up unanimously passing the new ordinance, but without those conditions.
“That would have eliminated wooden signs,” Jacques said. “Oakwood is 98 percent residential, and residents are always very concerned about preserving the historical value in the community.”
He said the new sign ordinance is akin to the city’s food truck ordinance passed last August, which allows food trucks to do business on Oakwood streets for the first time but puts heavy restrictions on the practice.
“Vendors were hoping to have a permit for a year and operate freely and whenever and wherever they wanted,” he said. “But the ordinance that passed limits where and when they can operate, and I think residents are more comfortable with that.”