PHOTO BY JOHN FRYMAN / THE VILLAGE REPORTER
BPA SPECIAL MEETING … The Bryan Board of Public Affairs held a special meeting on Friday, August 29, to discuss its future. From left: BPA members Jim Salsbury, Bob Eyre, and Annette Schreiner.
By: John Fryman
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
john@thevillagereporter.com
The future of the Bryan Board of Public Affairs and its important role to the City of Bryan was discussed during a special meeting held Friday morning.
Following the roll call, BPA members Karen Ford, Dick Long, Jim Salsbury, Bob Eyre, and Annette Schriener were all present along with Mayor Carrie Schlade, Deputy Clerk/Treasurer Pat Buda, and Director of Utilities Derek Schultz.
The focus of the special meeting concerned the possible dissolution of the Board of Public Affairs.
“This meeting was called to give ourselves a voice,” said Schreiner. “Because if it were to happen in only one reading instead of three, and whatever happens, it’s our opportunity to say how we feel, or be on the sidelines.
“This is our opportunity to say we wanted to stay, and we take this very seriously. We have a real care and concern for the community. We want to be able to continue with this and not go by the wayside.”
“We are just here to state our case basically,” she added. “I think we need a starting point, so that people can hear what we have to say and hopefully continue to have our say at this current time.”
An ordinance is to be placed for electoral consideration, an amendment to the charter of the City of Bryan to dissolve the elected Board of Public Affairs, and it was a very hot topic of discussion regarding its future.
“That’s pretty much what this meeting is about, is to discuss the importance of the Bryan Board of Public Affairs,” said Schreiner.
“We are going to basically talk as a board to ask questions, to come up with why we think this board is important and why we do not want it to go away.”
As a starting point to get the conversion going, Schreiner made it known what the Board of Public Affairs is up against, so to speak. She then questioned Schlade, asking, “Why are we doing this again?”
Schlade said she hasn’t spoken to the council about this yet, then added that it should eventually come out on Tuesday night when the city council meets in regular session.
“We need to discuss government efficiency in a state of our country right now, where our state and federal governments are asking us to look within our borders and see what we maybe can work without.”
Bryan is the only city in the State of Ohio that has an elected Board of Public Affairs.
“I understand the Board of Public Affairs and understand their reason for its conception and longevity,” noted the mayor. “We are now the only city in the state with one (BPA) that is elected, not appointed.
“There are some villages that do have some. Look at Orrville, they’re an AMP (American Municipal Power) community, and they’re a city. They have a three-person community board appointed by the mayor and council, so they’re not elected.
“They’re just an advisory board, similar to our planning and zoning commission board or park board that we have in the city.”
The mayor also pointed out that BMU no longer has a pull of its own, no longer providing cable or internet service, but still maintaining a fiber network.
Outside of that, what remains is electricity and water, and that is something city councils across the state consistently oversee.
Board member Bob Eyre questioned the mayor why the city hasn’t pursued the issue of doing away with the BPA in the past.
“Actually, it was pursued about six years ago,” noted the mayor. “I think it got a lot of back-and-forth confusion on what it would look like. I contacted our city attorney (Marc Fishel), and (he) obviously works for both of us. I asked him how he would like me to proceed with this.
“This was something that I wanted to present to council. His advice was to find another attorney that he would allow to where he raised an interest of conflict.”
At its last meeting, the council had appointed Robert Bohmer of Rupp, Hagans and Bohmer, LLP of Archbold to provide legal services concerning the future of the BPA.
“There is an urgency to make this happen,” said Eyre. “Too, I see an opportunity for you (Schlade) as a power grab here.” Schlade responded to Eyre’s statement, “I don’t think there’s an urgency, or power grab,” she noted.
“First of all, I served on the executive committee for Ohio Municipal Electric Association, so I have been involved in AMP (American Municipal Power) and then on this special committee for the majority of my mayorship.”
The mayor is hoping that the council will have three readings on the issue. “Obviously, I can’t speak for them (council) because they’re being presented with this ordinance on Tuesday,” added the mayor. “With that being said, if it should pass, it will not go on until the May 2026 ballot.”
Schreiner addressed her own thoughts about the importance of having a Board of Public Affairs in Bryan.
“I feel the importance of this role of BPA, I consider ourselves ambassadors,” pointed out Schreiner. “We see the value of living and working in a community that delivers its own utility services.
“We focus on meeting the needs of the community. Like Bob (Eyre) mentioned, here us all combined bring over 100 years of utility experience to this board, where we kind of understand how utility is run, how it – the operations work, and see that is a very valuable level of vast amount of knowledge.”
Schreiner stressed that BPA doesn’t micromanage itself. “That’s not what we are here to do; we are here to empower people like Derek (Schultz) and other utility employees.
“We empower these experienced employees to perform at their very best. We’re just here to give any direction or long-term plans,” she commented.
Another board member, Jim Salsbury, said he’s personally going to trust the voters to make the right decision should the ordinance go on the ballot.
“I realized the Board of Public Affairs have been around for a long time and we’ve been through this before,” said Salsbury. “Most of you aren’t old enough probably to remember, but I can remember this is kind on the topic, kind of the same, only different.”
“The Toledo Edison petition to buy the electric utility. It went on the ballot and got voted down. Of course, then five or six years ago, it was brought up again. For my part, I would trust the voters.”
Board member Dick Long felt the mayor and city council are getting a little bit ahead on the issue.
“I would like to see where this is going to go,” said Long. “As the mayor said, I have a lot of questions, but you had even hadn’t addressed council yet. We’ve been through this before, and (I would) like to hear what council has to say.
“Just like Jim (Salsbury) said, there could be three readings or could be one reading and could make a decision on Tuesday night.”
Board member Karen Ford said the fact is that the city government is restructuring, which could lead to the potential demise of the Board of Public Affairs.
“That’s what it’s coming down to,” said an emotional Ford. “We are part of that government on a separate level but still included in the charter. There’s reason for setting that out almost a 100 years ago, and I still think that reason is valid.
“We pay attention to every detail that goes on in this utility. We don’t micromanage like Annette (Schreiner) was saying, but when it comes to making a decision, we are an umbrella here.
“We focus on this to hand this utility over to city council, no disrespect in any way. There is a lot of attention that needs to go into running a utility.”
Ford then added, “We focus on what is needed for the city. City residents, in the way of electricity, water, and communications, we are forward-thinking in this respect.
“I don’t think that the city council is going to have a lot more time to spend investigating this and researching this, and going to the meetings that are all involved, whether at the state or government level.
“We do the traveling to and bring home ideas from those meetings. And we share them and consider what we can do to keep Bryan the lowest entity in the area.
“I just feel that it’s going to suffer over the next 10, 20 or 30 years and the taxpayers are going to have to pay for a lot of different things that are going to come up that aren’t going to be budgeted for or planned for because you’re going to lose a lot of communication and investigation in all of things that people do on a daily basis,” said Ford.
After hearing comments from board members, Schlade understood the emotions going on with this particular issue.
“I think it’s just because there is a lot of emotions here, and I understand those and I’m sorry for those,” said the mayor.
“I do want to thank you for doing a wonderful job on this board. This is not a personal decision, but when we talked about there was an assumption made this has been in the works for months; it’s actually not true.”
Longtime Bryan resident Emily Ebaugh commented that the BPA has a specific singular focus to provide safe, reliable, and cost-effective public utilities for the rate payers.
“City council has a much broader challenge and responsibility,” said Ebaugh. “The experience on this board cannot be replaced.
“And the fact that you have all worked in the industry, you studied the industry and know exactly what you’re talking about. And to ask somebody on City Council to replace that, I don’t think it’s going to happen.”
“I’m not sure, Mayor Schlade, why you brought an ordinance without having a prior discussion about the pros and cons of even considering it.
“It doesn’t make sense to me. The city has already shown they are willing to disregard the will of the people,” Ebaugh added.
Former Williams County Commissioner Brian Davis also addressed the BPA board. “The only thing that I would recommend as a citizen is that if you have the capacity to acquire outside legal counsel and not utilize any counsel provided by the city, I would highly recommend you do so,” said Davis.
“Because as you move forward with this, you’re going to need to have counsel. I’ve been in government for 20 years, and as far as cost savings, the easiest way to save costs is to reduce headcount. It’s singularly your largest cost in your budget.
“So, if this actually takes place, some of the employees that are sitting behind us and those who are out currently working won’t be a part of BMU. They won’t be in a way in order to get the cost savings, other than to reduce the headcount.”
Schreiner is hoping that the city council will change its mind about the proposed ordinance.
“I will state again, the reason behind this meeting is to make sure that everyone heard our plea on why we feel this board is important and important enough to stay. That’s why we had this meeting.”