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EDITOR’S NOTE: Please excuse the quality of our recent video work from the Loveland City Hall council chamber. After the City recently hired a Public Information Officer (PIO), LOVELAND MAGAZINE TV, USA-Today videographers, and Cincinnati Area TV stations have been put into a small corral to one side of the room, and the podium was placed so that when the public rises to speak, they have their backs toward the audience and our camera. We have talked to the PIO, City Manager and the Clerk of Council about how this arrangement significantly degrades our video, “The old set-up allowed a video camera to swing back and forth between those at the podium and the council table. That arrangement had been used for decades.”
Our plea has fallen on deaf ears. The PIO, however, did respond saying, “Unfortunately, the arrangement of the media area will not be moved to accommodate better angles at this time.”
So, for the time being, LOVELAND MAGAZINE TV is forced to show butts instead of faces, except when Councilwoman Pam Gross uses the podium. (See this recent video)
[/quote_box_left]Loveland, Ohio -At the June 13 Council meeting, Sherry Hamlin spoke at Open Forum. She said that at the May 9 City Council meeting, Councilman Weisgerber moved to terminate Rob Stansel’s contract for economic development services because the contract violated the spending limits Council has authorized to the City Manager. The motion passed.
Hamlin noted that the May 23 agenda published on the City’s website included a resolution authorizing the City Manager to enter a new agreement between the City of Loveland and Rob Stansel. She said she was attending the meeting because she was interested in Rob Stansel’s contract, but when she got there it was no longer on the agenda. During the open forum, she asked, “Where did it go and why was it eliminated.”
Hamlin’s allegation is that agenda was later amended to eliminate the resolution, which would violate a Loveland ordinance and quoted a section of the code which says that any change to the agenda as it appears in “Council’s Packet” shall require the consent of a majority of Council at the meeting. Hamlin said that once an agenda item is made public it must be discussed in public unless a majority of Council votes to amend their agenda at the beginning of the meeting. “The fact that it was not, sends a message that somehow, somewhere, someone, discussed this topic outside of the public eye and an agreement was made to remove it from the agenda.” She said having an item appear and disappear is a direct violation of a Loveland Ordinance,
Hamlin’ said this was another signal that back door discussions were happening at City Hall. She said, “Residents who have spoken at open forum have made it clear that they crave transparency. And I just ask. When will our request be honored?”
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