18 months later, Huber Heights still without city manager

Huber Heights — City council members in Huber Heights cannot agree on who they should hire to be the city’s permanent city manager after Monday’s council meeting.

Some people think what the council did at their meeting Monday shows they have no plan to find someone.

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“Why do we do the things that we do?” said pastor Jon Strifler, First Christian Church.

That question relates to the city manager position that only eight members of the Huber Heights city council can answer.

There was a vote Monday night to start a new search for a city manager and three votes to appoint a current applicant.

During the meeting, Huber Heights Mayor Jeff Gore called out council members.

“At this point, we’ve decided not to start the process over and not to hire a city manager,” he said at the meeting.

News Center 7′s Molly Koweek reports that the city voted no on restarting to the city manager search process and no three times for all three applicants on the agenda.

The current candidates are Gerald Smith, Richard Dzik and John Russell.

Each vote was a four-to-three result and lacked one council member, Glenn Otto. The council needs five yes votes to approve a city manager and in the case of a tie, the mayor gets the final say.

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“The fact now that we don’t have a city manager is solely the responsibility of Mr. Otto,” Mayor Gore said.

Gore said Otto and three other council members are intentionally not showing up to meetings and stopping the council from moving forward.

“I think they look like obstructionists,” he said, “because that’s exactly what they are.”

Otto tells Koweek he is not playing games that he is taking care of his sick wife.

“I’m sorry, but that comes first,” he said. “Don’t question my dedication or integrity to this job.”

The city council voted down a resolution that would give absent council members nay votes when they are not in person at meetings.

Huber Heights currently has an interim city manager, Bryan Chadowski, but he is not one of the three names that was voted on Monday night.

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