Saturday, March 25, 2000
Council unable to override veto
BY CINDY SCHROEDER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LUDLOW — The city will continue to operate under last year's budget after Ludlow City Council lacked the votes Thursday night to override the mayor's recent veto of a new budget.
Four of the six council members were present at council's regular legislative meeting. Five votes were needed to override Mayor Tom Stacy's veto of the budget that council adopted March 8 — about eight months into the fiscal year.
The mayor's veto “is only slowing the process down a little bit, but it's not going to stop this budget process we're involved in, in terms of getting it tightened, and addressing various line items,” Councilman Ron Wofford said.
For now, the city of 4,700 will continue to operate under the past fiscal year's budget, with necessary spending only, Mr. Wofford said.
The budget of just over $1 million that was approved March 8 was supposed to
have been adopted by July 1, 1999.
In a related matter, Kenton County Attorney Garry Edmondson announced that he has rejected a request to file criminal charges of misconduct against Mr. Wofford and fellow Ludlow council members Garry Hatter Sr., Ben Cloud and Jack Redd.
Lt. Col. Benny Johnson of the Ludlow Police Department said the men usurped the mayor's authority when they demoted him from assistant chief to lieutenant in the city budget they approved March 8.
While the demotion did not change Lt. Col. Johnson's pay, it hurt the 15-year police veteran's reputation within the department and the community, he said. It also violated civil service rules, and affected the professional organizations that he could belong to, he said.
Mr. Edmondson said the matter was made moot when Mr. Stacy on March 17 vetoed the budget ordinance that was the basis of the charges.
Mr. Wofford said he was “very pleased” with Mr. Edmondson's decision. “In my opinion, it was never an issue of official misconduct,” he said.
Lt. Col. Johnson is considering filing suit against the councilmen. He also has asked the attorney general's office to investigate a possible conflict of interest on Mr. Edmondson's part, saying Mr. Edmondson advised his friend, Mr. Cloud, on the budget legislation that was related to the criminal charges Lt. Col. Johnson wanted to bring.
Mr. Edmondson denied doing anything improper. He said he called Mr. Cloud because he didn't understand some of the documents that had been supplied to support Lt. Col. Johnson's allegations against the four council members.
During that conversation, Mr. Cloud asked Mr. Edmondson if council members could cancel a special meeting that they had called to deal with the budget, and Mr. Edmondson said he advised him that they could.
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