MARION, OH (MARION COUNTY NOW) – Following a tumultuous last six months in office, City of Marion Auditor Miranda Meginness announced Monday that she is resigning from the position.
In a letter sent to Marion County Now dated Dec. 11, 2023, Meginness stated the following: “I hereby resign my position as City Auditor effective January 5, 2024. I have accepted another position within the City to assist in the transition.”
Meginness was appointed to the auditor’s position in November 2021 by the Marion County Republican Party Central Committee to replace embattled former auditor Robert Landon III. Landon resigned amid turmoil in October 2021 after less than two years in office.
After what she considered a good early run as auditor, Meginness said she experienced turmoil of her own during the past six months due in large part to severe disagreements with council members regarding the purchase of a new fire truck and more recently the revelation that the city is facing a series of fines by the Internal Revenue Service related to the city’s failure to file health insurance information forms with the federal tax agency.
Meginness narrowly survived a vote of no confidence by Marion City Council on Aug. 14 of this year. The vote ended in a 4-4 deadlock (one member was absent) and Council President Todd Schneider cast the deciding vote that killed the measure. However, since then there have been calls by city council members Ayers Ratliff and Aaron Rollins and Mayor Scott Schertzer for Meginness to resign from office. Another vote of no confidence was on the agenda for the Dec. 11 city council meeting and it’s believed that the measure would’ve passed with little opposition.
“It’s been made very clear through (Marion City Council) and other members of the administration that they’d like me to resign,” Meginness told Marion County Now on Monday. “While I reluctantly resign because I’m in the middle of several ongoing projects, I understand their frustration and confusion and I think it’s best that I take a step away and let someone with perhaps more experience come in and see if they can finish it.
“It’s only been the last six months or so that things have gotten tumultuous. Prior to that, I like to think I had a good working relationship with most of the members of council, if not all of them. The last six months have really just been a trying time.”
Meginness said she believes “a majority” of the issues that bogged down her administration as auditor were holdovers from Landon’s tenure in the office.
“Playing catch-up for so long is what led to a lot of the issues,” she said. “Trying to manage the day-to-day, play catch-up, as well as projecting for the future is hard enough, let alone doing the job if I had come into it and everything was fine. So I think a lot of the issues left behind by the previous auditor are what led to this.”
Meginness told Marion County Now that she has accepted the position of director of transit for the City of Marion, a role she will begin in the new year after she leaves the auditor’s office.
Marion County Board of Elections Director Cindy Price said that, according to Ohio Revised Code, because Marion is a statutory city and Meginness ran as an independent candidate in the 2023 general election, that the city’s mayor is tasked with appointing the next auditor. That means that Mayor-elect Bill Collins will have that responsibility after he takes office on Jan. 1, 2024.