MARION, OH (MARION COUNTY NOW) – The City of Marion’s mayor-elect and a member of city council are at odds over a proposal that would allow the current city auditor to transition into a different position within the administration in 2024.
Auditor Miranda Meginness announced on Dec. 11 that she plans to resign from the elected office effective Jan. 5, 2024, stating in an interview with Marion County Now that she will become the city’s next transit director, overseeing the operations of Marion Area Transit.
Current Mayor Scott Schertzer and council members Ayers Ratliff, 2nd Ward, and Aaron Rollins, at-large, have publicly called for Meginness to resign from office in recent months based on a number of issues that have arisen this year, including controversy over the purchase of a new fire truck and a series of penalties imposed on the city by the IRS for failure to file health insurance information with the federal agency.
Mayor-elect Bill Collins said that he has met with Meginness in recent weeks, informing her that despite a new slate of city council members being seated in 2024 that council would still seek to have her removed from office, utilizing measures allowed by Ohio Revised Code.
“I thought it was important that she knew there wasn’t going to be a reset button beginning Jan. 1 and that the transition leadership leading into Jan. 1 was going to continue on the path that’s been started already (to remove Meginness from office),” Collins explained. “During those conversations it was brought up that there was going to be a vacancy in the transit director position and she wanted to know if I would consider her for that position if she chose to resign (from the auditor’s office) after the first of the year.
“My answer to her was, ‘Absolutely, I would consider you for that position.’ But I can’t make any offers to her until after I’m mayor (effective Jan. 1, 2024),” Collins added. “So that will have to wait until after (Jan. 1, 2024), but my intention is to do that.”
Current Transit Director Deb Price is retiring effective Dec. 31, 2023, according to Collins.
Collins said that he is confident that Meginness would be able to handle the daily operation of the transit department, noting that “her capabilities will allow her to do that job and hopefully do it well for the city. That’s something we’ll keep an eye on, keep an eye on her progress and gauge how she’s doing, and evaluate from there.”
Councilman Ayers Ratliff said he believes the plan to transfer Meginness to the transit director position is a “terrible idea.”
“One, I’m not even sure if it’s legal,” Ratliff said. “And two, we have somebody (Meginness) that has literally brought the city to its knees with her ineptness, and we are now going to put her in charge of a department and she has to run that department’s budget and apply for grants and responses to grants and meet a whole bunch of deadlines, when she’s proven over and over again that she doesn’t have the ability to do that.”
Ratliff said he has lost all confidence in the city auditor’s office based on the performances of former auditor Robert Landon III and Meginness serving in that role. Consequently, he said that he now questions the city’s financial viability.
“In the last four years, we have had to operate under the idea of ‘just try to do the right thing’ without having any information of what our revenue was or what our expenses really were because we have not had an auditor that could answer a question or give us an honest answer,” Ratliff said.
“And I think it’s finally catching up with the city and will really catch up with the city in 2024. And it will really show why you need annual audits and why you need to know how much money you have in your checking account when you’re writing check after check after check.”
Ratliff said he wouldn’t be opposed to the Ohio Auditor of State taking over daily operations of the city auditor’s office temporarily in an effort to get the city’s finances in order. However, Collins said he doesn’t believe that the city meets the criteria for the state auditor to do that at this point in time.
Marion City Council took no action on an ordinance calling for a vote of no confidence against Meginness during the Dec. 11 meeting. The ordinance was placed on the agenda by council members Mike Neff, 6th Ward, Karen Fosnaugh, 5th Ward, and Aaron Rollins, at-large.
Marion City Council is scheduled to meet at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 19 at City Hall. To see the meeting agenda, go to marionohio.us. To listen to audio recordings of city council meetings, go to the City of Marion Ohio channel on YouTube.