Jim Roper, Perry Township Trustee

LEAF COLLECTION HAS ENDED AS OF DEC. 11

The leaf collection by Perry Township Road department has come to an end. The Road department collected leaves in the township for 42 days...which is 8 days longer than originally planned. The three man crew was out collecting leaves in wind, rain, sun, snow and ice. Over 1,000 man hours with 9 trips around the entire township and 235 truck box loads went into the collection of residents' leaves.

Thank you Brian Shonkweiler and the rest of our road department for an amazing job!

Any additional leaves should now be bagged and placed out with your trash containers for regular trash pickup by Rumpke.

A sincere thank you to everyone for your support and your words of encouragement over the past few months. I am particularly grateful for the support of my wife Kim and our sons Drew and Matt. You are the best.

We live in a great community and my goal is to make it even better. I am proud to call Perry Township home.

I look forward to serving you for another four years.

Dear Perry Township Residents,

Thank you for allowing me to be your trustee. And thank you for reading all these posts. Hopefully you know a little bit more about our township.

Regardless of who you support, please get out and vote. In a small election like this, every vote truly matters and you can make a difference.

Tomorrow you will have the opportunity to vote for two trustee candidates. As your township trustee for the past 16 years, I hope that I have earned your trust for one of those votes.

This election has recently taken on a very negative tone. That is a shame because we haven’t experienced anything like this before.

Yesterday morning, my opponent, Jill Reardon, put a large pink hanger on my front door that basically says that I have negotiated bad contracts; that our accounting numbers don’t add up; and that the township in now more than $120,000 in debt, due to a decision to switch healthcare providers. None of that is true. Here is where the $120,000 figure comes from:

Several years ago, Perry joined a consortium called OPEC, which is a group of small government entities formed to obtain affordable healthcare coverage. During the time Perry was a member of OPEC, we saved tens of thousands of dollars in health care premiums.

This summer, members learned that OPEC was allegedly mismanaging funds and failing to provide an accounting of expenditures. If members leave the consortium, OPEC threatened various fines, penalties and costs. Perry Township was told it would have to pay $120,000 if we leave. Perry disputes this and has paid nothing to OPEC to exit the group.

Numerous OPEC members are now suing OPEC for allegedly mismanaging their contributions. We are currently deciding which lawsuit to join. Here is a Columbus Dispatch article that provides more details.

Jill Reardon's largest campaign contributor is an OPEC board member. In other words, my opponent has decided to accept multiple campaign contributions from a person whose organization is being sued for these mismanagement claims. There is no other way to say it – this puts Ms. Reardon in a clear conflict of interest. You simply cannot objectively represent Perry Township taxpayers in a lawsuit involving someone who is your largest financial supporter.

I encourage you to go to the Franklin County Board of Elections website and see for yourself who all contributed to my opponent’s campaign – and how she has spent that money. You won’t see any reports from me because I have always self-funded my campaigns and have never spent more than $2,000 on any election.

Rather than negative campaigning, my entire re-election effort has been focused on what I have accomplished, and what I promise to do if re-elected. I have provided specific examples of how I have saved taxpayer money and improved township services. I have also provided you with five new ways that I will save even more taxpayer money if re-elected. These are all set forth on my page. You can also get more information from the Columbus Dispatch Voters Guide and The League of Women Voters Guide.

I am particularly proud of what I have accomplished over the past eight years as the trustee who oversees our police department. 2018 will be a critical year, because we will negotiate a new three-year contract with our officers. I have been the lead negotiator on behalf of the township for our last three police contracts. The Fraternal Order of Police will have professional negotiators at the table on behalf of our officers. If re-elected, I will be a strong voice at the other end of the table for you, the Perry Township taxpayers. I will negotiate a new contract that is fair to our officers, and fair to taxpayers. My 30 years of experience as an attorney, whose law firm represents dozens of other police departments, makes me uniquely qualified to fill this important role. No other current trustee or trustee candidate has any experience overseeing a township police department.

In closing, we live in a wonderful community with outstanding township services. Most importantly, we live in a safe community. I’ve hired the majority of our full-time police officers and we work well together. You have trusted me with the responsibility of overseeing our police department for the past eight years. You can trust me with this responsibility for the next four years.

Thank you.

Jim Roper
Chairman, Perry Township Board of Trustees

STRAIGHT FORWARD ANSWERS TO 12 IMPORTANT QUESTIONS
(Questions 7 - 12)

By Jim Roper and Andy English

As you can imagine, we have been getting numerous questions from residents about recent campaign mailings. We have not and will not engage in negative campaign tactics. At the same time, we cannot let misleading or false statements stand. Below are straight forward answers to questions that have been asked of us.

7. A MAILER FROM JILL REARDON ALSO STATES PERRY TOWNSHIP IS IN DEBT MORE THAN $120,000 FROM A BAD CONTRACT TO SWITCH HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS. HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?

Perry Township is not in debt. Moreover, as a result of sound spending, Perry will not need any new or additional tax levies over the next four years. We are in very good financial shape.

Perry belonged to a group called the Ohio Public Entity Consortium (OPEC), which consists of about 150 small government groups like Perry Township. In all, over 3,000 government employees are in this consortium for group healthcare benefits.

OPEC is being accused of mismanaging millions of dollars in funds. Perry Township did not manage any of these funds.

OPEC claims local governments should have to pay for this mismanagement and Perry’s allocation would be $120,000. Perry Township denies this, as do all of the other local government entities that were damaged by OPEC’s mismanagement. Townships and others have filed numerous lawsuits against OPEC and Perry is currently deciding which legal option is best for our township.

8. DID PERRY TOWNSHIP REALLY ENTER INTO A BAD CONTRACT WITH RUMPKE FOR TRASH HAULING THAT COST AN EXTRA $54,000?

No. When our last three-year trash collection contract was up, we put a new contract out for bid. Rumpke had the best bid and the lowest bid. Due to increased fuel costs and increased dumping costs at the landfill, Rumpke was forced to add a small monthly increase for each household for the new three-year contract. Neither Perry nor Rumpke has any control over rising fuel costs and increased dumping fees at the landfill. Again, we accepted the best and lowest bid.

9. DO YOU REALLY NOT KNOW JILL REARDON?

We obviously know who she is and we have addressed her by name. She has never spoken to us about any of her ideas or what changes she would make to Perry Township.

10. DID YOU EVER TELL PEOPLE THAT MS. REARDON NEVER ATTENDED ANY PERRY TOWNSHIP MEETINGS?

No. However, we did tell people in Brookside Estates that Ms. Reardon never attended any of the public meetings when the Korean Church zoning issue was discussed. The most important meeting took place after she became a trustee candidate and she chose not to attend.

Also, Perry Township records indicate that we had 18 general public meetings since Ms. Reardon has been a candidate. She attended 5 of the 18 meetings. She did not speak or ask to speak at any of those meetings. We have no record of Ms. Reardon ever attending a Perry Township meeting before her candidacy.

11. DID YOU EVER TELL PEOPLE THAT MS. REARDON WAS LATE FILING ELECTION PAPERS?

No. However, we have told people that Ms. Reardon did not timely file her responses to the Columbus Dispatch Voters Guide and the League of Women Voters Guide. All candidates were given weeks to complete those questionnaires and were given a clear deadline to give information about themselves and answer questions.

12. WHY HAVEN’T YOU FILED YOUR CAMPAIGN FINANCE REPORTS AND HOW MUCH MONEY HAVE YOU RAISED AND SPENT ON YOUR CAMPAIGN?

We are self-funding our campaigns. Also, we both signed waivers that we planned on spending less than $2,000 for our campaigns. Candidates who do this don’t have to file election reports. Jill Reardon has collected over $13,000 in donations from outside donors. That is why she had to file campaign financial disclosures

Campaign finance reports can be viewed on the Franklin County Board of Elections website.

Voters can see who has donated money and how a candidate has spent that money.

For the record, as of the last reporting period, we have spent less than $2,000 on each of our campaigns and the only expenditures were for yard signs, school magnets and door hangers.

STRAIGHT FORWARD ANSWERS TO 12 IMPORTANT QUESTIONS
(Questions 1 - 6)

By Jim Roper and Andy English

As you can imagine, we have been getting numerous questions from residents about recent campaign mailings. We have not and will not engage in negative campaign tactics. At the same time, we cannot let misleading or false statements stand. Below are straight forward answers to questions that have been asked of us. Here are question 1- 6.

1. I GOT A MAILER FROM JILL REARDON THAT SAYS PERRY TOWNSHIP HAS STEADILY RAISED TAXES FOR THE PAST 10 YEARS. IS THAT TRUE?

No. Only 21% of your property taxes go to Perry Township. The rest go to Worthington Schools and eight other groups like senior services and the library. Your taxes are going up because these other groups take 79% of your taxes and they are passing levies.

Over the past 10 years, Perry Township asked voters to renew or replace four expiring road levies. The amounts have always been the same: 1.5 mills. We have also asked voters to approve two police levies. One resulted in a tax decrease for most voters and one resulted in a slight increase. The net effect of these Perry Township levies over 10 years is about $75 annually per $100,000 of property evaluation.

2. I WAS TOLD PERRY TOWNSHIP POLICE ARE ENDORSING JILL REARDON

That is not true. The Fraternal Order of Police (F.O.P.) has endorsed both Ms. Reardon and Jim Roper. The F.O.P. is a local union that represents police officers in Franklin County in collective bargaining agreements. The F.O.P has nothing to do with the day-to-day operations of the Perry Township Police Department.

3. I RECEIVED A LETTER FROM THE FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE THAT INDICATES JILL REARDON HAS HELPED OUR OFFICERS. HOW HAS SHE DONE THAT?

Ms. Reardon has not provided any support to Perry Police officers. And Perry Police officers are not supporting her or anyone else. Here is what the Perry Township Police Chief has said about this:

“The Perry Township Police Department has not endorsed any candidates for the office of Township Trustee, nor will we. My directive to all the employees of the Perry Township Police Department is we will remain neutral throughout this campaign. We will allow the citizens of Perry Township to determine who they want to represent them as Township Trustees and we (the police) will work with whoever is elected by our residents. In response to other issues raised in the letter, I am not aware of any resources that have been provided by Ms. Reardon to the Police Department or guidance that may have helped improve response times. I am also unaware of any initiative by Ms. Reardon to stretch or save tax dollars in Perry Township.”

John Petrozzi, Perry Township Police Chief (Oct. 23, 2017)

4. I LIVE IN BROOKSIDE ESTATES AND RECEIVED A LETTER FROM MS. REARDON THAT SAYS SHE WOULD HAVE VOTED “NO” ON THE KOREAN CHURCH ZONING LAWSUIT. WHAT WAS THAT LAWSUIT ABOUT?

The lawsuit was an appeal by the Korean Church regarding two zoning variances they requested. The Court strongly recommended both sides settle the case. Perry Township had at least seven meetings with Brookside residents over 12 months to decide whether to reach a compromise or continue with litigation. Ms. Reardon did not attend any of these meetings.

After hearing the pros and cons of settlement versus litigation, the residents who attended the vote meeting were asked how they wanted the issue resolved. Over 90% of Brookside residents in attendance wanted to settle. The vote was 47-3. Mr. English and I then voted to support those residents. Mr. Chaney voted to continue with litigation.

5. WE HEAR THAT BROOKSIDE COUNTRY CLUB IS CONSIDERING OPENING UP IONE COURT FOR A NEW HOUSING DEVELOPMENT. IS THAT TRUE?

No. The country club has been looking at areas around the club for possible new homes for some time. We have been monitoring the situation. This summer, the club narrowed its choices to three areas. None of those areas had anything whatsoever to do with Ione Court or opening Ione Court. We personally spoke with the club manager on October 17, 2017 and this was confirmed.

The club is now down to two locations. Again, neither involves Ione Court or opening Ione Court. The club will vote regarding these locations in December. The club’s general manager confirmed this to us on November 2, 2017.

Brookside residents have also been told that the club is looking at Ione Court as a second entrance to the club. That is not true either. The club has no plan to seek a second entrance at Ione Court. The club’s general manager also confirmed this to us on November 2, 2017.

6. I JUST RECEIVED A MAILER FROM JILL REARDON THAT THE TOWNSHIP HAS INCURRED ????? IN LEGAL FEES FOR AN ONGOING ZONING CODE DISPUTE. WHAT IS THE DISPUTE?

This involves the Korean Church request for a zoning variance. The Korean Church initiated the lawsuit. Perry had to defend that lawsuit. As indicated in the answer above, that lawsuit was recently settled. Ms. Reardon has gone on record as saying she would not have supported that settlement even though 90% of Brookside residents wanted to settle, and even though continuing the lawsuit would create even more legal costs.

We hope this answers your questions.

Sincerely,

Jim Roper and Andy English

MY PLAN TO SAVE EVEN MORE TAXPAYER MONEY

I’ve provided numerous examples over the past few months showing how I saved taxpayer dollars. The total for all of these examples is OVER ONE MILLION DOLLARS SAVED! I will continue to employ these same methods if re-elected because they work.

Some have asked for new or additional ways I plan to save money. Here are five new ways that I will save your taxpayer dollars if re-elected:

1. Negotiate an affordable new three-year police contract in 2018. Our police department is our best asset and we need to take care of our officers. At the same time, we need to be frugal with taxpayer dollars. I will negotiate a new contract in 2018 that is both fair to our police officers and fair to taxpayers.

2. Get more use out of existing equipment. We recently did this by only buying two new police cars when three were in the budget. I will work with our police chief and road superintendent to find more ways to make our existing equipment last longer.

3. Re-evaluate our shared services agreements for fire and EMS services. We currently partner with Worthington and Upper Arlington for fire and EMS services. We need to explore if others can provide these services at a better cost. We did this with our radio dispatching. There is no reason we why can’t do it with fire and EMS coverage as well.

4. Look for more ways to partner with outside agencies to save costs on training. Various departments in our township require ongoing training. It is expensive to hire instructors. I plan to partner with outside agencies, such as the Sharon Township Police Department, where we can share the costs of training. Sharing the cost of an instructor means a 50% savings for each township.

5. Trim outside legal expenses. I’ve seen the legal practice change dramatically over the past 30 years as far as billing. The new trend is agreed to service plans and preapproved budgets. With my legal experience, I can get this done and reduce outside legal fees for our township.

MY PROMISE TO YOU - NO NEW OR INCREASED TAX LEVIES

Perry Township is primarily funded through levies including levies for fire, road and police services. I pledge not to vote for any new or increased tax levy over the next four years if re-elected.

The reason I can make this promise is simple. As your trustee for the past 16 years, we have been very responsible spending your tax dollars. We have saved a significant amount of money though shared services agreements with other local governments. The biggest savings was partnering with Worthington and now Franklin County for radio dispatch services. That total savings for that partnership alone is over one million dollars. We’ve also saved money by purchasing fewer police cars and by purchasing used (7 days old) police radios rather than buying brand new ones. Additionally, we have acquired new police equipment by securing over $250,000 in grants at no cost to taxpayers.

Candidates often make promises of “no new taxes”. But, it is important to remember that the only reason they can make such a promise in Perry Township, is because we have been working diligently over the years to SAVE MONEY and SPEND WISELY.

In sum, not only do I promise not to vote for any new or increased tax levies, I promise to continue to look for new and creative ways to save YOUR taxpayer dollars. I’ve done that for the past 16 years. You can trust me do that for the next 4 years.

Jim Roper
Chairman, Perry Township Board of Trustees
Trustee Liaison, Perry Township Police Dept.

Fiscal Responsibility - Taking Advantage of Grants

One of the ways that I’ve been able to help reduce township costs is by assisting our Police Chief in obtaining grants. The best thing about grants is that we get new equipment at no cost to taxpayers.

Over the years, Perry Township has obtained grants from a variety of sources such as The Department of Homeland Security, The Department of Justice and even non-government sources like Firehouse Subs for a variety of police needs such as new computers, servers, radios and cameras.

The pictures here show some of these items: The interior of the police cruiser shows a laptop, an in-car camera and an in-car radio which were all obtained by grants. These three pieces of equipment for just one car would have cost have cost the Township well over $10,000. Also shown is our new fingerprint machine (valued at $28,000) and a defibrillator.

As someone whose law firm represents dozens of police departments throughout Ohio, I will keep a look out for even more grant opportunities for Perry Township. Saving money and improving your police department at the same time isn’t easy to do, but that is exactly what I have done as your township trustee. And that is exactly what I will continue to do if re-elected.

Jim Roper
Chairman, Perry Township Board of Trustees
Trustee Liaison, Perry Township Police Dept.

The Truth About Your Property Taxes

While campaigning door-to-door, I’ve learned that residents are being told that Perry Township has steadily increased property taxes for 10 years. That is not true.

This explanation is a bit long, but I promise you will know a lot more about your property taxes after you read this.

Your property taxes go to these 10 groups: 1) Franklin County General Fund; 2) Children’s Services; 3) Mental Health Services; 4) MRDD; 5) Metro Parks; 6) Columbus Zoo; 7) Senior Services; 8) Worthington Schools; 9) Library Services; and 10) Perry Township.

Worthington Schools takes the largest amount at 56%. The Franklin County group (Children’s Services, Mental Health, MRDD, etc.) along with the library takes 23%. Finally, Perry Township gets 21%. Whenever any one of these 10 groups passes a levy, your property taxes are impacted.

Here is what Perry Township has done as far as levies for the past 10 years:

ROAD LEVIES: Perry township road levies are temporary. They last five years and then they expire. The year before they expire, we typically ask votes to “renew” or “replace” the expiring levies. Here are the 4 road levies voters passed over the past 10 years:

2008: Passed a 1.5 mill road levy that resulted in a TAX DECREASE to 95% of Perry Township property owners

2009: Passed a 1.5 mill “replacement” levy to take the place of a 1.5 mill levy that was set to expire at year end.

2013: Passed a 1.5 mill “renewal” levy to take the place of a 5 mill levy that was set to expire at year end. This resulted in NO TAX INCREASE.

2014: Passed a 1.5 mill “renewal” levy to take the place of a 5 mill levy that was set to expire at year end. This resulted in NO TAX INCREASE.

POLICE LEVIES: Perry Township police levies are permanent. Here are the two police levies voters passed over the past 10 years:

2008: Passed a 9.1 mill levy that resulted in a TAX DECREASE to 95% of Perry residents. The DECREASE occurred because the trustees terminated two older permanent police levies. The DECREASED amount was $48 per $100,000 of property valuation.

2015: Passed a 3.5 mill police levy that resulted in a TAX INCREASE of $123 per $100,000 of property valuation.

Don’t be misled. Perry Township has NOT been steadily increasing your taxes. We’ve had TWO TAX DECREASES and ONE TAX INCREASE for 95% of residents over the past 10 years.

2018 – A Critical Year for Perry Township

Exactly one year from now, Perry Township will be in negotiations with our police officers on a new three-year contract. Our current contract expires at the end of 2018. We always begin negotiations on the new contract in the fall of the expiring year.

I have been the lead negotiator on behalf of Perry Township for our last three police contracts. No current trustee or trustee candidate has any experience taking the lead in this area. The Fraternal Order of Police (F.O.P.) will have professional negotiators present on behalf of our officers. Perry Township needs a professional at the other end of the table. My 30 plus years of experience as an attorney, and my prior involvement in negotiating our prior police contracts, makes me uniquely qualified to fill this important role on behalf of the Township.

Our Police Department is our greatest asset. It is also our greatest expense. It is critical that we take care of our police officers since they take care of us. At the same time, we have to be mindful of taxpayer dollars and we have to live within our budget.

Experience matters when negotiating a collective bargaining agreement with the police union. You have trusted me with this responsibility in the past. And you can trust me negotiating our next police contract in 2018.

Jim Roper
Trustee Liaison, Perry Township Police Department

Recycling. Making Perry Township Green.

I have posted a lot over the past few weeks about all the cost saving measures I helped put in place since being elected your Perry Township trustee. But, I’m also proud of other accomplishments.

When I was first elected your trustee, we didn’t have curbside recycling. I worked hard to change all of that.

In 2010, I voted to bring recycling to our community. We started out with 18-gallon bins. Remember those? As recycling increased, we needed to change our collection method. In 2013, we went from using the 18-gallon bins to our current 65-gallon recycle wheeled containers. And, we reduced the cost of our weekly trash collection services by 23%. Also, I voted to give all Perry Township senior citizens a 10% discount. We need to take care of seniors on a fixed income.

If re-elected, I will take Perry Township recycling to the next level. My goal is to swap our current 96-gallon trash containers with our current 65-gallon recycle containers. In other words, we will be recycling more and adding less to our landfills. I will also work with our neighbors in Sharon Township to help bring recycling to all of our neighborhoods. There is no reason every local government in Central Ohio can’t follow Perry Township’s lead and save our landfills and protect the environment.

I’ve had a number of questions about the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) endorsement for Perry Trustee. Some are under the impression that the FOP endorsed only one candidate. That is not true. The FOP endorsed two trustee candidates – me and Jill Reardon.

I’m honored to receive the FOP endorsement. I’ve been the Perry Township trustee responsible for overseeing our police department for eight years now. There is no other current trustee or trustee candidate who has any experience overseeing a police department.

I know our police officers very well and we work very well together. I’m currently working with our Chief to improve and update our Police Policy and Procedure Manual. This ongoing project will take time to complete. If re-elected, I will work hard to finish this vital task.

I’m proud to say that I’ve been a part of the decision to hire many of our current officers, including Chief Petrozzi. We have actually added more full time officers at no increased cost due to savings in other areas of the department.

As an attorney with over 30 years of experience, and whose firm represents dozens of other police departments outside of Perry Township, I am keenly aware of the differences between a great, an average and a poor police department. My continuing goal is to help make our great police department even better. I’ve been doing that for years, and you can trust me to do that if re-elected.

Jim Roper
Chairman, Perry Township Board of Trustees
Trustee Liaison, Perry Township Police Department