CORTLAND — City council has advanced an ordinance that would prohibit nepotism or conflict of interest in city employment.

The ordinance was given a second reading Monday, with the third reading scheduled for Dec. 15.

Councilman John Picuri has said it is important to have a more transparent ordinance be in place to avoid nepotism.

Officials have said that the public trust requires an open, fair and transparent hiring process for all municipal positions; and public agencies are required to conduct all hiring activity in a fair, open and impartial manner.

Officials said they want to avoid giving preferences or advantages to family members by public officials, department heads or city employees, which is unfair to other applicants who may be as qualified or even more qualified.

The ordinance states no city official or employee shall, individually or as part of a body, participate in any decision to specifically hire, appoint, promote, transfer, discipline or discharge a relative for any position in the city and no city official or city employee shall supervise a relative in the performance of their official duties.

TRASH COLLECTION

In other business, council made a motion to pull an ordinance to enter into a contract with Browning Ferris Industries for trash removal and instead rebid for the trash service.

Picuri said the trash removal service was not previously publicly bid and it should have been.

“This needs to be properly bid before we can vote on this. That is an issue,” he said.

Mayor Deidre Petrosky said there was only one vendor who qualified. She said the city wants to get a new recycling program in place with recycling carts made available for each resident.

The motion was withdrawn by council, and Petrosky said at the next meeting there will be action to advertise for new bids.

SERVICE DIRECTOR

In other matters, several residents questioned why no service director is in place.

Resident Mike Matheny blamed Petrosky for the delay in getting a new service director since Kim Blasco left in January.

“You wanted Sean Ratican as the service director, but council would not approve him. We still have no service director,” Matheny said.

Petrosky, who said she as a part-time mayor has been overseeing the service department, said candidates were interviewed.

Resident Rita Dodd said the service director position needs to be filled.

Ratican had served as an interim service director after Blasco left and while Petrosky recommended him as service director, council voted against her. Councilwoman Kathy Fleischer said at the time that she and other members of council voted down naming Ratican as service director because he was not the most qualified and other candidates needed to be considered.

Also, council approved advertising for bids for the West Main Street boat ramp improvements at Mosquito Creek Lake Park

Petrosky said the city has been able to secure a $404,000 capital improvement award from the Ohio General Assembly through House Bill 687. The project is estimated to cost $200,000.

Petrosky said the project has been a joint effort between the city and ODNR for improvements at the lake, including a restroom facility, planting new grass areas for picnic tables and benches, and adding pathways to connect the recreation area to the existing Turkey Run Trail

The ODNR Office of Real Estate and Land Management is responsible for administering the appropriations.