What happened at Thursday's City Council meeting

Here are my notes from tonight’s meeting of Stow City Council:

DRUG BUST — Contrary to the national media reports, there was not a massive coke bust at Kent State Airport. … In other news, Tiger Woods’ wife finally found his phone and you might want to divest yourself of anything having to do with Lehman Brothers.

COUNCIL CLERK — Council voted 5-2 to offer its clerk, Bonnie Emahiser, a new two-year contract. Brian Lowdermilk and I voted “no.” Why did I vote “no”? It had nothing to do with Bonnie’s performance or attitude. She’s a terrific clerk. I have two reasons:

1) Bonnie is one of the employees who “double-dips.” In other words, she has retired, and is collecting a state pension, but she is also an employee on contract with the city. I strongly object to double-dipping. It prevents someone my age from getting his or her start in the workforce, and it’s also patently unfair. I don’t blame the employees for this — not a bit; it’s a systemic issue that the politicians in Columbus need to fix.

2) Bonnie’s current contract won’t expire for another 11 months. No one ever provided an explanation why this needed to be voted on so early. I made a motion to table the legislation until October 24.

The motion to table failed, then the legislation passed. All other legislation, including what I mentioned on Tuesday, passed unanimously.

CONNECT WITH ME — I take pride in being the most accessible and most transparent elected official in Ohio. Heck, I give out my personal cell phone number on the city’s Web site. Anyhow, I enjoy communicating with Stow residents as much as I can. If you’re not connected with me on Facebook and on Twitter, please do.

NEXT MEETINGS — Please join Matt Riehl and me at our monthly meeting with residents on Tuesday, February 5 at 5:30 p.m. in the second floor conference room at City Hall. Last month, we had a nice crowd, and it was enjoyable to talk about the issues. You don’t need an appointment; just show up.