NEWTON FALLS, Ohio - Some Newton Falls residents expressed outrage about a proposed $30,000 salary increase and six weeks vacation for City Manager Pam Priddy, saying that over 3 years it adds up to $90,000 more taxpayers dollars. 

 

What they say doesn't add up is there is no money for a police department, none to maintain parks for kids, or to repair crumbling sidewalks, and roads.

 

"Lawsuits have cost a half a million dollars since she has been there," Adam Zimmerman said.

 

He called out the three council persons he said made promises they would never sign a contract that didn't allow the person to be fired or terminated unless they were convicted of a felony. 

 

"Our city manager is demanding a $30,000 raise from supposedly a cash-strapped city," Adam Zimmerman added. 

 

"You defunded our police department saying we don't have money for that. We don't have $38,000 for mulch for the parks, but she deserves a $30,000 a year raise. ... I don't think so," Julie Lemon emphasized. 

 

"You let her come on with zero experience as a city manager. You let her do on-the-job training and you are going to pay her more than you have ever paid a city manager before, and give her more vacation. What is going on here?" Brian Axiotas asked. 

 

Others called out board members saying they could not afford to fix crumbling sidewalks or roads and decimated a good police department.

 

But others spoke out for the raise saying City Manager Pam Pirdy has been working to get grants and raising funds for road construction and other projects that will will continue to lead to major improvements for folks in Newton Falls. 

 

"We need to run Newton Falls like a business and not like it was the last four or five years before we got some order," Matthew Meszaros said.

 

People screamed and walked out of the council meeting.

 

One woman screamed about the dysfunction and how nothing ever gets done there and was frustrated about how residents remain divided and nothing gets done.

 

A Sheriff's deputy stepped in to make sure there were no physical fights.

 

Mayor Ken Kline tells me it's shameful when council members interrupt the public and won't let them speak, adding he understands why folks are upset council doesn't have money for taxpayers' priorities. 

 

"We don't have money to get mulch on our parks. .. Our parks look like third-world nations. You need the mulch for padding for kids, you need it to keep weeds from coming up, you need it there for the visual, but we don't have money for that. Over on another side of town, we have a playground over there that has been missing a slide for two years. We have been told it's been on order, that we don't have the money," Mayor Kline said.

 

"... Yet we are pulling out money and giving raises so I agree with the citizens, they are calling me and asking me the same questions and have the same concerns. I have a real problem with it. Then when citizens have the floor and speak their concerns, it's their time to have the floor, they shouldn't be interrupted and you have individuals on council interrupting them, and that's what you saw take place here tonight. I gave a warning. I gave a second," Mayor Kline added.

 

"It will probably be difficult to pass future levies when one week you don't have any money and the next week you're giving 33% raises," Kline emphasized. You got elected officials act like clowns it's disgusting," Mayor Kline said. 

 

City Manager Pan Pirdy says the Administration Committee which is made up of two council members did a review and recommended the pay increase. 

 

We asked her where the money would come from.

 

"We have taken this community from a negative $250,000 last year to a positive of 

$400,000 this year just by the changes we made the reductions in staff, the savings on health insurance, and everything else we've done along the way that's where the money is coming from. It's not new money. It's not found money," City Manager Pamela Priddy said. 

 

"We are actually going after income taxes now. I believe to date we have collected upwards of $120,000 in income taxes they haven't done since back in 2016. There are tax programs with RITA that were never implemented. When I came on board we started looking at them. ... We are accumulating more tax dollars. The investments we have we are doing better interest-wise with our investments compared with the investments we had before," Priddy said. 

 

"I worked eight months without pay and that was my choice. Initially, the position was supposed to be 30 days. Then they asked me to stay on and stay on. ... I participated in a job search and I did," City Manager Priddy added.

 

"Scott Street is a 4.6 million dollar project the city was going to be on the hook for, we'll we turned it around and said no, no, no the village can't afford to pay, so we ended up with 2.9 million dollar forgiveness loan which means the village doesn't have to pay it back, we got an $875,000 grant, we got $900,000 from the county. We are working on a 5 million dollar grant for the Community Center, and a 2.5 million dollar river project grant. A 12,500 grant from NOPEC which was a lighting project with and put speakers downtown. So far just the grants we applied for are over 12 million dollars, Priddy said. 

 

When you say we were you doing the grant writing process, or who did this?

 

"I work very closely with OHM, who is our grant writers, and anytime something comes across my desk I forward those to them and say Is this something we can apply for? Is this something Newton Falls would qualify for? They would tell me yes or no and I would tell them what we had. Then we would go full force going after and applying for those different grants," City Manager Priddy said.

 

"We made sure we would have matching funds available for roads, we put money aside and are budgeting for them to make sure we can get those road projects done," Priddy added.

 

We asked about the termination language requiring conviction of a felony. 

 

"If you look at the contract, it already has a self-terminating clause in it. It says that when projects are done I'm done. If I am here through the continuation of these projects then I'm done. Scott Street, the Community Center, the river project, and the street project. It will probably be three years max," City Manager Priddy said. 

 

No vote was taken and the meeting adjourned. 

 

A special meeting to vote on the contract is expected on Monday.