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Council to consider search firm, center expansion

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BEAVERCREEK — Beavercreek City Council is expected to consider several significant city issues at its Monday night meeting.

Among the items to be considered are a contract with a firm to aid in finding the next city manager, the acceptance of a development plan for the Lofino Plaza Shopping Center, a charter amendment to change how the city’s mayor is elected and establishing a vacant property registry.

City manager search firm

Council is expected to vote on a contract with a Texas-based firm to aid in the search for a new city manager. The city’s Executive Recruitment Committee is recommending a contract not to exceed $18,500 with Strategic Government Resources for the search, according to city documents.

“SGR is one of the top local government executive search firms in the nation and has the unique ability to provide a personalized and comprehensive search service to meet city needs that includes community engagement,” city documents about the contract stated.

The search comes following current city manager Mike Cornell announcing in March plans to retire from his position when his contract ends Dec. 31, 2016.

Center expansion

Council will also consider approving designs for an estimated $1.5 million development project at the city’s Lofino Plaza Shopping Center. The project will renovate portions of the Lofino Senior Adult Enrichment and Cultural Center, which is housed in the plaza, and add community meeting space in previously vacant adjacent storefronts donated to the city by the Lofino family in 2010.

The storefronts would be gutted in favor of a fitness center area, which would have a walking track and equipment, as well as meeting and multipurpose rooms, according to Beavercreek Parks, Recreation and Culture Department Superintendent Kim Farrell.

According to city documents, plans call for construction at the center to begin in late summer or early fall so occupancy could begin in late 2016 or early 2017.

Direct mayoral election

Under a proposed change to the city’s charter, voters would directly elect the city’s mayor to a four-year term beginning in the 2019 November general election. An individual could be elected to a consecutive four-year term as mayor for a total of eight years in the office, but would have to leave council for four years before returning.

Members of council would be term-limited at a combination of two four-year terms between the offices of council member and mayor.

The mayor’s office would still largely be a ceremonial one, and the mayor would have, with small exceptions, the same power as that of other city council members. The council candidate receiving the most votes in each council election would be elected vice mayor for the first two years of his or her four-year term, under the proposal.

Currently, the city’s mayor is selected in the council member election every two years by virtue of being the candidate receiving the highest number of votes.

To send the charter amendment to voters this November, five members of council would have to vote in favor of the idea. If the charter amendment went to the ballot, but voters turned it down, the election process for the city’s mayor would remain as-is.

Property registry

The abandoned foreclosure property registry would require properties that are in foreclosure to be registered with the city once they have become unoccupied and would also require the mortgage company to maintain the property, according to a city documents.

Registration would also be required for vacant properties that are not being kept in compliance with city codes. Vacant properties maintained in compliance with city codes would not be required to be registered.

Mayor Bob Stone told this newspaper in a previous interview that the purpose of the registry is so the city could monitor the properties and so it would have a “clear point of contact if orders have to be written on the property,” he said.

Council will vote Monday on the first reading of an adopting ordinance for the registry.

http://aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2016/05/web1_center-1.jpgRendering courtesy Levin Porter Architects

This floor plan shows the proposed design for the Lofino Center expansion Beavercreek City Council will consider Monday night. This rendering shows a version of plans proposed for an development project at the Lofino Plaza Shopping Center.
http://aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2016/05/web1_layout-1.jpgThis floor plan shows the proposed design for the Lofino Center expansion Beavercreek City Council will consider Monday night. This rendering shows a version of plans proposed for an development project at the Lofino Plaza Shopping Center. Design courtesy Levin Porter Architects

By Nathan Pilling

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Reach Nathan Pilling at 937-502-4498 or on Twitter @XDGNatePilling.