Voters in Upper Arlington go to the polls Tuesday to decide whether to oust four members of the seven-member city council. A group of residents believes the council misled voters who passed a 2014 tax increase. Plans to redevelop a city park with the new tax money touched off the recall effort.
Upper Arlington’s Northam Park has ball fields, clay tennis courts, and a playground, spread across 22 acres. There used to be a swimming pool before it was filled in. The city says a new pool should be open by next summer, part of a $7 million redevelopment package. The plan is backed by a majority of city council members. Deborah Johnson is president of the Upper Arlington City Council.
“We have a pool that we’re replacing; the other pool was 60 years old. And it literally fell apart. There are tennis courts there and I think there are people who are worried about those tennis courts because [in] several of the drawings – we’ve probably had 12 different designs of Northam Park – [the courts] have been moved to accommodate for more field space,” Johnson says.
Other changes are planned. The ball fields which now are spread out, will be clustered together to make room for other sports.
“We want a community park that everyone can enjoy and everyone can use. 25 years ago when a lot of the park was still not used, there wasn’t things like soccer or lacrosse that are huge now. So we need that space availability and we need to be able to position those in the right way,” Johnson says.
But some residents don’t like the proposed changes and they’re trying to remove Johnson and her colleagues, council members David DeCapua, John Adams and Kip Greenhill. Retired Ohio State University finance professor Stephen Buser is a member of Save Northam Park which gathered signatures for the recall vote. Buser says it was the group’s only option.
“We repeatedly asked the city to explain certain things and they would dismiss our concerns. Just refer to us as ‘radical’ or initially it was ‘a trivial, vocal minority’ was the words that they used,” Buser says.
Buser and others collected the more than 2,000 valid signatures required to initiate the recall. He says he found others equally frustrated with Upper Arlington’s leadership. Among them, people opposed to the outsourcing of the city’s 9-1-1 emergency call service.
“A lot of us started because of the park, but we found over time that we’re just one of many, many, many different groups who have concerns that are not being addressed by the city,” Buser says.
Buser says it’s been difficult to get details on the Northam Park redevelopment. The $7 million for the project is coming from a two-year-old tax initiative which passed with 63 percent voter approval. Council president Deborah Johnson:
“In 2014, we put Issue 23 on the ballot – a half-percent income tax increase that went specifically for infrastructure. And so they claim that they were deceived in that that they really didn’t realize that parks were included in that,” Johnson says.
Johnson says the city widely publicized the fact that parks were included under infrastructure. Though she acknowledges that at least one mailing failed to mention the park plan.
“There was one mailer – it was a marketing piece – that had streets, sewers, gutters, and did not have parks on it. But it also didn’t have sidewalks or a pool, or streetlights, or bike paths, those types of things that are also infrastructure. But you can only put so much on a marketing piece,” Johnson says.
Buser showed me a copy of that mailing.
“If you look at this one, it says, ‘By law, 100% of the revenues generated, approximately $3.5 million annually, will be dedicated to improving our roads, curbs and gutters, bridges and underground water and sewer lines. No mention of parks,” he says.
The recall election will cost Upper Arlington somewhere in the neighborhood of $65,000 dollars; that’s the cost of democracy one resident said. For his part, Stephen Buser wants democracy that’s a little more responsive.
“I’ve lived here for 40 years, I can’t recall this many people with this many concerns. They come to meetings but their voices are not being heard,” Buser says.
Deborah Johnson believes that she and her three colleagues will prevail.
“We have gotten tremendous support from the community. It’s been overwhelming. So I think the recall will not hold up. I think that we will retain our seats,” Johnson says.
Polls open Tuesday at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m.