Local food assistance need remains high
Struggling to find jobs, many families seek the help for the first time.
As Dayton continues to struggle with high unemployment during the COVID-19 pandemic, hundreds of families are seeking food assistance from the Foodbank for the first time.
A steady stream of vehicles drove through the parking lot of Welcome Stadium on Thursday morning to pick up fresh produce and other staples during a mass food distribution.
The Foodbank served over 3,300 people, or about 1,100 households, onThursday, according to Chief Development Officer Lee Lauren Truesdale. About 700 of those households were firsttime emergency food users.
Peoplewaiting in the long line told stories of howthe pandemic has disrupted their livelihoods in a variety of ways, causing them to seek food assistance for the first time or more frequently than before the pandemic.
“I haven’t been able to work for a while now, I haven’t been able to provide everything I used to be able to provide formy family,” said Tasha Smyth.
Smyth supports her five kids and her mother. Thursday was her first time coming to the Foodbank for assistance. Before the pandemic, Smyth worked as a home healthcare provider. Since May, she has not been able to work in part because of a lack of childcare options.
Smyth said it has been especially difficult to make ends meet
to prevent any further technical violations.”
Wolaver ruled that board members’ text and email discussions from April 19-22, 2019, regarding a May 2019 pro-school levy postcard, “contain sufficient discussion and deliberation to constitute a meeting under the (Open Meetings Act).”
The ruling says then-board member Kathy Kingston solicited input from other board members, and Cozad emailed the other four board members, asking them to send Kingston their thoughts on a draft letter to the community.
Therulingsaysboardmembers Carpenter, Mary Frantz, andthen-boardmemberElizabeth Betz responded, and after some back-and-forth over the content, the result was a $2,008 expenditure to mail 6,500 postcards to district residents.
Wolaver ruled that five other text and emailcommunicationsamongboardmembers that Staffordquestioned did not qualify as “deliberation of public business,” and thereforewerenot violations.
Wolaver also ruled that the schoolboardwentintoclosed executive session improperly six times in 2018 and 2019. Ohio lawlists very limited reasons why a school board, city council or other publicbody canmeetbehind closed doors.
As no members of the public are present in those sessions, and they are not recorded, Ohio residents can only trust that public bodies limit discussions to approved topics once inside.
But these violationswere based on the reasons the Bellbrook-Sugarcreek school boardlistedpublicly for holding an executive session.
In three instances, the board said it was going into executive session at least in part to discuss goals or evaluations of the superintendent and treasurer, which are not approved purposes for closed sessions.
Other violations were for more technical reasons, such assimplyusingtheterm“personnel” rather than properly specifyingwhether the board was considering the hiring or discipline or dismissal of staff.
Open meetings law violations call for a $500 civil forfeiture to be paid to the personwho raised the complaint, plus court costs and attorney’s fees. And any action the board took as a result of an impropermeeting is ruled invalid.
Wolaver ruled the board must pay $3,000 plus court costs to Stafford for the violations, but that’s not the final step.
“The court will hold a separate hearing on reasonable attorney fees as required by (Ohio law) and to determine what, if any formal actions were taken as a result of the (improperly called) May 9, 2019 executive session,” Wolaver wrote.
Stafford said given the OpenMeetingsActinjunction that was part of Wolaver’s ruling, if school board members violate the Act again, they could be removed from office. He said he wished the board had not pursued the lengthy court case.
“While I amgladtohave an injunction issued, it is a sad dayinBellbrookthatsomuch fundingwaswasted on legal fees that could have been used to educate children in the district, especiallywhen theschoolboardkeepsasking for a tax increase,” he said.