SPECIAL VOTE MAY DISSOLVE NEW ROME

 

Wednesday, September 4, 2002 NEWS   01B By Steve Stephens THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Illustration: Photo

Residents of New Rome -- the per-capita corruption capital of Ohio, according to state Auditor Jim Petro -- soon should have the chance to decide whether to put their village out of business.

Last night, Village Council members voted to follow court orders and forward an ordinance to the Franklin County Board of Elections asking that residents decide New Rome's fate in a special election.

Village Prosecutor Robert Head said that the date will be up to the board of elections, but that it probably will be Feb. 4.

Council members then endured Petro's recital of faults he found in an audit of the village's books from last year.

Petro, who had been invited to speak by Mayor Jamie Mueller, told council members that the problems he found have recurred in New Rome from year to year and, in some cases, from decade to decade.

New Rome spent thousands more than the Village Council had authorized last year, a problem found in every audit that Petro has done since he took office nearly eight years ago, he said.

Petro also found that more than 80 percent of the money collected by the New Rome Mayor's Court last year was not deposited in a timely manner, another long-standing problem.

"Since the 1950s, funds were not deposited in a timely way,'' Petro said. "Monies were put at risk.''

And the risk in New Rome is real. Nearly all village income is generated by the mayor's court through traffic tickets.

In the past decade, more than $120,000 of that money -- $2,000 for every man, woman and child in the village -- has been stolen. That is "proportionately more than any other government in Ohio,'' Petro said.

New Rome also accounts for three of the 99 public officials in Ohio prosecuted because of financial discrepancies since Petro took office, he said.

"On a per-capita basis, that's a pretty big number,'' he said.

Petro said that the village provides few services other than police and that the police do little more than write traffic tickets for those passing through the village's 1,000-foot strip of W. Broad Street, he said.

Petro said he and his auditors have concluded that New Rome is more trouble than it is worth and should be voted out of business.

"That's only a recommendation,'' Councilwoman Nancy Chapman said. "I don't take that to heart.''

Any problems in the village administration are because of ignorance, not malice, she said.

"I never understood we were in charge of the money coming in through the police department,'' said Chapman, who also has served as clerk-treasurer and whose husband was mayor for many years. "Nobody ever took the initiative to find out what we should be doing.''

Current Clerk-Treasurer Connie Tucker said changes instituted this year have turned things around in New Rome.

But Councilman Ed Anthony disagreed and said voters should dissolve the village.

"Everything (Petro) said is something I've been saying for years,'' he said.

Anthony went to Franklin County Common Pleas Court last month after he could not get council members to attend special meetings to put the dissolution issue on the ballot, despite a petition certified as valid by the board of elections.

The court ordered council members to forward the issue on to the board of elections and to voters.

Last night, Anthony, who has been Mueller's only ally on the council, was joined by another Mueller supporter, Jeanne Frazier, who was appointed by the mayor and certified by the board of elections as a council member last week.

Frazier has accused Chapman of slapping her after she attempted to take the council seat last month, a charge Chapman denies.

If the village is dissolved, Frazier will have a short stay in office.

"That's fine with me,'' she said.

Mueller, who also favors dissolving the village, said he was "pleased'' with the meeting.

"It was uneventful and placid,'' he said.

sstephens@dispatch.com

Caption: State Auditor Jim Petro recommended that the village be dissolved because it causes more trouble than it's worth.