Mayor Jeffrey Mims Jr. and Commissioner Shenise Turner-Sloss voted yes to approve the petition and proposed ordinance to put the levy on the ballot, while Commissioners Matt Joseph and Chris Shaw voted to reject it. Commissioner Darryl Fairchild, who works for Dayton Children’s Hospital, abstained.
The Clergy Community Coalition can still get the levy measure on the November ballot if it can collect 1,250 additional signatures in the next 20 days from Dayton electors who did not sign the original petition.
This could be challenging. The coalition was able to collect 1,284 valid signatures (34 more the legal requirement), but that took several months to accomplish.
Nancy Kiehl, a member of the Clergy Community Coalition, on Wednesday said the city commission “failed to do their duty” but Dayton citizens will push forward with the initiative.
Commissioner Turner-Sloss said the city should put the measure on the ballot because residents deserve to decide their own future. Turner-Sloss said she plans to help collect signatures in the next 20 days.
Mayor Mims said he supports putting the levy request before voters because enough Daytonians signed a petition in support of the move.
Commissioner Shaw said the 1-mill levy (which could generate around $2 million annually for 10 years) would be “woefully” insufficient to fund a new hospital. He said the city likely would have to drastically cut funding for other vital services like police, fire and public works if it had to help pay to open and operate a new hospital.
“You could never build a hospital with that limited amount of resources,” he said.
Coalition members have said the money would merely be seed money, to help attract partners to build a new hospital.
Commissioner Joseph said he can’t support advancing the proposed levy when there’s no real plan for creating a new hospital.
“When you are asking residents for money, especially when we’re not a rich city, you can’t be vague about it, and you can’t just say we hope it’s going to happen or that it might happen,” he said. “You lay out the partnerships, you lay out where the dollars are going to go.”
About the Author
