Cash-strapped communities could alter contracts easily

Oct. 26, 2011, Fremont News-Messenger

By Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

CentralOhio.com is examining important facets of Issue 2 in a 10-day series. The goal is to dive into the specifics of the bill so you will have the facts when you go to the polls.

You can read other parts of the series and view related videos at TheNews-Messenger.com/elections.

» Topic: Entities under fiscal watch or fiscal emergency can alter a bargaining agreement.

» Currently: If a city, village, township or school district is in financial trouble, it can go to the State Employment Relations Board and argue that it faces “exigent circumstances” and can’t uphold current bargaining agreements.

SERB upheld a sudden contract change for Toledo police officers in April after determining the city faced a “situation that demands unusual or immediate action and that may allow people to circumvent usual procedures.”

» What Senate Bill 5 would do: Senate Bill 5 makes it easier for entities in fiscal trouble to change collective bargaining agreements.

Under the bill, if a city, school district or village enters fiscal watch or fiscal emergency, it can automatically alter collective bargaining agreements before they expire, without going through SERB.

When this happens, the entity and employees will bargain for a new contract.

Fiscal watch and fiscal emergency are classifications set by the state auditor’s office to identify entities in financial trouble.

Minimum staffing levels may be altered

Oct. 25, 2011, Fremont News-Messenger

By Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

CentralOhio.com is examining the most important facets of Issue 2 in a 10-day series. Our goal is to dive into the specifics of the bill so you will have the facts when you go to the polls.

» Topic: Elimination of minimum staffing requirements from the bargaining process, and anything that keeps an entity from privatizing.

» Currently: Minimum staffing requirements and restrictions on outside contracting can be part of negotiations between union and public employer.

» What Senate Bill 5 would do: Police and firefighters would no longer be able to negotiate for how many workers need to be on a shift. Teachers would no longer be able to set a maximum number of students in the classroom.

Issue 2 would end binding arbitration

Oct. 22, 2011, Fremont News-Messenger

By Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

» Topic: Binding arbitration

» Currently: All non-uniformed bargaining units can strike, though it is rare. But police officers and firefighters cannot.

Uniformed units instead have a process called binding arbitration, where a neutral party is brought in to resolve the differences between them and their employer. The arbitrator’s decision stands.

» What Senate Bill 5 would do: End this process. Requests for mediation would go through the State Employment Relations Board, and must be done 75 days before the agreement expires.

Under the proposed law, if an impasse still occurs 70 days before expiration, SERB must appoint a mediator.

Executive order from Ohio governor hopes to rein in exotic animal owners

Oct. 22, 2011, Zanesville Times Recorder

By Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

COLUMBUS — If an animal is seen being treated inhumanely, Ohio officials already have the ability to confiscate it and arrest the owner.

It doesn’t happen often with large, dangerous animals, Gov. John Kasich said in a news conference Friday, because state officials don’t know what to do with the animal once they have it in their possession.

Kasich promised Friday, via an executive order, to step up enforcement of Ohio’s existing animal laws and pursue new ones regarding private ownership of dangerous animals.

Ohio law mostly silent on regulating wild animals

Oct. 20, 2011, Marion Star

By Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

When animal sanctuary officials in neighboring states found out what happened in Zanesville, they said they weren’t surprised.

Ohio has some of the most lax laws regarding private ownership of exotic animals, being one of fewer than 10 states with no regulation.

“My reaction was, ‘Here we go again.’” said April Truitt, director and founder of the Primate Rescue Center in Nicholasville, Ky. “Ohio is simply full to the brim with exotic animal breeders. ... You can buy anything you want in Ohio.”

The same response came from Ohio’s eastern neighbor.

“We knew something like this was going to happen, we just hoped it wouldn’t be on this scale,” said Melissa Bishop, of the East Coast Exotic Animal Rescue in Fairfield, Pa.

Truitt and Bishop were responding to a situation that broke late Tuesday, when authorities killed 49 of 56 exotic animals that escaped from a Zanesville farm after owner Terry Thompson killed himself.

Expired Ohio rule regulated exotic animals

Oct. 20, 2011, Zanesville Times Recorder

By Russ Zimmer and Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

If you own a dog in Ohio, you have to license it every year. However, your neighbor can own 18 tigers and he doesn’t have to tell a soul.

A regulatory blind spot in Ohio explains how a private individual could have grizzly bears, African lions and Bengal tigers at their home without any state supervision — let alone someone like Terry Thompson, a man with a history of animal-related misdemeanors and fresh from a year in federal prison for illegally possessing a machine gun.

In his final days as governor, Ted Strickland, as part of a deal that resulted in the Ohio Livestock Standards Board, issued an executive order prohibiting the ownership or trading of certain species, deemed “dangerous wild animals.”

The language of the order would have made Thompson’s animal sanctuary illegal because of his conviction for cruelty to animals.

Tax breaks help, analysis shows

Oct. 15, 2011, Fremont News-Messenger

By Jessica Alaimo and Russ Zimmer

CentralOhio.com

When President Barack Obama or Ohio Gov. John Kasich speak, voters want to know: Where are the jobs?

When local candidates filled out CentralOhio.com’s voter guide, many echoed the same theme: “Residents consistently tell me that they want officials to focus efforts on creating jobs.”

The state allows local officials to offer businesses tax breaks for adding or keeping jobs. A CentralOhio.com analysis shows beneficiaries of the programs have mostly kept their promises.

Since enterprise zones were created in 1983, businesses in the zones created or kept 73 percent of the jobs they promised in exchange for breaks on real and personal property taxes.