Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Oregon’s proposed data center project took a bit of a back seat at the Dec. 15 city council meeting as councilman Steve Hornyak responded to citizens who were concerned over his motion at the Dec. 8 meeting to appoint David Andrus to the vacant council seat.
Hornyak and the rest of council witnessed over a dozen residents voice their concerns, which primarily centered around what they feel was a violation of Ohio’s Sunshine Laws. Some residents claim that several members of council met in secrecy to discuss the appointment ahead of time, equating to a “walking quorum.”
“Yes, I am aware of Sunshine Laws,” Hornyak said. “The walking quorum I've gotten more familiar with to make sure we are okay because I didn't have a deep knowledge of that. I'm still comfortable that we didn't do anything.”
One of the residents, Aimee Mottmiller, questioned Andrus about how much he knew prior to the meeting.
“I never sought to be here,” Andrus said. “I was contacted. I was made aware that there was vacancy on council. I had served on the BZA (board of zoning appeals) for going on 15 years. I was asked for qualifications. I let them know that I've been a resident of Oregon for 25 years and on the BZA for 15. I have a degree in civil engineering. I also have a degree in land surveying, and I'm licensed in land surveying in both in Ohio and Michigan. I perform a lot of work all over the area for all different kinds of people, small people, big people, corporations, the refinery. I was in the refinery this morning. I work with all kinds of people. I believe that I was sort of well-versed with a lot of different people. I have no political aspirations, and I will not be defending this seat when this is over with.”
The city’s law director, Melissa Purpura, then made a statement.
“I understand there's been a lot of interest in the issues surrounding the compliance with the Ohio Sunshine Laws, specifically the open meeting,” she said. “(Since) the city has been placed on notice of potential civil litigation, and consistent with Oregon's past practice … we cannot comment at this time.”
Despite not able to go deeper in regard to some questions because of that, Andrus was able to make a longer statement later in the meeting.
“Obviously, my placement here is extremely controversial,” he said. “It's not easy to step into this situation between warring factions. Trust me, my wife looked at me and said, 'You're crazy.' And God love her. She's right. When people heard that I was appointed to the seat, there was no congratulations. There was, ‘I'm going to pray for you.’
“I know many of you feel that I shouldn't be here, obviously. I'm not looking at a room of people ... in fact, I don't see anybody here that I know. I'm not looking at a room that likes the way this went down. I regret the fact that I never had the opportunity to present my credentials ... I didn't seek out this position. I was approached, and I thought, 'What a way to serve my community.' I had no idea the controversy that this would cause. I was promised if I would consider this position, that I could vote any way I felt fit the benefit of the people of Oregon. And I intend to do so if I'm allowed to stay here.”
Another resident, Jim Davis, asked if Andrus understood he could no longer do work for the city during his term.
“I have done work for the city of Oregon,” Andrus said. “Very small projects here and there. I am a small operator. I am president of the oldest family-owned independent survey company in the metropolitan area. Many of my competitors have been bought out by huge corporations and don't like to do work for normal people. I understand that my placement here means I can no longer do work, at least for the next two years, for the city of Oregon. I am aware of that.”
Purpura responded to another Davis question about why the appointment motion wasn’t on last week’s agenda.
“According to the codified ordinances of the city of Oregon, 111.06, which states order of business (and) lays out how business shall be conducted at council meetings, it was not required based on this chapter or this statute that it needed to be placed on the agenda, so there was no violation of that section I did review. With regards to asking me if I prepared a document, I prepared no document.”
She also answered another question.
“As far as council's actions, based on what I have reviewed and looked at in comparison to the Ohio Open Meetings Act, along with court decisions that have interpreted that, it is my opinion, again, based on what I know occurred last week, that they are not in violation of the Ohio Sunshine Laws,” Purpura said.
“Including the round-robin discussion provision?” Davis said. “Because as I understand what happened last week, they had sort of the individual conversations but came to a conclusion on what they were going to do based on that. And they were not notifying the mayor or (councilwoman) Mrs. (Beth) Ackerman or (councilman) Mr. (Paul) Drake.”
“I know that it has been stated that there is a round robin,” Purpura said. “Upon reviewing what occurred last week and re-reviewing it after sitting here, I don't have any evidence that has been presented to me that that is what occurred. Therefore, it's my opinion that they are in compliance with the Ohio Sunshine Laws.”
Salander, meanwhile, made a statement on the matter at the end of his mayor’s report, which was the second of his nascent tenure.
“First, I would like to thank the community for their concerns and interest in the recent actions that have taken place through our city government,” he said. “Many of you have expressed your concerns here tonight in addition to the many others who have already made their feelings known. Accountability and transparency are essential components of our constitutional republic. The concerns voiced by our community members here tonight are valid, and I share your concerns. As a result of these actions, I am immediately seeking outside legal counsel of my choosing to conduct a review of the actions around a possible Sunshine Laws open meeting round robin law violation for the selection of a nominee to fill a vacant council seat. This isn't about the nominee himself but instead the actions taken by members of council prior to the meeting last week to appoint the nominee. I want to be clear that this request is not due to who the nominee was. This legal review is the first step regarding this alleged violation. I ask for your patience and understanding at this time to help ensure your trust and confidence in our city government. Your voice is heard, respected, and understood. And understand that we will do everything to make this right.”
Hornyak, for his part, explained why he made the decision to nominate Andrus, specifically in response to a question debating why he used the 2022 charter change that was voted on to make his choice, especially considering the vote was so close and not a landslide.
“I'm sorry that I disappointed you or you feel that I disappointed you, but I do want to give a little bit of illumination to my why,” he said. “I'll go back to 2022, and it was stated by 38 votes. This is still a democracy, and 50 percent plus one still passes votes. The city of Oregon had three different charter change items that were forwarded to the agenda in 2022 for the November election.
“One dealt with the start date for council terms, which was somewhat requested from the Board of Elections. I know that because one of the board members reached out to me and said, 'By the time we get ballot certified, ready to go to swear somebody in on Dec. 1, if there's a recount, that's a challenge.' That's really why that first rule was put in.
“There was a second one which said, 'Let's eliminate primaries.' And again, part of the same conversation with the BOE, and I believe why the administration presented that was if you have a September primary, and there is a chance for a recount because of that September primary, there's no way to get the ballots prepared for early voting. So that was taken to the voters.
“The other one was in the appointment. And at the time, I believe the argument for that was when that charter piece was written, all seven council seats were elected at the same time, every two years. That changed a number of years ago with the charter change, where there is staggered elections of four members and three members, starting with a two-year term and a four-year term. There was a whole thing. It's all the information in the charter.
“That's how we got to the point of why does council appoint the next person instead of the next highest vote getter. The citizens of Oregon, not city council, not the administration … it was put to the voters in the city of Oregon, who approved it. Thirty-eight votes, one vote, 300 votes. It was approved.
“They also approved the change of the start date. They did not approve the elimination of the primaries, which tells me that voters were discerning enough to know the difference between the three things they liked and what they didn't like. And while the vote was close, it was still affirmative on how the vacancy would be put in there.”
Andrus, meanwhile, just wants a chance.
“I am independent,” he said. “I would like to meet with Jim Davis. I'd like to meet with that group. I want to know what the issues that these people have with this data center. A couple months ago, I didn't know anything about this data center because I work seven days a week as a small businessman just trying to keep things going. All I saw were signs on roads everywhere. And I had no idea what this data center was about.
“I watched the town hall meeting. I saw the developer make comments and promises, and I saw a lot of citizens having genuine concerns. I want to find out what those concerns are. I am independent. I get to vote any way I want, but I always would put forth the people of Oregon first. I'm sorry that my being here has caused so much tumult. I only ask that you give me a chance.”
Reports
In the other portion of his mayor’s report, Salander and council approved the resignation of Andrus from the city’s board of zoning appeals due to his new role on council. Also approved was the retirement of James Bartley as the operator of the wastewater treatment plant effective April 30, 2026, as well as the retirement of William Gladieux, effective March 13, 2026, from the water distribution department. Finally, Angela Mills of Toledo was approved for appointment to be a water treatment plant operator position, placed in step one at an hourly rate of $33.41 at an annual salary of $69,492.80, and effective Jan. 12, 2026.
In the city administrator’s report, Joel Mazur said he received, along with the mayor, some answers to recent questions at city council meetings regarding the data center. He said the questions and answers are currently on the city’s website.
“One other item, there was a question by a resident last week about the cooling systems and the use of PFAS,” Mazur said. “We did confirm that it is a glycol system, and they stated that in the town hall meeting, but also I did want to point out and to quote Paul Roman (the city’s public service director), but a lot of these design questions we don't have the answers to, and we won't have the answers to them until after the detailed load study is complete, and until an economic development agreement is negotiated.
“A lot of those items we won't be able to see until then. The detailed load study is what is referred to as a gating vent, so once that’s completed and it shows that there's availability of power to the site, to the location, then other items can follow that. That's what we're waiting on from what we're told. First Energy should have the detailed load study completed by early January.”
Other business
In other business, council adopted five ordinances. The first was for the adoption of a formal cybersecurity program for the city, which stems from the state passing a law requiring anybody who gets audited by the auditor of state to have a formal cybersecurity program.
“We are required to have one by Jan. 1,” the city’s IT director Ken Meister said. “This doesn't create something entirely new. It basically formalizes a lot of the processes that we're doing now and then also adds the additional step of having it audited by the auditor of state each year, as well to make sure that we're doing what we should be doing. It covers such things as employee cybersecurity training, inventory, access control, network controlling, network controls, antivirus patching, backups and recoveries, and incident response plans.”
The next two items involved supplemental appropriations, and the city’s finance director Nick Roman discussed them.
“As we talked about a year and a half ago, it was asked that whenever we're bringing forward any supplemental appropriations, we split them between personnel versus operating capital just to make it easier for council members and citizens to see what we are doing.”
This first ordinance is on the operating capital side.
“If you look at the attachment, almost every single one is a reduction in our budget,” he said. “These are different items that we either didn't get to, projects that we decided not to go forward with, or just other miscellaneous items that we didn't need for whatever reason throughout the year.”
The personnel side ordinance involved payroll.
“We have our last payroll this week, and therefore we don't know exactly what dollar amounts are going to come out of those based on overtime, vacations, and different additional items that are included in the payroll,” Roman said. “We have to make estimates to make sure that we have enough money appropriated during for the end of the year. This is actually the smallest amount that we've seen in the last couple of years in terms of what we are appropriating to the different personnel accounts. It's laid out by department, and then there are two insurance items on there. The last one is for the retirement payouts. We had a lot of retirements this year, that was some big amounts, so we were short on that as well.”
The fourth ordinance carries over some of the excess vacation and personal time off from the employees into 2026. It was just for city employees.
Roman added some context.
“This is for extraordinary circumstances,” he said. “For each union agreement, each bargaining and non-bargaining, there's different rules about how much vacation time that can be carried over any given year. Anybody who is over that amount automatically loses it unless there is an extraordinary circumstance. They're allowed to request to the mayor to ask for permission to carry over those hours. Each of the three employees on this, I believe, reached out to the mayor and asked for it, so that's why it's being brought forward by him to be approved by council.”
Hornyak asked for confirmation that this is a fairly consistent, end of year ordinance that was presented.
“It is accurate that this does come forward,” Roman said. “It's usually one or two employees. When we were in COVID, it was really difficult for employees to use time, so that's where during those couple of years, we did see a (much) larger list of names on here with bigger numbers because it was so difficult for people to use their time. So yes, this is typically brought every year, but it's usually one or two people with extraordinary circumstances.”
The final item approved the 2026 budget.
