ASHLAND — The Ashland County land bank board gave the organization’s director the green light Friday to purchase a desktop computer that will be used to have a centralized location for digital files and records.
The move is part of a sweeping effort to re-codifying the quasi-governmental entity’s way of doing business, which includes updating policies and procedures that haven’t been addressed since the organization’s forming in 2018.
The efforts come after a two-part series in Ashland Source that reviewed the way the land bank does business, which found a number of issues ranging from not having a public records retention schedule to executing a questionable property transaction via email.
Director Bill Harvey said the organization has posted its public records policy, last updated on Aug. 15, in the land bank’s office. Posting a public records policy “in a conspicuous place in the public offices” is required by state law, according to the Ohio Auditor.
The office is located on the second level of the Mental Health and Recovery Board’s facility at 1605 County Road 1095. It’s where the new desktop computer will live, along with filing cabinets and other supplies like a printer, scanner and phone that will forward all calls to Harvey’s cell phone.
Harvey, a real estate agent with NextHome Next Stepp with a background in accounting, said he has barely ever used the office, as most of his duties can be done remotely from his laptop computer.
That routine, too, will change soon, he said.
“I’m planning on coming in (to the office) two days a week from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., probably Tuesday and Thursday,” he said.
Harvey was hired Feb. 1, 2021, replacing Erin Collins, who had worked as the director since 2018. He is the land bank’s only paid employee who works 15 hours weekly.
The board formed a subcommittee in July comprised of board treasurer Ann Wurster, secretary Angie McQuillen, president Matt Miller and Harvey in order to suggest updates to the organization’s existing policies and procedures.
Since July, the subcommittee have begun scouring the policies and procedures by dividing them into three categories — operational policies, property related policies and financial policies.
On Friday, McQuillen noted updates she thought would be prudent to adopt for the organization’s operational policies, which includes procedures on public records, conflicts of interest and ethics.
The public records policy received minor updates, which involved identifying Harvey as the organization’s director and updating its address to reflect the Mental Health and Recovery Board’s building.
The organization’s conflict of interest general ethics policies require signatures from everyone involved with the land bank. McQuillen found two issues related to those policies.
First, the conflict of interest policy did not have a signature page. Second, both policies had not been signed since 2018.
The board decided it would again sign those agreements yearly in January after having elected or appointed new officers in December.
Other policies that are already in existence, McQuillen said, just need to be followed. For example, within the organization’s public records policy it states such records will be backed up on a thumb drive and locked in a drawer.
That’s not currently happening.
“So it does read correctly, we just have to follow it,” Miller said.
Miller, McQuillen and Wurster encouraged the rest of the board to read over existing policies and procedures, which had been organized into a binder before the meeting and given to each member.
“I think that’ll be a good exercise. It might not be an exciting exercise, but … hopefully this is the turning point, where we’re a more solid organization,” Miller said.
In other land bank news:
• Harvey updated the board on properties that have either recently been acquired or pending acquisition.
He said there was nothing new to report on 118 West Fourth St., which the land bank purchased for $115,000 and demolished in 2019.
Ashland Mayor Matt Miller, who happens to serve as the land bank’s board president, said decisions on Lot 3659 on Orange Road in Ashland await the gathering of more information from the owners.
• Deeds to properties at Pearl Drive in Loudonville and Cinnamon Lake will be recorded Aug. 19.
• The board accepted the donation of 622 Chestnut St. in Ashland under a condition that the land bank would retain ownership.
• The board did not take formal action on which properties would be demolished under the $36,000 grant received from the Ohio Department of Development’s Building Demolition and Site Revitalization Program.
However, Miller said the city of Ashland would pursue razing 211, 215, 221 and 223 East Main St., along with two other structures on Third Street.
Miller suggested the land bank move forward with demolishing two stationary trailer-home structures in Perrysville (140 East Third St. and 123 South Bridge St.) previously mentioned as possibilities, but no action was taken Friday.
