Hambden Heeds Budget Commission’s Advice to Preserve Its Qualified Levies
Budget Commission Meeting – August 4, 2025
Meeting Details: The Geauga County Budget Commission held its Annual Reorganization Meeting on Monday, August 4, 2025 at 10:00 am in the Auditor's Conference Room, 215 Main Street, Chardon, Ohio. The meeting was in person with a virtual attendance option via MS Teams. To attend Budget Commission meetings virtually via MS Teams, email an invitation request to Pam McMahan at PMcMahan@geauga.oh.gov.
Meeting Attendance: Prosecutor Jim Flaiz, Treasurer Chris Hitchcock, and Auditor Chuck Walder.
Staff Attendance: Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Kristen Rine (virtual), Deputy Auditors Tammy Most and Kristen Sinatra, and Chief Operations Officer Pam McMahan.
County Staff: Budget and Finance Manager Adrian Gorton (virtual).
Members of the Public: Geauga County Maple Leaf Journalist Allison Wilson and this LWV Geauga Observer (both virtual).
The meeting was called to order at 10:01 am.
Minutes: Minutes from the Regular Meeting on July 21, 2025 were approved. The minutes are available here.
Annual Reorganization Meeting:
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Alternates: Mr. Walder appointed ADP Chief Deputy Administrator Frank Antenucci, Chief Compliance Officer & Administrator Kate Jacob, and Chief Operations Officer Pam McMahan as his alternates. Mr. Flaiz appointed Assistant Prosecutor Kristen Rine, First Assistant Prosecutor Laura LaChapelle, and Fiscal Coordinator Samantha Harris as his alternates. Mr. Hitchcock appointed Chief Deputy Treasurer Caroline Mansfield, Deputy Treasurer Donna Borsi, and Deputy Treasurer Brittany Pogras as his alternates.
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Annual Undivided Local Government Funds Distribution Approval: The Budget Commission unanimously approved the distribution of 2026 undivided local government funds. Observer Note: The total amount of the distribution was not stated, but 38% goes to the County and the remainder is distributed to each City, Township, and Village in the County proportionately based upon population according to the most recent Federal Census. Ms. Most said that the “base” (minimum guaranteed amount of funding for each entity) is $15,000. It was noted that the population of Claridon Township has increased with its absorption of Aquilla Village, but the precise amount of the increase was not provided.
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Annual Library Fund Distribution Approval: The Budget Commission unanimously voted to approve the distribution of 2026 Library Fund. The amount was not stated. Observer Note: As explained by Mr. Walder in the August 5, 2024 Budget Commission Observer Report, the Annual Library Fund Distribution Approval is “... a joint agreement between the Budget Commission and the library. The library determines the (distribution) amounts, and then that agreement is in place and intact, unless changed by the library.”
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2026 Percentage of Tax Collection: Mr. Walder questioned whether or not the percentage of tax collection had already been determined, as all budgets for 2026 have already been submitted and those budgets were created with an estimated collection rate. He said that there is likely a statute indicating when this should be done. Mr. Flaiz said that he would be looking into it. Mr. Hitchcock said that he thought that he had previously indicated that the collection rate was 98%. The other Budget Commissioners agreed that he likely had, but Mr. Walder maintained that this information should be captured in a Budget Commission meeting before forward-looking budgets are considered. Mr. Hitchcock said that he was still ok with 98% as the tax collection rate for now, but he expressed concern about what the future might hold for the economy. The Budget Commissioners voted unanimously to determine the 2027 tax collection rate at their second Regular Meeting in January 2026.
The following Revenue Certifications were approved:
Reviewer Note: An explanation of the different types of funds in revenue certifications can be found
here.
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Chardon Local Schools - Amendment #1 - First Amendment for FY (Fiscal Year) 2025-26. Observer Note: Schools operate on a July-June fiscal year, whereas most County entities operate on the January-December calendar year. $56,771,109.87 in the general fund, $6,026,783.57 in special revenue funds, $451,477.43 in debt service funds, $3,798,978.40 in capital project funds, $9,275,200.22 in internal service funds, and $95,642.98 in fiduciary funds for a total of $76,419,192.47.
Chardon Schools’ amendment reflected a net change over the original certification of $2,408,914.47
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Bainbridge Township - Amendment #5. $4,301,900.37 in the general fund, $20,603,539.12 in special revenue funds, $1,843,788.74 in debt service funds, $4,704,224.59 in capital project funds, and $539.79 in fiduciary funds for a total of $31,453,992.61.
Bainbridge’s amendment reflected a $441,542.74 increase in the police special revenue fund.
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Geauga Park District - Amendment #4. $12,265,642.22 in the general fund and $3,632,355.98 in capital project funds for a total of $15,897,998.20.
Geauga Park District’s amendment reflected a general fund increase of $906,500 due to funding received for wetlands.
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Geauga County - Amendment #9. $69,339,402.59 in the general fund, $126,232,376.83 in special revenue funds, $5,172,649.58 in debt service funds, $1,143,702.06 in special assessment funds, $30,295,528.76 in capital project funds, $52,255,044.13 in enterprise funds, $1,739,600.37 in internal service funds, and $4,706,706.85 in fiduciary funds for a total of $290,885,011.17.
Geauga County’s amendment reflected an increase of $85,145.28 in the Water Resources Sewer enterprise fund.
Thompson Township Reserve Fund Acknowledgement: The Budget Commissioners acknowledged Thompson Township’s establishment of a Fire Reserve Fund. Thompson intends to accumulate $500,000 over a period of 10 years for a pumper/tanker.
New Reserve Fund Policy: The Budget Commissioners voted unanimously to require all submitted reserve funds to have a stamp of approval from the Prosecutor’s Office going forward. Mr. Flaiz indicated that Thompson’s reserve fund, which did not bear a stamp, looked good to him.
Discussion of Hambden and Huntsburg Levies on the November 2025 Ballot:
Mr. Walder described Hambden Township’s response to the Budget Commission’s letter urging them not to replace their two qualified levies on the November 2025 ballot. Observer Note: Qualified levies are levies that were passed pre-2013 in Ohio; they get 12.5% of their funding from the State. More information about qualified levies and why the Budget Commission opposes replacing them is available in the July 21, 2025 Budget Commission Observer Report. He said Hamden reached out to him very quickly and together they worked to rescind Hambden’s two replacement levies. He said Hambden will instead put one of their 1.5 mill qualified levies on the ballot as a renewal, and they will put their other 1.5 mill qualified levy on the ballot as a renewal with an increase of an additional 0.78 mills. Observer Note: Both of these levies are Fire and EMS levies. More information about the levies on the November ballot is available on the Geauga County Board of Elections website here. Mr. Walder said that Hambden Trustees approved these changes, and the Board of Elections has accepted the changes as well. Mr. Hitchcock said it was “greatly encouraging” that Hambden acted quickly, “thereby saving their taxpayers money.”
Mr. Walder said that Huntsburg Township did not respond to the Budget Commission’s letter counseling them not to replace their qualified levy. Observer Note: Huntsburg’s levy is still listed as a replacement levy on the Geauga County Board of Elections website at the link above. Mr. Hitchcock said he was “disappointed” that Huntsburg had not responded yet, and Mr. Walder echoed that sentiment. Mr. Walder pointed out that the opportunity to act was rapidly closing, as the filing deadline with the Board of Elections was in two days (on August 6). He also noted that replacement levies may no longer be allowed in Ohio if the Senate overrides the Governor’s veto of the State budget item eliminating them as the House has already done. Observer Note: See the July 21, 2025 Budget Commission Observer Report for more information.
Mr. Walder thanked LWVG for helping to identify which levies were on the ballot as replacement levies.
Public Comment:
This observer asked what happens to existing emergency levies if the Legislature does away with them via overriding the Governor’s veto of certain budget items. At the previous Budget Commission meeting, Mr. Walder said that existing replacement levies would continue to exist but no new ones could be created after January 1, 2026. West Geauga Schools have two emergency levies, and their Board of Education has elected to combine them into a single substitute levy on the November 2025 ballot due to concern that this option might disappear should the veto override occur. Observer Note: The House voted to override the Governor’s veto of this budget item on July 21; the Senate’s vote on the potential veto override has not been scheduled yet. More information on West Geauga’s substitute levy and the reasoning behind it are available in the July 7, 2025 West Geauga Board of Education Observer Report and this Geauga County Maple Leaf article (which may be behind a paywall for some readers). Mr. Flaiz said he hasn’t heard anything to indicate that existing emergency levies would be extinguished. He added that he thought that West Geauga took this action in response to concerns that the Budget Commission had raised with the district regarding whether the district truly was experiencing emergencies. Observer Note: See the February 20, 2025 Budget Commission Observer Report for details.
This observer noted that the Budget Commission minutes had not been updated online since April and asked why this was the case. Mr. Walder said that they were cleaning up the Budget Commission website and this caused the delay, and they are in the process of getting it fixed. Observer Note: As of the publication of this report, the Budget Commission minutes are now published online through July 21, 2025.
This Observer also requested all documentation from the meeting, which was received via email on August 6, 2025.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:36 am.
Next Meeting: The next Budget Commission meetings are the 2026 Budget Hearings on August 18 and 19, 2025 beginning both days at 9:00 am in the Auditor’s Appraisal Conference Room, 231 Main Street, Chardon, Ohio. Virtual attendance for all Budget Commission meetings is available via Microsoft Teams by emailing an invitation request to Ms. McMahan at PMcMahan@geauga.oh.gov.
The 2026 Budget Hearings are scheduled as follows:
Monday, August 18, 2025
9:00 am
Thompson Township & Thompson Park
Bainbridge Township
Troy Township
Chardon Township
Burton Township
Montville Township
10:00 am
Claridon Township
Parkman Township
Chester Township
Hambden Township
Munson Township
Russell Township
Lunch at approximately 12:15 pm
1:15 pm
Newbury Township
Huntsburg Township
Middlefield Township
Auburn Township
Geauga Trumbull Solid Waste
Geauga County
Tuesday, August 19, 2025
9:00 am
Russell Park 1545
Chester Park
Russell Citizens Park
Geauga Library
City of Chardon
Burton Village
Burton Library
West Geauga Recreation District
9:45 am
Middlefield Village & East Geauga Fire
South Russell Village
Geauga Park District
Observer: Sarah McGlone
Editor: Rooney Moy
Reviewer: Carol Benton
Submitted: August 8, 2025
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