Cincinnati’s first-ring suburbs face unique challenges. Changing demographics, economic stability, and issues regarding resources and security are common threads among these jurisdictions.
The ways the 49 Hamilton County cities, villages, townships, and municipal corporations not only adjust but thrive is the focus of this series, First Suburbs—Beyond Borders. The series explores the diversity and ingenuity of these longstanding suburban communities, highlighting issues that demand collective thought and action to galvanize their revitalization.
Ohio is home to 673 villages, small, self-governed towns so designated because they have fewer than 5,000 residents. Hamilton County is home to 17 villages, ranging from Addyston in the west to Mariemont in the east. Most have histories dating to the 19
th or early 20
th centuries, strong identities, and a sense of independence and pride. A new state law will bring another level of scrutiny to these towns, and has created a process for dissolving those that don’t pass muster.
Ohio House Bill 331, signed into law earlier this year, requires the board of commissioners in every county to examine each village in their jurisdiction to make sure their elected representatives are delivering basic services. If the village governments are found lacking, their voters will be asked in the next election if they want their town to be abolished. If voters vote to dissolve, village tax levies would then cease.
The measure’s sponsor says it’s simple accountability -- if you pay village taxes you should get village services. Village mayors say ‘Leave us alone.’
The bill’s main sponsor, Rep. Adam Mathews, a Republican from Warren County, says the legislation came about after he heard from constituents as well as clients of his legal practice. “They’re dealing with what it means on the ground to have Ohio be the home of the most taxing jurisdictions in the country,” he says. “When you're filing taxes, abiding by regulations, even just directing mail and communicating where you are, that can be unnecessarily confusing.”
He sponsored the bill after hearing of stories of villages in financial distress, with some relying on their county or township to provide fire and police services. “That seems to contradict the social contract made between the villagers and the village leadership, that you take taxpayer dollars, you have these extra laws, and as a tradeoff, you provide extra services,” he says.
The new law requires that once every ten years, in the year following every federal census, every village in the state will be evaluated to determine if it should be considered for dissolution by the voters. In each county, the auditor, treasurer, and one member of the board of commissioners will evaluate every village in the county to determine if, over the previous ten years, a couple things have occurred: they’ve provided at least five of a list of 10 public services, and there’s been at least one candidate for each elected village position on the ballot.
The 10-year time frame will allow for villages to get their houses in order if they need to, Mathews says, although the first evaluation will actually be after the 2030 census, which is six years away.
The bill sailed through the House by a vote of 88-3 and through the state Senate with only one nay vote. Gov. Mike DeWine signed it in January.
Just another burden on small towns?
But village mayors in Hamilton County say it’s just another burden they will need to deal with, and there’s already ways to make sure villages are doing right by their residents.
“It seems the powers that be in Columbus want the villages to just go away,” says Chuck Birkholtz, mayor the village of Cleves, population 3,414.
Birkholtz, 74, is a retired teacher and administrator who first ran for office in 2023. He and his family moved to Cleves about 30 years ago, largely because of the local safety services. But since then, the village has contracted with Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office for police service and with Miami Township for fire and emergency medical services.
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Joe SimonOne of the 10 evaluation factors is whether the village provides fire and police services, or contracts with a “private nongovernmental entity” to provide them. Contracting with the sheriff or township, both public entities, would not count.
Several villages in Hamilton County contract with the sheriff or another local government for police and fire service, as the cost for providing those with their own departments has risen dramatically over the years. The village of Lincoln Heights, for example, contracts with the county sheriff for law enforcement and with its next-door neighbor, the village of Woodlawn, for fire and emergency service.
“So many of our communities are having financial difficulties with the increased costs for police and fire department services,” says Lincoln Heights Mayor Ruby Kinsey-Mumphrey. “I believe this bill has been established to systematically dissolve villages.”
Some see it as a power play over local governments. “They’re trying everything in their power to gain control,” Doug Sammons, mayor of the village of North Bend, population 1,091, says of the state legislature. “Most people who live in North Bend like living in North Bend.”
Village governments, usually led by neighbors or acquaintances who also hold down day jobs, are more responsive than those in cities, Sammons says. “A village is the most democratic type of government,” Sammons says.
David Moore, mayor of the village of Greenhills, agreed. “Villages deal more directly with their citizens,” he says. “If you call the police, they can be there in five minutes.”
Moore noted that the state already audits the financial performances of villages every two years. The new law, he says, “Just adds another issue and expense every ten years for governments to deal with. Villages like ours would meet all the requirements, but it would waste our time and the county’s time.”
Several mayors pointed out that a tried-and-true method for change already exists if things aren’t going well – elections. “If people don’t like they way we’re running the village, they would vote us out,” says Bill Brown, mayor of Mariemont. The new law, he says, “sounds like government over-reach on a grand scale.”
But Brown agreed that it can be difficult to find people to run for village offices. Mariemont has four village council seats up for election this fall. “I would love to see some new blood,” he says.
That’s a problem in Cleves too, Birkholtz says. “It’s a struggle to get candidates to run,” he says. He’s worked to engage residents in village issues by improving communication, including establishing a YouTube channel to stream council meetings.
Richard Finan, mayor of the village of Evendale, noted that the law still leaves local voters with the final say on any question of dissolution. “The village of Evendale is not concerned about House Bill 331 as we provide a complete range of services to our residents,” says Finan, a former longtime state legislator.
'A more positive way'
Hamilton County Commissioner Stephanie Summerow Dumas is a former village manager of Lincoln Heights and a former mayor of the city of Forest Park. She appreciates that county commissioners will be involved in the village evaluations, and says some towns need monitoring more than every 10 years. “Villages can get in trouble before then,” she says. “There needs to be a good overview to see what is going well and what’s lacking.”
However, she says, “Let’s do it in a more positive way.” State and county officials could look for ways to assist villages that are experiencing financial distress, she says.
Some mayors agreed, with several mentioning that the state could restore the steep cuts in state funding to local governments that began in 2011. Then-Governor John Kasich and the state legislature
sharply reduced the amount of state tax money shared with cities, towns and villages in Ohio. The Local Government Fund was largely made up of sales tax money collected in those local jurisdictions and sent to the state. When the state began keeping a much bigger share of that money, it plugged a hole in the state’s budget and helped pay for cuts in the state income tax, but left many towns and villages struggling financially.
“We get the same amount of local government funds now that we got 40 years ago,” Greenhills’ Moore says.
Ohio’s village residents already had a way to abolish their local governments. Residents in the village of Amelia in Clermont County used it in 2019 to dissolve that town of 4,800 people. Voters there decisively approved the referendum after the village council had levied a 1% income tax to pay for roads and other expenses.
And in 2023, voters in the Warren County village of Harveysburg narrowly turned down a petition to dissolve that town of 569 people, best known as the home of the Ohio Renaissance Festival.
But Mathews says previous dissolution efforts, instead of being focused on what services a village is or isn’t providing, often turned on personal issues, with factions upset about local decisions and seeking revenge at the ballot box. The new law, he says, provides objective standards for village leaders to meet and could create stability in villages as their governments work to meet them.
First Suburbs—Beyond Borders series is made possible with support from a coalition of stakeholders including the Murray & Agnes Seasongood Good Government Foundation:
The Seasongood Foundation is devoted to the cause of good local government; Hamilton County Planning Partnership; plus First Suburbs Consortium of Southwest Ohio, an association of elected and appointed officials representing older suburban communities in Hamilton County, Ohio.