How will the Middletown Council ever conduct city business without Doug Adkins? Will they be able to pull the wool off their eyes and get out from under a long list of financial burdens which were authored by Adkins, passed under council sheep noses and quickly bobble head approved? Council and then Mayor Mulligan were working for Adkins. Therefore Council was in complete dereliction of duty … and were in no way representing their constituents. But they were doing Doug Adkins bidding! And they seemed sheepishly happy about it. Ignorance may be bliss but it is not a good defense. In the back of your mind, don’t you want to question just why it was so easy for Adkins to hold such sway over Council??? One counselor, like Adkins, was a lawyer! Think about it.

By using Council’s dereliction of duty, will Adkins now shakedown Middletown Council for a large settlement for wrongfully firing him over age discrimination? How preposterous. Surely this will be seen as a frivolous suit. He has tried to pin his firing on Amy Vitori’s comment made in retort to one of his uncomplimentary comments to her. It took him several weeks to decide how best to gouge the city again. The city may already be paying the court for hearings and fines for violations of HUD regulations while under Adkins direction. Who knows what else was swept under the rug. There have been inquiries about law suits against the city but the answer for years on end has been that its a continuing case and is not available for public consumption. Notice there was not a denial of law suits. Adkins was careful to make Council complicit so no one wants to make accusations possibly detrimental to themselves. Sounds like the old “catch 22”. I personally spoke with a newly elected council member about an issue a few years ago. I was told that Adkins said that city business could not be discussed with anyone outside of council meetings and that councilors could be prosecuted if they did. I felt the councilor was actually frightened. And I got exactly nothing.

It was sad the way Mr Adkins kept pompously stating that “it is my job to inform, prepare and instruct Council on every issue” (all of which he initiates and composes) “before Council meetings.” That means that none of his time was “wasted having to answer questions during council meetings.” Adkins wanted to, in his words, “conduct the City’s business … and go home.” And since virtually everything was done on emergency basis the public had no chance to ask questions, make suggestions or objections, or get clarification of the workings of our city government. Oh yeah, he said he would answer questions before or after council meetings, depending on when you send him the “packet” (whatever that is) and none of those questions and answers, if they existed, were ever heard by the public or recorded on YouTube. The obsessive need to keep city government processes out of the public eye seems very suspect and was a blatant violation of The Sunshine Law. Discussion or debate of city business seemed deliberately squelched.

Council has forgotten, and even forgiven, that while he was Revitalization Director he lost the management of and thereby any monetary gain (millions of $’s in management fees) from the Section 8 housing program. HUD took away control of the program from Adkins and then city manager, Judy Gilleland, because (even after several warnings) they refused to follow the rules. Neither one of them showed up in court when they were subpoenaed by HUD’s investigation. Then Council gave Adkins the City Manager position followed soon thereafter by a $25,000 a year raise for giving us a good screwing! Adkins knew that City Council would be responsible for everything, not him! Why would Council give such a dismal failure a huge promotion and raise? And the raises and bonuses were piled on year after year.!!!

Adkins left the city with terrible monetary loss …( 1). City owned blight that will have to be torn down. Properties were sold for a pittance to “investors” who agreed to, but failed to rehab or re-purpose and then dumped them back on the city. At times the city paid “investors” to take property. Some of the properties were even bought back after years of abandonment. No time limits or penalties for violating the agreements were in any sales contracts. And Adkins says he’s a lawyer! Quite the expert at accumulating losses. (2). Failure to manage a growing population of drug addicts who were bused in from Hamilton (partly brought about by Doug’s over expansion of Section 8 housing). Costs increased for OD treatment while Adkins reduced the number of police and fire fighters (and closed, and sold several firehouses) after getting a levy passed for preventing just such reductions. (3). Shrunken tax base due to severe reduction in low income housing that Adkins insisted on tearing down. (4). Inability to attract industry & larger businesses that will provide jobs and bolster our shrunken tax base; the result of too restrictive nonsensical building codes authored by Adkins. (5). Loss of the amenities that Adkins was so eager to give away, tear down or sell at great loss … golf course, swimming pools and parks!!! Then there’s the new matter of the airport and Smith Park. Will Council let Adkins cause the loss of revenue there by remote control? His fingerprints are all over this too~~~~~There’s more but you can fill in the blanks and begin with the poor, poor, very poor performance of our schools inside the very, very, very expensive new buildings. Adkins should be paying Middletown for all the colossal seemingly purposeful blunders he made! But he will say that he was doing what council decided he should do. Remember how he was the author of Council’s agenda and how he prepared and instructed Council before meeting? Did Council make any decisions on their own?

Just like Doug Adkins, another corrupt City Manager, Jim Palenick (ala his pie in the sky proposed $1.3 billion riverfront entertainment district and theme park called “Hollywoodland” and attempted grab of $7.5 million in funding from the American Rescue Plan Act toward pre-construction work) has been discovered and deposed from his lofty throne. What throne? The one that Doug Adkins created for himself. By the way where is that $7.5 million in funding from the American Rescue Plan Act? Not on in our pot-hole pocked streets!

Yup! It’s happened all over again. Why is it so difficult to break this “funny business”? Our City Charter is set up to have a stronger city manager (who conducts all council meetings and conducts all business dealing) and a weaker mayor. Our own city council has for years, decades taken this to mean they no longer need to keep themselves informed of city dealing but just vote for whatever is presented by the manager. Great opportunities there for manager corruption and any council who may want to be advantaged if they are an insider on managerial dealings. We are only one of many cities in Ohio or indeed the nation with this type of local government. Gulp! The US is in bigger trouble now because the “weak mayor” syndrome goes all the way to Washington, we are acting weak!