"Two wrongs don't make it right!"

There is just one message I want to get across tonight: TWO WRONGS DON’T MAKE IT RIGHT!!!

I get criticized whenever I speak out against putting gas wells in the park because
in 2007, as a member of Council, I voted to give the mayor authority to sign a
drilling lease with Bass Energy.

Council was sold a bill of goods at the time, not just about how much money the city would make, but also about the safety of frac drilling.

I admit I made a mistake. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Council should have held a public hearing and should have undertaken a more thorough investigation before following the mayor and Bass Energy down the drilling path.

I changed my position about allowing gas wells in the park after I learned more about what frac drilling really entails.

The resolution that Council passed in 2007 didn’t give the mayor free rein to sign
drilling leases – far from it.

It was understood by everyone involved that no leases would be signed before three drilling sites – two at the park and one on the municipal complex – were
selected and approved by Bass Energy,the mayor and Council. That precondition was set out in the resolution.

As Judge Gallagher noted a couple of years ago, the mayor ignored that legal limitation on his contracting power and signed a drilling lease anyway – which
unfortunately got us into this legal mess.

Now here’s something you don’t know.

The Bass Energy lawsuit came up during Sun Messenger’s endorsement interview last summer – the one attended by Mr. Coleman and myself. At that interview
the mayor explained that Bass Energy told him that they wouldn’t put any
proposed drilling sites together until after he signed the lease. Keeping the
drilling deal together was apparently much more important to the mayor than
following the letter of the law, so he signed the lease. When push came to shove, the mayor blamed Bass Energy for his decision to ignore the legally-imposed restriction on his contracting power. It was their fault, not his.

No doubt the mayor will claim that I’m lying about what he said during the interview, I’m not. I am telling you the honest truth, so help me God.

The mayor didn’t come back and ask Council to amend its resolution. He didn’t tell Council that Bass Energy had arranged to pay the city’s then-engineer, Andy
Blackley, and his firm, Stephen Hovancsek & Associates, to choose drilling
sites in the park. And the mayor didn’t share the map – showing those drilling
sites – with Council until months after Bass obtained drilling permits.

That’s the background of how we got here.

Now, as I stand here, I see Council on the verge of condoning and endorsing all of those illegal and improper actions and decisions. 

With all due respect: do two wrongs make it right?

Is no one to be held accountable here?

I remind you that Blackley was operating under a clear conflict of interest when he selected those well sites. He was employed by Bass.

If you adopt this resolution you will be condoning and endorsing Blackley’s actions. You will be telling residents that the Highland Heights Council sees nothing wrong with employees simultaneously working for the city and for people doing business with the city. You will also be signaling to people who want
to do business with the city that the fast track way of getting what they want
from the city is to hire city employees to work for them.

If you adopt this resolution, you will also be condoning and endorsing the mayor’s prior illegal action in signing a drilling lease before he was authorized to do so.

Again, the message you will send is to residents is this: not only does the Highland Heights Council think it’s perfectly okay for a mayor to act outside his legal authority, Council will back him up by confirming his actions whenever he does so.

And there’s something else you need to consider.

Who do you expect to take responsibility when something goes wrong?

Who is going to take responsibility when the calls start coming in about the noise, the horrible smells, the tainted ground water, and the kids getting sick? Who is
going to take responsibility if, God forbid, the wells malfunction, the tank
battery leaks or a gas line explodes?

Do you think Mayor Coleman is going to step forward and take responsibility?

Has history taught you nothing?

You will hear what I heard, when residents got up in arms about the original Bass
Energy  drilling lease. You will hear tell residents that,  “Council voted to drill the wells. I just did what they instructed me to do.”

The mayor won’t take responsibility for drilling gas wells in the park – he never has, he never will. If he can’t point the finger at Bass Energy, he’ll point his finger
at you. As I said at the start, two wrongs don’t make it right.

You should not be condoning and endorsing the improper and illegal acts of the mayor and a former city employee.

You need to listen to what residents have said. After all this became public, they overwhelming approved a Charter amendment to protect the park. What clearer expression of residents’ wishes could there be?

You must stand up and make the right decision for current and future Highland Heights residents.

I urge you to reject any resolution that authorizes Mayor Coleman to sign anything that lets Bass Energy – or anyone else – drill frac gas wells in the park.