Circleville – Several new faces and people in new positions started work in the City yesterday after new electors took their new seats in office.
The New Circleville mayor Michelle Blanton said that they hit the ground running in office today with a statement she shared in Circleville Council on Tuesday night, “Today was my first day in the office, we started with a staff meeting and got to set some expectations and some just discussions with the directors had lunch with P3. We went to the Law Director’s swearing-in earlier today and then just did some organization in the office. I am the acting safety director right now for a little while, maybe a couple of weeks. Just as an announcement for the council, the directors are putting together their annual reports. They will have them to you by the February 6 council meeting. And we’re just looking forward to 2024 for any of the new committee chairs, feel free to stop in the office and talk with either of the directors, the door’s always open.”
Along with Mayor Blanton, a new Law Director Kendra Kinney was present at the County meeting, “President Keller on behalf of the Law director’s office. We have been very busy today writing ordinances for committees, as well as scheduling meetings with local law enforcement. And then I hope the next thing will be city administration and department has to kind of get a bird’s eye view of what’s going on and what the law director’s office can aid with. I would also like to extend that invitation to any council member who would like to meet with my office as well as I know President Keller already had that opportunity just to make sure that we are working as smoothly as possible and to answer any questions that might arise as well as always constantly working to see if there are better ways to start doing something. So obviously change will be a little slow, but I do have some new ideas. I would like to start implementing and working with the city council to do so.”
New Positions and current positions in the council are Katie Logan Hedges, Sheri Theis, and Tom Kilizka are your new Council at large positions, Jeff Hallinin is Council first ward, Don Mcllroy is Second ward, Zack Brooks is Third ward, and Tom Duvall is Fourth Ward. The Council President is Barry Keller. Along with new positions in the Council Committee members also changed, The Finance committee will be chaired by Katie Hedges, with committee members Jeff Hallinin and Tom Duvall. The safety committee will be chaired by Jeff Hallinin, with committee members Katie Hedges and Tom Kilizka. The Judicial Committee will be chaired by Tom Kilizka, with committee members, Sherry Theis and Don Mcllroy. The Service Committee will be chaired by Tom Duvall, with committee members, Sherry Theis, and Zach Brooks. The Strategic Planning Committee will be chaired by Sherry Theis, with committee members Don Mcllroy, and Zach Brooks. I will chair the committee of the whole meeting, which includes all the City Council.
The regular council meetings are always on the first and third Tuesdays of the month. As per Ohio Revised Code, those meetings start at seven o’clock. The committee meetings are not code but the needs of the administration or the committee. So there are no set dates, but you can keep track of them on the cities website here. https://circlevilleoh.gov/government/#council
