COLLEGE CORNER, Ohio — The Village of College Corner is tiny. Situated right up against the Indiana-Ohio border, the 2020 census listed 387 residents in this sleepy town just a few miles west of Oxford.
For such a small place, at least a few residents have big questions about how it's being run.
Molly Cason, Ann McCoy and Danyelle Bolser didn't really know each other before a year or so ago. But they became united in concern for College Corner. They wondered how much money the Village had, how the money was being spent and why a beloved officer was let go.
They wanted to understand how a father and daughter wielded so much power in their modest town. They were so concerned that each of them ran for village offices in November 2023. Danyelle and Ann ran for council spots. Molly Cason ran for mayor. All three won.
They figured the minute they became elected officials, they would have access to financial records and information so they could start unwinding the concerns that had wrapped around their minds. They assumed what they feel is a lack of transparency would become clear.
They were wrong.
Locked Out
Mayor Molly Cason says despite being elected by the residents of the village, she's never been given keys to the village office. Cason says she is, "literally locked out" of the small office building. She says Mike Sims, the village administrator, and his daughter Jennifer Woods, the village fiscal officer, are the only ones with keys.
"They have access but I do not have access unless I'm being supervised," Cason said.
Attorney Randy Freking, now retired, specialized in employment law and also served as a different village's attorney. I asked him if not granting a mayor unfettered access to the village office was normal. Freking's response: "That's a little nuts."
College Corner's former mayor, Jim Jackson, spoke to me on the phone. He says in all the years he was mayor, he never had keys to the village office. He said he never wanted them.
Cason does. At April's council meeting, she told Sims "I should be able to come into this building anytime I want. I should be able to hold an open session with my village for them to come in and express concerns that I can bring to the table when we're meeting."
"Are you going to let me have access to this building?" Cason asked.
"I don't have a problem with that at some point, I just need to secure some of the records. Those records can not be accessed," Sims said.
"They should be secured right now. Somebody could bust right through that door. Are they not secured right now?" Cason said.
Sims insisted they are indeed secure.
To which Cason responded, "So, you're saying they need to be secured before I come in here."
"The tension is so thick in here. Every time," council member Danyelle Bolser said before the April village meeting began.
Bolser and Cason assumed when they were elected, they would be given fiscal documents for the village so they could start understanding where it stands financially. Both say they have had to ask over and over for documents. Bolser says she was told she would need to pay for copies. So she did. Still, she says, she wasn't given the documents.
Bolser has filed a lawsuit to get those documents. Mediation for that lawsuit began earlier this week. At 1 a.m. the morning of mediation, Bolser says she got the documents via email.
Meanwhile, Cason says she had to get Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser involved before documents were given to her.
"That's insane," Freking said. "All of these things are public records. So certainly the council members should be entitled to see all these things. The mayor, the council members ought to have access to the records, ought to have access to the office. Somebody has to do oversight. So, I mean, why in the world would you make that the rule unless you're trying to hide something?"
Hiding "something" is chief among the concerns Cason, Bolser and McCoy have about how College Corner is run.
120 Sick Days
The only full-time employee of the village is the fiscal officer, Jennifer Woods. Her dad, Mike Sims, is her boss and the volunteer village administrator. The four council members who were on council prior to November of 2023 were all appointed. The former mayor said they were appointed because no one would run for the positions.
But it was just days before Cason would be sworn into office that two "special" council meetings were held. The minutes from the special meeting held on December 21, 2023, show that the primary goal of the meeting was accepting an employment agreement for Woods.
That employment contract shows that Jennifer Woods makes $72,467 a year. She is not required to hold office hours and instead can work "flexibile work hours as necessary." Her benefits include 30 vacation days, two personal days and 120 sick days. Next year she will get 15 more.
"In 38 years of practicing employment law, I never saw a contract with 120 sick days per year. Paid sick days," says attorney Randy Freking. "I would classify it as a sweetheart contract. And particularly since she reports to her father and her father is going to be the one who approves or disapproves her sick leave."
In a phone conversation with the former mayor, Jim Jackson, he told me Woods has been a good employee for more than 20 years who never took sick time. He explained that the contract was a thank you for Woods' years of service.
If her time off, including sick time, holidays and weekends were all used, Jennifer Woods would not be required to work more than 98 days this year.
There was a second "special" council meeting held just a couple of days before Mayor Cason took office and a week after the previous "special" meeting. In that meeting the council voted to make "all communication to the (village) attorney go through the village administrator and/or the fiscal officer."
Additionally, those two positions, held by father and daughter, would be the only ones to have contact for all "contracts and agreements and access to bank accounts."
When asked if that alarms her, Mayor Cason said "Absolutely. I mean, it's kind of like they're the only two that have the power to everything, so they're the only two that have access to the bank accounts, they're the only two that can speak to the contractors, they're the only ones that can talk to the attorney. What is the need for just the two of them to have all the power?"
"They made sure nobody had access to the village attorney except father daughter fiscal officer and administrator. Why? What are you hiding? What don't you want the councilmembers that should have access to that attorney to know?" Bolser said.
"It just smells. The whole thing smells with a secret meeting that happened and just before Christmas and just after Christmas and after two new members just got elected to the village council and before they take office," Freking said.
I went to the April council meeting and tried talking to every council member, the village administrator and the fiscal officer. None were willing to speak. One council member gave a phone number to reach him later. But he never returned our calls. I went back to College Corner again and attempted to talk to Jennifer Woods outside her vehicle, but Woods drove away.
The State Auditor's office tells me they will be conducting a full audit of the village's finances this year.
And Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser said he has spoken with Mayor Cason and is aware of her concerns.
"I hope that there is nothing going on. I hope that everything's right. But from the looks of it, it doesn't look that way," Cason said.
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