Norwood commission declines to accept 2025 financial recovery plan, sends it back for revisions

The Financial Recovery Commission for the City of Norwood voted unanimously March 31 to not accept the city—s proposed 2025 financial recovery plan and returned it for corrections and resubmission.

Mayor Eric Schneider presented the plan to the commission and reviewed its major elements, including a Montgomery Road water-main replacement, a large home stormwater project supported in part by Hamilton County, a Lincoln Avenue restoration, and capital requests for police cruisers, fire apparatus and mobile data computers. Schneider said the plan incorporates staffing and collective-bargaining agreements recently concluded and described the document as "a living, breathing document" that will require ongoing adjustments. "I'd like to say the plan is perfect ... but it doesn't work that way," Schneider said.

Why it mattered: commissioners and the state auditor—s office flagged two required items missing from the submitted package (street and state-highway fund schedules) and a mismatch in an insurance assumption in the written materials. State auditor staff also pressed for conservative revenue assumptions and underscored best practice to couple a five-year recovery plan with a longer-term capital plan. Anne Marie of the auditor's office told commissioners, "you should probably have around two months worth [fund balance] going into the next year," to cover payroll and utilities.

Key financial figures and assumptions discussed in the meeting included an employee health-insurance contribution of 7.5 percent and an insurance escalation assumption (discussed by staff as 6 percent). City staff reported an unencumbered end-of-year carryover balance of $10,602,000 for 02/2025 and a five-year carryover target of roughly $1.8 million to $2.0 million. The mayor and staff told the commission the plan assumes 2 percent municipal earnings-tax growth in years 2026to2029 and described efforts by the treasurer's office to increase collections and maximize interest earnings.

Discussion also covered operating and capital priorities: the Montgomery Road water-main replacement (work spanning from White Castle to Fenwick), the county-supported stormwater project, a planned streets survey to better prioritize resurfacing and maintenance, and investments in police technology including license-plate reader cameras (described as costing about $15,000 each) and in-vehicle mobile data computers. Council and commission members pressed staff about the timing and phasing of capital work, staffing increases and the risk that the five-year forecast shows a drawdown of fund balance later in the period.

The auditor—s office and state recovery staff recommended several changes and stressed that any update would need to be a complete, reworked submission rather than a piecemeal edit. Anne Marie said updates "have to be completely redone, updated, and go through a review process through my office. That cannot happen overnight."

Outcome and next steps: after debate and clarification requests the commission voted by roll call to not accept the plan as submitted. The commission's chair said the administration should make the specified corrections, return the revised plan to city council for approval, and then present the final plan back to the commission for formal acceptance. Commissioners and the auditor—s office discussed a timeline that would allow council review (council meetings were noted for April 8 and April 22) and a commission reconvening in late April to consider the corrected submission.

Votes at a glance

- Approval of minutes: The council approved and accepted the minutes of the March 12, 2025 special meeting in an early agenda vote. Present members recorded support; the minutes motion was approved and accepted.

- 2025 Financial Recovery Plan: Motion to not approve the plan as submitted — outcome: approved (unanimous). Roll-call yes votes recorded: Mayor Eric Schneider; Council President Giers; Councilmember Schwartz; Councilmember Sheppard; Councilmember Gomez; (Councilmember Garvey absent). The commission chair announced: "By unanimous vote, the commission has agreed to not accept the 2025 financial recovery plan as proposed."