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Resident urges forensic audit, alleges secrecy in North Ridgeville administration
Summary
At the Dec. 1 North Ridgeville City Council meeting, resident Robert Baumgartner accused city leaders of hiding records, questioned engineering-contract emergency clauses, and called for an independent forensic audit covering contracts, personnel and finances; another resident urged clearer procurement practices.
Robert Baumgartner, a North Ridgeville resident, used public comment at Monday’s council meeting to sharply criticize city leadership and call for an independent forensic audit of municipal operations.
“I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true,” Baumgartner said, then described an earlier internal workplace investigation he said exposed a hostile culture in the city’s public-safety ranks and leadership failures that persist. He said a senior officer has since left and that morale remains low.
Baumgartner alleged that engineering firms and developers have made donations to the mayor and that the mayor pushed an emergency clause to fast-track an engineering contract, reducing opportunities for public scrutiny. He said the city denied his public-records request on Nov. 20 and cited what he described as a violation of the Ohio Revised Code related to public-records assistance.
Baumgartner also questioned compensation at City Hall, saying the finance director’s pay rose from about $80,000 in 2019 to roughly $140,000 today and asking what oversight justified that increase. He concluded by asking the council to authorize a forensic audit “of all departments and engineering contracts, emergency clause usage, financial department salaries and practices, the police department leadership and workplace culture, public records compliance, engineering related donors, and corresponding contract patterns” over the last five years.
Bradley Baker, another resident who spoke during the lobby session, said he shared concerns about transparency. Baker asked for clearer criteria for selecting engineering consultants for the Sugar Ridge project and suggested creating a regularly rotated roster of pre‑qualified A/E firms to reduce perceptions of favoritism.
Council did not debate Baumgartner’s requests during the meeting. A motion to give Baumgartner an additional three minutes to speak was approved by council members during the public-comment period.
The meeting record shows the complaints were made as public comment; council members and city staff did not provide a substantive response during the session. The council’s agenda included upcoming public hearings on related projects on Dec. 15.
