On August 7, 2024, Dayton City Commissioners rejected a petition to put a tax levy on the November ballot. Supporters hoped it would have helped fund a new public hospital in West Dayton.
"The proposal put before us is inadequate," said Dayton City Commissioner Chris Shaw, who voted against the proposal. "It's just very difficult for me to support an effort that is clearly unsustainable."
This summer, the Clergy Community Coalition led a signature gathering campaign for the ballot measure.
Commissioner Shaw also contended the project, “theoretically could bankrupt this city and this community and slow down the economic development that will help us all prosper.”
The proposed tax levy would annually generate about $2 million dollars. But during Wednesday’s public hearing, opponents argued this is not enough to support the construction and operation of a public hospital. The consulting firm Woolpert reported a new health facility would cost around $39 million dollars a year. The City of Dayton hired Woolpert to access the financial feasibility of building a public hospital.
In 2018, Premier Health closed and later demolished Good Samaritan Hospital. In January 2024, the health network opened the Northwest Health and Wellness Campus. The new medical facility features an urgent care, physical therapy, imaging, and physician offices. However, it does not have an emergency room, nor a birthing center nor are mental health services provided.
Prior to a final vote, the city’s clerk of commission, Regina Blackshear, recommended the proposed petition be rejected.
“Mayor. Commissioners I, Regina D Blackshear, Clerk Commission, hereby find that the petition is invalid and insufficient for the following reasons. Number one, there is a lack of the required 1,250 valid signatures of voters of this city. Number two, per Dayton RCGO section 11.01, there was a failure to file the proposed ordinance and synopsis with the clerk of the city Commission prior to circulating the petition, or within ten days of circulating the petition. Number three per Dayton RCGO section 1106, there was a failure to file a statement of receipts and disbursements and number four Dayton RCGO section 11.07, there was a failure to file affidavits of circulators of petition. That is the summary of my findings,” reported Blackshear.
Along with Commissioner Shaw, Mayor Jeffrey Mims, Jr, and Commissioner Matt Joseph agreed with the Clerk Blackshear and cast no votes against the petition. Commissioner Shenise Turner Sloss abstained saying she supported the petition and more health services in West Dayton. Commissioner Darryl Fairchild recused himself from the vote, citing a potential ethics violation because he works at Dayton Children’s Hospital, a potential competitor to a new health facility.
Bishop Richard Cox is president of the Clergy Community Coalition. He said the council acted like bureaucrats, "I think they don’t have any backbone."
The greatest disappointment for the coalition is that it did not have enough valid signatures from registered voters. "Upon the analysis of my team, we ended up with 874 valid signatures", stated Jeff Rezabeck, director of the Montgomery County Board of Election. The coalition needed 1,250 valid signatures to potentially get this proposed property tax levy on the November ballot.
Rezabeck said problems came from people signing the petition multiple times, others were not registered voters and many are not Dayton residents. "We believe there was an area of Harrison Township that was gone through. Many consider themselves to be apart of the city of Dayton," Rezabeck said. "But they're Harrison Township, individuals. So they're not in the City of Dayton."
Despite this, Rezabeck informed the council members they had the option of allowing the proposed levy to go onto the November ballot. But the council declined.
Other opponents to the tax levy argued Dayton already has a host of health resources people can access. "On Miami Chapel, there was just built a Five Rivers Health Center," said resident Mike Schommer. "So there are places for health care in the city of Dayton. It’s just, are those known about and are those opportunities being taken advantage of?"
Meanwhile, supporters of the tax levy urged Dayton’s city council to allow the proposed measure onto the ballot and to let voters decide its fate.
“People who aren't healthy aren't able to be contributing members to society. They're not able to do the work that we need to do, and often they even die because of it, so we can do something about it,” said primary care physician Dr. Matthew Noordsij-Jones.
"Our for-profit, not-for-profit hospitals display sumptuous landscaping, underwrite music and art and theater, pay embarrassing salaries, then bonuses to administrators," said Charlene Bailes. "Hospitals have abandoned the health of those who cannot pay. Please, City of Dayton, be part of the work of getting them care."
"If one aspect or one area of the city is in trouble, then all of the city is in trouble. You can't just leave us out there to fend for ourselves," said the Rev. Rockney Carter. He leads a congregation at Zion Baptist Church on Earlham Drive in West Dayton. "Find a way in which we can get adequate health care for the constituents on the west side of Dayton. You have an obligation. To seek any way possible to achieve that, and it is achievable."
Bishop Cox said the coalition will now work with the Montgomery County Board of Election to collect new valid signatures and next spring, resubmit their petition for a tax levy to the Dayton City Council. "They will see us again, we're not going to stop, we're fighting for the poor, for the indigent, we're fighting for the left out, for the locked up, the undeserved and those who need health care," contend Bishop Cox.
