UPDATE: (7:23 P.M. June 24, 2024) – The Middleport City Council voted unanimously to accept Police Chief Mony Wood’s resignation Monday night. Wood announced his resignation earlier in the day, claiming city council members were going to call for him to resign, and allegedly even wanted him to take the blame for the police department’s recent budgetary issues.
The council said that they never formally asked Wood to resign and that the chief and the mayor had had a private conversation.
The resignation comes after layoffs within the police department due to “budgetary issues.” According to the council, they made their decision to provide pay raises to the police department in July 2023 based on inaccurate information and numbers.
According to the council, part of the budgetary issue is the number of overtime hours in the department. Council members said during Monday’s meeting that the department has had more than 3,000 additional hours in recent months that they “just cannot afford.”
The council says Wood was responsible for his officers’ hours, and some of those hours coming in were not signed off by Wood, who would have been the administrator.
Wood told 13 News he was surprised he was being blamed for the budgetary errors.
“I was in total shock today, because when I came into work, it seemed like everything was fine until about 10:30 or 11 o’clock, and it totally shocked me. I wasn’t ready for it,” Wood said. “It was one of the things where it was getting worse and worse, and in the last three weeks, it’s gotten worse with our budget, and they came out and said we didn’t have any money to spend on law enforcement, but they want to keep the jail open. Mayor Nease basically told me ‘you’re gonna get the blame for this.'”
At this time, the Middleport PD will have only three officers and a chief position. Officer Harrison has been named the temporary chief, but it’s unclear at this point if their budget will allow them to fill the position.
The Meigs County Sheriff’s Office will assist in providing service to Middleport so that at least one officer is in the Middleport area 24/7.
As for the budgetary issues, the Village plans to work out a way to fix the budget without taking funding from areas they cannot legally take funding from such as water and sewage.
MEIGS COUNTY, OH (WOWK) – A week after Middleport Mayor Ben Nease announced layoffs in the Middleport Police Department due to a budgetary issue, the department’s chief of police has announced his resignation.
In a Facebook post, Chief Mony Wood shared a letter of resignation. The letter claims that Middleport’s four council members are demanding Wood’s resignation and that they “want him to take the blame for everything.”
“I never thought the blame would be flipped on me, never in a million years, I love this town and the people. But this is what it is and I guess all I can do is cry, smile and walk out like they want from me. My health is my main concern right now due to just being told what is about to happen to me at tonight’s council meeting or the next,” Wood’s letter said in part.
He signed the letter, “Mony Wood ex Chief of Middleport.”
On June 17, Nease announced the layoffs due to an issue with the police budget. He told 13 News that in July 2023 before he took office, the city council voted to give pay raises to the city’s police officers. However, Nease says when a new fiscal officer looked at the numbers more recently, there was a discrepancy that showed the city did not actually have the money for those raises. He said the city reporting a lower revenue also contributed to the issue.
According to a fact sheet shared by the Village of Middle Pourt, the figures presented to the council by the assistant fiscal officer at that time showed that the pay increase would only cost the city by approximately $8,400 per year. The city says that was off by nearly $52,000.
The city also said from January to June of this year, the MPD has overspent between $70,000 to $100,000 due to allegedly scheduling too many hours at a rait the Middleport’s general fund could not afford.
Last week, Nease said the layoffs will be determined by the amount of work hours per pay period that can be afforded. Those most likely to be affected are people who cannot work the new hours, which will also be decreased.
The department has five full-time officers and two part-time, but as the budget stands, they’ll only be able to afford about 330 hours per pay period. Wood said no decision has been made yet on how that will be divvied out.
While Nease said he hopes the department can be restored by the end of the year, or early next year, they’re still working on investigating the scope of the spending.He said no criminal activity is suspected.
Until the budgetary issue can be resolved, the Meigs County Sheriff’s Department will be assisting with covering the city.
The next city council meeting is scheduled for tonight, Monday, June 24, at 6 p.m. at Village Hall.
