Present at the most recent Village Council meeting, Monday, March 17, was Trish Gustafson, Brian Housh, Gavin DeVore Leonard, Kevin Stokes and Village Manager Johnnie Burns. (Video still)
Village enters contract for prosecutorial services
- Published: March 28, 2025
At Village Council’s most recent meeting, Monday, March 17, the group unanimously approved a resolution to authorize Village Manager Johnnie Burns to enter a contract with Springboro-based law firm Smith, Meier & Webb, LPA to provide prosecution services for the Village.
This move to contract with Smith, Meier & Webb — specifically Mark Webb, a lawyer within the firm specializing in family law and criminal defense — comes ahead of April 1, when the Xenia Law Department will cease providing prosecution and victim advocate services for Yellow Springs residents brought before the Xenia Municipal Court for some misdemeanor criminal offenses that occur within Village limits.
According to the contract Council approved on Monday, Webb will not only represent the Village in such cases, but also:
• Review and file charges on behalf of the Village, as well as make charging recommendations when necessary;
• Handle pre-trial matters on criminal cases, including the preparation of discovery, the preparation of witnesses and evidence, the filing of subpoenas, the filing of motions and responses to motions and the appearance at hearings;
• Handle trials on criminal cases, including negotiating plea agreements or the appearance and prosecution of cases at trial;
• And advise the YS Police Department on matters related to criminal cases filed by the department.
With Xenia’s cessation of providing prosecutorial services to residents of neighboring Cedarville and Jamestown as well as Yellow Springs, the three municipalities are splitting the cost of the contract with Webb, with each municipality paying $8,333.33 for the first year of his services.
As Manager Burns indicated at Monday’s meeting, contracting with an independent prosecutor will not affect operations in the local mayor’s court — which presently rules on violations of local ordinances, such as traffic offenses, shoplifting, petty theft, trespassing, animal-related cases, assaults, disorderly conduct, drug offenses and more.
However, as the News has reported in the past, many offenses can be cited under either local law, in which case they would be heard in mayor’s court, or state law, in which case offenders go to Xenia Municipal Court. State law requires that repeat drunk driving offenses and cases of domestic violence automatically go to Xenia Municipal Court — where, now, offenders will be handled by Webb.
“I don’t think there’s any intention of changing how [mayor’s court] operates,” Village Solicitor Amy Blankenship told Council members. “These [misdemeanors] are already going to Xenia Municipal Court. This is just a change in which attorney prosecutes them.”
Blankenship noted that felony cases that occur in Yellow Springs will still be handled in Greene County Common Pleas Court, prosecuted by the county prosecutor’s office.
Ahead of Council’s unanimous vote to authorize the contract with the new prosecutor, village resident and former village manager and Council member Laura Curliss spoke up and advocated that the Village adopt a diversion program, and abide by an ethos of “restorative justice.”
Ostensibly, a diversion program could offer an alternative to criminal prosecution that allows individuals to avoid conviction or a criminal record through community rehabilitation.
“There are all kinds of cases that come to mayor’s court that would be appropriate for diversion,” Curliss said. “Anything from dogs running loose, vandalism to some criminal damaging, trespassing — things like that. This could be especially useful for young people and first-time offenders.”
Curliss continued: “I’m advocating that [the Village] needs a list that the [police] chief and you agree on of things that need to stay here. So, instruct the prosecutor that you want a diversion program. Inform the prosecutor with restorative justice principles in mind.”
In addition to suspending its prosecutorial services to Yellow Springs, Jamestown and Cedarville, the Xenia Law Department will likewise no longer provide victim advocacy services.
In recent Council meetings, YS Police Chief Paige Burge indicated that that gap could be filled by hiring a second community outreach specialist position within the local police department.
However, as Blankenship told Council: “We’re still working through that. There will be more to come and you’ll be the first to know.”
In other Council business, March 17—
Future sidewalk on Fairfield?
At Monday’s meeting, Council also unanimously approved a resolution to authorize Manager Burns to apply for a grant from the Ohio Department of Transportation, which, if awarded funding, would be used to build a sidewalk along Yellow Springs-Fairfield Road — a pedestrian walkway that could one day connect Ridgecrest Drive to the Little Miami Scenic Bike Trail.
According to a memo to the Village from Choice One Engineering, the cost of building a 2,600-foot sidewalk along the south-facing side of Fairfield Road would be $2,470,137.
The ODOT grant would cover $2 million, and the Village would pay $188,840. An additional grant from the Ohio Public Works Commission of $281,297 would help cover the costs of preparing the stormwater system along Fairfield ahead of the proposed construction.
However, as Burns told Council, he wants to break this construction process — as well as the grant to finance it — in half.
“I recommend we do this in two phases. Phase one would be a sidewalk from Ridgecrest [Drive] to Stafford Street,” Burns said. “Phase two would be a sidewalk from Winter Street to the bike path. All I’m asking for tonight is approval for phase one.”
Though Burns’ two-phased approach would cost more in the long run — $2.6 million instead of $2.4 million — he said downsizing it into a two-part project would be more manageable, allowing the Village to get “more bang for its buck” and greater “flexibility in funding.”
Phase one — that is, building a sidewalk from the Ridgecrest-Fairfield intersection to the Stafford-Fairfield intersection — would cost $1,464,625. If awarded grant money, ODOT would cover $1.24 million and OWPC would cover $84,719. The Village would be left paying $137,991.
Phase two — the proposed sidewalk between Winter Street and the bike path (a sidewalk already exists on Fairfield between Stafford and Winter streets) — would cost $1,153,440. A second ODOT grant would cover $966,968 and OWPC would cover $79,030. For the second phase, the Village would pay $107,441.
Though all four Council members present — Council member Carmen Brown was absent — ultimately voted “yes” on the resolution to authorize Manager Burns to pursue the ODOT grant to finance just phase one of the sidewalk project, some discussion preceded the vote.
“I’m generally inclined to be supportive of the phase one approach,” Council Vice President Gavin DeVore Leonard said. “But I want to make sure that we know how this fits into the bigger picture. … How do we best use the dollars we get from taxpayers for the best purpose?”
DeVore Leonard continued: “This is part of a larger discussion — we struggle without having goals, without having thorough discourse in our budgeting process about where our priorities are. I get a little nervous about putting more money into more infrastructure — and we have great infrastructure — when I think the bigger issue we have as a community is that the people who will be able to afford to benefit from it will continue to change if we do not, at some point, focus our resources on accessibility in the economic sense, beyond accessibility in the individual sense.”
Council member Trish Gustafson responded to her colleague with some scrutiny over his consideration of accessibility.
“We’re all disabled twice in our life: when we’re born and when we die,” Gustafson said. “We have an aging community, so we’re going to need these types of resources, and people are going to expect them. Yes, a strategic plan will help guide us, but for now, I’m in favor of applying for this grant.”
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