Present for the Dec. 1 Miami Township Trustee meeting were Chris Mucher, Marilan Moir and Don Hollister. (Video still)
Miami Township Trustees hire financial consultant
- Published: January 8, 2026
Miami Township trustees agreed this week to bring in outside help as they work to untangle the Township’s books ahead of budget planning early next year.
At their Dec. 1 regular meeting, trustees voted 2–1 to contract with accounting consultant Deborah Watson, a former fiscal officer for Bethel Township, through the end of this month. Trustee Chair Chris Mucher voted against the measure, citing concern about an outside party accessing the Township’s financial records, but the motion carried with “yes” votes from trustees Marilan Moir and Don Hollister.
Though Ohio Revised Code 9.36 allows the “trustees of any township [to] contract for the services of fiscal and management consultants” to assist with execution of their duties, the trustees agreed to consult legal counsel about the limits of any consultant’s financial work.
Moir said Watson will work alongside Fiscal Officer Jeanna GunderKline to sort out longstanding issues in the Township’s accounts and help establish basic procedures. She noted that the work is especially urgent for Miami Township Fire-Rescue, which she said has struggled to confidently project both current operations and long-term capital needs with current financial data.
Those same accounting concerns shaped the board’s response to a renewed request from Yellow Springs Senior Center Executive Director Caroline Mullin, who asked the Township to consider adding the center to its 2026 budget. Mullin noted that Yellow Springs is demographically the “oldest community in Greene County” and has one of the oldest senior centers in the area, founded in 1959, because, she said, “the Township and the Council together acknowledged that we needed such an organization.”
“In the last 40 years … we have not had municipal support, either from the Village or from the Township,” Mullin said, noting that Council did appropriate $32,000 to go toward the Senior Center in its 2026 budget.
Moir praised the center’s work, but said she did not believe the Township is in a position to make a financial commitment until the books are in better order. She said the Township’s fiscal office “is not in good shape right now, and our systems are not good.
“Our accounting data is unreliable; our books are not reconciled,” she said, adding that she believes the Township’s first duty is to ensure it can meet its own operational and capital needs.
Hollister, who will leave the board at the end of the year, said he hopes a future board will be able to support the center once the Township’s finances are clearer.
In other Township business, Dec. 1—
Zoning Administrator Bryan Lucas presented a slate of proposed increases to zoning fee schedules, intended to bring Miami Township in line with other Greene County jurisdictions. Under the proposal, the fees for a new residential dwelling or primary structure permit would rise from $100 to $200, with accessory structure permits increasing from $50 to $100 and conditional use applications from $150 to $200, among other permits and applications. Lucas said he does not believe it is the Township’s role “to discourage our residents” from applying for updated permitted or conditional uses to their properties, but that the updated fees better reflect the staff work involved and match “more of the going rates” in neighboring townships.
The trustees did not make a decision on the fees at the Dec. 1 meeting, but said they would take Lucas’ proposal under consideration, likely in January.
The next regular meeting of the Miami Township Board of Trustees will be Monday, Dec. 15, at 5 p.m.
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