Present for the Jan. 20 Village Council meeting were, from left, Stephanie Pearce, Senay Semere, Carmen Brown, Angie Hsu, Gavin DeVore Leonard and Village Manager Johnnie Burns. (Video still)
Slight changes to Village Council procedures
- Published: February 2, 2026
At the group’s most recent regular meeting and preceding work session, Tuesday, Jan. 20, Village Council members agreed upon some slight changes to Council procedures going forward.
Ahead of the second meeting of every month, Council will hold a one-hour work session to allow Council members and Village staff better plan for and understand topics related to forthcoming legislation.
“These will allow us to get a couple Council meetings ahead,” Village Manager Johnnie Burns explained.
“And give us extended time to understand topics that have a lot of complexity,” Council President Gavin DeVore Leonard added.
Currently, Council holds work sessions as needed and at their discretion — historically as a chance to plumb a particular matter of relevance, to chart budgets and hash out priorities. The most recent one was last October, when Council had an extended opportunity to learn about economic incentive tools.
While Council members, Village staffers and invited advisors may speak freely during work sessions, the public is generally not allowed to speak or voice citizen concerns, as permitted in a regular Council meeting. That rule could bend to Council’s discretion, Village Solicitor Amy Blankenship said, but she suggested doing so with some caution.
“Historically, work sessions have not included public comment,” Blankenship said. “My concern is with allowing public comment in one session and not in another — who makes that determination? It’s not necessarily a legal issue, but it’s tricky.”
She added: “The Village typically has used town halls to gather information from the public on particular topics.”
Per the Village charter, Council work sessions can be convened if the group “wishes to facilitate additional citizen response and input than can be afforded in a regular meeting.” The charter also points out that all work sessions have to be publicly noticed ahead of the meeting, with an agenda. Though atypical, legislation may be heard at a work session.
Also at these future regularly scheduled work sessions, DeVore Leonard suggested all five Council members could have a three-minute opportunity to share noteworthy topics that, in the past, some Council members vocalized during the announcements portion of the regular meeting.
“The hope is that we honor announcements as just that — announcements,” DeVore Leonard said. “Not commentary on things that add a level of complexity.”
Some meeting-related changes are coming from the manager’s desk as well.
Moving forward, Burns is taking his twice-a-month manager’s report to just once — also to happen during the second Council meeting of the month. Though those reports will be less frequent, Burns suggested that he intends for them to be more thorough.
“This gives staff more time to get things done,” Burns told Council.
Burns will still be present for both Village Council meetings each month, and in lieu of the first-of-the-month report, will give Council members a one-page memo with any pressing updates.
“This feels like a healthy shift,” DeVore Leonard said.
In those future memos and reports, Council members requested Burns include more context and background of ongoing projects, unintended consequences of proposed initiatives, greater impacts on Village budgets and any relevant research and data — all in the interest of allowing Council to make better informed decisions.
In other Council business, Jan. 20—
Burns’ end-of-year report
Manager Burns delivered a 24-slide presentation that detailed his, administrative and public works’ highlights and challenges throughout 2025.
Per his presentation, some notable Village successes of 2025 included:
• The municipal water treatment team drilled a new monitoring well, allowing upstream groundwater sampling to identify potential contaminants before they reach the wellfield.
• The electric distribution team reached 25% of the way through the construction of the center circuit; the next step is underground work. The same department collaborated with the metering department throughout the year to change out electric meters throughout the village, thereby upgrading myriad local meters to improve outage detection, voltage monitoring and faster response times in addressing issues.
• The water distribution team also turned over many meters in town — approximately 300 new residential meters were installed, helping mitigate in-home water loss. Similarly, new monitors were installed on local hydrants — which the Village now maintains and repairs.
• The streets, parks and sewers department members worked on several improvements at Gaunt Park — including a new water fountain and baseball dugout — and also constructed several road and sidewalk enhancements that aid accessibility and pedestrian movement. The same department also helped plan and install new community gardens.
• Yellow Springs Police added to its community outreach program with a second staffer, and now provides victim advocacy services to other area municipalities.
• In the way of planning and economic development, the Village established a villagewide community reinvestment area district and advanced a tax increment financing project to encourage reinvestment and support “priority development areas.” The Village issued 186 building permits, totalling $18.3 million in physical value added to Yellow Springs.
• The Village launched its YSConnect app, with more than 1,700 downloads, as well as began mailing out a revived Village Grapevine — the quarterly municipal newsletter.
Per Burns’ presentation, last year’s challenges weren’t quite as numerous, but were not insignificant. Many of them, Burns said, stemmed from the overextention of his “small, but mighty” staff and deferred maintenance of municipal infrastructure.
Some of last year’s specific challenges included:
• Periods of limited alignment among Council members, that led to challenges in building consensus and making long-term decisions.
• A high volume of work and competing requests, combined with limited staff capacity — and when combined, constrained focus on long-term planning and initiatives.
• Maintaining work-life balance.
• The water treatment plant’s 38-year-old blowers and 16-year-old systems made maintenance and regulatory compliance difficult within budgetary constraints.
• The village’s uptick in new homes — mainly from the ongoing Spring Meadows subdivision — led to more than 100 instances of electric distribution workers connecting structures to the local grid. Though the Village’s grid can support those additional service releases, the labor itself was a challenge.
• There remain approximately 5,500 feet of two-inch galvanized water lines that cannot be monitored with current leak detection tools.
• The police department experienced ongoing retention and staffing challenges; and hiring and training new personnel to fill those gaps strained supervisors and co-workers.
• Former Planning and Economic Development Director Meg Leatherman’s departure from Village staff late last year constrained capacity for planning-related initiatives. The Village is still seeking her replacement.
Despite those challenges, Council members were pleased not only with Burns’ presentation, but also the volume of work he and his departments carried out over the last year.
“This was enlightening,” Council member Senay Semere said. “It gives me an even greater appreciation for all you do. There were a lot of wins here — things people can see in their day-to-day lives.”
Semere continued: “A lot of the challenges you listed off didn’t seem operational — they seemed like they were about clarity, prioritization and alignment. Those are things, I think, this [Council] can adjust.”
The next Village Council meeting will be Monday, Feb. 2, at 6 p.m. in Village Council Chambers, on the second floor of the John Bryan Community Center.
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