Five council members and employees have written letters complaining Hensley “threw them under the bus” over the homeless incident among other grievances.
The Journal-News obtained the packet of letters and in it was a screen shot of a Facebook post Hensley allegedly wrote on the Village of New Miami Council and Mayor page — which was “paused” on Jan. 31. She wrote she tried to open the village hall for the homeless and employees “threw a fit calling the vice mayor and other council members. They didn’t call me; no they called others.”
“I don’t care who gets mad at this post. If someone dies tonight down by the river you have village employees and council to thank for that,” it reads. “I think they should be responsible if something happens to one of those people having to sleep in this dangerous Antarctic air.”
She sent an email to the Journal-News and two television stations on Jan. 20 with the subject line, “Hot Story, council turning homeless away in sub zero weather” and she later told WCPO, “I never knew that people could be so mean.”
There are letters from three employees who claim she is lying because they never spoke to her about housing the homeless. All three women say they hadn’t had contact with her since the last council meeting on Jan. 16. Fiscal Officer Belinda Ricketts also wrote, “I could not have had a fit because I never spoke to the mayor about this topic, or the vice mayor or any other council person about this issue prior to her making the decision.”
They claim they are receiving threats because of her posts and the interview she gave to WCPO.
“This is making me feel very unsafe in both my place of work and when I am out in the village,” village Clerk Rhona Cook wrote. “People are saying to fire us and make us homeless and that we are cruel and heartless and mean.”
Allison Wood in the Water Department wrote that Councilman Matt Stephens called her to tell her Hensley planned to open the village hall to the homeless and that she could stay at work or use vacation time if she didn’t feel comfortable being there. She said she told him she wasn’t going to use vacation time. She wrote she contacted her boss — and only her boss — and he knew nothing about the situation, “I never once spoke to Jewel about any of this.”
She also said she, her husband and even her son are being harassed.
“The mayor did nothing but throw all the employees and elected officials under the bus,” Wood wrote. “As a result of this, my son has had kids at school telling him his mom doesn’t care about homeless people.”
Ricketts echoed the other employees' statements writing in part, “This is causing me great concern. If she can make up lies about this, what else is she capable of doing to promote her own agenda, Ricketts wrote and later added, ”I feel some action needs to be taken to resolve these problems.”
Hensley told the Journal-News she denies any wrongdoing.
“I know I was called a liar. I may be many things in life but a liar I am not. If I said it I will say I said it, but I think what really truly happened is it was an emergency situation, I made an emergency decision, I think some employees and maybe some on council got upset because I didn’t include them in that decision, I just went ahead and opened it and brought them in,” she said. “But as mayor that’s my job, if an emergency comes up I have to make a decision, I don’t have time to call and schedule a meeting and try to get everybody there to decide what we’re going to do, I just have to make the decision and go with it. I did feel like with the communication that was relayed to me that there was people that was resisting it and didn’t want it to happen.”
When asked about how her public statements made the village employees feel threatened she said, “I don’t want the employees threatened, I don’t want ‘em harmed and intentionally I would never put them in danger.”
Councilwoman Lora Mooney wrote she got an email stating the mayor was shutting down the hall, “not asking or getting anyone’s opinion about what protocols and things that need to be put in place, just what the mayor was doing.”
She said they should have been consulted so they could weigh the ramifications, of things like shutting down the Water Department, “people go there to pay their bill, you can’t just shut the water department for this.”
Mooney said she got another email later saying people were upset so the plan changed. Then she saw the WCPO report blaming council and employees, “I didn’t even get a say in anything, so how could I shut it down.”
Village Solicitor Jonathon Fox told the Journal-News Hensley asked about opening the village hall to the homeless after the fact, but she is correct, she has the power.
“She’s the chief executive officer of the village,” he said. “I said she is within her executive powers to open the village hall as an emergency shelter. If you look around the county the sheriff has opened the lobby of jail, the county commissioners have opened the lobby of the Government Services Center.”
Vice Mayor Victoria Hall wrote that Hensley’s “heart was in the right place” on that day “but her actions were not.” She said she made calls trying to find other accommodations for the people Hensley was trying to help and the jail was available, but apparently not a good option.
“I was unaware of the unhoused having possible bad backgrounds and that they would not have wanted to go there in fear of being arrested,” she wrote. “If that was the case, then why would we want them in our Town Hall where there is cash, personal and business checks, personal records and other government records.”
She said this was not an isolated incident, “I just don’t see us being able to continue to run the village the way we currently are.”
“Her demanding ways, requests and how she talks to employees is unacceptable,” Hall wrote. “She has a ‘easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission’ mentality and that is not the way government officials or business leaders act or should act.”
Mooney echoed that sentiment, “since day one of her being mayor has been nothing but chaos and she should resign.”
Hensley told the Journal-News if they want her out they’ll have to force the issue.
“I’m not going to resign, if they want me out they will get their petition and have it put back on the ballot and if the residents want me out then I’m out,” she said. “But I’m not going to resign knowing that I’ve tried to do my best for this village. There’s been significant changes made since I’ve become mayor, so I’m not going to resign over one situation where they got their feelings hurt.”
The Journal-News reached out to all council members seeking comment but they did not reply.
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