Dan Nichter has resigned from Hilliard City Council after being indicted by a Franklin County Grand jury for passing bad checks.
I hope this brings an end to the saga of Mr. Nichter in the Hilliard community.
Now the question is who will be appointed to fill his seat on the City Council? Will it be another developer-friendly politician, or will the Council seek someone who will strive to do what is best for the greater Hilliard community?
I'm hoping the next Council member will be a stronger supporter of the Big Darby Accord than the Mayor and other Council members have been. Saying you support the Accord is different than actually abiding by the Accord principles.
And I hope the new Council member believes that a strong Hilliard community means a strong, healthy and cooperative relationship between the City of Hilliard and Hilliard City Schools.
Might just apply and see what the attitude is ?
ReplyDeleteAs the current members of Council will be appointing the new member, seems it only follows that they will select someone who is closest to their current agenda. We are stuck until the next election. In a logical world they would select whoever finished next in the last election but then that would be the people having a say in it. And to be honest, I don't even remember who that was.
ReplyDeleteHillirdite:
ReplyDeleteFive people ran for four seats. The person who ran but was not elected was Meagan Pandy, the sole Democrat in the race.
The top four candidates got 4500, 4400, 4200 and 3500 votes, compared to Pandy's 2600.
Moot of course - there is virtually no chance of this council appointing a Democrat to fill a seat won by a Republican in the General Election.
Paul, et al. I have officially applied for the open seat. I dont expect much, but more of the same does not help in any way.
ReplyDeleteRick:
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking the step. It will be interesting to hear your report of how it goes.
PL
Latest update on Mr. Nichter, as reported by the Columbus Dispatch Dec 20, 2010:
ReplyDeleteA former Franklin County development director and Hilliard city councilman awaiting trial on bad-check charges was indicted today in a mortgage-fraud case.
Daniel J. Nichter, 50, was named in a 48-count indictment that charges him with performing appraisals of central Ohio properties and brokering mortgage deals without a license.
According to the indictment Nichter's appaiser's license was revoked in March 2008 and his loan-originator's license was placed in escrow in June 2009. During 2009 and 2010, he completed at least 23 appraisals under the names of other licensed appraisers without their knowledge and included false information that inflated the property values.
Nichter was the loan originator on most of the properties and received commissions on the deals when the loans were issued.
Nichter was indicted on 22 counts of identify fraud; 20 counts of forgery; four counts of receiving stolen property; and one count each of theft and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.
Nichter was the county's development director from 2000 to 2005. Before that, he worked for the county recorder's office and supervised the delinquent tax department for the county treasurer.
He resigned as a Hilliard city councilman in March after a Franklin County grand jury returned a 10-count indictment charging him with passing $26,000 in bad checks.
He is scheduled for trial Jan. 24 in that case.
Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien said Nichter faces more than 50 years in prison if convicted of all counts in the latest indictment.