OXFORD — Concern about the future of the city’s financial health came late at Tuesday’s Oxford City Council meeting, which opened with a celebration in honor of the 31 years of service to the city by retiring police Lt. Dan Umbstead.

City Manager Doug Elliott led off the staff announcements and communications portion of the agenda with comments on Ohio House Bill 5, which he described as “a bad bill with a bad impact on the city.”

Elliott said he had mentioned it at prior meetings and had promised to keep council up-to-date on it.

He said a group of Dayton-area municipal governments has banded together to oppose the bill, which is expected to have negative results on municipal income tax collections. Elliott said the bill was originally considered to bring uniformity to the municipal income tax system in Ohio but has taken several turns that will hurt local governments.

“The goal was tax uniformity, but it is having negative impact on the cities of Ohio,” Elliott told council. “They have strayed from the original goal. Now it’s more about tax reduction than tax uniformity.”

Not only is the bill likely to reduce city income, he said, but the bill is going to require more expense with the hiring of tax resolution officer and appointment of a tax policy board.

“It’s a bill we need to come out in opposition to,” the city manager said. “We need to contact our state representative, Tim Derickson, and tell him we oppose it.”

He said city income has been negatively impacted by several recent legislature tax elimination actions and this would seriously hurt the city’s ability to provide services.

He said one of the underlying purposes of the bill is to attract business and create more jobs.

“We support uniformity, but we cannot do it at the cost of local governments who provide the services which draw businesses to Ohio,” Elliott said.

Elliott held up a copy of the bill, which is more than 100 pages during part of his presentation and said he had not finished reading through the whole bill.

Mayor Richard Keeber asked him to provide a summary of the bill once he has completed his reading of it and he said he would do so and planned to present a resolution at the March 19 council meeting so that the city can take an official stance on the proposed bill.

He added that there has already been a hearing in Columbus for those in favor of the bill to speak but that he has not heard of a similar hearing for opponents to address the bill, which is currently in committee.

Tuesday’s meeting followed a public reception in honor of the retirement of Lt. Umbstead after 31 years with the Oxford Police Department. Early in the meeting, Umbstead was honored with several presentations.

Police Chief Robert Holzworth called him “a good friend and a loyal civil servant,” adding, “The whole Division of Police will miss this man.”

Brian Robinson, of Hamilton Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 38 praised Umbstead and presented him with a certificate and a retired officer’s pin and card.

Susan Meyer, of the Oxford Police Advisory Board, said he served the community well and presented him with a plaque, citing “31 years of selfless and dedicated service.”

Candace Keller, who now directs the Respect for Law Camp which Umbstead was instrumental in starting, told of the 1,600 kids in 18 years who knew him as “Lt. Dan” and learned from him. Many of those kids have gone on to serve in law enforcement, fire departments or the military, she said.

Umbstead thanked the city for allowing him to serve in the police department.

“I appreciate the kind words,” he said. “It means a lot to me. I wanted to serve and the Oxford Police Department took me on.”