Small Town, Big Scandal: How a $72,000 Salary and 120 Paid Sick Days Rocked an Ohio Village of 387
There is a quiet, unassuming place right on the Ohio-Indiana border called College Corner, a village so small its 2020 census population was just 387 residents. Like many small towns, it was the kind of place where local government business was mostly conducted behind closed doors, away from the eyes of major metropolitan media. That is, until a new mayor started asking for the office keys.
Molly Cason ran for mayor in 2023 on a platform of transparency, sensing that something was amiss in the village’s administrative affairs. She won, but her new role was immediately complicated. For months after her January 2024 swearing-in, Mayor Cason and two newly elected council members found themselves locked out, struggling to gain access to the village office and its financial records.
The office, it turned out, was solely controlled by two people: Village Fiscal Officer Jennifer Woods and her father, volunteer Village Administrator Mike Sims.
What the new administration eventually uncovered was a mind-boggling “sweetheart contract” for the fiscal officer, the village’s only full-time employee. Just before Mayor Cason and the new council took office, the outgoing council approved a contract for Ms. Woods that granted her an annual salary of more than $72,000. While that number is already significant for a village with fewer than 400 people, the real shock was the time-off package.
The contract included 30 paid vacation days, two personal days, and an unprecedented 120 paid sick days per year. This was effectively a full five months of paid time off. One employment attorney who reviewed the details told reporters that in 38 years of practice, he had never seen a contract with 120 paid sick days per year, classifying it as “insanity.” Compounding the optics, the contract stipulated Ms. Woods was not required to hold any in-office hours, allowing her to work “flexible work hours as necessary.”
The contract even contained a clause that promised Ms. Woods a lump sum payment of her remaining salary if she found another full-time job before June 2025, or even if she died before that date.
The explosion of media attention, which saw the tiny village become a national news story, finally forced a reckoning. In May 2024, after being denied keys to the office for four months, Mayor Cason finally gained access. By the summer, the old guard had folded. Ms. Woods officially resigned in late June 2024, followed shortly by the resignation of her father, Mr. Sims, in early July. The controversy was so sweeping that it led to the resignation of all four council members who had served prior to the 2023 election, leaving College Corner’s government in shambles.
As of late 2024, the village is focused on rebuilding its infrastructure and restoring public trust. Mayor Cason and the remaining council members are scrambling to fill vacant seats, reestablish utility billing after losing key administrators, and navigate three separate ongoing investigations into the village’s former operations. The case of College Corner is a stark reminder that even in the quietest corners of the country, accountability still matters, and a small-town screwup can quickly become a national spectacle.