LISBON By a 4-2 vote, council decides to fire village administrator

Council gave no reason for terminating the administrator's contract.
By SUE DROTLEFF
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
LISBON -- Village council voted Monday to terminate its contract with village Administrator Kevin Brooks.
Council exercised an option in Brooks' one-year contract allowing it to terminate the contract at any time with 30-days' notice. Brooks' last day will be June 13.
Reached this morning, Brooks said he was surprised by the move because he had had no performance reviews and had gotten no negative feedback on his performance from council members. He was hired July 8, 2002.
He speculated that his dismissal from the $42,000-a-year post might have something to do with his reporting to state election officials that two village employees had told him that Councilman Bob Sheehan had used phones in city hall for private political purposes, to urge voters to support Mayor Jeff Snyder, who lost last week's Democratic primary to Mike Lewis.
The motion to terminate Brooks' contract passed 4-2 with Sheehan, Roger Gallo, Terry Carman and Mark Judy in favor and Lewis and Bruce Kraft opposing.
Council gave no reason for its vote.
Cutting hours
In a similar 4-2 vote, council decided to cut in half the hours of two village employees, Dee Brown and Shirley Dopp. Brown is the assistant clerk for the public works department and Dopp is the deputy clerk treasurer. Both will have their hours reduced from 40 to 20 hours per week, effective the end of the payroll period.
Council gave no explanation for this vote, either.
Snyder said he didn't know why council voted to terminate Brooks but said he believed the cutback in hours for Brown and Dopp was related to recent automation upgrades in the public works department.
Council gave no indication whether it plans to replace Brooks, who was village administrator in Carrollton before coming here.