HUBBARD School board breaks tie vote

One candidate for board president changed his vote.
HUBBARD -- Two weeks after the Hubbard Board of Education deadlocked on the election of a president, Robert Toth was elected with a vote of 4 to 1.
A vote Jan. 7 ended in a tie when board member Ray Wells was unable to attend the annual organizational meeting because of a work-related obligation.
Toth's opponent, Jack Murphy, later changed his mind and decided to vote against himself.
Jack Murphy, who was first elected to the board 11 years ago, said he changed his mind and voted against himself because it was "the right thing to do."
"I don't want to split the board," Murphy said.
The vote Monday came after Wells expressed dissatisfaction over not being able to attend the organizational meeting, where his vote would have broken the tie.
"I was a little bit upset when I found out that the meeting couldn't be held before I went out of town," Wells said. Wells said he had wanted the board to move the meeting so he could vote before he had to go away on business.
Sunshine Law
Murphy said the board was not given enough notice to move the meeting and that doing so would have put the board in violation of the Ohio Sunshine Law, which requires that all board members be given 48 hours' notice before a meeting.
Superintendent Jim Herrholtz disagreed with Murphy, saying the board was given notification on a Friday that the meeting was to be held the following Monday.
Board members would not have been in violation of the Sunshine law if they had moved the meeting, Herrholtz said.
This election marks the third time Toth will serve as president in his 11 years as a board member.
Toth said each board member should take on the presidency at least once within a four-year term, and he is glad to have the opportunity before his term expires this year.
Murphy also has served three times as board president in his 11-year tenure.