2 trustees want state ethics panel to investigate colleague's actions

The accused trustee said he believes the others are trying to muzzle him.
& lt;a href=mailto:slshaulis@vindy.com & gt;By SHERRI L. SHAULIS & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
MINERAL RIDGE -- Two Weathersfield Township trustees are asking a state commission to investigate an ethics complaint against the third trustee.
In a letter dated Monday, Trustees James E. Stoddard and Fred R. Bobovnyk asked the Ohio Ethics Commission, based in Columbus, to investigate what they believe is fellow Trustee John Vogel's misuse of his official position.
They write Vogel attended a public meeting of the Weathersfield Township Zoning Board in February and gave sworn testimony that he was against a proposed request.
"We are under the impression, as is the chairman of the township zoning board, that a township trustee, who must make a decision on a zoning issue, must not make a decision for or against that issue which will come before him/her prior to an open meeting of the board of trustees," the letter states.
Neither Stoddard nor Bobovnyk could be reached Monday. Officials at the Ohio Ethics Commission said they had not yet received the complaint.
But Vogel, who said he was given a copy of the complaint by the other trustees, said the men are simply taking pieces of two separate issues to make it look like he did something wrong. "It's a last-minute stunt by them to try and muzzle me," he said.
What's behind this
Vogel said the issue centers around two separate zoning requests presented in recent months to the township zoning board. The first came in February, when the Seventh-day Adventist Church requested a change in zoning from residential to commercial.
Vogel acknowledged he spoke as a trustee at that meeting to voice concerns over the proposal, which was ultimately denied by the zoning board and not presented to trustees.
The second issue, Vogel said, came before the zoning board in March, when developers for the Country Meadows Estates -- a planned community that features duplex condominiums and roughly $100,000 homes -- asked for a change from residential A to residential C. That request was approved, and the next day, the developers went to the board of zoning appeals to request a variance in order to use more of the land for the buildings. That request was denied, Vogel said.
Vogel said he's met with residents of Country Meadows Estates and other neighbors about the changes.
"They are saying that I violated my position by sitting in judgment of an issue that's not yet been presented to the trustees as a board," Vogel said. "I freely admit that I am opposed to the change and the way it was handled administratively."
What he suspects
Vogel contends that township officials worked closely with the developer to ensure the zoning request for Country Meadows would be approved, even going so far as to withhold knowledge of the needed variance until after the zoning board approved the change.
Trustees are expected to meet in regular session today to vote on the zoning board's approval of the change, but now Vogel's not sure if or how the vote will be affected by the ethics complaint, Vogel said.
Vogel said he's sent a copy of the letter and the complaint to township attorney William Roux for an opinion.
But, he said, he believes the complaint is a way for Stoddard and Bobovnyk -- whom he acknowledges he has not always gotten along with since taking office in January -- to try and keep him in line.
"I think maybe they think they've let the new kid have his say and now it's time to bring him down a peg," Vogel said. "Well, bring it on."
& lt;a href=mailto:slshaulis@vindy.com & gt;slshaulis@vindy.com & lt;/a & gt;