COLUMBIANA COUNTY Special meeting over scandal hits a snag

Commissioner Jim Hoppel says the county prosecutor should be consulted.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- It's unclear whether a health district advisory council has authority to meet to discuss a travel and expenditures scandal affecting the Columbiana County Health Department.
County Commissioner Jim Hoppel has said a special meeting of the advisory council, of which he's a member, should be held after stories in The Vindicator on May 2 appeared detailing health commissioner Robert Morehead's use of a county-issued credit card to make personal buys.
Hoppel said during Wednesday's county commissioner meeting, however, that an attorney is questioning whether the council has authority to gather in special session.
The nearly 30-member council -- made up of a county commissioner, township trustees and representatives of villages and cities -- has the right to appoint health board members and to make recommendations to the panel.
In the wake of the scandal, the council should scrutinize the five-member health board's oversight of Morehead and the health department, Hoppel has said.
Seeks special meeting
Hoppel said he has talked with Carl Garwood, advisory council chairman and a Fairfield Township trustee, about setting a special meeting.
Garwood consulted with a private attorney who questioned whether the advisory council may call a special meeting, Hoppel related.
Yet a copy of Ohio law pertaining to the advisory council, which was provided by Commissioner Sean Logan, seems to allow special meetings of the panel.
Hoppel said he hadn't seen that provision and would check it.
He also said that, rather than take a private attorney's word on the matter, he would prefer that the county prosecutor's office be consulted.
Hoppel also repeated his belief that the advisory council should meet "to review everything that's happened."
Vindicator stories have sparked a criminal probe and a state audit of Morehead's actions, which have included using a county Visa card to buy hundreds of dollars of personal books, golf accessories and Christmas gifts in 2003 and early 2004.
The five-member health board, which oversees Morehead, has acknowledged that it hasn't been examining the credit card statements and receipts turned in by Morehead, who has claimed he reimbursed the county for at least some of the personal purchases.