Clerk refuses to resign; council votes to fire her
Officials gave the clerk an opportunity to resign before firing her.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- One of Arlene D.T. Bahar's last duties as city clerk was to take a roll call vote of the city council's seven members to fire her.
Council voted 4-3 to fire Bahar, who's held the job since October 1998. Bahar declined to comment Wednesday on the firing.
Councilmen Artis Gillam Sr., D-1st; Mark Memmer, D-7th; and Paul Pancoe, D-6th, met privately Tuesday with Bahar.
The three make up council's finance committee and conducted a closed-door meeting without first giving public notice, a requirement of the state's open meetings and public records law.
"She was given the opportunity to resign and she chose not to," Memmer said about Tuesday's meeting.
Bahar wouldn't resign so those three council members along with Councilman Michael Rapovy, D-5th, voted Wednesday to fire her.
When asked about the firing, Gillam said, "It's total chaos in council. We need to move council to a higher level. It's nothing personal. She wasn't living up to the expectations of a majority of council."
Disagreement
Councilman Richard Atkinson, R-3rd, who voted to not fire Bahar, said she did an excellent job and he doesn't understand why she was fired.
Gillam said the firing probably would result in a lawsuit against the city.
The city clerk works at the pleasure of council and can be fired at any time, Memmer said.
"When a majority of [council] is no longer satisfied with the work, they have the option of taking a vote" to fire the clerk, he said.
Bahar earned $62,886 in salary last year, and received a 2.5 percent annual salary raise this year.
Council will conduct a search to replace Bahar, and doesn't have a time frame as to when her successor will be selected, Memmer and Gillam said. Until then, Faith C. O'Nesti, first assistant clerk, and Terri Dawson, first deputy clerk, will run the council office.
The four councilmen who voted to fire Bahar took control of the legislative body last month by voting to replace its president pro-tempore and take control of its most powerful committees.
Also Wednesday, council voted to adopt a policy to buy $100,000 individual faithful performance bonds for the mayor, law director and finance director. The bonds are needed to recoup money in cases where city officials purposely do something illegal with city funds.
Council voted to repeal legislation on the books since 1948 requiring its seven members and president to have performance bonds. Those eight are covered under the city's general insurance policy, according to Law Director Iris Guglucello.