Poland mayor quits, accepts job

The mayor will work in the attorney general’s office.

By DENISE DICK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

POLAND — Ruth Wilkes, mayor since 1990, has resigned her village post, effective Sunday.

She’ll continue to receive her mayor’s pay up to that date.

The job pays $8,000 annually.

Wilkes announced her resignation at village council’s regular meeting Tuesday.

She said that she hopes she left a positive and lasting impression on the village.

Wilkes has accepted a job as grants management director in Attorney General Marc Dann’s office.

“We’re proud of you,” said Joe Mazur, council’s president pro tem. “You did a good job, and we’ll be in touch.”

At a council meeting earlier this month, Linda Srnec, village clerk-treasurer, asked Damian DeGenova, village solicitor, to render an opinion on whether the village should continue to pay Wilkes.

Srnec had referred to Wilkes’ home on Poland Manor Drive having sold in early May, calling the mayor’s residency into question.

His decision

In his opinion, delivered Tuesday to Wilkes, Srnec and council members, the solicitor wrote that the sale of Wilkes’ house doesn’t in itself render her ineligible to hold office.

“In the present situation, Mayor Wilkes could buy another house, rent an apartment or move in with a friend,” he said. “In other words, the mayor’s situation is temporary.”

Wilkes told The Vindicator earlier this month that she has been living in Columbiana since the sale of her house. She plans to eventually move to Columbus.

DeGenova’s opinion says that until a determination of ineligibility of Wilkes to hold the post arises, or the mayor acts on her “reported intent to permanently move from the village, she is entitled to be paid as mayor.”

Wilkes’ resignation means that Mazur steps into the mayor’s seat.

Wilkes initially became mayor in 1990 when the mayor at that time resigned. She was the second woman appointed to the post.

She was elected mayor in 1991, the first woman elected to the job.