Suit filed in effort to remove Brookfield school board member

By Ed Runyan

Joseph Pasquerilla says he’s made enemies by trying to get the district to ‘live within its budget.’

WARREN — Brookfield citizens are taking a second shot at removing Brookfield School Board member Joseph Pasquerilla from office by filing a civil action against him in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.

The action, signed by about 800 people, accuses Pasquerilla of numerous violations of the Ohio public meetings law and says Pasquerilla oversteps his authority as a board member and bullies others in order to run the school district’s day-to-day operations.

A citizens group called Save Our Schools filed a similar action in August 2007 seeking the removal of Pasquerilla and two other board members — Dean Fisher and Steven Varga. A judge later dismissed the suit. The board members argued the earlier suit lacked specifics.

This time, the suit asks for Pasquerilla’s ouster under a provision of Ohio law that allows a complaint to be filed and a common pleas court judge to decide whether a public official should be removed for his or her actions or inactions.

The suit names lists dates throughout 2006, when Pasquerilla first became a board member, when the action says Pasquerilla violated the public meetings law by having private meetings known as executive sessions for reasons that are not allowed by law.

The suit said Pasquerilla caused executive sessions to last for extended periods of time in an effort to “wear out the citizens present.”

Pasquerilla, reached Friday, said the newest lawsuit is led by the same people as the first lawsuit — many of them school employees or former employees — and for the same reasons.

Pasquerilla, who was first elected to the board in November 2005, said he has made a lot of enemies by advocating the school district “live within the budget” and reduce personnel costs.

He said the accusations regarding improper public meetings are “totally ridiculous,” adding, “If I had a majority, why would I need to meet secretly?”

He said he had a majority on the school board because two of the four other board members frequently agreed with him, Pasquerilla said.

Michael Scala, a Warren attorney who filed the action, did not return a phone seeking comment on the identities of the chief proponents of the newest action.

The filing says Paquerilla has violated numerous school policies, including hiring a bus supervisor and allowing him to begin working before the board met and without performing a criminal background check. He also interviewed and offered a job to a football coach and a high school principal, matters that should be initiated by the school administration and approved by the board, according to the lawsuit.

It mentions that Pasquerilla was convicted of misdemeanor assault in Trumbull County Eastern District Court in Brookfield for his role in a physical altercation with board member Ronald Brennan at a board meeting in March 2008.

His punishment from Acting Judge David Lake was a suspension from three school board meetings, a 10-day suspended jail sentence, $250 fine, order to attend anger-management counseling and order to write a 250-word apology to Brennan.

Brennan pleaded no contest and was found guilty of disorderly conduct. He was fined $25.

runyan@vindy.com