Newton Falls mayoral issue heats up

By Ed Runyan

All of the parties involved came to court ready to resolve the matter.

WARREN — The legal filings brought against Newton Falls City Council members by former Mayor Pat Layshock and several other people boiled over Wednesday in the reception area of the Trumbull County Courthouse, as the city’s law director angrily confronted Layshock.

“Don’t tell me. Tell these guys they did something wrong,” Law Director Rick Schwartz said to Layshock.

Schwartz was referring to two attorneys who were standing nearby — both of whom had been asked by Jack Haney, Newton Falls city manager, to serve as acting prosecutors in a complaint filed against two Newton Falls City Council members.

Layshock didn’t respond, as someone pulled him away.

The outburst occurred after a hearing before Judge Thomas A. Swift in the Trumbull County Probate Court.

The complaint at issue Wednesday was not filed by Layshock but is similar to a lawsuit Layshock filed in Common Pleas Court and another he filed in the 11th District Court of Appeals.

Both suits ask for Layshock to be reinstated as Newton Falls mayor, but one of them also accuses city council of improperly meeting in private to talk about his performance as mayor.

The hearing Wednesday was on a filing by Jim Luonuansuu, a city council candidate, and four other Newton Falls residents, asking that council members Thomas Moorehead and Catie Karl- Moran be removed from office for various actions they are alleged to have taken relating to Layshock, including private discussions with other council members regarding Layshock’s job performance.

Schwartz came to the hearing prepared to call witnesses and defend the actions of the two council members, but Judge Swift, based on the advice of Jim Saker, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, rescheduled the hearing for 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Saker advised Judge Swift that the judge probably doesn’t have jurisdiction to hear the complaint because the Newton Falls charter calls for another procedure first: City council can have a public hearing and vote to remove a member of city council for doing something improper.

A person removed by such a procedure can appeal the decision to a court, Saker said, but only then can the matter go to Probate Court.

Haney authorized the hiring of attorneys Darrell A. Clay and R. Todd Hunt of Cleveland to serve as special prosecutors to prosecute the complaint.

City council must also pass a resolution approving the hiring of the special prosecutors, Judge Swift said.

Layshock made a remark to Schwartz just before Schwartz’s angry outburst regarding whether it was proper for Clay and Hunt to be hired to work on this matter, when Schwartz has recommended their law firm for work in Newton Falls as recently as 2007, Layshock said.

Schwartz, who is representing Moorehead and Karl-Moran in the probate court complaint, said he hadn’t researched the issue of whether city council must act first before the complaint can go to probate court.

“I want it to be done today,” said Schwartz, who issued subpoenas to eight people to appear for Wednesday’s hearing.

“It’s ridiculous, and I want it over with,” Schwartz said after the hearing. During the hearing, he told Judge Swift the complaint was “frivolous and malicious.”

By Friday, Clay and Hunt will submit legal arguments to Judge Swift on whether they believe Judge Swift has jurisdiction over the complaint.

If he does, it will still be up to Clay and Hunt to decide whether there is a legitimate matter worthy of prosecution, Clay and Judge Swift agreed.

By law, a hearing on the complaint has to be held by Oct. 17, but since that is a Saturday, the hearing was set for the first available date before that.

runyan@vindy.com