Salem council discusses 2 issues about controversial matters

City officials and council will revisit two issues.

SALEM — City council started and ended the first meeting after its August hiatus by dealing with two controversies.

Mike Grimstead, one of the businessmen involved with nonracing events run in conjunction with the Steel Valley Super Nationals, spoke when the meeting began.

He, along with Barb Weikart-Kuder, had handled some of the nonracing events in the city.

Grimstead asked council if he could meet with city Law Director C. Brooke Zellers about what Grimstead said was Mayor Jerry Wolford’s ability to “take over a private business.”

Racetrack owner Dan Swindell and Wolford recently announced a new alliance under which Swindell will run a racing program at his Quaker City Raceway, and the city would control some parts of the event, such as vendor locations and power connections.

Corey Ward of Austintown and a partner have run the races for four years and were unaware of the change. They said later they had planned to run the races for several more years.

“We’re just trying to find out what is going on,” Grimstead said.

Zellers said they could meet, and the mayor said he would attend the meeting.

Councilman Clyde Brown told Wolford that he would like to have known about the change, and Wolford said he should have notified council.

At the end of the meeting, council returned an ordinance to itself that it had approved at its last meeting. Council’s committee of the whole will debate it.

Council in July voted to trim the retirement pay of council members. The city pays both its share and employees’ shares of employee benefits to the Public Employees’ Retirement System. Councilman David Nestic, an independent, had pointed out that most people are unaware of that arrangement.

The ordinance also gave workers who wanted to give up the arrangement permission to do so.

Nestic said the number of workers who gave up the benefit was zero.

Nestic raised the issue because the city is trying to pass a half-percent income-tax increase for four years in November. If approved, it would raise about $1.8 million a year.

Wolford said besides the tax increase, the alternatives are not spending or layoffs.

Council also approved a letter of support to the Ohio Cultural Facilities Commission for a $54,000 grant to replace the seats in Salem Community Theatre.

wilkinson@vindy.com