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Voters to decide on Layshock recall
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Newtown Falls Mayor Patrick Layshock
By ED RUNYAN
NEWTON FALLS
The Trumbull County Board of Elections has certified that enough valid signatures have been received for a special election in November to ask voters whether they want to recall Mayor Pat Layshock.
Newton Falls resident Phillip Beer submitted 247 petition signatures Sept. 25, said Kelly Pallante, elections director.
The Newton Falls charter requires 195 valid signatures to put the issue on the ballot, so the elections board stopped counting when it had reached 197, Pallante said.
By a 4-0 vote, the elections board certified Tuesday that a sufficient number of signatures had been received. Newton Falls City Council is required by charter to set the special election for sometime between Nov. 4 and 14, Pallante said.
City council has set a meeting for 3:30 p.m. Friday in council chambers, 52 East Quarry St., to set the election date.
Beer did not attend Tuesday’s board-of-elections meeting.
Newton Falls resident Lyle Waddell, who said he will seek to replace Layshock if voters remove him, said Layshock — mayor most of the last 18 years — costs the city a lot of money in legal fees, gets too involved in the decision- making of council and is trying to get rid of competent city officials.
Layshock did not return a phone call seeking comment Tuesday.
Beer has said in the past that his reasons for wanting Layshock out related to Layshock’s desire to remove the city manager and police chief.
Waddell said the decision council made Monday to hire Atty. Joe Fritz of Warren to be the city’s law director is an example of bad decisions engineered by Layshock.
Layshock didn’t vote on the hiring, but he influences three of the five council members, Waddell said.
Beer’s first attempt at getting Layshock recalled was rejected by the elections board in August because the petitions submitted contained some out-of-date language.
Anyone wishing to be named on the ballot as a possible replacement for Layshock has to submit 130 valid signatures to the Trumbull elections board at least 20 days before the election, the Newton Falls charter says.