Mahoning board of elections hires attorney to defend its decision on anti-fracking proposal

September 8, 2015 at 1:33p.m.

The Mahoning County Board of Elections hired outside legal counsel to defend its decision to not put an anti-fracking charter amendment on Youngstown’s Nov. 3 ballot.

The reason for hiring John Keller, an attorney with the Columbus office of Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP, is because the board’s Aug. 26 vote conflicted with the legal opinion of the county prosecutor, who serves as the board’s attorney.

“The opinion differed from what the board decided,” said Mark Munroe, board chairman and head of the county Republican Party. “Because of a conflict, we’re hiring outside legal counsel.”

The board met Tuesday and declined a request from The Vindicator to vote on making the opinion, in letter form, public.

“It’s subject to attorney-client privilege,” Munroe said.

County Prosecutor Paul J. Gains declined to make the letter public without a vote of the board of elections.

The city of Youngstown filed a complaint with the Ohio Supreme Court contending the elections board acted “illegally” when it refused to put the citizen-initiative amendment on the ballot.