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A citizen initiative asking voters to fire Sebring’s village manager likely won’t be on the ballot because a number was omitted on a petition
YOUNGSTOWN
Despite having enough valid signatures, a citizen-initiative charter amendment proposal in Sebring asking voters to fire its village manager without a severance package is unlikely to appear on the ballot.
That’s because one petition with 31 valid signatures was rejected by the Mahoning County Board of Elections because the person getting people to sign their names didn’t write the number of signatures on the petition’s “circulator statement,” said Thomas McCabe, the board’s deputy director.
That’s considered a “fatal error” under state law, and the valid signatures on that petition cannot be counted, McCabe said.
Officially, the four-member board of elections would have to vote to disqualify the ballot measure. In other cases such as this, the board has rejected ballot initiatives that don’t include the number because of the “fatal error” law.
High levels of lead in the village’s water garnered criticism and national attention, particularly when it was discovered that village officials were aware of the problem for at least five months before the public learned about it in January.
Those circulating the petitions in Sebring needed 97 valid signatures – a number equal to 10 percent of those in the village who voted in the last general election. There are 86 valid signatures on the four other petitions submitted by the committee seeking to ask voters to fire Village Manager Richard D. Giroux.
If the 31 signatures on the one petition ruled invalid were counted, there would be more than enough names to have the issue appear on the Nov. 8 ballot.
Though board officials and a legal opinion from the county prosecutor’s office say the petition must be ruled invalid, there still is hope it will qualify.
McCabe said the village clerk of council could determine the petitions are valid. Clerk Malea Sanor along with Giroux and village Solicitor Theresa Tolson couldn’t be reached Monday by The Vindicator to comment.
Corey Hughes, a former Sebring street department worker who got all of the signatures except for six, said after learning of the problem, he resubmitted the one petition ruled invalid by board officials.
There were 38 signatures on the document with 31 ruled valid by the elections board. Hughes said he wrote “38” in the circulator’s statement and submitted them again to the board.
Hughes said he did that based on the advice of his attorney, Kenneth Cardinal. Cardinal is an assistant county prosecutor with a private practice in Sebring.
McCabe said the board rejected that petition a second time because writing the number doesn’t resolve the “fatal error” and the document was sent to Sebring’s clerk of council.
While there have been other issues with Giroux, Hughes said, “Our main concern is the lead issue. He knew about it and hid it from everybody.”
Giroux put James Bates, who operated the village’s public water system, on paid administrative leave while a state investigation into the high lead was ongoing. He then fired Bates when the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency prohibited Bates from operating any public water system in the state and revoked his license.
Also, two EPA officials were fired and one was demoted as a result of the investigation.
Bates was charged last month with three misdemeanor counts for failing to provide timely notice of the high lead.
Before the public learned of the lead issue, The Vindicator wrote that Bates had alerted Giroux in an email about the water condition with Giroux contending in January that he didn’t know about the water condition. Earlier, he said he didn’t remember the email.
Also on the ballot issue’s committee are Mike Sabatine, a sales professional at an Alliance car dealership, and Jan Muerth-Weingart, a former Sebring village council member.
Sabatine said he didn’t know much about the petitions, and Muerth-Weingart couldn’t be reached Monday by The Vindicator to comment.
Wednesday is the deadline for the submission of ballot issues, including tax levies and liquor options, to county boards of elections in Ohio.
As of Monday, Mahoning County had 15 tax issues, 17 proposed charter amendments – 14 of them from Campbell, 2 from Youngstown and 1 from Sebring – and 17 liquor options.
Of the 15 tax issues, 5 are for new taxes, 1 is a replacement levy and 9 are renewals.