Falls council meeting aborted because accused members don’t attend

Staff report

NEWTON FALLS

Thirteen motions that accuse three of the five village council members of violating rules and procedures did not get a vote Monday night because the three council members did not attend.

Three of the motions also would have instructed the village law director, A. Joseph Fritz, to begin the process to remove them.

Lawyers for the three council members – Joseph Battisti, John Baryak and Mark Stimpert – contacted Law Director A. Joseph Fritz, saying their clients did not receive adequate notice of the meeting, Fritz said.

The law director said he thinks their lawyers are confusing the removal-from-office procedure from the process that was supposed to unfold Monday night. But Fritz said he believes the next step will be to refer the allegations to the Ohio Ethics Commission.

Mayor Lyle Waddell explained after the attempted meeting the allegations raised by him and the two other council members, Tarry Alberini and Phillip Beer, mostly involve actions Battisti, Baryak and Stimpert took to hire David Lynch to replace Jack Haney as village manager.

Lynch begins Nov. 15, but Haney is due to leave the position today.

That creates a problem, Fritz said, because the 14th item on Monday’s agenda was to hire Lynch as interim village manager effective Wednesday.

Fritz said he doesn’t know what his next step will be to fill the village manager’s position. He will talk with Haney about it in the next few days.

After the aborted meeting ended, Newton Falls resident Lori Rankin said she thinks the current controversy arose only because Waddell is unhappy that Haney is not being retained.