WARREN - A Warren city councilwoman will not go to court to answer claims that she shouted literary quotes during a LaBrae Board of Education meeting.
A Warren prosecutor refused to file charges against Councilwoman Sue Hartman, D-7th Ward, but she recommended the Board of Education keep an officer handy after Monday's rambunctious meeting.
"It just didn't cross that line," Prosecutor Traci Timko Rose said Wednesday. "If it's just based on yelling differences of opinion, I don't know if that rises to the level of disrupting a public meeting."
Board members Amie Crowder and Debra Roth met - though at least one other board member dissented - with Timko Rose to file a complaint against Hartman, claiming that she disrupted a public meeting by shouting "For whom the bell tolls!" and would not be silenced despite repeated warnings from the board.
Hartman said she was not the person who yelled the John Donne/Ernest Hemmingway quote and said she thought that the meeting was over when she approached the board.
She was on her way out of the building when police arrived.
Hartman could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Crowder said she now wants the whole thing to blow over.
"We thought we would extend an olive branch," she said.
However, Crowder said they would "paper trail this" for the future.
There has been heavy attendance at Board of Education meetings this summer over a divided board not filling a vacant music instructor position and problems with trying to hire a marching band director on a supplemental contract through football season.
The district sent Hartman a cease and desist letter in July, accusing her of calling marching band director candidates to dissuade them from taking the open position. Hartman said she just wanted to talk to the candidates about the parent's concerns for the band.
At Monday's meeting, the board continued more issues with the marching band and accepted the sudden resignation of Superintendent Ron Joseph.
Timko Rose said there would be problems in prosecuting a charge of disrupting a public meeting that the two board members wanted. She said the gist of the law was that business would be unable to go on at the meeting because of the disruption. She also said there are first amendment and sunshine law issues that could cause a problem if the case were tried.
Crowder claimed she could file the complaint on her own because she is the board president. Board member Russell Sewell disagrees, stating that this would only cause more trouble in the district and hurt chances of passing a 3 mill renewal levy in the fall.
"The board president can only act if we direct her to act. She has no more power than any other board member. This concerns me," he said.
Sewell said he thought the meeting was over himself when someone called the police on Hartman.
Warren Township Trustee Kay Anderson said she attended the meeting and called police dispatch prior to the tiff with the councilwoman. She said the meeting was getting out of hand and an officer would attend meetings from now on.
"You just put police protection where you have a problem," Anderson said.
She said that the afternoon shift has one full-time officer and one part-time officer on duty.
Anderson was not sure whether the district would be responsible for paying the officer.