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WARREN -- During a Geauga-Trumbull Solid Waste Management District meeting Tuesday marked by gridlock, with the six county commissioners mostly voting against the other county on most of the issues raised, Trumbull County commissioners reasserted a desire to break up the district and separate from Geauga County.
The district's board is composed of the three Geauga County commissioners -- James Dvorak, Timothy Lennon and Ralph Spidalieri -- and the three Trumbull County commissioners, Mauro Cantalamessa, Niki Frenchko and Frank Fuda.
The six split, voting on county lines, on nearly every issue in the nearly two-hour long meeting full of tense debate and more than one or two terse, sarcastic or insulting comments.
The meeting started out rough when Cantalamessa nominated Frenchko to be president of the district's board. It is Trumbull County's "turn" to head the board, which switches between counties each year. He said she had expressed an interest in being involved in the district's business.
Spidalieri said he felt Frenchko started off on the "wrong foot" with the district when Frenchko questioned the board's lack of bylaws and how meetings are scheduled prior to the meeting. He also said he felt the president of the board should be a more experienced commissioner.
Although Cantalamessa argued Frenchko is experienced with public bodies, he accepted the nomination instead, and he was voted president of the district's board.
The only other thing the board members agreed on was accepting the financial report, to begin looking into creating bylaws and adjourning.
Discussion moved toward a Dec. 23 special meeting of the district when, by a 4-2 vote, the Geauga commissioners and former Trumbull County Commissioner Dan Polivka voted to approve constructing a household hazardous-waste collection building in Geauga County for $1.3 million, against the objections of Cantalamessa and Fuda. Frenchko was not yet in office, though she had won the election against Polivka. The contract for the construction has been signed, and the builder is eager to begin moving on the project, according to Jennifer Jones, director of the district.
Frenchko, Cantalamessa and Fuda all argued that the meeting shouldn't have been "pushed through at the last minute" before Frenchko could take office, and shouldn't have been scheduled at all since at the November meeting the board agreed to meet next in January. And, although the special meeting agenda included a vote on awarding the building contract itself, it only listed funding the operating budget at more than $500,000 per year, without indicating a vote would be taken.
The Trumbull commissioners moved to strike the action. In a 3-3 split, the motion failed.
A motion Trumbull commissioners made to ask for conflict-of -interest statements from the members and associates of the board failed, as did one Frenchko raised to only allow the cancellation of a meeting in an affirmative vote.
Spidalieri and Lennon called the discussions "foolish" and "stupid", while Frenchko said they are efforts toward transparency and said the concepts went over their heads.
When Frenchko made a motion to disband the district, Fuda seconded it and then Jennifer Jones, director of the district, said the process to disband the board has to start in a county commissioner meeting.
Cantalamessa said it appears the commissioners have differing outlooks, priorities and goals and it may be best to separate.
Jones said the procedure to do so is spelled out in Ohio Revised Code. First the commissioners have to pass a resolution at one of their meetings. Then that resolution will be sent to the district's board, and be presented to Geauga commissioners for approval.
The process is complicated, Fuda said after the meeting. But, he began looking into it last year during disagreements about the Geauga building and other issues. A cursory look at the ORC relative to the issue includes numerous steps and the need to separate assets. It is unclear if Trumbull County would develop its own district or partner with another.