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The Sept. 11 special meeting in Newton Falls just keeps coming back to haunt us.
That was the meeting in which then-Mayor Ken Kline called it to order, took roll, then declared the meeting "illegal" and adjourned it.
But council members didn't adjourn. Instead, members went on with the public's business as if nothing had happened. Included in their action that night was the first reading for a new contract with an enormous raise for City Manager Pam Priddy.
We've already used this space to share our utter disgust with a decision to give any public employee a guaranteed contract, let alone a pay adjustment that amounts to a 50% increase from $60,000 per year to $90,000.
Have they forgotten they are public servants?
To be clear, these are the same members of council who so vehemently opposed past guaranteed contracts given by a previous council to five city officials not so long ago. Each of those employees eventually was terminated, and those contracts came back to bite the city financially.
The problems with that Sept. 11 meeting don't end there.
When minutes from that public meeting later were released, they failed to reflect the mayor's comments stating his belief that the meeting was illegal. A complaint was filed in court, and a judge on Oct. 6 ordered council to correct the minutes to be an accurate reflection of the meeting.
Really? They needed a judge to tell them that?
Council proceeded with its regular meeting that night but spoke not a word of the fudged minutes, the hearing, nor the judge's order. They simply made a motion to delay approving the minutes to the next meeting.
No one raised an eyebrow as council members who were in on the secret approved the motion to delay approving the minutes, without bothering to tell residents that the move actually was being dictated by court order.
Frankly, it appears that council members might even have conspired to hide their actions from the public when they offered no discussion and quietly moved on. We are appalled at the lack of transparency or any consideration to tell the public what had happened that very morning involving their publicly elected body.
But that's not the end of it.
Last week, Councilwoman Julie Stimpert -- one of the two who voted against Priddy's enormous pay raise -- filed court action arguing that the pay raise is illegal. She bases that argument on the fact that the Sept. 11 meeting, where Priddy's contract received its required first of two public readings, was illegal, according to the Newton Falls charter, thereby making any action that occurred at the meeting void.
To be clear, in recent weeks, Law Director Brad Bryan, attorney Tyler Wick, who has served as parliamentarian at recent meetings, and attorney David Betras, who has represented the village in the matter, all said the meeting was legal with three of the five council members present.
We believe, under Ohio law, the meeting may have been legal. However, under language of the Newton Falls charter, the meeting does not appear to have followed the letter of the law.
A judge has agreed to pump the brakes on the new contract until he's had time to hear arguments on both sides. That will happen on Nov. 30. Until then, Priddy's raise will remain on hold, he ordered.
The actions of city officials and some members of this council -- specifically John Baryak, Gideon Fetterolf and Tesa Spletzer -- are reprehensible. It appears city officials improperly edited the minutes to omit Kline's declaration of an illegal meeting (and then later claimed it somehow was an accident).
Then after being ordered to correct the minutes, purposefully withheld that information from their constituents.
Now, they will have a day in court in which they will attempt to justify their actions.
Whether the judge opines that the meeting was legal or illegal remains to be seen.
Either way, we've already made up our mind that both the guaranteed contract for a city official and the outrageous raise was out of line. It never should have happened.
Still, we hope the contract is overturned and the raise rescinded.
And we hope that in the future Newton Falls officials learn from their mistakes and operate under the auspices of transparency.
editorial@tribtoday.com