Mantua – At the last regular meeting, council acknowledged the resignation of Council President Matt Rosolowski, whose term would have expired on December 31, 2023. Council voted to elect Tammy Meyer as Council President for the remainder of 2021. At a subsequent meeting, council voted to elect Chuck Peterson over Caroline Stephens to fill Rosolowski’s seat. Peterson will also serve on the Village’s Finance and Service Committees and the Mantua-Shalersville Fire District Board.
In lieu of a Mayor’s Report, Mayor Linda Clark took time to address issues raised by an online story from the Portager.com regarding a proposed income tax increase. “First, there is not and never has been a gag order on members of council,” Clark stated. “We do have a policy in place that was approved by council that states that all official communication with news media will be issued by the mayor and his or her designee.” Clark continued, “When an employee is contacted by the news media, the media person making contact shall be referred to the Mayor or his or her designee. In an effort to promote consistency and avoid ambiguity, I have encouraged other elected officials of the village to refer media contacts to me in keeping with this policy. However, an elected official could not be reprimanded, disciplined, or suffer other consequences if they make a statement to the media.”
Mayor Clark continued, “I’ll be the first to acknowledge that elected officials at this table don’t always agree on important issues facing our village. There may very well be times when they feel that their individual viewpoint is important in order for the public to be fully informed. There is no gag order or any other mandate preventing this.” She concluded, “I hope that this has cleared up any misunderstanding on this issue.”
Next, the mayor addressed a public records request made by the Portager’s reporter, Lyndsey Brennan. Her request was for, “any and all documentation regarding an investigation of Mayor Linda Clark by the Portage County Prosecutors Office.” Mayor Clark noted that Brennan’s request “needs clarification.”
Clark continued, “In January 2020, former employee Chelsea Gregor made a complaint against me, alleging that I was harassing her. The complaint was submitted to then-council President Bob Gaglione, pursuant to Mantua Employee Manual section 8.2 which states that all complaints will be investigated.”
Mayor Clark continued, “Because we are a small village and it would have been very difficult to have our own personnel conduct an investigation that we could be confident would be impartial and unbiased, our Village Solicitor recommended we find someone from outside Mantua who didn’t know any of the parties involved to conduct the investigation. Ultimately, she reached out to Portage County Prosecutor Vic Vigluicci and asked if he would lend us one of his investigators to conduct the Mantua Village investigation, which he graciously did.” Clark explained, “So while the investigation of Ms. Gregor’s complaint was handled by someone employed at the Portage County Prosecutors Office, they did the investigation under the Village for Mantua’s own policies.” No public comment on the matter was offered at that meeting.
In other news, sealed proposals for the Village of Mantua Refuse Collection and Curbside Recycling Services Specification bid will be received by Maryann Fabian, Village Administrator until 3:00 pm on Tuesday August 17th. Sealed bids will be publicly opened and read on August 17th, 2021 at 3:00 p.m. at the Village Council Chambers. The Mantua Village Council will consider action on the bids received at its regularly scheduled monthly meeting on Tuesday, August 17th at 6:30 pm.
The next regularly scheduled Council meeting will take place on Tuesday, July 20th at 6:30 pm.
* As of July 1st, Mantua government will conduct all regular monthly meetings in person in Council Chambers at 4650 High Street, Mantua, and the public is welcome to attend. The meetings will no longer be live-streamed on YouTube.
