ERICKA SEVERINO: It’s costing taxpayers money to sit back and do nothing. MIKE FRANKLIN: This attempt to bring back my predecessor is not going to go unchallenged. / WARREN DILLAWAY
Published October 06, 2008 11:21 pm - “You knew it was coming ...”
IT WAS INEVITABLE Severino wants Franklin out, but he’s ready to fight
By SHELLEY TERRY - Staff Writer - sterry@starbeacon.com Star Beacon
ASHTABULA — “You knew it was coming ...”
Those were the words Ward 3 Councilwoman Ericka Severino used after the public comment portion of Monday night’s council meeting passed.
But that didn’t mean the meeting would end without controversy. “I want to go back to new business,” she said later.
Severino purposely waited until the public was done talking to reopen new business and ask the question everyone knew she would ask: “I request Michael Franklin to resign as city solicitor.”
Vice President Betty Kist seconded the motion amidst grumbling in the audience from the pro-Franklin crowd.
Council chambers was standing-room only — with supporters for both sides of the argument — in anticipation of Severino’s actions.
Franklin, in response to the Ohio attorney general’s opinion that holding two elected public offices concurrently constitutes a conflict of interest, resigned Friday from the Ashtabula Area City School Board.
However, resigning from the school board isn’t what Severino wanted to see happen, she said.
A local attorney, Franklin was serving on the school board when he beat then city solicitor Thomas Simon, who was running for re-election, last November. Meanwhile Franklin kept his seat on the school board, creating controversy in the community, as well as with City Council.
At council’s request, County Prosecutor Thomas Sartini asked Ohio acting Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers about Franklin’s dual roles.
On Thursday, the attorney general said, “These two positions are incompatible.”
Monday night, council members argued back and forth about whether Franklin should resign and what the acting attorney general meant in her opinion.
Severino said Franklin didn’t have to resign from the school board. She said he should have resigned as city solicitor and suggested what he’s done so far for the city has been illegal.
That’s when it appeared Franklin had had enough.
“You can take any vote you want, I am not going to resign as city solicitor under any circumstance,” he said.
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