IT WAS INEVITABLE

By SHELLEY TERRY - Staff Writer - sterry@starbeacon.com
Star Beacon

October 06, 2008 11:21 pm

— 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.
Franklin further noted he believed some council members’ actions bordered on malice. If they continued on with the matter, he said he would fight it and he would recover his attorney fees from the four council people who are involved in “this malicious act.” He later said he meant Severino, Kist, Ward 1 Councilman Joseph Rose and Ward 2 Councilman Bernie Roskovics.
“This attempt to bring back my predecessor is not going to go unchallenged,” Franklin said.
When Franklin said that, Severino, who has been romantically linked with Simon, grinned at Franklin.
Kist said, “This is something for the courts.”
Franklin said, “Good evening,” as he got up and walked out.
Visibly upset, his wife, Betsy, who was in the audience, soon followed.
Kist rescinded her second on the motion to ask Franklin to resign.
Severino made a new motion: To ask Sartini to ask the Ohio attorney general for an opinion — “Is Michael Franklin legally the city solicitor?”
Kist seconded it.
Ward 4 Councilwoman Julie Lattimer said, “I hate to see this keep going on and on and on.”
Severino defended her probing of Franklin’s position and other city departments. She said the housing department has had an inspector on paid administrative leave for nearly three months and it lost a housing grant; the police department is considerably over budget and the sanitation department is falling apart.
“It’s costing taxpayers money to sit back and do nothing,” Severino said.
President Rodger Altier interrupted Severino’s tirade and steered the meeting back to her motion to have Sartini ask the attorney general for an opinion on whether Franklin is legally the city solicitor, given he held a public office when elected.
Kist called for a vote and it passed, 4-3, with Lattimer, Altier and Ward 5 Councilman Jim Trisket casting the ‘no’ votes.

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