ASHTABULA — City Council vowed Monday night to press on with an investigation into who’s behind a controversial Web site.

At the May 5 council meeting, Ward 3 Councilwoman Ericka Severino charged City Solicitor Michael Franklin was behind www.ashtabulatruth.com, a web site critical of former city solicitor Tom Simon and council. The site charges Severino is romantically linked to Simon and that when Simon lost the November 2007 election, he wrote his own congratulatory good-bye resolution and referred to himself as “the citizen’s citizen.” The www.ashtabulatruth.com web site also says Simon owes $30,000 in delinquent property taxes, while claiming to be devoted to the neighborhood schools issue.

In a 5-2 vote during a special meeting Monday night, council officially decided to find out who owns www.ashtabulatruth.com. Ward 5 Councilman James Trisket and Ward 4 Councilwoman Julie Lattimer cast the ‘no’ votes.

Before the vote, Vice President Betty Kist became emotional.

“Doesn’t it bother anyone that there’s a Web site that calls us seven dummies?” she said. “I think we need to find out who’s doing it. ... These are false allegations. I’m not a dummy.”

Lattimer said, “You are talking big money. We need to look seriously at our finances before we get offended.”

Lattimer then named several expensive projects the city has ahead of it, such as road paving and the Columbus Avenue bridge repair.

Severino charged Franklin and City Manager Anthony Cantagallo are behind it.

“It’s about them using their office,” she said. “It’s disgusting that you don’t want to do anything about it.”

Simon spoke during the citizens’ portion of the meeting and suggested council “put people under oath” to find out who owns the site.

“There are some pretty damaging things on that web site,” Simon said, noting Franklin denied owning the Web site but he did not deny facilitating it. “There’s a connection to City Hall.”

Simon also said the city will be facing an unfair labor practice suit because a disciplinary letter regarding Jack Fortune, (the city’s union president) appears on the Web site, along with Fortune’s address. The letter is about seven years old, Simon said.

“This says, ‘Because you were disciplined seven or eight years ago, you are not credible now,’” Simon said. “In other words, don’t go against management.”

Simon and Severino pushed to place city employees under oath to discover the truth behind www.ashtabulatruth.com.

“The owner (of the Web site) paid extra (money) to keep it private,” Severino said. “But we can get a court order.”