When Jeffrey Orndorff was appointed to the Geauga Park District Board of Commissioners in March, Geauga County Probate Court Judge Tim Grendell extolled Orndorff’s understanding of the benefits the county parks provided residents.
“Mr. Orndorff will bring his diverse knowledge and experience to the board,” Grendell said at the time. “I am confident that the board will balance preservation, conservation and recreation uses of the parks, and continue to make our county’s parks even better than ever.”
On Tuesday, Orndorff became the latest on a long list of commissioners to be removed from the park board since Grendell took office.
“He isn’t required to have a reason to discharge me,” Orndorff told the Geauga County Maple Leaf after Tuesday’s park board meeting, which Orndorff did not attend. “He can discharge me for a reason or no reason.”
Orndorff said he first became aware that Grendell intended to terminate his service on the three-member park board on Oct. 2, when he received written notice of a public hearing to be held Oct. 13.
“I understood I was having a meeting with him this morning, and I did, and immediately after the meeting, that’s when he decided to discharge me from the board,” Orndorff said. “He had given me some reasons. I don’t agree with his reasons, but feels that it’s time for my involvement with the board to be concluded.”
Asked what those reasons were, Orndorff simply stated, “I don’t want to dignify them by making a reply.”
But according to the two-page administrative order removing Orndorff as a park commissioner, Grendell said Orndorff’s removal was necessary to preserve the “overall sustainability of the park board, the board’s dynamic to promote a strong culture and the ability to work with the park district’s director.”
“Such action also is warranted based on the lack of communication between Mr. Orndorff and Director Oros with respect to important park district issues, inconsistencies between his legally permitted intra-park board communications and subsequent meeting actions, ineffective approach to the acknowledged concerns about the county budget commission’s 2016 review and approval of the park district’s 2016 budget prior to the budget commission’s 2015 meeting, apparent circumvention of the executive director as staff manager and ongoing concerns about his (Orndorff) willingness to work with the executive director,” Grendell wrote.
Also present for the 7:30 a.m. hearing Tuesday were Park Commissioner Mary Ruth Shumway and Executive Director John Oros.
A message left for Orndorff at his Chardon law office Wednesday seeking comment on specific statements made in Grendell’s order has not been returned.
Orndorff, who resides in Auburn Township, said Tuesday he was honored to be appointed to the park board and knew when he took the job there were important issues that needed to be decided.
One of those issues was filling of the executive director position, which the park board did during its June 10 meeting when Oros, who had served as interim executive director since November 2013, was appointed to the post in a split 2-1 vote.
Orndorff voted against Oros’s appointment.
“As I previously stated, I thought we should have interviewed folks for that,” Orndorff said Tuesday. “But the other two board members decided that they didn’t want to conduct interviews and voted to appoint Mr. Oros to the executive director position.”
According to minutes from the June 9 park board meeting, Orndorff said he felt it was critical to conduct interviews of Oros and other candidates the board felt would bring the leadership, vision and other qualities the board desired.
“He added that the board would be remiss unless interviews were conducted of those people the board felt were well-suited or could be well-suited for the position,” the minutes stated. “Mr. Orndorff stated he respected the urgency to reach a decision, (but) he would prefer the board interview candidates, either those who initially applied or those that applied after the position was reposted. Mr. Orndorff asked for more time and attention towards these interviews.”
Last year, Grendell solicited names for the executive director position — three people reportedly expressed interest in the job — before the board opted to conduct a broader search that included posting the position on several professional websites such as the Ohio Parks and Recreation website.
Despite Orndorff’s concerns, Shumway and Park Commissioner Bill Gertz voted to promote Oros, who started his career in the parks in 1991 as a seasonal land steward and climbed the ranks as maintenance technician, natural resource manager, director of operations and natural resource management.
Orndorff also appears to have a different opinion than his former colleagues — and Grendell — regarding results of an online community survey conducted earlier this year.
The survey, conducted by Triad Research Group, was conducted to help guide the park district’s ongoing strategic planning by providing an updated picture of what county residents wanted to see and do while visiting the parks.
Survey results showed residents overwhelmingly favored activities that “protect” or “preserve” than those that “provide.” The top four items were:
- Protect wildlife habitat (66 percent)
- Protect areas of natural beauty (47 percent)
- Protect our watershed and ground water quality (40 percent)
- Preserve open space (39 percent)
A third or less of the 1,611 respondents rated things such as providing outdoor experiences (33 percent), nature and educational programs (30 percent) and recreational opportunities (22 percent) as important things for the parks to do.
Orndorff told the Maple Leaf he was not in a position to address the “efficacy of a survey as a valid means of determining public sentiment.”
“However, when I read it, I found it compelling as an articulation by a whole bunch of folks of the direction that they thought that the park district should move,” he said Tuesday. “And, I thought that there were a great number of suggestions that had a lot of validity and I was eager to move forward and try to implement them.”
He added, “I gather from the way that it (survey) was presented to me as a board member that there wasn’t the same level of enthusiasm from others.”
Notably, the results of the community survey have not been posted on the park’s district website.
Orndorff said he has no reason to believe his views on the survey played any role in his removal.
“But, I gather from the way that Judge Grendell approached my continuing service that there was a philosophical disagreement with what I said and what I did, and that he thought the park district should head in a different direction than I had articulated during the public meetings.”
Added Orndorff, “This is a matter of he has an opinion as to how he wants to have the parks managed and run, and what he expects of board members, and, as I stated, he has the authority to remove a board member, including me, for any reason or no reason, and he decided to exercise that prerogative.”