Chardon Mayor Nancy McArthur is fighting back against an attempt to push her out of office after only two years, she said.
At the Dec. 14 Chardon City Council meeting, McArthur told council she has received a challenge to her position as mayor and president of city council.
“After our last special meeting, I was informed by Councilman (Jeff) Smock that he plans to challenge me as mayor,” McArthur said in a statement.
Smock wants to take over as mayor and bring fellow Councilman Dave Lelko in as vice mayor, she said.
Both were long-time employees of the city before taking positions on city council – Lelko was city manager, Jeff Smock was finance manager.
The vote to appoint the president of council will take place at the Jan. 11 meeting. If a tie results, which could happen if a council member chooses to abstain from voting, the seat would go to the highest vote-getter in the previous election, with the vice mayor’s role filled by the second-highest.
Currently, that would mean McArthur and Meleski would be mayor and vice mayor, respectively. McArthur won the uncontested November 2017 election with 815 votes to Smock’s last-place result of 695 votes, which she feels gives legitimacy to her role.
“People won’t understand – I voted for you, you got the most votes, why aren’t you mayor?” she said in a phone conversation.
At the meeting, McArthur said the November election was a “true organic pulse of the electorate,” since no one on council invested in campaigning.
Smock, however, countered that he was the highest vote-getter in the previous election, which he believes makes her point moot.
He added when he beat her in votes four years ago, neither of them was running for president of council, but if they had been, he would have won the role.
“When it came time two years later, either one of us could have chosen to run for mayor. I stepped back and let her do it,” Smock said.
McArthur said Smock and Lelko’s micromanaging of city employees, including a recent performance evaluation she described as a “witch hunt” against City Manager Randy Sharpe, has led to a corruption of the integrity of the council.
Smock, however, disagreed with her characterization of both his role on the council and the evaluation of Sharpe.
“Randy (Sharpe) is doing a good job, but I think there is a majority of council who feel the communication can be better. I think with me as president of council, I can improve that,” Smock said in a phone interview Dec. 18.
While McArthur questioned the evaluation of Sharpe — which she said Smock and Lelko carried out exclusively then later destroyed all questionnaires and records of the interviews — Smock said the evaluation was carried out according to the wishes of the council body.
“Dave Lelko and I proposed that, because all of council doesn’t know the day-to-day workings of what Randy does and how things operate, we also send a questionnaire to the department heads and a bunch of other employees so we could get their feedback on how Randy performs. The whole council agreed to that,” Smock said.
Council also agreed he and Lelko would compile the results into a single summary and destroy the questionnaires to give employees the freedom to speak anonymously without fear of retaliation, a process City Law Director Jim Gillette approved, Smock said.
The results left Smock with the impression Sharpe is doing a good job.
“Dave and I have absolutely no qualms about the way staff is working,” he said.
Smock also pushed back on a narrative McArthur proposed that his time as finance manager was characterized by poor oversight — a claim she made in a phone interview Dec. 15.
When she was first elected to council in 2009, McArthur says she noticed there were no performance reviews being done on staff. She also said she saw right away something wasn’t right in the finance department, where it was later discovered accounting clerk Nancy Link had embezzled $92,977 from the city’s water and sewer department between June 1, 2010, and Feb. 26, 2016.
“I told Jeff about her, that she probably should have been fired a long time ago. I think he trusted her – there is a sentiment that you should not fire government employees.” McArthur said.
Smock responded to the allegation with surprise that she would blame him for Link’s crimes, but said while there are things he could say about McArthur, he is not going to be negative.
“I’m not going to go there,” he said.
At the De. 14 meeting — his last one before leaving council — Councilman John Mallen said he would not vote for a fellow councilman to be mayor who had previously been a city department head.
“I think that person brings with them a predisposed, imbedded, administrative, bureaucratic bias that can add a counterproductive element to council’s decisions,” he said. “How can staff and government grow and change with the times when you have former staff people detailing and directing how we ran things 15 or 20 years ago?”
Smock disagreed with Mallen’s characterization, saying his 30-plus years of experience with the city — not only as finance director, but also as tax administrator and clerk of council — gives him insight into how things work in the city.
“I know how things were done in the past and I’m not trying to change things to make them work the same way as when I worked there,” he added.
Smock said he has support from at least three other council members and Lelko believes it’s fair for each councilman to have a turn at the helm.
Lelko also does not share McArthur’s concerns a new mayor could lead to a divided council, or that the power to set the agenda, make motions, declare states of emergency within the municipality and appoint committee members could be abused.
“I’m sure there’s been cases where a mayor would say we’re not really ready to discuss that yet, I could see that, but I cannot recall, ever, a mayor blocking or trying to prevent discussion on an item,” Lelko said by phone Dec. 19.
He added the mayor’s role is largely ceremonial, with ribbon cuttings, marriages and public appearances.
The seven seats on the council are equal, and as such, every council member who is able and willing to serve in a leadership role should have a chance, he said.
“To me, it’s not a question of change with new leadership. The seven of us are still the same group of people that can be making the same decisions,” Lelko said. “If somebody else wants to be mayor, why not?”
During last week’s meeting, McArthur said she believes she has served the council nobly, has treated other council members with respect and consideration, and has been transparent and supportive of each of them.
“I ask that this body consider the leadership I have provided these past two years, my seniority on council of eight years and the importance of a unified council,” she said. “I ask for your support to continue another two years as your president of council and mayor of the city of Chardon.”
Council members Andrew Blackley and Debbie Chuha had not returned a telephone call seeking comment as of Tuesday’s deadline. Councilman Chris Grau said he would make a comment at the Jan. 11 organizational meeting.
