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Meyer Resigns From Board Of Elections




Kathy Meyer resigned as director of the Fulton County Board of Elections during the board’s Wednesday, June 9 meeting.

She had come under fire from the Fulton County Commissioners after comments she made to the press concerning a mix-up in the electricity aggregation vote during the Tuesday, May 4 primary election.

Under aggregation, Fulton County, acts as a bargaining agent with First Energy Solutions to provide discounted electricity to county residents in unincorporated areas. Voters approved the arrangement.

But when the issue was placed on the ballot, all Fulton County voters cast ballots on the aggregation question, when only the voters in unincorporated areas should have.

The final vote count was corrected, and the outcome did not change.

When questioned by the press about the mix-up, Meyer laid at least some of the blame on the commissioners, and Vond Hall, Fulton County administrator.

The commissioners responded with a letter to Mark Hagans, chairman of the four-member elections board.

It was not the first time Meyer had run into problems.

She received a letter of reprimand in 2008, after she allegedly made accusations against Sandy Barber, county recorder and chairman of the county Republican Central Committee.

Executive Session

The Board of Elections met in executive session June 9 for about three hours. During the closed-door session, the board called in Meyer, then Melanie Gilders, deputy director.

Board members called Meyer back into the closeddoor session. She emerged less than five minutes later and said she was being forced to resign.

Upon returning to regular session, Hagans said Meyer had offered her resignation in executive session, and would follow up with a written document “within the hour.”

Hagans said the board would not comment on the situation, and would not place anything in Meyer’s personnel file on the incident. The board approved the resignation in open session, as required by Ohio law.

Director

Hagans said the board will operate without a director while a new one is recruited. He said the position will be posted and the board will entertain resumes.

He said, board policy is the director must be from the opposite political party of the chairman of the board. Since Hagans is a Republican, the director must be a Democrat. –David Pugh



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