Staff photo / Raymond L. Smith Trumbull County Commissioner Niki Frenchko explains why she disconnected her microphone at her desk and seeks to expose to the public a lawsuit filed against the county after being warned discussion of legal matters should be done in executive session.

WARREN — Trumbull County Commissioner Niki Frenchko has not attended the commissioners’ weekly workshops for more than a year.

The workshops are held, usually on Tuesdays, to review the agenda of the next day’s board of commissioners meeting.

Board President Denny Malloy said the commissioners have had 27 workshop meetings since he was elected board president in January, and Frenchko has not attended any of them.

Frenchko attended workshop meetings early during her first term, according to Commissioner Mauro Cantalamessa. She stopped attending the workshops, however, before the end of former commissioner Frank Fuda’s term. Malloy replaced Fuda, who did not seek re-election.

“These meetings are important because we are able to discuss what will be discussed in our upcoming meeting and even look at issues that may be coming in future meetings,” Malloy said. “We discuss all of the agenda items and, afterward, we bounce around different ideas that people may have.”

“We are very open,” he said.

Cantalamessa questions why Frenchko does not attend the workshop, where she can question issues on the agenda and make suggestions before the day of the vote.

But Frenchko criticizes the workshop meetings because, she said, Malloy strays from the agenda.

“It’s impermissible to have discussions and invite presenters to a meeting without including those in the meeting notice, and taking proper minutes,” she argues.

“I won’t be a party to something done wrong,” she said. “Refusing to comply with open meeting and records laws is not how I conduct county business. ”

She routinely criticizes Malloy and Cantalamessa of rubber-stamping legislation, but Malloy said they thoroughly discuss items during the Tuesday workshops.

HER OWN MEETINGS

“I do a better job for taxpayers by doing a deep dive into backup information, reading every page of every change order, contract, spreadsheet, and gathering more info as I require,” Frenchko said.

She conducts separate meetings on workshop days with county department heads and others with agenda items that are expected to be discussed during the commissioners’ regular meetings.

Malloy acknowledged Frenchko’s one-on-one meetings with county officials, but questions why she has these meetings in her office, which are not open to the public.

“I have told employees that if they feel uncomfortable meeting with her alone, they don’t have to,” Malloy said. “Employees can take someone with them, if it makes them feel more comfortable.”

VALID MEETINGS?

Frenchko has complained that the workshops, which are audio recorded live and placed on the commissioners’ website, should not be considered part of their required meetings, because only the sound is recorded.

She argues that minutes are not taken at the workshop meetings. Recordings of the meetings can be used only as minutes if they are videotaped, and each person speaking identifies himself or herself, and their positions, she added. They also are not approved by the commissioners during the next meeting, Frenchko said.

Responding to Frenchko’s assertion that the workshops are not valid meetings, Malloy said his reading of the Ohio Revised Code indicates they are legal meetings.

Malloy emphasized that the commissioners sign off on the validity of the workshop recordings after every meeting.

“With these workshops, we will have double the meetings our board is required to have,” Malloy said.

He also notes that the ORC states legal minutes of meetings can be in written, audio or video forms.

The commissioners, during their April 12 meeting, unanimously approved a resolution allowing the full record to be maintained with audio or video, which may be made available to the public.

The resolution identifies the commissioners as maintaining official records of meetings and work sessions through audio or video recordings. During these meetings, each person must identify themselves with their name and title when they speak.

“That is why we have every speaker identify themselves when they make statements,” Malloy said. “We also have any written documents needed to support agenda items available.”

A spokesman with the County Commissioners Association of Ohio said counties conduct their meetings in a variety of ways, but would not enter the debate about Trumbull County’s sessions.

Any questions about the legality of meetings are generally handled by a county’s prosecutor’s office, according to the CCAO.

Malloy said the attorneys with whom he has spoken say the way Trumbull County does its workshops and regular meetings is valid.

Further, Malloy criticized Frenchko for not attending Trumbull County Planning Commission, Emergency Management Agency and other meetings that commissioners should attend to stay informed.

DISCUSSING LITIGATION

Frenchko said another reason she has not attended weekly workshops for more than a year is, in part, due to the fact that her colleagues have allowed statements about then-pending litigation to be made during those meetings.

Three of the lawsuits against the commissioners as a whole, and against Frenchko individually, have either been dismissed or settled.

Attorney Kathleen Minahan had been representing all of the commissioners through CORSA, which is the county’s risk management agency.

Minahan and a second attorney eventually were replaced by four other attorneys on these cases.

In a Jan. 9, letter to the three commissioners, Minahan expressed concern about statements made during the Jan. 4 commissioner workshop by Charles Leightner, the then-interim Human Resources director; as well as other statements made during the commissioners’ Jan. 5 regular meeting.

She noted private attorney-client information was provided to the public during those meetings.

Cantalamessa and Malloy allowed Leightner to express opinions about Frenchko’s treatment of county employees, the letter noted.

Minahan’s letter referred to the recently settled Dawn Gedeon vs. Frenchko lawsuit. In the letter, she referred to a gag order issued by Judge Benita Y. Pearson, of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, that prevented the board and Gedeon from discussing merits of the lawsuit.

CORSA settled the lawsuit with Gedeon on May 23, which led to her receiving $225,000 from the insurer. The risk management company in a letter noted that it has the unilateral right to settle claims.

“One result of the settlement is that it has terminated all risk for liability and damages to which you (Frenchko) were personally exposed,” the letter noted.

Frenchko emphasized that neither she nor her attorney had an opportunity to provide input to CORSA when it made the decision to settle the case.

She also noted that two other lawsuits filed by employees were dismissed without the employees receiving financial payouts.

Although there was no mention in Minahan’s January letter suggesting that Frenchko not attend the commissioners’ weekly workshop, the commissioner noted the primary reasons she chooses not to attend are within the letter.

Just last week, however, Malloy and Cantalamessa adjourned a regular meeting when Frenchko attempted to talk about pending litigation.

OTHER LAWSUITS

The county also is involved in other lawsuits:

l Action filed by former 911 Director Ernie Cook in January 2022 against the commissioners, alleging age discrimination.

Telephone conferences involving attorneys representing Cantalamessa and former commissioner Fuda with Magistrate Judge Carmen E. Henderson are scheduled to take place Monday. A separate telephone conference involving attorneys representing Frenchko also is scheduled to take place Monday.

A mediation hearing is scheduled to take place in federal court in Youngstown on Wednesday.

l Frenchko has a lawsuit against Trumbull County Sheriff Paul Monroe, two deputies, Cantalamessa and Fuda.

Frenchko filed the lawsuit in April. She alleges her arrest on fourth-degree misdemeanor disrupting a public meeting was a “ruthless false arrest intended to punish a political adversary for criticizing the county sheriff in violation of the First, Fourth and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.”

The suit alleges that through their conduct that day, the defendants “battered Commissioner Frenchko, they humiliated her, they restrained her, they caused emotional suffering.”

The court has ordered Frenchko and all of the defendants to make any additional pleadings by today.

rsmith@tribtoday.com