HUBBARD TOWNSHIP — Township police Chief Ronald Fusco may have illegally endorsed Trustee Frederick Hanley, who is seeking his 10th consecutive term as trustee, according to a cease-and-desist letter from the Ohio Auditor’s office.

The endorsement included the police chief using a “letterhead in support of a current township trustee,” which was posted on the Hubbard Township Police Department’s Facebook page, according to the Oct. 5 letter from Ohio Auditor of State Keith Faber and addressed to Fusco.

“This activity appears to be intended to influence the outcome of the upcoming election,” the letter states.

The letter, provided to this newspaper, was signed by Deputy Auditor Robert R. Hinkle. Marc Kovac, the press secretary for the Ohio auditor, verified that the letter came from the auditor’s office.

Jason Tedrow, who also is running for trustee for the second time after his loss in 2013, said he reported the illegal endorsement to the state auditor. Tedrow also said the police chief not only posted a letterhead endorsing Hanley, but blocked all those who weren’t in support of Hanley from the department’s official Facebook page.

“They deleted a lot of comments that were against Hanley,” Tedrow said. “The post remained for five days, and some comments were on there and they were all in support of the chief’s view.”

Tedrow said he made a comment on the the department’s post as well, regarding the “poor actions” of the police chief for posting the letterhead. He said although the post didn’t have anything to do with Hanley, he was blocked.

“I’m still blocked, as well as all the other residents,” he said. “There have been instances of this before where people were blocked.”

Fusco, reached this week, declined to comment. He said the matter is being handled by his legal counsel.

Tedrow said Hanley can’t be a part of this “investigation or any punishment because it’s a conflict of interest since the endorsement was in support of him.”

The endorsement violated Ohio Revised Code Section 9.03, which states “no person shall knowingly conduct a direct or indirect transaction of public funds to the benefit of (a) candidate.”

Kovac said situations like this one sometimes occur in Ohio.

“We do hear about these things from time to time,” Kovac said. “I don’t know how unusual it is, but we do receive complaints like this. I don’t have any sort of count.”

hrogenski@tribtoday.com

mcole@tribtoday.com