Staff photo / Ed Runyan Retired Carroll County Common Pleas Court Judge John Campbell addresses residents trying to prevent the killing of deer in Mill Creek Park and their attorney Marc Dann at a status conference Monday in Youngstown. Campbell is presiding because Mahoning County Probate Judge Robert Rusu, who appoints Mill Creek MetroParks trustees, recused himself.

YOUNGSTOWN — Retired Carroll County Common Pleas Court Judge John Campbell asked a handful of deer supporters and their attorney Monday to provide more details on their complaint asking for the removal of Mill Creek MetroParks Board commissioners before the first official hearing in the matter.

A group of deer supporters hand delivered a petition to Mahoning County Probate Court Judge Robert Rusu Jr. on Feb. 5 containing about 2,500 signatures asking him to remove the current MetroParks Board commissioners. Rusu appoints commissioners to various boards.

Rusu later asked the Ohio Supreme Court to assign a visiting judge to handle the matter, and Campbell was assigned.

Campbell sat down with attorney Marc Dann and leaders of the group in the Mahoning County Courthouse for a status conference, saying the first step is “trying to get this organized” so the matter can proceed in a proper way.

Campbell told Dann and the residents he thinks he understands that the group is alleging that Lee Frey, president of the MetroParks board, has been “unresponsive … toward the needs of the community,” but he asked the group to work with Dann “to outline what it is you believe he did.”

The judge added, “My opinion is this proceeding is to give (Frey) notice of what the complaints are so he has the opportunity to respond. In the practice of law, we try to do something called notice. You plead so the other side knows in advance what the questions are. That’s why we are here today.”

He urged members of the group to rely on Dann to “help you through that process so it flows a little better, so that your concerns are laid out in a little more formal method.” He said the issues need to be understood “so we all understand why we are here, including Mr. Frey.”

The petition was a one-page letter asking for the “replacement of the current Mill Creek Park board of commissioners.” It cited state law that governs the appointment of such commissioners, which states that the probate court judge has the authority to remove a park commissioner “either upon complaint filed with such judge or upon his own motion.”

The petition adds, “As Mahoning County Probate Judge, we know you are able to remove the current board president, Lee Frey.”

The petition states that the people who collected the signatures were part of the “Mill Creek Park Deer group, which formed out of a concern for hunting throughout Mill Creek Park. But as we gained signatures on this petition, we were informed by hundreds of complaints about the park, in addition to the original issue of hunting.”

The four who attended the meeting with Campbell Monday were Mickey Drabison, Chris Flak, Terry Lloyd and Susan Kuderca.

Dann told the judge he wonders whether the power to decide this matter can be delegated by Rusu to a visiting judge because the role of appointing members of the MetroParks is an “executive” function. Dann added, “You wouldn’t get a visiting county commissioner to make an appointment.”

Dann said he and the citizens group “are happy to lay out in … the traditional pleading form, the basis for these folks believing that this park board member should be removed.”

But he questioned whether Campbell should be asking “for some degree of cause because an elected official acting in an executive capacity … has a discretion to appoint and remove their appointees. It can be for good reasons, bad reasons or no reasons at all.”

Dann said he thinks the method used for appointing park board members in general is “ill-conceived.” It creates a conflict between a probate judge’s executive authority to appoint board members and a probate judge’s “traditional exercise of judicial authority.”

Another status conference is expected to be held in about a month, but no new date is on file with the probate court.

Have an interesting story? Email Ed Runyan at erunyan@vindy.com.