WARREN — Two of Trumbull County’s three commissioners met privately Wednesday to consult with their lawyers in connection to a lawsuit filed against them by the third commissioner and a group called Open Government Advocates.

The lawsuit by Commissioner Niki Frenchko and the open government group, filed in March 2023, claims Commissioners Denny Malloy and Mauro Cantalamessa improperly conducted round-robin communications through phone calls and emails on Feb. 28, 2023, which resulted in county employees being sent out of their offices to deescalate a situation in which Frenchko was demanding documents.

Frenchko and the group claim this action and others violate the state’s Open Meetings Act.

Before Cantalamessa and Malloy went into executive session at 11:05 a.m., Frenchko questioned which lawsuit filed by her they planned to discuss because she did not want them to speak to their lawyer about any other issue she may have filed.

“My concern is you may be talking with him about other matters that do not relate to that,” Frenchko said.

“You can have the concern all you want,” Malloy said.

He said the board knows how to run an executive session without violating the law.

Frenchko said the board was being unreasonable.

“We believe the plaintiff is being unreasonable,” Malloy said.

The Ohio Supreme Court assigned retired Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge W. Wyatt McKay to hear the case after all the other county judges recused themselves.

Frenchko said attorneys met last week with McKay to update him on the case. Since she has been a commissioner, Frenchko has been sued by several county employees and she has sued the commissioners and other county employees.

“Their egos are causing them to move forward to trial for a losing case,” she said. “We have videos and proof of open meetings violations and public records destruction.”

She said, if the lawsuit is successful, the award to the plaintiffs will be minuscule. However, she added, the defendants will have to pay all of the associated legal costs to her lawyers and any travel expenses to and from Cincinnati.

Malloy and Cantalamessa returned from executive session after about 25 minutes, which is when Frenchko tried to prevent a vote on hiring attorney Brodi Conover and Bricker Graydon to provide legal research for an unidentified American Disability Act request filed by a Trumbull County official. The law firm will be paid at a rate of $375 per hour.

“This is completely unnecessary,” Frenchko said.

She said they could avoid the ADA action by instructing commissioners’ staff to provide her printed copies of all agenda items and their supporting documents, rather than through emails.

Frenchko would not provide a copy of the ADA complaint that will be the focus of Conover’s legal research. She also did not identify herself as the author of the complaint.

When asked for a copy of the ADA request, Malloy said it must be obtained from the county’s Human Resources department.

“This (the hiring of an outside attorney) is recommended by the prosecutor’s office in an email (provided) to all three commissioners,” Malloy said.

Hiring the attorney was done after the county was unable to find anyone to provide answers to questions posed in the ADA request, he said.

“HR (human resources) reached out to labor attorneys, County Risk Sharing Authority and to the County Commissioners Association of Ohio, and they could not answer the questions posed in the ADA request,” Malloy said.

CORSA provides legal representation and insurance policies to member counties. It represents the majority of counties in Ohio.

Frenchko said nowhere in the state would it be found that two commissioners are instructing staff not to provide any support or help to one of the members of the board.

“That’s not true,” Cantalamessa said.

Frenchko said office staff has not provided her hard copies of agenda items. She said she has a medical condition that prevents her from working on a computer screen for long periods.

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