Candidate Gerald Phillips, commissioners exchange words at meeting Monday

ELYRIA — Avon Lake attorney and Republican candidate for commissioner Gerald Phillips got into a heated exchange with the Lorain County commissioners after he passed out campaign literature during their 2020 organizational meeting Monday. A frequent visitor at commissioners' and other public meetings, Phillips often refers to the three-minute public comment per person rule as "The Gerry Phillips Rule," even though — as commissioners have pointed out to him a number of times — the board has had the rule on its books for decades. Phillips said his three minutes of comments were about economic development, and he touted his work on four projects he said he is helping with in Lorain and Elyria. He also accused commissioners of refusing to work with him in the past after he approached them with economic development issues. "I would just say, madam chair, I hope this is not going to be a weekly campaign announcement," Commissioner Matt Lundy said when Phillips was finished. "I don't think — I don't believe that's the purpose of the public comment section of the meeting." "It's about economic development, Commissioner Lundy," Phillips yelled from his seat. "Your time's up, sir," Lundy replied. Once the board had moved on to other business, Phillips walked around the meeting room distributing a one-page handout titled "Phillips For Commissioner." Commissioner Sharon Sweda broke into the agenda to ask if he was distributing campaign literature during meeting time. "You distributed campaign material for Issue 17," Phillips replied, before shouting: "Are you gonna, are you going to violate my First Amendment rights? "Are you? This is ridiculous! That's why I'm running for commissioner, because I'm not going to put up with your dictatorship at all!" Phillips yelled, before being told he was out of order. "Mr. Phillips, please seat yourself and if you can't comport yourself in a proper manner, you'll be escorted out of this meeting like you've been escorted out of lots of jurisdictional meetings," County Administrator Jim Cordes told Phillips. The meeting then continued, and Phillips left. He and North Ridgeville Councilwoman Michelle Hung will face off in the March primary seeking to be the Republican nominee who faces incumbent Democratic Commissioner Lori Kokoski in the November election. Phillips said later Monday he was "not too happy the type of treatment I got at the commissioners' meeting," and said he believed he was being professional and polite. He said commissioners previously rebuffed his requests to meet about economic development in Lorain County, and that he had never been thrown out of a public meeting like Cordes said. Lorain County Community College officials, who received the support of the commissioners for a renewal and additional levy on the March ballot on Monday, passed out literature so Phillips said he felt it was appropriate. "Under the First Amendment I can distribute literature like anyone else," he said. "They think they're going to silence me. I'm going to respect the rules." "If the people of Lorain don't want me and I don't get out of the primary, I'll deal with that issue when it comes," Phillips said. "I don't need this commissioner job, I don't. I can retire as I speak. You know, God's been good to me even with all my chasing rainbows." In response to Phillips' negative claims about economic development, Sweda shared statistics on Lorain County's growth and development over the last five years. She said 5,575 jobs were created in Lorain County between 2014 and 2019, through partnerships including the board of commissioners, Lorain County Community Development and the Lorain County Growth Partnership. The groups helped invest $2.4 billion and add payroll of $290 million. "So when we're being criticized sometimes you need all the facts and the pertinent information when in fact good work is being done," she said. "That good work has been done over the last five years and I'm proud to see all that continuing." Sweda also noted that LCCC officials were preapproved to distribute literature and that the board was supporting a community levy, not a specific candidate. "This is not a platform for candidate solicitation, or walking around our meeting and being disruptive, and it's unfortunate we had to endure that," Sweda said. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him at @daveobrienCT on Twitter.