Avon Lake yoga teacher at odds with city over contract

AVON LAKE — A yoga teacher whose contract wasn't renewed for 2020 is claiming the city treated her unfairly. Now, Public Service Committee Chair Rob James suggests the city's Recreation Department "evaluate the equity of its programs." Kathryn Eyring spoke before the city's Public Service Committee on Monday, claiming she was fired after seeking change with the city's policies for contractors. She had previously taught yoga classes to seniors for almost two years as a contracted group exercise instructor in the city. "I have great respect for the seniors in this community and all communities," she said. "I created, in fact, a specialized teaching method. I teach the classes with an age span of 40 years. My students in Avon Lake ranged 55 to 95." Eyring had discussed a number of concerns with the city in November, including her belief that is unfair for the city to collect 30 percent of proceeds from her classes for setup, tear down and other facilities costs when the Yoga in the Park program did not pay that fee. She also did not feel her classes were receiving equal marketing compared to Yoga in the Park on the city's social media pages. Mayor Greg Zilka said the 30 percent share of proceeds the city takes is the same for all fitness instructors across the board. "It's not unreasonable for the city to charge some element of a fee for that. So she got 70 percent and we got 30 percent," he said. "There have been people on this committee who want the Recreation Department to try to break even, and that is part of that formula." He added that Eyring was not fired, as she said, but let go after she did not renew her contract in time. She told the city in an email on Friday, Dec. 13, that she would inform them of her decision to renew the contract by the following Monday, and was informed at 11:58 a.m. that Monday that her services would no longer be needed. Eyring believes city politics played a role in the situation. On Election Day last November she made several Facebook posts expressing support of Councilman-at-large K.C. Zuber, Zilka's opponent in the mayor's race. At Monday's meeting, Eyring distributed copies of an email that a participant in her class sent to Zilka suggesting politics had something to do with the loss of her contract with the city. In reply to the email, Zilka brought up Eyring's Facebook posts. "The disagreement that Mrs. Eyring had with the city was never political from our end," Zilka wrote. "She chose on Election Day to post on her Facebook page a statement every hour urging residents to vote for my opponent." Zilka firmly denied the allegation that his politics had anything to do with the contract not being renewed. He added that Eyring is a talented instructor and he wishes her well. "It's pretty obvious in the emails" that politics were involved in the dispute, Zuber said during the meeting. "The frustration that I have is that these were things that were brought (up) by her for several months that no one ever acted on," he said. "No one ever did anything to try to correct the record or address these things that she was talking about from her standpoint." In addition to evaluating the equity of its programs, James suggested the Recreation Department "look at the propriety of allowing individuals to use our facilities partly, at least, to commercial purposes. "I think there should be some policy that establishes and regulates that," he said. "That way it sets a level playing field across all channels." Contact Dylan Reynolds at (440) 329-7123 or dreynolds@chroniclet.com. Follow him on Twitter @DRey1357.