Lorain County Port Authority board welcomes new director, 3 new members

The Lorain County Port Authority Board of Directors welcomed its new director, attorney Jim Miller of Elyria, as well as three new members during a special meeting Saturday morning. The virtual meeting was run by County Administrator Tom Williams, who was appointed to the board Wednesday along with Amy Richards and Robert Duncan. Membership now consists of Chris Rewak, an attorney; Jon Volpe, an administrator and treasurer at Lorain County Community College; Richards, the fiscal officer for Grafton Township and president of the Lorain County Township Association; Duncan, Lorain County's new community development director and the former two-term Republican mayor of Norwalk; and Williams. A Lorain County native and Elyria resident, Miller said he has more than 25 years of legal experience at three firms in Cuyahoga and Lorain counties — most recently at Wickens Herzer Panza in Avon, he said. Miller is a graduate of Elyria West High School, Ohio State University and Cleveland State University's Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. He told the Port Authority board that he has considerable legal experience in commercial finance and bond work, large bank loans and transactions. "I've got a lot of experience in this regard," including working with Northwest Bank on the financing for the Kendal at Oberlin project, Miller said. "I look forward to working with you all." Miller also has made entry into Lorain County Republican politics: He has filed to run as a Republican for Ward 4 councilman in Elyria, with no challenger as of the filing deadline. Democrat Kenny Oswald currently holds the seat. Miller also was the attorney for then-candidate, now county commissioner Michelle Hung in court last year after Gerald Phillips — her opponent in the April 2020 Republican primary — sued her, Gov. Mike DeWine and former Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton in Lorain County Common Pleas Court. Phillips, who alleged the state disenfranchised Republican voters as part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, withdrew his lawsuit in August 2020. In other business, the Port Authority board voted unanimously to hire the law firm of Seeley, Savidge, Ebert & Gourash Co. as its outside legal counsel, and voted to keep its offices in the County Administration Building on Middle Avenue in Elyria. Williams said board officers will be chosen at the board's next meeting, to be set within the next week or two. Williams, Richards and Duncan were appointed to the board by county commissioners on Wednesday, the same day commissioners appointed Miller by unanimous vote. Williams also has recommended commissioners expand the size of the board from five members to seven. Their appointments followed the resignation of former board members Jim Cordes, Ben Fligner and Frank DeTillio.