Rob Weber out, James "J.R." White in: Commissioners hire third new County administrator since January

ELYRIA — Interim Lorain County Administrator Rob Weber was fired by the Lorain County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday. Weber's tenure as interim administrator ends at 4:30 p.m. Friday, commissioners decided in a 3-0 vote. Replacing him on a full-time basis will be attorney James "J.R." White, whom commissioners unanimously hired as the new county administrator, effective today. He is the third person to serve in that role since Jan. 4. Commissioner Michelle Hung released a statement Wednesday afternoon thanking Weber for his service. "We wish him well in his future endeavors," she wrote. Referencing Weber's firing, Commissioner Matt Lundy said by phone Wednesday "it was best we move in a new direction and I wish him all the best." Commissioner David Moore said in a phone interview that Weber "didn't have the temperament for the job." "And I think the other two (Hung and Lundy) finally realized he did not have the temperament for the job," Moore said. "There was no 'straw that broke the camel's back.' He was in over his head. He didn't have the temperament and everything that happened to him proved that I was right." Weber, a Henrietta Township resident, had an excused absence from Wednesday's commissioners meeting, Hung said. He has not given a report to commissioners for the past three weeks. Weber responds In a phone call with a Chronicle-Telegram reporter, Weber said he learned of his firing in a text message sent to him Wednesday while he was out on emergency leave through the end of the week. He said he was due to return to work Monday, and shared with The Chronicle a screenshot photo of the termination letter he received by text from Assistant Lorain County Prosecutor Dan Petticord, the commissioners' legal counsel. Weber said he has been away from the job because his wife is missing. He had asked for official leave to deal with his family issues but was denied. Weber said his wife has been missing for a number of weeks, that he tracked her to Florida, and that it was only on Wednesday that he found out she is alive. "That was the happiest news that I've ever heard, that she's alive," he said. The Chronicle-Telegram couldn't independently verify Weber's story, but multiple sources within the county familiar with the situation confirmed portions of Weber's account about his leave from the county. In the meantime, Weber said he was upset with the way the county commissioners handled his firing. "All the work I've done and service and the help, they terminate me by text message while I'm out pursuing my wife who is a bona fide missing person human being. I never received a single phone call from anyone in Lorain County about job duties or anything," he said. "All they said was 'You didn't return phone calls.'" Weber said his firing is a deflection from the dysfunction in county government in recent weeks. He said he stepped up into the interim administrator role when former County Administrator Tom Williams was fired in August, and was working 60- and 70-hour weeks for the county, all while dealing with concerns with his wife. "I didn't want Tom to get fired, but who else is going to do it?" he said. "I asked for help, I'm granted some leave, and I'm fired while I'm out looking for my wife. I go from the happiest moment of my life to knowing that she's still alive to half an hour later, 'You're fired.'" Weber said the culture of the board of commissioners right now is a "toxic culture." "Upon reflection and hindsight, it's probably a blessing to get out of the toxic environment that is the Lorain County Board of Commissioners," Weber said. "All I tried to do was try to get my wife help and get her to safety, and they turn around and fire me?" Weber controversy Weber is a licensed attorney and former Republican candidate for U.S. Congress who lost an 2020 election bid to U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Toledo. He was hired as deputy county administrator on Jan. 4 and was being paid about $86,500 annually to start. He rose to interim administrator, with an increase in pay to $110,000 annually, after commissioners fired Williams on Aug. 18. Weber has twice been at the center of controversy, both prior to his tenure with the county and during. One of his responsibilities as deputy county administrator was oversight of the Lorain County Dog Kennel. A "visibly upset and distraught" dog kennel employee approached Human Resources Manager Adina Bargan on Aug. 23 and asked how to make a complaint against Weber, according to documents provided to The Chronicle in a public records request. The employee's name was redacted, but they were described as "afraid to physically come in and be seen at the Administration Building for fear of retaliation" from Weber, Bargan told Human Resources Director Jen Sinatra in an email. The employee reported that since February, employees at the Dog Kennel had been "afraid of retaliatory action against them" by Weber and that they believed he had asked them to break the law. County Dog Warden Tim Pihlblad was fired after a dog that was being quarantined there attacked a man on kennel property on June 26, but he was rehired by the board as of Sept. 27, according to board documents. How kennel employees were allegedly being asked to break the law was not clear, but employees there were "confused about the current chain of command, particularly as it relates to filing complaints" and were "instructed by Mr. Weber to 'under no circumstances' speak to anyone else other than himself," according to the one-page human resources email. The employees there had also asked if it was possible to address commissioners directly because "they believe the commissioners had been misinformed about certain matters by Mr. Weber," especially after Williams was fired, according to the email. The employee was advised to put their complaint in a written statement accompanied by documentation. It wasn't clear Wednesday if that was done or what resulted from the complaint. Without going into detail, Lundy said Wednesday he had discussed supervision of the dog kennel with Weber and that Weber's management style "was not a management style that I want in the workplace." A little less than a month later, there were revelations that a state disciplinary panel had recommended Weber's law license, which he has held since graduating from the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law in 2003, be placed on stayed suspension for one year for violation of rules of conduct governing licensed attorneys in Ohio. The Chronicle-Telegram reported Sept. 18 that a disciplinary panel recommended the one-year stayed suspension in June after finding that Weber mishandled money belonging to clients he represented in his private legal practice. Between 2016 and 2018, Weber deposited checks made out to his clients into a specialized account where attorneys place fees, retainers or settlement funds. According to the Ohio Supreme Court's Board of Professional Conduct, none of the clients were aware that someone had signed their names on the checks before they were deposited. Later, when it came time for that money to be disbursed to Weber's clients, some of the checks bounced, some of the money had not been properly transferred and Weber had commingled his personal funds with his clients' funds, the disciplinary board found. Other clients did not get the money they were owed for months, though Weber eventually repaid all the money owed his clients, the board said, finding "no dishonest or selfish motive" on Weber's behalf. Weber admitted to "some administrative mistakes" in a Sept. 17 interview, but said he acknowledged them and quickly and immediately repaired them. He remains licensed to practice law in Ohio, and it is up to the Ohio Supreme Court to make a final ruling in the matter. Moore further called Weber "ethically challenged" in a Sept. 18 Chronicle-Telegram article. White hired White's salary will be $72.07 per hour, commissioners decided. His new job starts today. In a statement to The Chronicle, Hung said the board was "pleased to announce that an offer was extended and accepted" by White. "I appreciate the opportunity the commissioners have given me. I appreciate it was a unanimous vote and I look forward to the opportunity to serve the board of commissioners and citizens of Lorain County," White told The Chronicle-Telegram on Wednesday. White, a Carlisle Township resident, had submitted his resume to the county to be considered for the position of Job & Family Services director after Tim Carrion was fired in August. His application came with five letters of reference and a one-page resume, all of which were provided to The Chronicle-Telegram as part of a public records request. Commissioners eventually rehired Barbara Tamas to take back her old role as JFS director after she was fired in January, but White's resume made an impression. From June 2005 to July 1 this year, White worked at Fauver Co. LPA, an Elyria law firm that has represented The Chronicle-Telegram in legal matters. White mostly practiced employment law, including advising The Chronicle, he said. White left his position with the law firm, he wrote in his county job application, "to pursue interests outside the private practice of law." A graduate of North Coast Christian Academy, the University of Akron and Cleveland State University's Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, White has represented the South and Central Lorain County Joint Ambulance districts and the village of Rochester, according to his county job application. He also served on the United Way of Greater Lorain County Board of Trustees, the Firelands Association for the Visual Arts Board of Trustees and the Rotary Club of Elyria Board of Trustees over the past 10 years, according to his resume. Save for when he was going to college, White said he has lived in Lorain County his whole life, he said. While he plans to resign as United Way board president after getting the county administrator job, White said the "great, great work in the community" that the United Way does "drove me toward public service." "This role is where you serve the people. I think this is a great opportunity to serve the people," he said. "I want to serve to the best of my ability." White also represented businessman Kevin Flanigan in a successful request to annex 42 acres of Eaton Township into the village of Grafton, a decision handed down by commissioners in May. Commissioners Hung and Moore voted in favor of the annexation while Lundy voted against it. White "handled that case very well and I thought so even though I voted against him and his client," Lundy said Wednesday. White is smart, "he knows the community and is wanting to transition his skills to public service," Lundy said, and his legal knowledge and skills "will serve him well in his new role as county administrator." Moore said that he believes White deserves "a clean slate" and "a fighting chance" to prove he can be a calming influence after "a lot of drama and chaos" in county government recently. "I don't know many people who would want to work for these three commissioners," Moore said. "Even though I said we were dysfunctional, there's still a lot of day-to-day stuff that needs to get done. I think maybe he could be that calming force between the three of us. He needs to separate the three commissioners away from the directors because micromanaging a director is very destructive to the team." "I'm hoping that this will restore some order and get rid of the chaos that's existed the last 60 days," Moore added. "I'm looking forward to working with him." White's father is Elyria Municipal Judge Robert White and his sister Emily works in the Lorain County Clerk of Courts offices, according to his job application. His uncle is Greg White, the former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio who served 22 years as Lorain County prosecutor and before that was Elyria law director. Hung controversy In a surprise move Wednesday, Moore made a motion for the board to vote on removing Hung as its president. The attempt failed when neither Hung nor Lundy seconded the motion. Lundy said Wednesday that he wasn't expecting Moore to do what he did. He said the board chooses its president and vice president at an organizational meeting at the beginning of every new year and "if that's an issue my colleague wants to address, we can do it then." The board president runs the meetings and "I don't see what (removing Hung as president) changes," Lundy said. "It's largely ceremonial," he said. "It's not like you get to veto anything. It doesn't carry more weight. It's mid-October now. It didn't seem like the time to be doing that." Asked for comment on Moore's motion, Hung texted the following statement to a Chronicle-Telegram reporter: "The Commissioners worked together to move forward the Union contract with the 911 dispatchers today. We also made an announcement regarding our choice of an experienced individual to join our team as the County Administrator, and we passed a resolution supporting a statutory provision that supports our Veteran's [sic] in Lorain County. I choose to focus on the good work the Board delivered for our residents today," she wrote. Moore previously called on Hung to resign as commissioner over revelations that she had carried on and admitted to what her fellow commissioners have called an "inappropriate relationship" with former Lorain County 911 Director Harry Williamson. Moore and Lundy voted to fire Williamson after the relationship was revealed to them. Hung abstained from that vote. For the third week in a row Wednesday, Charles Ocheltree of Elyria approached the board during the public comment period of its meeting and asked Hung to resign. Ocheltree, who has identified himself as a Republican, called Hung "out of touch" with "a clear lack of discernment." "Countless county residents have shared with me their disgust" over Hung's behavior, he said, referencing her relationship with Williamson. Hung did not respond to Ocheltree's comments during the meeting. She has rejected all calls for her resignation, saying she continues to do the work of the county. Among Hung's other critics have been Moore, who asked Hung to resign Aug. 10, and Kipton Mayor Bob Meilander, a former ally of Hung's who along with the Wellington Area Central Committee of the Lorain County Republican Party asked Hung to resign Aug. 16. Moore said if he had his way, he'd have Williams back as county administrator. Williams was Moore's campaign manager in his successful 2020 run for commissioner. "If I could bring Tom Williams back and steady the ship, I'd do it now," Moore said Wednesday. "But I can't get a second (vote) to bring Tom back and I can't get a second to remove" Hung. Williams recently sued Hung and Lundy in federal court alleging retaliation and that he was fired after reporting Hung's affair with Williamson to the Lorain County Prosecutor's Office. Hung "confided in (Williams) by texting and communicating with him regarding a sexual affair that she was having" with Williamson, according to Williams' lawsuit, and the communications allegedly included Hung discussing having sexual relations with Williamson in county offices and "specifically on Hung's county-owned desk." Lundy, Hung and Petticord, the board's legal counsel, all have declined to comment on Williams' suit. Moore is the lone county commissioner not named as a defendant. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him at @daveobrienCT on Twitter.