“The public needs to know the truth once and for all, and those responsible should be held accountable for their actions." – Park Commissioner Joe Weiss
Geauga County Probate Court Judge Tim Grendell and Chester Township Trustees are once again entering the battlefield over control of township park lands.
This time, however, Grendell has launched a new major offensive. He has accused trustees, among other things, of committing fraud by voting 2-1 at their Aug. 18 meeting against executing a revised park management agreement their attorney prepared and submitted to the Chester Township Park District board to sign.
Grendell also has accused trustees Ken Radtke and Mike Petruziello, who cast the majority votes, of criminal retaliation and violation of constitutional rights because the township lost a fight in the Ohio Supreme Court over the probate court’s ability to issue orders to enforce the entry creating the park district, including orders that impose duties on those interfering with the park district’s purposes.
In two related judgment entries, dated sept-16 and sept-22, Grendell authorized Mary Jane Trapp, who he previously appointed in 2014 to investigate matters pending before the court concerning the township park district, to investigate and report on trustees’ actions. Specifically, Trapp was asked to answer nine questions, including:
- Did trustees commit fraud on the court in drafting the revised park agreement, submitting it to the park board to sign and then voting against executing it?
- Did trustees interfere with the operation or purpose of the park district with their actions?
- Did trustees commit contempt of court by failing to sign the revised agreement?
- Did the Geauga County Prosecutor’s Office or trustees’ private counsel perpetuate fraud on the court or act in complicity with other to commit fraud on the court with respect to actions taken or representations made regarding the revised agreement?
- Did Radtke and Petruziello criminally retaliate against park board members and Grendell, or deprive them of their constitutional rights to discharge their respective duties, because trustees lost their supreme court case?
Geauga County Maple Leaf sent an email to trustees requesting comment on Grendell’s latest entries. Radtke said he forwarded the request to outside legal counsel, which has not responded.
In response to another email seeking comment, Park Commissioner Joe Weiss said the master commissioner is the means available to find the truth about why Radtke and Petruziello refused to sign the revised agreement.
“The master commissioner served the township well in the past by giving an accurate, unbiased overview of the park board and its need to serve the township as an independent body,” Weiss said.
“In the current situation, the majority of the board of trustees side-doored Trustee Bud Kinney by refusing to sign an agreement approved by them which was presented to the park board, which signed it.
“The inactions over the past three years have cost us, the taxpayers, in excess of $100,000 between the master commissioner fees, the township and park board legal fees, and the legal fees incurred by the court. This must stop,” Weiss said.
He added, “The public needs to know the truth once and for all, and those responsible should be held accountable for their actions. The master commissioner needs the latitude given by the court in its orders to do the job and smoke out the truth.”
Park Commissioner Ruth Philbrick agreed that Radtke and Petruziello needed to be investigated.
“They wrote a new agreement for the Chester park board and it was signed by all the Chester park board members,” she said. “Then the two trustees wouldn’t sign their own agreement. Who does that? I have lost my trust in them.”
Philbrick added trustees previously said they had no money to put flower baskets along the intersection of U.S. 322 and state Route 306, but can spend thousands on legal fees.
“As a Chester taxpayer, I am appalled at the money they feel free to spend on legal fees,” she said. “I don’t believe they are responding to what the majority of the taxpayers want.”
For Park Commissioner Clay Lawrence, trustees’ inaction comes down to two issues.
“One, Radtke is mad because, after all the taxpayer money spent on lawsuits against Judge Grendell’s actions, he has been proven wrong by the state supreme court,” Lawrence said. “Two, he can only get even by taking back the park operations, thereby relieving Judge Grendell of his appointing authority.”
Supreme Court Decision
In April 2015, trustees asked the Ohio Supreme Court to prohibit Grendell from issuing or enforcing rulings against them in the 1984 probate court case creating the park district.
Months earlier, in November 2014, Grendell had issued orders trustees claimed imposed duties, obligations and fees on them he had no jurisdiction to impose.
Trustees appealed Grendell’s orders to the 11th District Court of Appeals in Warren. The appellate court ultimately dismissed the appeal, finding it premature because Grendell had not yet approved and ordered payment of the master commissioner’s fees and costs.
Rather than waiting, however, trustees filed an action in prohibition with the supreme court.
In a 7-0 decision, issued April 14, the supreme court denied trustees’ request. The court held Grendell had the statutory and inherent authority to issue orders related to the probate court’s 1984 entry creating the park district. That was the only issue the supreme court said it was deciding.
It did not rule on the content of those orders, however. That would be an issue for the court of appeals, the court said.
Revised Park Agreement
In a split vote last month, trustees voted not to enter into a revised park agreement with the park board and then voted to terminate an existing 1993 agreement, effective Dec. 31.
Grendell had found in June that five provisions of the 1993 agreement violated public policy and conflicted with the 1984 order creating the park district.
“This has nothing to do with our park board members,” Radtke told the Geauga County Maple Leaf last month regarding his Aug. 18 vote. “They have done a great job on our parks and have attracted thousands of people to use them.”
Instead, Radtke said he and Petruziello based their decisions because of Grendell.
“We need to protect our residents as well as the park district from this judicial over-reach,” Radtke said. “He appears to have adversarial relationships with our residents and other public officials.”
Radtke asked current park board members to consider resigning and forming a new park committee, “so we can move forward to regain control of the parks, which are owned by our residents.”
Trustee Ward “Bud” Kinney, who cast the lone dissenting votes, called his colleagues’ actions “unconscionable.”
“If they didn’t want to sign it, they should have said that after we drafted the document,” he told the Maple Leaf last month. “It was embarrassing.”
On Sept. 15, Grendell wrote park board members and told them the trustees’ Aug. 18 vote did not dissolve the park district or park board.
He also informed them the park district would continue to receive fund annually from the township.
“With that in mind, please be further advised that your resignation from the park district board are unnecessary and would not be accepted under the current circumstances,” Grendell wrote.
In August, the Geauga County Budget Commission denied a park district request to collect more than $60,000 from the township’s general fund in 2017, finding the park district did not own any land and trustees terminated the 1993 agreement.
Weiss told commission members that trustees blamed their decision to terminate the agreement on Grendell.
Weiss also argued the park district had the statutory right to request funding from the township, but was told the budget commission is responsible for assigning it.
The budget commission did approve, however, the township’s 2017 budget, which included a transfer of $70,000 to township-owned parks. It did not include any transfers to the park district.
