Board of Elections, County Commissioners still at odds over personnel moves
NEW PHILADELPHIA – The Tuscarawas County Board of Elections appears to be bracing for a court battle with County Commissioners.
County Administrator Kris Lowdermilk on Monday asked the four members of the election board to forego their own $600 monthly stipends for two years to pay back $47,500 in bonuses they awarded to eight staff members last year. Elections Board member Jerry Lahmers said they would not do that.
“Everything we did was within our duties and prerogative and our responsibility to affect an election, a proper election, a fair election, an efficient election,” he said. “To even consider something like that was to admit that we had done something wrong, and I don’t think that to a person the board feels that we have done something wrong.”
Board members, including Kathy Bachman, said they believe the one-time payments were justified.
“They are underappreciated. They are often treated with great disrespect, and they are also underpaid,” she said. “We had a one-time opportunity to show them our appreciation for their stickin’ with us, and that’s why we did it.”
County Commissioner President Kristen Zemis said the Board should have gotten permission and asked for objective evidence to support the payments.
“You can’t tell me why you decided to pay one employee this and one employee another. You can’t tell us what job description paid or what responsibility changed from one election to another,” she said. “So to me, it’s just an arbitrary use of the public funds which should have been carried over to the next year.”
The Commissioners also reiterated their objections to board’s hiring of IT Director Jeremiah Johnson, who was hired after the Secretary of State ruled him ineligible to serve on the Board of Elections because of misdemeanor tax crimes related to a business.
Lowdermilk told the Board that Johnson shouldn’t be employed because he is uninsurable due to the 2024 misdemeanor tax offenses.
Zemis said their objection was not about the person but the hiring process.
“It’s a financial crime,” she said. “When you have those things, you have to worry about dishonesty and acts – not saying that he would behave that way – but you have to worry about mistakes. You have to worry about it, and as an employer, you know all that, and why would you hire somebody like that? And why would you put us at risk? You put the county at risk. You put more tax dollars at risk.”
Commissioners said they will increase their oversight of the Board of Elections to prevent these issues in the future.
After the meeting, Elections Board Chairman Thomas Hisrich said he would not comment. He said if the matter ends up in court, he would comment then.