WH Council countersuing mayor

Countersuit filed over acting law director controversy

Willoughby Hills City Council members have filed a countersuit against Mayor Robert Weger over the ongoing law director controversy.

Weger filed a lawsuit Oct. 27 in Lake County Common Pleas Court against City Council members who overrode his veto regarding Acting Law Director Stephen Byron. Weger’s suit claims Byron’s $120,000 a year contract is costing the city nearly four times the previous law director’s salary.

Byron was temporarily appointed to the position after former Law Director Thomas Lobe resigned Sept. 19.

Weger is asking Judge Richard L. Collins Jr. to issue a judgment that Byron and the law firm of Walter Haverfield LLP cannot be acting law director because Ordinance 2017-70 declaring an “emergency need” for their services was illegal, as it was passed without being placed on the meeting agenda.

According to an amended complaint filed Dec. 19 by Weger’s attorney, Joseph Randy Klammer:

• The mayor sent Byron and the Walter Haverfield firm written notice on Nov. 30 that “they have been removed from office.” Since Byron is not legally the acting law director, he should not be billing for his services.

• Weger’s amended complaint also addresses proposed emergency Ordinance 2017-88, which would allow Council President Nancy E. Fellows to serve as acting mayor to allow City Council to hire Joseph N. Gross and Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan and Aronoff, LLP as special counsel for the sole purpose of representing the city

in matters regarding a proposed collective bargaining unit.

“... There is no such process for Council to ‘formally declare’ any such thing to remove from the voters the benefit of their duly elected Mayor Weger,” Klammer stated in the amended complaint.

• The mayor’s lawsuit has since been amended, dismissing Byron as a defendant in the suit. The only defendants left are council as a whole entity and the five individual members named in the original action, Council President Fellows, along with council members John Plecnik, David Fiebig, Janet Majka and Laura Pizmoht.

City Council members recently filed an answer to the mayor’s most recent complaint alleging:

• Weger’s letter to Byron and Haverfield to remove them from office was not legally effective.

• Defendants deny there is no process for City Council to declare the mayor is incapable of performing the duties of his office, adding that Ordinance 2017-88 speaks for itself.

• Weger has failed to state a claim for relief as both a taxpayer and in his official capacity as mayor.

“This behavior constitutes an abuse of process and frivolous litigation, and which warrants an appropriate sanction by this Court at the conclusion of the litigation,” according to attorneys Gregory Beck and Tonya Rogers, who are representing the defendants in the suit and countersuit.

• Byron and the Haverfield firm have provided competent legal services to the city. Weger has “a clear duty to recognize Byron as the acting law director.” • The acting law director can only be terminated in one of three ways — upon the confirmation of the permanent law director, through termination by City Council by motion made and passed by a majority vote and by the acting law director’s voluntary resignation.

• Defendants seek an injunction compelling the mayor to refrain from interfering with Byron’s authority and an order declaring the city has a clear legal right to appoint Byron as the acting law director.

• Defendants want an order declaring that any money spent by the mayor using city funds in the lawsuit constitutes an unlawful expenditure, or conversion, and must be immediately repaid to the city.

Weger has attempted to appoint attorney Michael Germano as acting law director.