Etna rejects paying trustee’s legal bill after altercation
The Etna Township Board of Trustees denied paying the legal bills of one of its members after an altercation with a staff member last year.
Trustee Mark Evans had asked the township reimburse him $2,720 for legal bills he incurred after a physical altercation with the township’s thenzoning inspector on Feb. 6, 2023, that resulted in Licking County Sheriff ’s Office deputies responding to the township hall.
Evans did not participate in the discussion on the matter and abstained from the vote. Trustees Gary Burkholder and Rozland Mckee both voted against reimbursing Evans.
During the meeting, none of the trustees said what the legal bill was for or the amount Evans was seeking. Evans himself provided those specifics during an interview after the meeting.
Mckee said the township asked the Licking County Prosecutor’s Office whether the township should reimburse Evans and that the prosecutor’s office recommended not doing so.
She added it made no sense to reimburse Evans.
Burkholder disagreed with Mckee’s understanding of the prosecutor’s response and said the lengthy response from the prosecutor’s office didn’t say they legal bills couldn’t be paid.
After the meeting, Burkholder expressed concerns about the matter and said he voted his conscience.
Evans said in an interview after the meeting that the prosecutor’s office indicated it was proper for the township to reimburse him.
“I don’t believe I personally should have to pay for something that was done during my trustee duties,” he said.
On Feb. 6, Evans and the then-zoning inspector had a physical altercation when Evans was looking at another township employee’s laptop. The zoning inspector reached to close the laptop, and Evans grabbed their arm, pushing them back, according to the deputy’s report from that day.
Evans was wearing a body camera at the time, and the footage was posted to Youtube in the fall. In the video, the employee can be seen reaching for the computer and their hands connect with Evans’, but the angle of the video doesn’t show exactly how.
No charges were filed as a result of the incident.
Township seeks to remove concrete, asphalt plants from zoning code
In a unanimous vote, the trustees initiated the process to remove concrete and asphalt plants from the list of conditional uses in the township’s light manufacturing district (M-1) zoning code.
This request comes after the Etna Township Board of Zoning Appeals denied a request Feb. 26 for conditional use to operate a ready-mix concrete plant at 10077 and 10095 Tollgate Road SW.
A Zoning Appeals board member said ahead of the vote that the project went against the spirit of the township’s zoning code for M-1, for which the properties were zoned. The code states that the M-1 district zoning allows for manufacturing and wholesale businesses that are clean, quiet and free of hazardous or objectionable elements, such as noise, odor, dust, smoke or glare that operate entirely within enclosed structures and generate little industrial traffic.
The trustees referred the matter to the Etna Township Zoning Commission, which will refer the recommended text amendment to the Licking County Planning Commission. The county commission will offer a nonbinding recommendation on whether to approve the change. Then the township zoning commission will hold a hearing on the proposed amendment and make its own recommendation to township trustees, who have the final say.
Township hires consultant to manage records backlog
Burkholder and Evans approved hiring Krystal Gonchar, of KG Advisors, to handle the township’s backlog of public records. Mckee voted against the move.
A conference room in the township hall is lined with boxes of public records that need to be sorted, cataloged and digitized, which Gonchar will handle. She said the work should take about six months.
Gonchar will be paid $60 an hour, and the contract is for up to 100 hours, meaning a total of $6,000.
Managing public records is Gonchar’s area of expertise, she said while presenting her proposal to the board. In addition to her work through KG Advisors, Gonchar is the city clerk for Upper Arlington, where she maintains city records and manages pubic records requests.
This is the latest expenditure the township has approved since Burkholder joined the board in January. Some of the others include paying $18,500 to the Westerville-based search firm Management Advisory Group as the township seeks a new administrator and $5,000 to a law firm as the township deals with employee issues.
Burkholder said after the meeting that the township is reinvesting in itself to ensure its continued growth is handled properly.
“We need to be nimble and move quickly. I think these expenditures are not only justified, but are the kinds of investment we need to make into the community,” he said. mdevito@gannett.com 740-607-2175
Twitter: @Mariadevito13