Commissioners push back on Elyria mayor

Lorain County commissioners struck back at Elyria Mayor Holly Brinda on Sept. 11 saying that comments she made earlier in the week about a transit system were inaccurate and misleading.

The topic came up at the end of the commissioners’ weekly meeting before Commissioner Lori Kokoski made her report.

Kokoski took issue with Brinda’s statement that the county “has not been able to commit to using existing transit” as part of a city initiative to help people find employment.

County administration staffers were in contact with Brinda trying to get the information needed to determine whether the county could take part, she said.

“We needed basic information including how many riders, pick up and drop off locations and times, and I consider that to be very simple information,” Kokoski said. “Our staff contacted the mayor on Friday to follow up and her response was ‘we decided to go with a private provider for now, but we’ll consider the county in the future endeavors.’”

Brinda’s response showed Elyria had no intention to work with the county or she would have supplied the necessary information, Kokoski said.

In the future, the county will be “very cautious” working in partnership with the current city administration, she said.

“Our people are very busy and wasting their time on fruitless endeavors, is not an option,” Kokoski said. “I believe the administration never had any intention of working collaboratively and decided on this private company from the onset.”

County Administrator James Cordes also expressed frustration, not at Brinda’s statement, but in the outcome, despite not being entirely sure the county could accomplish what Elyria wanted.

“We’re a tolerant, tolerant people,” Cordes said. “At the onset, I was suspect of this whole thing and I told the board that.

“I didn’t want to participate because I didn’t think it was going to lead to a positive outcome.”

Cordes said the commissioners told him to give it a shot anyway and he made the contact with the city and gave Brinda a list of information the county needed to get involved.

He described the back and forth with the city as congenial, but the county did not receive any concrete information except for general locations the city wanted included in bus routes that weren’t specific enough.

“There’s no way that I can give an accurate response on whether we can do this without more defined detail,” he said he told Brinda.

Cordes said Brinda wanted the county just to tell her if they were interested and they would figure out the details later.

He said that’s not the way they do business.

Commissioners Sweda and Lundy

Commissioner Sharon Sweda also jumped in to apologize to the county staff for pushing them to get involved in the proposition.

“I was assured that the city and the mayor were willing and eager to do a collaborative transportation process with us,” Sweda said. “I apologize for the time wasted on this.

“It’s sad that we share the same geography with the city of Elyria, and we can’t forge stronger unions for much needed services.”

Commissioner Matt Lundy said the commissioners are more than happy to work together with cities, but they have to have a willing partner.

“I’m just baffled and disappointed by the misrepresentations that come from across the street directed at this board with the blame game and misrepresentation,” Lundy said referring to Elyria City Hall which is about two blocks from the County Administration Building.

He also spoke about the now-defunct plan to bring passenger rail to the city saying that statements made to Elyria City Council and the public are not true.

“It’s been said time and time again to the mayor, I don’t know what part of this people don’t understand, the Transportation Center as it relates to trains stopping there is dead,” Lundy said.

Brinda’s response

After the meeting, Brinda stood by her statement and said the information the commissioners requested at this point does not exist because the program gets new participants all the time.

She also pushed back against Kokoski’s belief that the city already was settled on using the private company for transportation, saying that the city went to the county first and that if the county had gotten on board, the city’s grant application would be stronger.

“The bottom line was they were asked to work with us over an extended period of time to see if we could work this out, and they did not feel comfortable and could not make a commitment to the program and the grant request without specifics that we couldn’t give them yet,” Brinda said.

In other news, the commissioners reflected on where they were during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the crash of Flight 93 in Somerset County, Pa.

All reflected, not only on the uncertainty and fear that gripped the nation immediately after the attacks, but also the unity that seemed to well up in each citizen in the days that followed.