NELSONVILLE, Ohio — When Nelsonville City Council met Monday night, it undertook no actions. Instead, the meeting laid bare the body’s dysfunction and general disagreeability.
Nine people turned up to sit as the council, which legally comprises only seven members. The group could not agree about who should recuse themselves in order for the city to conduct business — making them unable to fulfill solutions proposed by not one, but two attorneys.
The meeting dipped in and out of formality, and began questionably in the first place. The roll call omitted maybe-maybe not Council President Rita Ngueyn, Sue Powell and Opha Lawson, who may or may not be members of council.
According to the Ohio Attorney’s General 2024 Sunshine Laws Manual, a “meeting” is defined by the Ohio Open Records Act as (1) a prearranged gathering of (2) a majority of the members of a public body (3) for the purpose of discussing public business.
Attorneys Mathew Voltolini and Jonathan Robe somewhat guided the meeting, on the premise that the council has to reach an agreement in order to govern: “There are [nine] people sitting in this room who have a legal claim to sitting on city council,” Voltolini said. “Until that is decided you cannot hold a meeting — that’s our legal opinion.”
Robe said that regardless of the legality of the meeting, the clerk should still prepare minutes.
Because the council could not agree on its composition, it was unable to conduct business. That prevented the body from reading or officially adopting an ordinance to appoint Robe and Voltolini as joint legal counsel that they had prepared to do so through May 31.
The two attorneys initially proposed acting as presidents and non-voting parliamentarians of the council, “so that the city still has a government,” Voltolini said.
Both attorneys encouraged keeping the meeting and discussions open, since council could not legally hold an official executive session, and to allow the public to comment and ask questions.
Sitting in the lively audience was former city manager Bernie Roell, who accused maybe-maybe not Council President Gregg Clement and recent maybe-council returnee Tony Dunfee of attempting a “coup.”
At least three Nelsonville Police Department officers, including NPD Chief Devon Tolliver, watched over the crowd, and early on in the meeting cautioned against disruption.
Additionally, the attorneys suggested the candidates in contention — Dunfee, Nguyen and Powell — could recuse themselves without prejudice while the other six govern and the council as a whole waits for a legal opinion (Lawson had apparently not yet been sworn in).
“We would then select a neutral third party attorney who is very experienced in this area of the law, submit to him the questions, let him render a binding legal opinion on these questions that the council agrees to abide by,” Voltolini said.
The two issues the attorneys would submit to an independent third party would be “Who rightfully is sitting in Greg’s Smith seat?” and “Who is the president of the city council?”
In order to secure the opinion, however, the council would have to be in a position to adopt legislation to hire the third party attorney. Council was not in that position Monday; none of the contested members recused themselves.
“My suggestion would be that we remain with the people that were actually elected by the citizens for the six and allow the independent counsel to decide who takes the seventh seat,” Nguyen said.
Voltolini later proposed Sonick act as president, since she’s been appointed vice president twice thus far. Nguyen-appointee Sue Powell said she would recuse herself if Dunfee would too; Dunfee, however, asserted that Nguyen’s seat is also “in contention” and that he would not recuse himself unless she recused, too. At one point, Sonick pleaded with Dunfee to recuse himself.
“It’s evident that we’re not going to make any kind of decision,” Flowers said. “So my suggestion is, let’s get the hell out of here.”
Desperately seeking clarity
At a special meeting on March 13, the council relieved Voltolini of his duties as “special counsel” and rehired Robe, whom the body had hired December 2023 and fired in January. Robe said Monday that City Manager Tom Cangemi, who attended via phone, appointed him interim city attorney through May 31 a few days before the meeting, which he accepted.
Robe said the two have been in touch with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office regarding the city’s legal questions. He added that initiating legal action to solve the city’s issues isn’t a “clean cut” route to answers, with multiple pathways available, all of which are cumbersome.
“As an aside, this is a deeply serious issue that the city faces,” Robe said. “The only wording that I can think of is ‘highly irregular’ to describe the circumstances. At the same time, what that means is the possibility of the Ohio Attorney General getting directly involved at some point is higher than the ordinary baseline. That’s a warning.”
The Ohio AG’s office did not return a call in time for publication.
When Clement asked the Athens County Prosecutor’s Office for opinions on the legal questions about the council’s composition and presidency, the prosecutor’s office responded that those were up to the city law director — whom they identified as Robe — and city Auditor Taylor Sappington.
Sappington confirmed on Monday that he has recognized Clement’s March 13 appointment as president and Dunfee’s 3-2 council appointment on March 11. As the city auditor, Sappington authorized the two’s monthly pay for March, with Clement as president and Dunfee as a council member.
“The city auditor has an independent legal duty to the city and he has to make certain determinations. Whether or not a judge or another binding authority says he’s right or wrong is a different question,” Robe explained Monday night.
Booth asked that Sappington’s “letter” — a three-page response to a series of questions Clement asked via email — be read into the record. Nguyen did not want the letter read, despite urgings from audience members. “This is not a meeting,” she said.
Robe read Clement’s inquiry; Sappington then read his response.
“The auditor evidently is biased or made a decision,” Powell said, adding that Sappington had not asked for her financial information so she could be paid as a council member.
Neither has the city paid Voltolini. That’s because of the unusual nature of his employee agreement — signed by an acting council president (Nguyen), instead of the city manager.
“There are funds appropriated for legal services for the position of law director,” Sappington read from his letter on Monday. “However, best I can tell, Mr. Voltolini’s title is not law director. So, the council may need to appropriate funds before he can be paid as special counsel.”
Sappington continued: “It is not reasonable for anyone to expect the auditor to issue payment for services that have no preparation from the council. It’s not legal. And I also need final approval from the city manager.”
In an email to the Independent on Thursday, Sappington described Voltolini’s employee agreement as “a very significant breach of the process and authority in the calmest of waters, let alone during this extremely convulsive time on the City Council.”
“Further, the contract is signed by Mrs. Nguyen and dated 2-12-24, despite the ordinance not being effective until 30 days after passage, or 3-25-20,” Sappington said. “Best I can tell, none of this has ever happened at the City of Nelsonville and there is no precedent for these actions.”
Sappington added, “Worse, it has thrown the council and the public into great uncertainty and disarray at the exact moment when calmer heads and clear directions are needed. Had the council stuck with precedent and the law in considering the City Manager’s appointing authority, it seems extremely unlikely this would’ve unraveled as bad as this all has for them.”
The council did pass an ordinance to appoint Voltolini as special counsel.
“That’s separate from a contract — a contract tells me how much I get paid,” Voltolini. “If I don’t get paid, I don’t get paid. But by God, I’m [special counsel] because there’s an ordinance.”
Board of elections: Ask the solicitor
On March 18, council members Johnny Flowers, Rita Nguyen, Sue Powell and Sonick met to pass two ordinances on second reading, both to ratify new contracts between the city and the labor union that represents city service and fire department workers.
At a special meeting on Thursday, March 21, Clement — acting as council president — Justin Booth, Tony Dunfee, Nancy Sonick and Cory Taylor repeated that action, ratifying the contracts on 4-0 votes. Sonick abstained because she had already voted on the measures on March 18.
Clement then appointed Opha Lawson to replace Rita Nguyen, saying that Nguyen resigned in February. (She later rescinded the resignation, as Clement and two other council members did in March 2023).
The question remains: Who is on Nelsonville City Council? The answer is intrinsically linked to the legal opinions of the city’s attorney, whose own identity is unclear.
Clement’s appointment of Lawson on March 21 made him the third member within two weeks to join the body. At the special meeting on March 21, Powell and Nguyen’s names were both included in the roll call.
The Athens County Board of Elections does not have a “current or accurate list of who is on Nelsonville City Council,” Director Debbie Quivey said in an email.
“We do not have any type of legal jurisdiction in regard to Nelsonville City Council. There was paperwork filed here. But, it is basically meaningless to us,” Quivey stated. “We are here to help guide candidates who want to run on the ballot, among other election information.”
The question of who is officially on council remains at catch-22: “These questions are for their solicitor,” Quivey stated.
Nelsonville City Council meets every other Monday of each month. Its next regular meeting should be Monday, April 8 at 7 p.m. in Nelsonville City Council Chambers, 211 Lake Hope Drive. Meetings are also livestreamed on YouTube. Find more at cityofnelsonville.com.
