JEFFERSON — Ashtabula County Commissioner Daniel Claypool insists that when he voted during a commissioners work session Jan. 22 for the amended resolution to place the one-half-percent sales-tax increase on the May ballot, he did not want to implement the tax increase ahead of the vote.

“What my intention was when I voted on it, is if the people want a right to vote on it, I believe that is correct,” Claypool said.

Claypool made his stance known in a meeting with Star Beacon publisher Jim Frustere and editor Neil Frieder Wednesday, during which he said it had been incorrectly reported that he was in favor of an April 1 implementation of the tax increase when the vote was taken.

The commissioner told the Star Beacon on Friday that while he went into the hearing with the plan to implement the tax as an emergency measure, he changed his stance after he heard the public testimony and it become evident a referendum would take place. When he cast his vote for the resolution and amendment, Claypool said he had no intention of the tax being implemented on April 1.

Further, Claypool says he and Commissioner Peggy Carlo asked that a photographer be present when they filed the ballot issue with the County Board of Elections. He said the filing was proof of the commissioners’ intentions of allowing the voters to have their say.

However, the resolution filed that day retained the provision of an April 1 implementation.

Certified copies of the amended resolutions — one for use tax, one for sales tax — also were sent to the Ohio Department of Taxation, which received them Monday, said Mike McKinney, department spokesman. Section 4 of the resolution clearly states the Ashtabula County Board of Commissioners intended to start collecting the tax April 1. Further, by filing first with the Department of Taxation, and then filing with the Board of Elections, the commissioners were following the procedure set forth for implementing the tax as an emergency measure — by a unanimous vote of the commissioners — not through a vote by the people.

Claypool attributes inclusion of the April 1 implementation provision to a “clerical error.” The Ohio Department of Taxation rejected the county’s sales-tax-increase resolution based upon its inclusion.

Commissioners amended the resolution Tuesday to remove the advance collection provision, but on Friday they learned that the Department of Taxation still has issues with the resolution’s Ohio Revised Code reference.

Claypool said the Ashtabula County Prosecutor’s Office wrote the original resolution and reviewed it after it was amended, which is why there was a delay in getting certified copies in the hands of the referendum committee until Jan. 25.

Those resolutions note that Peggy Carlo moved for adoption and Claypool seconded the amendment, which agrees with an audio recording of the work-session discussions that led up to the vote during the Jan. 22 work session. A transcript of that recording follows:

Commissioner Peggy Carlo: I still think the best decision is to go with the amended resolution, at least try to keep things intact and let the people vote in May. We’re not spending $80,000 on an election. That would clearly be a waste of money.

Joseph Moroski had suggested taking the issue to voters in a special election in April.

CARLO: My personal opinion is that’s the way we ought to go forward.

Lisa Hawkins, commissioners board clerk, asks whether that is a motion and for clarification on whether resolutions A or B were to be amended. Commissioner Joseph Moroski attempts to make a motion for another amendment.

COMMISSIONER JOSEPH MOROSKI: I would like to see us move forward on an amended resolution that lets us try to get it on the May ballot and provides an opportunity for people to vote on this proposed tax increase before any money is taken from them.

COMMISSIONER DANIEL CLAYPOOL: Mr. Moroski, I have a motion on the floor. We already have a motion on the floor.

CARLO: The motion is to amend the resolution to go ahead and go with the half-of-a-percent increase, to get that in process, and then to put that on the ballot in May. And we will live or die by that decision. That’s (Resolution) B.

Hawkins clarifies that the motion to be amended is “B,” which was based upon a majority vote and subjects the action to voter referendum.

CLAYPOOL: You know it’s not going to go an emergency (resolution A ), so there’s no sense in going that path.

COMMISSIONERS BOARD CLERK LISA HAWKINS: So the motion is to amend Resolution B and go with the half-of-a-percent income-tax (sic) increase — and you would have to amend B1 also (cross-talk) and put it on the ballot in May. That was the motion by Mrs. Carlo.

CLAYPOOL: Second.

MOROSKI: And this motion means we’re going to take money away from the taxpayers before they have a chance to vote on it.

CARLO: We are going to keep county government at a minimum —

MOROSKI: You are going take money away from taxpayers before they vote on it.

CARLO: We are going to keep the county operating up to that time.

HAWKINS: Approximately 30 days is what that would be.

The roll is called.

MOROSKI: No.

CARLO: Yes.

CLAYPOOL: Yes.

At that point, County Administrator Janet Discher points out that a further motion is needed to adopt the resolution, as amended. Carlo made the motion, Claypool seconded. The amended resolution passed 2-1.



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Four days later, a referendum committee went to work collecting signatures to put the tax before voters. John Kusar Jr., a member of that committee who was present when the vote was taken Jan. 22, says it was his understanding commissioners intended to begin collecting the tax April 1. Indeed, in the public meeting, Kusar warned commissioners a referendum would result if commissioners went forward with the April 1 collection date, and Kusar said Claypool told him, “I want my money now.” He says there would have been no need for a referendum had it not been understood that the board intended to begin collecting the higher rate on April 1.

On Jan. 26, the Star Beacon published a guest opinion piece written by Claypool, in which he stated: “The resolution that was passed starts the long process of enacting the increase, which could start April 1. The issue will be on the May 4 ballot, and if the issue fails, the increase stops immediately.”

“I never meant for that to get in (the editorial),” Claypool said Friday when asked to reconcile the guest editorial with his stance that the April implementation language was a “clerical error.”

Moroski, who was undergoing medical treatment Friday, said in an e-mail: “If it were the (Commissioners) Board’s intent to remove the April collection date, that would have been done when the resolution was amended. I believe they were still operating under the impression that they could offer a May vote but collect for a month in April.”

Later in the day, Moroski said the other commissioners held to their belief the tax would be collected in advance, right up until the executive session with the prosecutors’ staff Tuesday, when they removed the April 1 language. As a result, the referendum committee dropped its petition drive on Wednesday.

Claypool denies back-peddling on the resolution in order to align himself with the overwhelming public sentiment against the early implementation of the tax. But Moroski says his fellow commissioner took a position that turned out to be wrong.

“He’s just trying to spin this now and get this to where he wants it to be,” Moroski said.

Claypool’s sticking to his story.

“We always wanted to give them the right to vote,” he said.