Anderson Township trustees violated Ohio's Open Meetings Act earlier this spring, according to a settlement agreement approved by a Hamilton County judge.
Last month, township resident Olaf Rask filed a complaint in the county's Court of Common Pleas alleging:
- Trustees Dee Stone and Katherine Nappi violated the open meetings act by attending a March 31 event held by the Hamilton County Commission on Women and Girls in which they signed a pay equity pledge on behalf of the township without public notice or discussion.
- All three trustees including Tom Hodges violated the open meetings act again when they formally approved the commitment at an April 2 meeting.
Hamilton County's pay equity commitment is a nonbinding public pledge that over 200 Cincinnati-area organizations have signed since 2021. A group of 40 employers signed it this year, including the city of Wyoming and Anderson Township.
All parties involved in the lawsuit acknowledged the violation, according to court records filed on Sept. 21. Judge Christopher McDowell also ordered the township to pay Rask $500, cover $10,000 in attorney fees and comply with Ohio's Open Meetings Act moving
forward.
Trustees unanimously voted to approve the court's terms at a board meeting Sept. 17. Hodges acknowledged the violation but expressed disappointment over how the pay equity pledge event has "been portrayed," he said.
"I'm going to vote for this, and I think it's unfortunate that what was an innocent attendance by two of our trustees at a county-sponsored event where they were invited by county representatives to approve a pay equity commitment has now been turned into this," he said at the meeting. "But technical violations are just that, and I don't even think there's an allegation here that anyone was trying to hide anything from the public. ... I think the community, further, overwhelmingly supports the substance of what occurred."
But Rask's attorney, Curt C. Hartman, told The Enquirer the significance of the pay equity pledge did not justify violating Ohio's Open Meetings Act.
"While we are pleased that the township trustees admitted to multiple violations of the Open Meetings Act, it is disheartening that they try to justify or rationalize such violations by claiming it was on an important issue," he said. "The importance of any issue is not a justification for public officials to ignore the law."
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Anderson Township admits Open Meetings Act violations in settlement
