Harrison Hot Springs council members met with a municipal advisor on Thursday in a public meeting at Memorial Hall, following last week’s stalemate of a council meeting, in which not even the agenda could get approved.
The meeting was scheduled for Thursday at 9 a.m. with municipal advisor Ron Poole, who hosted a presentation on council orientation. Poole is the independent facilitator that has attempted to work with the mayor and council to assist the village officials in effectively governing the village. Poole was supposed to meet with the mayor and council in a series of closed meetings, but Mayor Ed Wood did not attend at least two of them. Wood has regularly refused to attend in-camera or “closed” sessions.
The mayor and council have been at odds since Inauguration Day 2022. Council resolved to hire an independent facilitator back in March. This decision came weeks after all four members of council notified Wood of a vote of no confidence against him, alleging Wood created a toxic work environment and refused to listen to council and members of village staff.
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Wood has since resolved to create a standing committee to investigate the allegations against him; it will be established in the near future now that the September by-election has passed.
Thursday’s meeting marked the first conference between Poole and council since the election of Coun. John Allen. Allen replaced ex-councillor John Buckley, who resigned in June due to being unable to work with Wood.
Tensions between the mayor and council brought council proceedings to a halt last week. Wood called on Coun. Leo Facio to remove himself from the meeting several times after accusing him of “releasing distorted confidential information.” Wood repeatedly asked Facio to leave or to apologize. Facio asked Wood repeatedly what he was meant to apologize for, but Wood would not elaborate.
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Regardless of whether or not the allegations against Facio are true, given the allegedly sensitive nature of the information in question, it may not legally be up for discussion in an open, public meeting.
The debate during the Oct. 3 meeting wore on for nearly 50 minutes until the meeting was adjourned, leaving a full agenda undone, not yet approved and not discussed.
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