Discipline to dominate next Barberton council meeting

By BOB MOREHEAD

BGNN senior staff writer

BARBERTON  Much of the March 9 Barberton City Council meeting will be taken up with measures chastising both elected and appointed officials.

The Personnel and Rules Committee voted March 2 to send a resolution to the floor to censure Councilman Bryan Poorman for a rules violation. This follows a pair of resolutions sent to the floor the previous week by the Parks Committee expressing no confidence in the Parks Commission and its chairman, Dan Knorr.

The latter is now moot, as Knorr resigned before the measure could hear a reading.

Council rules prohibit council members from speaking during the public comments section. When a resident mentioned parks director Don Patterson’s arrest during an earlier meeting, Poorman and Councilwoman Julie Miller interrupted. Miller later publicly apologized. Poorman didn’t.

“I was concerned about the threat of liability,” Poorman said.

Also that night, former council members Justin Greer, Bebe Heitic and Tayler Thompson received their formal resolutions of gratitude for their service that were approved last January.

An ordinance to allow the mayor to use 10% of the business development fund for economic development projects was withdrawn.

Council heard from Fire Chief David Polacek and service director Todd Shreve on their portions of this year’s budget ordinance.