EAST PALESTINE — East Palestine’s hunt for a new village manager is officially underway, following a special council meeting held Monday.

The village was left without a village manager last week when Chad Edwards abruptly stepped down as village manager, citing “a deep division” among East Palestine leaders. The village then found itself down a council member, when days after Edwards’ resignation, councilman Doug Simpson resigned in protest of what he called “unacceptable behavior for people who were meant to serve the public of East Palestine” and poor treatment of Edwards.

During Monday’s meeting, council passed motions to advertise for the open position for a period of four weeks, setting an application deadline of Dec. 6 and establishing a committee to interview candidates as applications are received in an attempt to expedite the process.

“Four weeks is going to take us to the first week of December,” Councilman Lenny Galvan said. “It would probably be nice going into the holiday season that we have a new manager.”

Councilman Thomas Povenksi expressed doubt that the process could be completed in the allotted time frame, saying it would be “hard” to accomplish in “just four weeks.”

Povenksi spoke from experience as the process of replacing former manager Mark McTrustry, who stepped down in October of 2022 due to personal reasons, with Edwards took a full year. However, the village had expected to replace McTrusty at the beginning of 2023 but last year’s derailment put those plans on the back burner as council turned its attention to disaster response and recovery.

Glavan said there is no reason replacing Edwards should take that long, noting the village has already heard from individuals interested in filling the open position.

“We have to figure out what’s hard and what’s effective,” Glavan said. “We have some viable candidates right now that I am pretty sure are capable of doing the job so why are we dragging our feet.”

Glavan and Tim Blythe were appointed to form the interviewing committee. The committee should speed up the process as they can vet the applicants quickly. If all members of council are present at interviewing, a special council meeting would be required.

Council originally planned to hash out the application and interview processes in the executive session at the request of councilwoman Linda May and fellow council member Jessica Rocco made a motion to do so under Ohio revised code 121.22, before a resident raised concerns that the reason for going into executive session was invalid under the statute. The resident pointed out that to go into executive session for personnel purposes, a specific employee or potential candidate must be discussed. She argued that talks regarding the hiring process itself should be conducted as part of the open meeting. After a brief discussion, village law director Dave Powers concurred with the resident and council eventually agreed on the four weeks and passed the necessary motions.

Council still ended the open meeting with an executive session with no action to be taken afterward. That executive session would be used to discuss the three candidates that have already sent applications to the village when word of Edwards’ resignation spread.

Council also discussed the interim village manager situation. Village clerk Misti Martin was appointed acting manager following a resolution by council on Oct. 28, but that resolution is set to expire at the next regular council meeting set for Nov. 11.

Rocco questioned the need of an interim manager. She said hiring one would be an “arduous task.”

“I think if we are going to hire someone they should be here long term so that puts us in the position of hiring efficiently and effectively without desperation,” Rocco said.

However, Powers pointed out that the village would have no management for what could be longer than council is anticipating.

“The village needs somebody that knows what they are doing to act as manager,” he said. “Those who were on council before know how long this dragged on.”

Aside from passing motions to speed up the process of replacing Edwards, council also passed a resolution to enter into a modified contract with MS Consultants for additional engineering for the government services building project that will be funded by a $16 million U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development grant.

“This is just an addition to be able to move forward with our USDA grant,” East Palestine Finance Director Melissa Hiner explained. “In order to do so, we have to do environmental study. It’s just following protocol that wasn’t originally in there but now that we have been awarded the grant we have to follow through with it for the additional funds.”

East Palestine’s plans for a new administrative building combining its police station, fire department and emergency services was among 15 projects selected to receive funding from the USDA. The funds were made possible through the Community Facilities Program which will help communities rebuild in the aftermath of 2022 and 2023 disasters. The $16 million will cover 75 percent of the project.

selverd@mojonews.com