LISBON — Columbiana County Common Pleas Court Judge Scott Washam added the Open Meetings Act complaint against the United school board to the bench trial set for 9 a.m. Oct. 29.

Similar complaints against the Wellsville and Columbiana school boards are also set for that day at 9 a.m. Oct. 29, with all three now to be heard at the same time. Pretrials were set for 1 p.m. Oct. 15 for Wellsville and Columbiana, while the United school board case will have a pretrial at 1:30 p.m. Oct. 15.

Mogadore resident Brian Ames filed the complaints last year alleging violations of the Open Meetings Act, just as he has against several other Columbiana County school boards, Columbiana City Council and public governmental entities across the state of Ohio. For each lawsuit, Ames requests payment of $500 for each alleged violation.

A similar lawsuit filed against the Columbiana County Board of Elections in 2022 ended last year with a $3,500 settlement.

Some of these same allegations of improper executive sessions during public meetings and other violations related to public meetings were made against East Liverpool, Leetonia and Crestview school boards.

The Crestview school board passed a resolution seeking to settle the case with Ames in December, while stating the board did not violate any laws. There was an indication the offer to settle was for $1,000.

According to court records, the attorney for Ames filed a motion for voluntary dismissal in the case against the Crestview school board on Dec. 31.

Washam previously set pretrial dates and bench trial dates in the cases against Columbiana City Council and East Liverpool school board. The Columbiana City Council case has a pretrial set for 2:30 p.m. June 19 and a court trial for 8:30 am. July 9, while the East Liverpool school board case has a pretrial set for 3 p.m. June 19, but with a court trial of 8:30 a.m. July 16.

The case against the Leetonia school board was just filed at the beginning of December and assigned to Common Pleas Court Judge Megan Bickerton, with nothing scheduled so far. Bickerton was also handling the Crestview case.