ELYRIA — The Lorain County Township Association voted, 40-9, Thursday night to move ahead with a lawsuit over the Lorain County commis­sioners’ decision to appoint someone other than its mem­bers’ choice to the Northeast Ohio Area Coordinating Agency, even though the two women at the center of the dis­pute resigned.

“Personalities have never been an issue for us,” said board member Jim McConnell. “The issue is the commission­ers deciding to (take away) our right to name our own repre­sentatives.”

The association had selected LaGrange Township trustee Rita Canfield for the position, but the commissioners instead appointed Wellington Town­ship trustee Virginia Haynes on Dec. 30.

Commissioners Betty Blair and Ted Kalo, both Democrats, have stated that they did not feel they could trust or work with Canfield because she has run against both of them in the past as a Republican.

Haynes announced her res­ignation at the meeting. Can­field also resigned as the asso­ciation’s appointee.

“I’m sincerely sorry I ever agreed to serve,” Canfield said. “I don’t think any of us had any idea that we’d be opening up such a vile, bitter can of worms.”

The association voted to appoint Columbia Township trustee Dale Rundle to the vacant NOACA spot, with Rochester Township trustee Amy Szmania as alternate.

Haynes objected to continu­ing the legal fight, saying that the association should give the commissioners their selection and go from there. The door was open for negotiations, she said, and continuing to press the legal case could wreck any chance of reconciliation.

“A lawsuit just creates a big­ger wedge,” she said.

Canfield disagreed.

“When we were sworn into office, we swore to uphold the law and protect the rights of citizens,” she said. “And in all the calls I’ve gotten about this, not one of them has told me ‘Just let ’em do as they please with my tax dollars.’ Our con­stituents expect us to protect their rights and interests, and work to gain their fair share of money and resources.”

Board member Jim McConnell said the case will probably cost the association between $3,000 and $4,000 in legal fees.

If the commissioners accept the association’s choice of Run­dle, Scheithauer said, the court case will most likely be dropped.

What’s at stake, several asso­ciation members said, is the belief that the commissioners are trying to take away what the association sees as its right, based on precedent, to choose its representative to NOACA.

Attorney Dennis O’Toole laid out the basics of the case and blasted a letter from Lorain County assistant prosecutor Gerald Innes to Scheithauer. In the letter, Innes claimed the case to be, in legal terms, void from the beginning, and also claimed that trustees who authorized the lawsuit will be “personally liable” for spend­ing township funds by pursu­ing the case.

“It makes my blood boil,” O’Toole said. “It is unprofes­sional and unethical for him to use the weight of county gov­ernment to threaten another lawyer’s client.”

Contact Melissa Hebert at 329-7129 or mhebert@chroniclet.com.

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