By Gary Ogle
gogle@wbcowqel.com
The City of Galion got the bill for defending itself in a civil lawsuit challenging the issue in the 2012 General Election that abolished the city charter. Winning the lawsuit filed by David Dayne, Robert Bean and Hal Osborne cost the city $9,860.90 in attorney fees for Harry Welsh.
Dayne is opposing incumbent Mayor Tom O’Leary for that office in Tuesday’s election.
“That’s a direct cost,” O’Leary said, noting that having a pending lawsuit with an unknown outcome had made it difficult for the city to recruit people for open vacancies. “Before Tuesday you were one judgment entry away from being without a job,” O’Leary said. “That’s $10,000 for a city in fiscal emergency.”
By comparison, O’Leary said legal fees amounted to about one-third of what it cost the city for salt for on winter.
“It put a lot of drag in our transition,” Law Director Roberta Wade said about trying to move the city from its abolished charter to a statutory form of government. “The law director’s office worked on that a lot with Harris.”
Visiting Judge David Faulkner heard the case in Crawford County Common Pleas Court on Oct. 22 and filed his decision on Oct. 29.