Duncan voted to Norwalk council

NORWALK — Jordan Duncan is the new Third Ward councilperson in Norwalk. Duncan received a 5-1 vote Tuesday night over Kim Zadeh. Duncan, son of former mayor Rob Duncan, was expected to be sworn in earlier this month but an ethics violation filed by Zadeh stopped the proceedings. The open position is for the third ward, vacated by Samantha Wilhelm, who gave up the seat to be an at-large member. Voting in favor of Duncan were Steve Schumm, Wilhelm, Tom Dunlap, Matt Doughty and Bryan Lamb. Voting for Zadeh was Deb Lucal. This caps quite a battle for the position. Prior to a vote at the Feb. 1 meeting, Zadeh filed paperwork which halted any action at the time. Here is what that paperwork, in part, stated: "Please be advised that this office (Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP) represents Kim Zadeh ("Ms. Zadeh"). Ms. Zadeh was a candidate for the vacant Third Ward City Council seat. It is our understanding that Council intends to swear in Jordan Duncan at its meeting tonight to fill that seat following a vote by the Huron County Republican Central Committee ("HCRCC"). For the reasons set forth below, Council should not swear in Mr. Duncan to fill that seat because he did not lawfully win the vote and thus is not legally eligible to assume the vacant council position. "Section 3.04(1)(a) of the City of Norwalk Charter provides that any vacancy in the office of a councilperson who was elected or appointed as a candidate of a political party shall be filled for the remainder of the unexpired term "[b]y a majority vote of those members of the County Central Committee representing precincts or wards of the City, who are of the same political party of which the member of Council whose office have become vacant was a candidate." Accordingly, the HCRCC held a meeting on Thursday, January 27, 2022, at the Milestone Event Center in Norwalk, Ohio, to appoint a person to fill the vacancy. "Our office received a copy of the draft minutes of the HCRCC's January 27th meeting from Mary Ann Lamb ("Ms. Lamb") late last evening pursuant to a request under the Ohio Public Records Act. A copy of the draft minutes received from Ms. Lamb are attached hereto for your reference. Those minutes recount the actions taken by the HCRCC to fill the Third Ward seat vacancy in pertinent part as follows: "Rob [Duncan] announced that the committee needs to elect someone to the open 3rd ward city council seat for Norwalk. At this point Rob stepped aside and asked that the 2nd vice chairperson for the committee continue leading the meeting. Melissa Angst as 2nd vice chairperson asked Harry Brady to give a report from the candidate selection committee. Harry said there were 3 people that have expressed interest in taking the seat. The committee asked all three candidates the same general questions and after that process the committee felt that each of the three candidates showed adequate understanding of the job of city council and also expressed the values of the Huron County Republican party. The committee makes the recommendation that any one of the three candidates would be qualified to take the seat. "Melissa asked for nominations. Brandon Schwinn moved and Mark Cmar seconded that Jordan Duncan be nominated for the 3rd ward seat. "Ross Matlock moved and Joe Smith seconded that Kim Zadeh be nominated for the 3rd ward seat. "Rob Duncan moved and Brandon Schwinn seconded that Seth Fry be nominated for the 3rd ward seat. "Hearing no more, the nominations were closed. "At this point Melissa asked each candidate to take a few minutes and introduce themselves and respond to any questions from the group. This being completed the committee had some discussion on who will vote for the candidates. Vice Chairperson Angst explained that it will only be the 8 Norwalk Committee members in attendance since this is how she reads the county charter. An objection was raised as to the chairman, Rob Duncan, voting to fill the seat since one of the candidates for the 3rd ward is his son. It was determined by the parliamentarian in consultation with Randy Strickler that the chairperson can cast a vote in this election, and should not be denied the right to vote. "The first round of voting gave 4 votes to Jordan Duncan, 1 vote to Seth Fry and 3 votes to Kim Zadeh. Since the frontrunner did not have a majority of the total votes it was decided that there would be a run off between the top two candidates "The second round of votes yielded a tie between Jordan Duncan and Kim Zadeh. "A third round of votes yielded 5 votes for Jordan Duncan and 3 votes for Kim Zadeh. The committee congratulated the new city council member for Norwalk. "As noted in the meeting minutes set forth above, one of the eight members of the HCRCC who voted on the appointment was Rob Duncan, who is the father of candidate Jordan Duncan. Rob Duncan was the Chairman of the HCRCC at the time of the vote, and he is also a member of the Huron County Board of Elections. Although an objection was raised to Rob Duncan participating in the January 27th meeting and voting on the appointment of a candidate to fill the vacant seat because his son Jordan Duncan was one of the three candidates, he nevertheless proceeded to vote on the appointment, presumably for his son. Rob Duncan had an obvious legal conflict of interest in participating in the January 27th meeting and voting for his son and, in doing so, his actions violated Ohio law." See Thursday's Norwalk Reflector for the complete story.