Allen elections board orders monthly staff meetings

LIMA — After spending more than an hour in executive session Thursday, the Allen County Board of Elections ordered its director and deputy director to hold a monthly staff meeting.

Board President Rick Siferd declined to give a reason for the directive and declined to answer what, if anything, led to the board's motion.

“We just think it's good policy,” Siferd said. “I'm not going to discuss what was said in executive session.”

For nearly an hour and a half, the board met to discuss personnel issues in a closed session. Near the end of that session, board member Keith Cheney came out and requested Elections Director Mark Vernik to sit in on the meeting, and then Vernik came out. A short time after that, Siferd requested Deputy Director Ken Terry join the meeting. Shortly after that, the board came back into open session and made the motion.

The meeting is to be held by Vernik and Terry on “the first Wednesday of the month” and be attended by the office staff.

It was nearly a year ago when the board unanimously selected Vernik as the new director after Keith Cunningham took a job with the Ohio Secretary of State's Office. The board passed up Terry in the decision.