Brimfield eliminates business manager role: ‘It’s not working’

Brimfield Township trustees on Aug. 20 eliminated the position of business manager by unanimous vote, effective immediately.

Brimfield Police Sgt. John Pettit, who was present at the meeting, accompanied Holly Woods to her office to retrieve her personal belongings.

Woods was not fired, Trustee Mike Kostensky said.

“She has done nothing criminal, absolutely nothing. She did her job, and we just decided to go a different way,” he said. “After talking to the department heads, it’s not working. After hearing the stuff I heard, it was time. You know when you have a position that’s not working. That’s really all I can say. We just had to step back. We got to tidy up the ship.”

Trustee Nic Coia said during the Aug. 20 meeting that he and his colleagues had concluded the township needs “to move in a new direction at this point.”

Kostensky declined to say what information the township’s department heads — Fire Chief Craig Mullaly, Police Chief Roy E. Mosley III and Road Superintendent David Rufener — had shared with the trustees.

Mullaly, Mosley and Rufener did not return The Portager’s request for comment. Likewise, Trustee Sue Fields and Coia could not be reached for comment.

Kostensky told The Portager Woods’ ousting had nothing to do with her overseeing the background check of recently hired Fiscal Officer Jasmine Golden. That check did not include a review of Golden’s civil court records, which include tens of thousands of dollars in civil liabilities for, among other things, “having acted with fraudulent intent.”

Golden is “doing a great job,” Kostensky said.

Also during the Aug. 20 session, Kostensky announced he is not seeking re-election after more than two decades as township trustee.

“I believe it’s time,” he said. “If we could have term limits, I think that would be sweet. This is a board that’s made up of community members. It’s time for new vision and new ideas. Sometimes we get stagnant.”

He urged township residents to get to know the eight-candidate slate and make a wise decision. The trustee candidates are Tom Johnson, Bruce Knippenberg, Dan Mars, James McKey, Charles Prather, Kevin Scott, Robert C. Zacher and incumbent Coia.

Candidates for fiscal officer are Golden and Blake Johnson.