There seemed to be a lot of joy and satisfaction yesterday when Stark County commissioners approved a settlement with former Stark County Treasurer Gary D. Zeigler (as of yesterday), accepted his resignation, and appointed Alex Zumbar (who was elected last November, but removed by the Ohio Supreme Court in June of this year who, at the same time, reinstated Zeigler who the Court said commissioners [Bosley, Ferguson and Meeks - at the time] had unconstitutionally removed Zeigler) to fill out the rest of Zeigler's term which ends in September, 2013.
Zeigler has been under public fire since April 1, 2009 when Stark County was rocked by a revelation that his Chief Deputy Vince Frustaci had stolen by some accounts $2.96 million (Frustaci has only ever admitted to $2.46 million.
Ever since the revelation, Zeigler has been under public pressure to resign. But he, until today, refused to do so saying that he had done nothing wrong.
Zeigler was not implicated in the theft by federal, state or local law enforcement officials.
One person not thrilled by the commissioners' action was local attorney and civic activist Craig T. Conley, who, both before and after the commissioners meeting suggested that the commissioners may have acted in violation of Ohio's Open Meetings "Sunshine Law" in the way they approved the Zeigler settlement agreement.
It will be interesting to see whether or not Conley finds a basis in his analysis of the procedures employed by the commissioners to resolve what Conley himself has described as being Zeiglergate.
Conley led an overwhelmingly successful ballot initiative effort in November, 2009 to repeal as 0.5% "imposed" sales tax by commissioners in December, 2008 (Commissioners Bosley, Harmon and Vignos).
As seen in this video, Conley opposes Issue 29 (a 0.5% sales tax) that will be decided by Stark's voters on November 8th.
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