LISBON — Columbiana County Park District board members agreed Thursday on a job description, pay rate and work hours for a part-time administrative assistant position, giving those interested until Feb. 21 to submit a resume and cover letter.

Board member Dave Hughes didn’t attend the meeting, but had sent an email saying the only way he would add any person for administrative assistant “is if Joe Lawhorn would resign from the parks board. So unless he resigns between now and Thursday, I will not be attending the meeting Thursday morning.”

The board had called a special/emergency meeting to approve the job description and other details for the administrative assistant job, aimed at filling a vacancy after the resignation of former administrative assistant Lisa Shafer at the board meeting earlier this month.

The board agreed to the description written by board member  Megan McMaster, which described all the duties, including answering phone calls, returning messages, handling mail, correspondence and emails, maintaining documentation of documents and records, handling payroll and paying bills working with board members. Attending the monthly board member will be a requirement, with knowledge of grant writing and bid procedures a plus.

Board members decided to set the work hours at 15 hours per week, with the possibility of up to 20 hours per week and agreed that the person will be paid if attending an event for work. The starting pay will be $12.15 per hour, with raises of 25 cents after the first quarter, 50 cents after the second quarter, 25 cents after the third quarter and then 50 cents, bringing the total to $13.65 after one year. Board Vice Chairman Siembida Boggs said that would give some incentive for the person to stay.

A resume and cover letter should be sent to info@columbianacountyparkdistrict.org or mail to 130 Maple St., Lisbon, Ohio 44432.

At the start of the special/emergency meeting, Boggs acknowledged that Hughes wasn’t present.

“I will let the minutes reflect that Dave is not here because he wants Joe to resign,” she said.

Both she and board Chairman Joe Lawhorn shared emails that Hughes sent to all the board members, starting with Hughes saying because of the current state of the board, he would not recommend adding any employee, then saying the only way he would do it is if Lawhorn resigned.

Siembida Boggs asked what role he wanted to take on to manage the park office, saying they need someone to learn how to do payroll and how to pay bills,

“Since everyone else is stepping up and taking on learning parts, I am assuming as a good steward to the park district  that you will eagerly and willingly take on some of these tasks if unwilling to hire someone to do so. Please let me know what tasks you want to learn so those of us that attend the board meeting later this week can make educated and informed choices,” she wrote.

Hughes responded by talking about a strategic plan being approved in September 2022, how they knew there was very limited funding in the budget for the future and how levies failed twice and they had a very strong hardworking park district board working on the future with very little cash. He talked about how Lawhorn was appointed to the board, saying he replaced Tim Brookes when he actually was appointed in July to replace Dottie Betz. Siembida Boggs had been appointed to replace Brookes.

Hughes accused Lawhorn of downgrading board members, telling false and inaccurate stories and going behind members’ backs instead of working for the betterment of the park district.

“Now you see what his actions have done to a very good board. Some members had served many thousands of hours and dedication to the board and community. Now you want to bring in new assistant administrator to work in a very toxic environment,” Hughes wrote.

He said they need to look at what the park board did in the past with limited funding and time and said “a lot of broken fences are in need of repair at this time. Like I said before the best start would be for Joe Lawhorn to resign from the board.”

Lawhorn responded to Hughes by thanking him for the email and said “your last reply 100% shows you are making false statements and information.”

He pointed out that Siembida Boggs took the seat of Tim Brookes and he took the seat of Dottie Betz and that the board failed four past levies, not two. He said it reminds them of the previous meeting when  Hughes started yelling at him because of social media posts that Siembida Boggs posted, saying Hughes had zero idea what he was saying.

Lawhorn then pointed out something that happened at an August meeting involving former board member Eileen Dray-Bardon and Shafer. Lawhorn said he wanted something in place so that it wouldn’t happen again so they could remove Dray-Bardon from the board if it did. Dray-Bardon then resigned and McMaster was selected as her replacement, with a new term that started this month.

Then Lawhorn talked about former board member Tom Butch, who resigned at the last meeting. He said Butch was being asked questions about some deals with the Lisbon mayor and regarding his daughter’s connection to the Western Reserve Land Conservancy.

Lawhorn said he didn’t want Tom to quit and had been looking forward to working with him to make changes to save the park district after what he called a lack of leadership and management.

Lawhorn then pointed out to Hughes that during the last three weeks, the board members have been scrambling and doing what he called an amazing job of covering phones, mail, figuring out how to receive money, pay bills, programming, sponsorships and manage the day to day activities “while you haven’t helped at all or even asked how you could help.”

He said those actions told them everything they need to know about Hughes. He said Hughes should be thanking Siembida Boggs and McMaster for the job they’ve been doing.

The board currently has one opening and had requested letters of interest, receiving one reply. Lawhorn said he talked to someone from East Liverpool that also may be interested and thought it would be good to have someone from the southern end of the county.

Siembida said she wanted to put on the record how much Lawhorn was doing with plowing and shoveling snow at the office and maintenance building, saying he “has stepped up and taken on the role of being a good steward of the parks.”

He thanked her and McMaster for what they’ve been doing.

After the meeting, when questioned about what was happening with Hughes and the rest of them, Siembida Boggs said it’s “frustrating to have somebody on a board that absolutely says, ‘I’m not working with you guys,'” adding  “that doesn’t benefit the park district at all.”

McMaster just started on the board but has been a user of the trail and said she couldn’t always find out information about the programming. She said that putting more information on social media is a good direction to go. Siembida Boggs said they need to educate people on what the park district has to offer.

Lawhorn said he heard a lot of comments that the park district has needed to change and commented, “the status quo wasn’t working so there has to be change.”

When contacted by email for comment, Hughes responded that he didn’t have a reply at this time.

The next meeting of the park board will be 3:30 p.m. Feb. 10 at the park district office on Maple Street, Lisbon.

Siembida Boggs also reported that she would be attending the Ohio Parks & Recreation Association Conference this weekend and planned to attend as many class sessions as possible. She wrote essays and won scholarships to attend the conference at no cost to the park district.