MEDINA — A judge has ruled Brunswick City Council properly removed Anthony Capretta from his Ward 4 Council seat for an ethics violation last year.

Medina County Common Pleas Judge James L. Kimbler issued his judgment on Capretta’s appeal on Thursday, upholding the Council’s decision but siding with Capretta on one of the key facts of the case.

Anthony Capretta

Capretta still has a separate lawsuit pending regarding the same issue in the 9th District Ohio Court of Appeals, which he filed last month.

Capretta was removed in September 2010 after the city’s ethics board ruled he violated the city charter in a conversation with then-Service Director Sam Scaffide in which he ordered Scaffide to pay a resident more than the allotted $35 to replace her mailbox, which was destroyed by a city snowplow.

Scaffide said in his complaint that on May 14 during a five- to eight-minute phone conversation, Capretta yelled obscenities and said Scaffide “would be his ‘whipping boy’ on the issue.”

Capretta’s appeal alleged that the city did not offer him due process and maintained that he never gave Scaffide an order.

Capretta did not appear at his ethics hearing and refused to testify in front of Council before the 5-1 vote to remove him.

Kimbler ruled that Capretta was given ample opportunity to defend himself but that he did not give Scaffide an order.

He wrote in his judgment, however, that Capretta’s actions still violated the city’s charter.

The judgment states: “The Court does agree with Mr. Capretta’s contention that he never ‘ordered’ the Service Director to pay his constituent more than $35.00, although the Court also believes, and that the Council could so find, that he was trying to intimidate both the Service Director and the Interim City Manager into paying his constituent the total amount she was seeking in reimbursement for her mailbox.”

That “intimidating nature,” Kimbler’s journal entry continued, “…violated the Charter’s prohibition against ‘dealing’ with appointees of the City Manager.”

During the ethics hearings in Brunswick last year, Capretta’s lawyer at the time, Michael Cheselka Jr., said the city’s previous city manager, Bob Zienkowski, gave all Council members permission to speak directly to department heads, despite the charter’s requirement that all matters go through the city manager.

Kimbler’s ruling acknowledged that other Council members had dealt with Scaffide directly and had not been brought up on ethics charges, but that “there apparently was a great deal of difference between Mr. Capretta’s conduct and language toward the Service Director and those of other Council members.”

Kimbler added that Council was not arbitrary in its decision to remove Capretta.

Capretta must pay all court costs from the hearings, according to the judgment.

He said Tuesday he was following proper channels and trying to advocate for his resident when he spoke with Scaffide about the mailbox.

“I disagree with Judge Kimbler that I tried to intimidate,” Capretta said. “He wasn’t there.”

Despite his pending lawsuit in the Court of Appeals, Capretta said he intends to let the voters decide his fate. Capretta is on the ballot in November, challenging his replacement, Lisa Zamiska, for the Ward 4 seat.

Zamiska was appointed in October following Capretta’s removal.

The second lawsuit, which is an original suit and not an appeal, alleges that Zamiska was improperly appointed to Council because he was not properly removed.

Capretta’s attorney, Joseph Salzgeber, said in order to have Zamiska removed from office, the suit had to be filed with the Court of Appeals.

Salzgeber said they hope to have the second suit resolved before the November election.

Before he became Capretta’s attorney, Salzgeber applied to be appointed to Capretta’s vacant seat. Zamiska was appointed and Capretta hired Salzgeber to handle his appeal, Capretta said.

Salzgeber said he did not know if the case Kimbler ruled on would be appealed or if they would just move forward with the second lawsuit.

Brunswick Law Director Ken Fisher said the second lawsuit does not present new facts on the case.

“The issue is whether or not City Council acted properly in determining Mr. Capretta should be removed from office,” Fisher said. “Judge Kimbler determined the city did act properly.”

Contact Jennifer Pignolet at (330) 721-4063 or jpignolet@medina-gazette.com.

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