The mayor of Newton Falls is officially back in office after resigning last summer, and then rescinding the resignation only two days later.
Pat Layshock said he is very happy about being reinstated as mayor of Newton Falls by the Court of Appeals, but by the tone of Monday night's city council meeting, the city wasn't too thrilled about the courts decision.
At his first city council meeting since being reinstated as the Mayor of Newton Falls by the 11th District Court of Appeals, Mayor Pat Layshock didn't get a chance to say much, because the meeting was cut short due to a shortage of council members.
The mayor said he is hoping that everyone can move on from this episode and do what they were elected to do for Newton Falls.
"We all are, I hope we're all professionals," Layshock said. "We have jobs to do and we want to go and do the job for the betterment of our community."
Layshock was reinstated as mayor of Newton Falls on Nov. 10, four months after he announced his resignation at a city council meeting last July. Two days later the mayor rescinded the resignation, but he came across a lot of opposition from the city. That is part of the reason why some feel the other city council members didn't show up to Monday night's meeting.
"It seems like they just wanna drag it out, and drag it out and just see how long they can play this," Richard Monteville, 3rd Ward Councilman, said.
However, Layshock said the community has been standing behind him 100 percent since he returned to office: "The community, as a whole, has been overwhelmingly supportive of me through phone calls, people praying for me. I took a walk this morning, I like to take a morning walk, and people blowing their horns giving me the thumbs up."
The word now is that the city will appeal the decision to the Ohio Supreme Court, to get a stay on the ruling by the U.S. Appeals Court. But the mayor said he has not officially been served anything on that appeal.
