Petition to remove mayor deemed invalid

Published front page in The News-Herald

It has been determined that the petition to remove Wickliffe Mayor John Barbish failed to have enough valid signatures. Of the 938 signatures, 64 were deemed invalid in relation to the Ohio Secretary of State and 864 were deemed invalid relating to non-compliance with the Ohio Revised Code, according to Wickliffe Clerk of Council Sandra Fink, who was responsible for determining the signatures’ validity.

The council clerk could not be immediately reached for further explanation.

The petition was started by Wickliffe resident Dan Kable and of the 79 pages of signatures submitted by Kable, he said not one was valid.

“Every single page was invalidated,” Kable said.

Barbish said that he will continue to find ways to improve the city.

“I just hope they realize that this was a wasted effort and they move on,” Barbish said. “I’m going to continue working hard.”

Wickliffe City Charter requires a petition to have signatures from 25 percent of the voters who participated in the prior November election. In this case, that equates to 850 validated signatures.

Now, according to the charter, Kable will have 20 days to bring in the remaining valid signatures.

Kable said for the next 20 days he is telling his “crew to just sit and wait.” He will also be taking time to himself for health reasons.

Kable still is not ready to quit, though.

“The fat lady hasn’t sung yet,” he said.

Kable previously said the movement to remove the mayor began while watching news coverage of Barbish telling the police department to limit arrests and citations for those using marijuana.

“It was a 35-year-old individual with zero legal or law enforcement experience telling the police chief, with 30-plus years of experience, how to do their job,” Kable said, though Barbish said it was within his right to do.

From then, Kable began working on the Remove Barbish website. He said that he originally did not want to go public with the website until others caught wind and had it publicized on Wickliffe-Nextdoor.

He said other determining factors led to the petition such as Barbish’s financial decisions, his closing Jindra swimming pool but leaving the pool at Coulby Park open, as well as getting rid of Leaf Pick-Up Day, though Kable noted Barbish reinstated Leaf Pick-Up Day about two days after the petition was turned in.

Barbish said that the reasons for the petition stem from inaccuracies.