GRAFTON — Every night, some 6,622 people go to sleep in this village, but Grafton isn’t becoming a city even though it crossed the threshold of 5,000 residents, according to state officials.

A law excludes prisoners and college students from population counts to determine if villages should be reclassified as cities, according to Matt McClellan, press secretary for Secretary of State Jon Husted.

If Grafton became a city, it would be required to add collective bargaining, civil service regulations for employees and myriad other things, according to Mayor Shari Sczepanski.

“We wanted it this way,” said Sczepanski, who went to Columbus years ago with Councilman John Lesher to successfully plead for the change in the law. “It’s a whole different ballgame and the costs associated with becoming a city are quite high.”

State prison spokesman Carlo LoParo said there are some 3,988 inmates in Grafton’s three prisons, more than the 2,634 residents who lived in the village in 2010.

Based on raw data from the Census Bureau, three Ohio communities — Ada, Granville and Grafton — reached populations of more than 5,000, according to Husted’s office, but all three are exempt from changing classifications.

Another Lorain County community, Wellington, grew from 4,511 people in 2000 to 4,802 in 2011. Village officials had prepared a charter anyway in hopes of keeping most of its rather bare-bones form of government, said Village Administrator Steve Pyles.

Voters overwhelmingly approved the charter, but Wellington will not become a city because it did not reach 5,000 people, Pyles said.

“Given what’s happening with the collective bargaining law in the state, life is a little simpler,” Pyles said.

Ohio will have 247 cities — up three from a decade ago — and 691 villages. Six villages have been reclassified as cities and nine cities have dropped to become villages.

Compared to the 2000 census figures, Ohio’s population has grown by 2 percent to 11.5 million.

Under Ohio law, the Secretary of State’s office reviews the 10-year Census report and verifies the population totals before issuing proclamations indicating their status as a city or village.

These municipalities and villages officially change status within 30 days of the date the proclamation was issued, though the law affords them the ability to go through an enumeration process if they feel the count does not accurately reflect their population.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact Cindy Leise at 329-7245 or cleise@chroniclet.com.

ELYRIA — What do you want to know from the candidates seeking to lead Elyria for the next four years?

Noble

Ursi

Brinda

Grace

Tell us, and we’ll ask those questions for you and publish their answers in the paper prior to the May 3 primary in which four candidates, two Democrats and two Republicans, will face off.

The candidates are Mayor Bill Grace and Democratic challenger Holly Brinda and Republican hopefuls Ray Noble and Dave Ursi.

Some select readers will be chosen to be used for a video question-and-answer with the candidates that will be posted online.

Residents can submit questions to lroberson@chroniclet.com or ctnews@chroniclet.com using the subject line “Question to the Candidate.” Questions can also be mailed to Newsroom, C/O The Chronicle-Telegram, P.O. Box 4010, Elyria, OH 44036.

All submitted questions must include the name, address and phone number of the resident for verification purposes. Questions must be received by 5 p.m. April 13.

Contact Lisa Roberson at 329-7121 or lroberson@chroniclet.com.

ELYRIA — A glossy political advertisement paid for by the Ohio Democratic Party touting the successes of Mayor Bill Grace that hit local mailboxes this week frustrated the Democratic challenger who he’ll face in the May primary.

Grace

Brinda

Democratic challenger Holly Brinda said the party is giving him financial support that she is not receiving.
The mailer, which speaks to the new automated trash program, state Route 57 and Grace’s 12 years of experience, was sent to thousands of homes.

Grace said no one should be surprised the state party is offering its assistance. It happened when he ran in 2003 and 2007 — races in which he bested his opponents.

“We are contributing to the party, and they are paying for the mailings,” he said. “I have been an important member of the party, been helpful in all layers of the Democratic Party for years. It shouldn’t be of any surprise to anyone that the party is making their resources available.”

Yet Brinda, who is running against Grace for a second time after failing to secure the Democratic nomination in 2007, said she is not happy that state party leaders are getting involved in a primary election. She received the mailer Tuesday at her home on Windward Drive.

“The concern I have about that is when a political party takes a side in a primary, it doesn’t allow for local citizens to voice their opinions,” she said. “I do feel that, if in fact the state Democratic Party did pay for the piece, then it should do the same with other candidates. Democratic candidates should be treated equally.”

Chris Redfern, chairman of the state Democratic Party, said he supports and endorses Grace in his re-election.

“He is a great leader for a great region of the state, and I am happy to call him my friend,” he said. “He is welcome to use the indicia anytime he wants.”

The indicia is the party’s marking for bulk mail used in place of stamps, and Redfern said it is a fairly common practice by those who support and are supported by the party. Last election, more than 400 candidates and incumbents used the indicia in mayoral, judgeship and township trustee races.

Seth Bringman, communication director for the state Democratic Party, said the state party does support several candidates across the state, and a number of mailings went out for candidates in several races. Grace was the only candidate in Lorain County to receive such support, he said.

“It’s done on a case-by-case basis. In collaboration with local Democratic leaders and county Democratic parties, we determine which candidates we support,” he said. “We work with individual campaigns on content and mailings given as an in-kind contribution by the ODP to the campaign.”

Bringman stopped short of calling the support an endorsement for Grace’s re-election. Only the full statewide executive committee can offer an official endorsement.

Brinda said she has placed a call to the state Democratic Party and is waiting on a return call to see if the same courtesy will be extended to her.

“It’s not something I would initiate on my own, but I would take it because right now my opponent has been given a financial advantage over me by my own party,” she said.

Brinda said she has a disclaimer on all of her campaign literature, including a mailer that should hit households this week, letting residents know it is paid by her residents committee, Citizens to Elect Holly Brinda.

Contact Lisa Roberson at 329-7121 or lroberson@chroniclet.com.

LORAIN — A Lorain man is facing a theft charge after he was caught on a security video swiping the gavel off the bench of Lorain Municipal Court Magistrate Chris Cook.

The video, shot the morning of March 30, shows Christopher Collins and another man, who hasn’t been charged, waiting in Cook’s courtroom. At one point in the video, Collins can be seen leaning over the edge of the bench and slipping Cook’s gavel into the sleeve of his jacket.

“That’s a motivated thief to steal from a courtroom,” Cook said, although he added that Collins probably didn’t realize there were video cameras in the courtroom.

Cook said he didn’t notice the gavel was missing until Monday when he was having a hearing and reached for it. The last time he recalled having it was during a hearing on March 29, the day before the theft.

Cook and his staff reviewed the video and recognized the man who was with the 39-year-old Collins and police then began checking the other man’s criminal history and linked him to Collins, according to a Lorain police report.

Police arrested Collins, who confessed to stealing the gavel, the report said.

Collins, who has previous theft convictions, told police he had been given a ride to court by a man he barely knows on March 30 and that he left the gavel in the man’s car.

Collins told police that he might be able to get the gavel back.

“If he returned my gavel, I would be a lot less inclined to bring him back in for contempt,” Cook said.

Cook, who has been a magistrate dealing with small claims and traffic cases for about seven years, said he rarely uses the gavel, but sometimes has to bang it to get people’s attention during hearings.

“It was given to me by my wife when I was first appointed, so it has a lot of sentimental value,” he said.
Collins was arraigned Thursday in Lorain Municipal Court on the theft charge and is due back in court later this month.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.