Board of Elections was not notified of Brian Gernert's appointment as law director
Bucyrus city officials never provided notification that a replacement had been found for Rob Ratliff, the city's former law director.
"They're supposed to let us know, but they haven't," Kim Rudd, director of the Crawford County Board of Elections, told the Telegraph-Forum on Friday.
Her last communication with the city on the matter was a letter that came from Ratliff himself — he told the board of elections that he would be resigning Sept. 30, 2021.
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The former law director is now a U.S. immigration court judge at the La Salle Detention Facility in Jena, Louisiana.
'They've never even told us'
Brian Gernert, who was arrested on an OVI charge Wednesday night, has been doing the job since October.
Elections staff read it in the news, but that's it.
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"We've never received anything official as far as Gernert being the interim," Rudd said. "They've never even told us that he was appointed or anything."
She said that notice typically would have come from city council through their council clerk, but no such letter ever arrived.
Appointee must live in the city
Since they had heard that Gernert was on the job, the elections staff decided to look into the matter.
Rudd said she discovered that the county's Republican Central Committee in early October had evaluated Gernert and one other candidate.
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Members of that committee decided then to vote on whether they would appoint Gernert to the position, but the vote ended in a 4-4 tie.
It was then discovered that Gernert did not live in Bucyrus — his home is just outside of city limits.
"The guidelines are that he would have to be an elector of the city," Rudd said. "He doesn't meet those guidelines."
Gernert doing job through a contract
The elections director said that's when the central committee ceased work on the matter and Bucyrus Mayor Jeff Reser took over.
Reser did so as the mayor, not as a member of the central committee.
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"The mayor has the power to do that as contract services," Rudd said. "He named him as interim through a contract, because the contractor does not have to live within the city."
Should Gernert decide to run for the position when the seat becomes open next year, Rudd said he would need to live within the city to be eligible.
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This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: Board of Elections was not notified of Brian Gernert's appointment
