Hudson Councilwoman Beth Bigham resigns to join Sen. J.D. Vance's staff

Hudson City Council is smaller by one member after its regular meeting Tuesday.

Ward 4 Councilwoman Beth Bigham announced her resignation, effective immediately, because she has been hired as a staff member by new U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio.

"It has been an honor to serve on this council for the past six-and-a-half years," Bigham said. "I truly believe we have made great strides in improving Hudson during my tenure.... I am proud of the work that we have done together."

Bigham said she was approached in December about joining Vance's staff. She will serve as his representative in Northeast Ohio. She explained that her experience, relationships, and opportunities that marked her service in Hudson — as well as her private career and election campaigns — make her the ideal candidate to help Vance collaborate with local and state leaders.

"In this new role, I interact with local government bodies, agencies, businesses, private citizens, and elected officials," Bigham said. "As such, I feel this role has the potential to be perceived as a conflict of interest with my current role as an elected official on Hudson City Council."

While the city solicitor and the Ohio Senate confirmed that her holding both positions would not constitute a legal or ethical conflict of interest, Bigham said she was resigning nonetheless to avoid the appearance of any impropriety.

Reacting to the news, Council President Chris Foster, said he has come to regard Bigham as both a mentor and a friend during his three years on City Council.

"I understand that there are a lot of people who will be happy to see Beth go — I am not one of them," Foster said. "I think Beth has been very honest, she is very refreshing with her position, she's convicted."

After the meeting, Councilman Chris Banweg (at-large) said he was surprised by the announcement.

"I think when you've been on council that long and you've done that much, and something like a political opportunity comes up — probably a good decision but, yeah, not expected," Banweg said.

The city charter stipulates that Bigham's seat be filled for the remainder of her term by a candidate chosen by the majority of the remaining council members, and then by voters for the remainder of the term at the next general election. Bigham's seat, however, is up for election in November.

If the council fails to fill a vacancy within sixty days, it will call a special election.

Second censure motion fails

Also Tuesday, Foster brought to the floor a new motion to censure Councilwoman Nicole Kowalski (at-large). The attempt stems this time from Kowalski's release of unredacted documents used by Foster to allege Kowalski's guilt during a successful censure vote on Dec. 6.

The new motion failed, with only Foster voting in favor. Due to an active lawsuit Kowalski has filed against the city challenging the first censure attempt, Councilman Skylar Sutton (Ward 3) said he was abstaining from the vote. Banweg and Bigham abstained as well; Councilwomen Kate Schlademan (Ward 1) and Karen Heater (at-large) voted against it.

More:5 Hudson City Council members miss meeting, frustrate crowd upset with Kowalski censure

The documents contain email chains between attorneys and city officials relating to Kowalski's attempts to secure an outside legal opinion about a resident running for office who at the time was flaunting the city's campaign finance laws.

"Council sought to censure me by waiving attorney-client privilege with respect to those topics," Kowalski said, "and now seeks to prevent the public from seeing the full documents relating to those topics. Council also seeks to prevent me from publicly using those documents in support of my own defense and to prove that the censure was unfounded and unsupported by a complete review of the evidence."

Kowalski released the documents to a resident, and also suggested the resident make a records request to secure them.

Despite waiving privilege "to the narrowest extent possible" on the documents at the meeting on Dec. 6, the city's position is that this evidence is still privileged, and therefore illegal to release.

Kowalski asserts that the scope of the waiver of privilege was never discussed and that the documents used against her are a matter of public record.

City Solicitor Marshal Pitchford said the city charter outlines possible disciplinary steps for breaching attorney-client rules, including censure and removal from the council.

Foster said he sought to censure Kowalski for the second time in as many months because, while he believes council could exercise the prerogative to remove Kowalski from office, he was not seeking that remedy. He told Kowalski he's more interested in working with her and others "for as long as you are on this council, as long as I am on this council."

Kowalski posted a response to Tuesday's night's censure attempt on her Facebook page Wednesday morning.

"It’s truly sad that Council President Foster continues to waste taxpayer time, and therefore taxpayer dime, to settle personal scores. The residents of Hudson deserve a Council that works together, not one that goes on witch hunts to destroy the reputations of their colleagues," Kowalski wrote. "You see actions like this to silence dissenters in authoritarian governments. I never thought I’d see it in Hudson Town Hall chambers."

Contact reporter Derek Kreider at DKreder@Gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Hudson Councilwoman Beth Bigham resigns, joins Sen. J.D. Vance's staff