Brenda Kim, a resident of Chauncey, is calling for the termination of Chauncey's mayor, Frederica Shover, and the release of 911 calls that she claims pertain to her.
I hoped it would be a 'Mayberry
' but instead it turned out to be a 'Twilight Zone ' Kim said about her hopes upon moving to Chauncey.
According to Kim, she was the victim of a theft shortly after she moved and attempted to file a report with the Chauncey Police Department. However, when no such report was filed, Kim filed her own paperwork in the form of a lawsuit. This lawsuit sparked a small feud between Kim and the government of Chauncey, including Shover, and this has since led to a series of lawsuits and bickering between the two parties, Kim said.
Because of these lawsuits, Shover already had resigned once from the position of mayor. Near the end of 2001, Shover admitted to illegally using city trucks to haul dirt to her house. Even with that blemish on her record, Shover then was re-elected later that year by the residents of Chauncey.
In addition, these lawsuits also prompted the disbanding of the Chauncey Police Department in 2001. While Kim was serving on Chauncey City Council, she filed a lawsuit claiming that she and others were being intimidated by the police force and eventually won the suit. Chauncey officials then disbanded the police force.
After Kim failed her re-election bid for city council two months later, the new council was immediately sworn in, and the police force was re-instated with a new marshall.
The most recent battle has not yet escalated to the courtroom. It consists of Kim attempting to obtain copies of 911 calls in which she claims Shover used the line in an illegal manner.
Kim said that, in a deposition given by Shover during one of Kim's prior lawsuits, Shover admitted to improperly training a new 911 dispatcher by entering Kim's social security number into the Law Enforcement Agencies Data System program. Kim said the only acceptable number to fill in during training is 123-45-6789, but instead Kim's own social security number was used.
Athens County Commissioner Lenny Eliason said the commissioners would investigate her concerns.
Shover could not be reached for comment.
After submitting a request to the city of Chauncey, Kim was given several weeks' worth of 911 calls on compact discs, but said they did not contain all the 911 calls she requested, particularly the calls in which she was most interested.
Kim cited section 149.43 of the Ohio Revised Code in her quest to obtain all the omitted calls, which states that all public records should be made available to the public within a reasonable amount of time.
However, Chief of Operations for Emergency Communications Leonard D. Bentley said he is not holding the tapes, but merely is not in favor of making a second copy of them. Bentley said the State Highway Patrol is currently in possession of the tapes. He said the matter would be resolved in the reasonable amount of time that the law requires, but because the law does not give an exact deadline, neither did he.
I'm waiting to get the tapes back from the Highway Patrol so I can hand them to Kim Bentley said.
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Chris Yonker
