photo by: Gage Vota

Shadyside Solicitor Kelly Kotur listens as Councilman Mike Meintel moves for council to approve village Administrator Erica Tamburin’s letter of resignation.

After months of being absent from council meetings, village administrator Erica Tamburin has sent a letter of resignation through her lawyer Patrick Cassidy.

“My client appreciates the efforts of nearly all of Shadyside council members in working with her, and attempting to provide reasonable accommodations to her schedule due to personal issues with a former council member and his allies that have become very public, notwithstanding the fact that she is not, and never considered herself to be a ‘public figure’ as a result of her employment as village administrator,” as stated in Cassidy’s letter sent to village solicitor Kelly Kotur.

Tamburin’s issue was with former council member Nick Ferrelli, whom she accused of stalking her. He went to Belmont County Eastern Division Court on a count of menacing by stalking, but instead pleaded guilty to one count of misdemeanor disorderly conduct, receiving two years probation.

The letter further states that Tamburin does not consider her resignation to be voluntary but rather a forced resignation. It added that although she considers the resignation to be forced she does not believe it is any fault of the village itself.

It goes on to ask for Tamburin’s resignation to go into effect this December for her to have the ability to train her successor.

During council’s regularly scheduled meeting on Monday evening council member Mike Meintel made a motion for council to accept Tamburin’s resignation.

Meintel said that, as far as when the resignation goes into effect, that can be determined through Kotur and Cassidy, but he believed council should vote to accept her resignation during the meeting.

Resident Dan Janovich, who was in attendance at the meeting, asked council how she would train her successor when she’s been absent for months.

He then asked if council would even be hiring a replacement or returning to having a board of public affairs.

Council member Melanie Haswell replied that she feels that, with all council seats being up for election in less than a month, it would be best for council to decide after the election so that if any new members are elected they can have an input as well.

Council member Brandon Parr agreed that council should accept the resignation, but does not believe that council should wait until after the election.

“We can talk about this another time, but I’m a planner. I don’t want to come January 1 and whoever’s on council is stuck trying to figure this out,” Parr said. “I want there to be a plan in place, and then if they want to change it, they can, but at least whoever comes in here has a plan.”

Council all agreed that Kotur and Cassidy would hash out when Tamburin’s resignation will be effective but then all voted in favor of accepting her resignation.

Tamburin was contacted multiple times for comment and was unable to be reached.

Following the vote, council reminded the public that trick or treat will not be on Oct. 31 but Thursday Oct. 30, from 6-7:30 p.m. due to Halloween being on a Friday so it wouldn’t conflict with the Shadyside High School football game if the team were to qualify for the postseason.