Whitehouse taps new  mayor amid shakeup

Leadership upheaval in the village of Whitehouse is continuing as village council named a new council president to replace former council president and acting mayor Rebecca Conklin Kleibomer.

By a vote of 4-2 Tuesday, on a day in which council was supposed to administer the oath of office to Mrs. Conklin Kleibomer, the group named Robert Keogh, who has been on council since 2015, to the position.

This makes Mrs. Conklin Kleibomer a regular member of the council again while Mr. Keogh assumes the role of council president and, by extension, acting mayor.

“We are going to make it to the end of the year,” Mr. Keogh said at the meeting of his tem-porary term in leadership ahead of a Nov. 7 election when a new village mayor would be elected.

Mrs. Conklin Kleibomer, who had been acting mayor for about three weeks since the resignation of Mayor Don Atkinson Aug. 17, said the decision to vote her out was not wholly unexpected.

“There was an addition to the agenda Friday [Sept. 1],” she said, noting “Item III” on Tuesday’s council agenda “consideration of council president position,” which was added in on Sept. 1 before the item “swearing in of acting mayor.”

Discussion at Tuesday’s meeting centered around the necessity of electing a new council president when Mrs. Conklin Kleibomer, elected council president in January, has been performing the duties of mayor for the last several weeks.

Multiple members of the council then presented reasons that it was an issue for Mrs. Conklin Kleibomer to continue to hold the position, including that only a small number of members were present when Mrs. Conklin Kleibomer was elected council president.

“When this started in January there were only four of us here,” Councilman Richard Bingham, a candidate for mayor, said during the meeting. “There was not a full council vote so maybe it is time for a full council vote.”

Minutes obtained from the year’s first meeting of Whitehouse Village Council on Jan. 3 confirms this, as only Mrs. Conklin Kleibomer, Mr. Keogh, Mr. Bingham, and Councilman Mindy Curry were present at that meeting, and Mr. Bingham voted against appointing Mrs. Conklin Kleibomer president. This means she only got three affirmative votes from what is now a six-person council.

Steve Connelly joined council two weeks after the vote, and Louann Artiaga was on an excused absence at the early January meeting.

For his part, Mr. Connelly said that Tuesday’s vote was not a reflection of anyone’s performance but more as a result of the multiple unknowns that came with the sudden resignation of Mr. Atkinson, for what has been identified as “personal reasons.”

“I have the utmost respect for Rebecca and Rich,” Mr. Connelly said at the meeting.

The new councilman agreed, however, that Mrs. Conklin Kleibomer and Mr. Bingham, both candidates for mayor, should not be under consideration for council president.

That is because they are on an upcoming ballot, something Mrs. Conklin Kleibomer said in the meeting there was no precedent for, especially since everyone except for Ms. Curry and Mrs. Artiaga are running for re-election in some way, shape, or form.

Mrs. Conklin Kleibomer added that she had already registered with the Ohio Public Works Commission and signed contracts on behalf of the village during her time as acting mayor.

Nevertheless, she was still voted out.

“There were council members who had been discussing this possibility since I became acting mayor,” she said in an interview Wednesday of the vote, noting that the reasons for council taking the action that it did remain unclear to her. “It is out of character for council as long as I have served on it.”

She said that she remains committed to the staff, the village, and the council, even after Tuesday’s events.

Ms. Curry, who joined Ms. Conklin Kleibomer in voting no, affirmed that the council’s reasoning for Tuesday’s vote was also unclear to her.

“Just because you are on the ballot is not a reason you should step down,” Ms. Curry said.

The councilman said she supports Mrs. Conklin Kleibomer and hopes the upcoming election will iron some things out in the community.

“Her heart is in what is best for the residents,” Ms. Curry said of the former acting mayor. “She has been in this position and has done everything well.”

Now that Mr. Keogh has been made acting mayor though, she said she will also be fully supporting the council and all its activities.

“I always do what is best for the village, I do not have a personal agenda either,” Ms. Curry said.

Attempts to reach Mrs. Artiaga, Mr. Bingham, Mr. Connelly, and Mr. Keogh via phone and email were unsuccessful.

On Thursday, the Lucas County Board of Elections confirmed that a primary election for Whitehouse mayor will take place Oct. 3. It’s a contest that will be contested among Mr. Bingham, Mrs. Conklin Kleibomer, Whitehouse Inn owner Tony Fronk, and retiree Robert Crowe.

Contact Vincent Lucarelli at:

vlucarelli@theblade.com.