BELLAIRE, Ohio – Bellaire Village Council President Janet Richardson is pushing back against Mayor Robert Dodrill’s rebuttal to a fact sheet posted by council on April 14, telling River News on Thursday that the mayor has been “telling things to the media that simply weren’t true” and that the village is in a state of serious instability.
The dispute centers on a document council published to the Bellaire Council Facebook page the day before a contentious April 15 meeting, outlining what council members described as failures in fiscal management and administration under Dodrill. The mayor subsequently issued a rebuttal and named Richardson publicly as responsible for the post — a characterization she disputed.
“He really needs to get his head back in the game and get on the work that the village voted him in to do,” Richardson said.
Richardson said the council’s Facebook page is governed by a 2022 ordinance designating it as council’s exclusive platform. She said posts must be approved by a three-person media committee before publication, meaning she could not have single-handedly posted the document as Dodrill claimed. “No, I couldn’t personally just post something,” she said. “It was a collaboration with council.”
She added that since the new administration took office, control of both the Facebook page and the village website had been informally assumed by former Fiscal Officer Ginny Favede, whom Richardson said was removing and reformatting posts made by the designated administrative assistant — work that fell outside Favede’s job description.
According to Richardson, council ultimately asked Favede to resign over accounting and software transition issues, a decision Richardson said Dodrill has misrepresented to the press. “I don’t know why he’s telling the media that she resigned due to a hostile environment,” Richardson said. “We asked her to resign because of all of the issues.”
Village Employees Who Have Left in 2026
- Village Administrator
- Fiscal Officer
- Water Distribution Coordinator
- CDL Sanitation Truck Driver
- Backhoe Operator
- Two Water Treatment Plant Operators
- Meter Reader
- Sanitation Worker
- Clerk of Council
Initially Richardson said eight village employees have left since the current administration began — a figure she used to illustrate what she described as deep organizational dysfunction. “Our village is unstable,” she said.
In Thursday evening’s council meeting, Richardson said nine people left, not eight, including the clerk of council.
You can watch the full council meeting on the River News Facebook page here.
Read more below:
Bellaire Council President Fires Back at Mayor Over Village’s Fiscal Crisis and Staff Exodus
Among her most urgent concerns is the village’s finances. Richardson said council has received no beginning balances, expense reports, or remaining fund totals since the administration took over — information required by village ordinance to be provided monthly. She attributed the breakdown partly to a costly and troubled software transition from Civica to the state’s Uniform Accounting Network system.
A traveling clerk has been brought in to handle payroll and accounts payable at $45 per hour, which Richardson noted exceeds the $33.65-per-hour equivalent of the fiscal officer’s $70,000 annual salary.
The fiscal strife has had real consequences, Richardson said. An EPA-funded lead service line replacement project — supported by $16 million in federal money — ground to a halt after the contractor went months without receiving $483,000 owed for completed work. The holdup, she said, stemmed from the fiscal office’s failure to establish a payment process with the EPA, despite Richardson providing the relevant contact name in February. The contractor has since stopped work.
On the pothole crisis residents have been vocal about, Richardson said council requested a detailed repair plan from the mayor, but received only a note in meeting minutes that he would use hot patch instead of cold patch. “What we were after is: we don’t have any people here. Who’s going to do the work? Did you put it out for bid?” she said. Meanwhile, she noted, residents took matters into their own hands last weekend by voluntarily mowing grass at Union Park.
At Thursday evening’s regular council meeting, Dodrill said he has contacted a firm to address the potholes and also has been in touch with Pultney Township Trustee Frank Shaffer about a sidewalk project.
Council has been attempting to fill the staffing void themselves. Richardson said three council members found and onboarded a new combined water distribution coordinator and backhoe operator, who began work earlier this week — with Dodrill’s only contribution being his signature on the required ordinance. Council also provided the mayor with two resumes from former municipal auditors and a third candidate name — all with UAN experience — but as of Thursday, Richardson said none had been contacted.
Dodrill countered in Thursday’s council meeting, saying he is interviewing people for positions next week and that some of those he called were referred by village council.
Despite a handshake at the end of the April 15 meeting when Dodrill promised to move forward, Richardson said progress has stalled. “He has not reached out to us. He has not asked us for anything,” she said. “It’s just been focused on discrediting the facts that the council posted, and namely me.”
Richardson prepared a document with detailed information on council’s response to Dodrill’s rebuttal.
Richardson also addressed the mayor’s brief resignation announcement, which he submitted with an effective date of April 15 before rescinding it on April 13. Because the rescission came before the stated effective date, she confirmed the move required no council action and Dodrill remained in his position without interruption.
Mayor Dodrill told River News that he stands by the rebuttal he issued Monday. Dodrill and Richardson also discussed the matter in a contentious back-and forth at Thursday evening’s regular council meeting.
Follow River News online and on Facebook for updates on Bellaire’s fiscal and personnel issues and responses from the mayor and council.
