Janet Barron appointed as Lakewood trustee after resignation of Doug Ulrich

A new trustee was appointed to Lakewood’s village board after the resignation of former trustee Doug Ulrich.

Lakewood resident Janet Barron was appointed as a village trustee during a meeting this past Tuesday. However, a technical malfunction resulting in no recording of Tuesday’s meeting, which was held over Zoom because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of this, the village called a special meeting on Friday.

Barron officially was sworn in as a trustee during Friday’s meeting. She will fill the rest of Ulrich’s term, which goes through April 2023.

Ulrich could not be reached for comment on Saturday.

Barron’s appointment means Lakewood Village Board will mainly be filled with newcomers once the winners of April 6′s election are sworn in.

April’s election saw the unseating of incumbent Village President Phil Stephan by Dave Stavropoulos, and a group of residents, Tricia Babischkin, April Runge and Michael Fischer, all won seats on the board, costing incumbent trustees Pamela Eddy and Dan Alexander their seats.

With incumbent trustee Amy Odom not running for reelection, the only remaining members of Lakewood’s previous Village Board are Ryan Berman and Brian Augustine.

Stephan addressed the re-doing of Tuesday’s meeting Friday, saying that the village wished to eliminate any issue or question regarding the matter, and any actions taken at the last meeting.

The only difference between the two meetings is that the second one did not include the village’s budget discussion, Stephan said.

Lakewood resident and former village trustee Jason McMahon, during public comment, said he wanted an explanation for what he called the board’s blatant Open Meetings Act violations.

McMahon noted that, among other issues, official written meeting minutes have not been posted on the village website since Feb. 23.

“Now an entire meeting recording from April 20 was supposedly lost,” McMahon said.

A different full-screen audio and video recording of the meeting was offered to the board to use, McMahon said, but this was ignored.

In response, Stephan said that the Village Board needed an official recording of the meeting, as opposed to something provided by residents.