The criminal charge is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of a $1,000 fine and six months in jail.
“The council is aware of all those things that have happened,” Engle said. “Now since it’s a legal matter, we’re going to wait and see what the court rules on it.”
Councilmen John Caupp and Dale Louderback declined to comment on the issue. Other council members could not be reached.
A hearing was scheduled for Aug. 26 before Lewis said he filed the delinquent returns on Tuesday.
“I thought I had 10 business days to file those taxes, not 10 calendar days,” Lewis said. “They were filed on Tuesday. Nobody bothered to come and tell me they were filing criminal charges before they were filed. I would have never allowed that to happen. It was an error on my part, but I think this whole thing has been handled poorly.”
In addition to filing a criminal charge a city official recently contacted the Ohio Ethics Commission seeking guidance about Lewis who had a city paralegal assistant work on cases unrelated to the city.
“In some discussions that occurred with the finance director, myself and the law director relative to service provisions, there was some acknowledgement of how employees are used in the law department with respect to core functions,” Xenia City Manager Brent Merriman said on Wednesday. “And based on that, there was contact made to the ethics commission to get clarification, on our part, to determine what, if any action, should take place.”
The council did not contact the ethics commission and a formal complaint has not been filed with the commission.
In addition to his contract with the city for legal services, Lewis also has contracts with Greene County and Bellbrook to prosecute misdemeanor cases in Xenia Municipal Court.
Lewis annually earns $107,000 from Xenia; $53,155.71 from Greene County Board of Commissioners; and $2,500 per month from Bellbrook.
“I’ve done absolutely nothing wrong,” Lewis said. “Every single thing I’ve done was 100 percent authorized by (a previous city) council … I don’t think there’s any merit to this ethics violation whatsoever.”
Former City of Xenia Mayor John Saraga said the previous council who hired Lewis in 2001 had a hard time finding a law director because the position paid so little at the time. So, council members agreed to and approved of Lewis taking on contracts with other jurisdictions to prosecute misdemeanor cases which would help supplement the low salary, Saraga said. The agreement was Lewis would be available to handle city affairs outside of typical business hours, and he would be allowed to take on additional contracts with other jurisdictions.
“We were trying to find creative ways to provide full-time service to the city,” Saraga said.
Saraga said he is shocked by the recent ethics allegations regarding Lewis.
“My hope for the citizens of Xenia is we get past this quickly,” he said.
The city council will not make any decisions regarding the ethics allegations until a determination has been made by the state ethics commission, Engle said.
“We’ll look at it, review it and make a determination based on their full understanding of the ethics rules for the state of Ohio whether there is an investigation or not, he said.
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