BARBERTON, Ohio — Over two months after he submitted his resignation letter, the details of the allegations made by city employees against longtime Barberton Mayor William Judge have not been publicly disclosed, despite complaints from residents and business owners about the lack of transparency surrounding his unexpected departure.
Judge submitted his resignation letter June 15.
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RELATED: Barberton mayor announces resignation
The city's law director, Lisa Miller, said the city will not release the findings of an independent investigation launched after multiple employees repeatedly complained about the mayor's conduct, citing the attorney-client privilege.
"It's a public record, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily subject to disclosure," Raymon Vasvari, an attorney who specializes in First Amendment issues, said.
"The public records act favors disclosure, but it contains a laundry list of things that can be exempt from disclosure, and those include things like trial preparation materials, confidential attorney investigations, and attorney work product where there's a reasonable belief that the city is going to end up in court," he said. "Those things are subject to privacy to protect a relationship so the council can give honest and candid advice to its client."
Vasvari said if an employee files a lawsuit related to the mayor's conduct, the city puts itself at risk by revealing the details of the investigation.
"It may seem political because all the actors are political, but, in reality, it's just good management," he said.
Why the city investigated
The issues that ultimately led to Mayor Judge's resignation began in June 2025, according to a statement released by current Barberton City Council President Rebecca Gearhart.
The statement said Miller received complaints from multiple employees about the mayor's behavior.
It said she addressed the complaints with the mayor, but the employees said problems persisted.
Miller then hired former Assistant U.S. Attorney Marlon Primes to conduct an independent investigation. Primes produced a 24-page report about the mayor's conduct.
Former City Council President Shorter Griffin said the investigation concerned "the mayor's role as a supervisor of employees and an alleged pattern of conduct," but provided no further details.
After Miller presented the report to City Council, council members offered Judge the opportunity to resign. They said Judge declined their request.
In April, the council voted 6-2 to begin removal proceedings.
RELATED: Barberton City Council considers removing Mayor William Judge
The council expected the mayor to fight for his job.
Instead, Judge resigned before the proceedings began — avoiding a public removal process that may have revealed more about the allegations against him.
Per the city's charter, Griffin became mayor, and Gearhart became council president.
Lots of money, little information
To find out more about the allegations against the former mayor, News 5 requested internal emails, invoices, and other records related to the investigation.
However, the records we received provided no insight into the allegations about the mayor's conduct.
The majority of the records we received were heavily redacted.
News 5 Investigators reached out to every member of city council. The members who returned our call said Miller had advised them not to discuss the details of the allegations against the mayor.
However, the records did reveal the cost of the investigation into the mayor's conduct.
The city has incurred more than $90,000 in legal and public relations expenses. Records show the city owes $73,069.50 to Brennan Manna Diamond, an Akron law firm. Records also show the city was billed $10,065 by Bricker Graydon Wyatt, a regional law firm with an office in Cleveland.
"If they were looking at a substantial settlement or a substantial verdict, this might be money well spent," Vasvari said. "It puts a wall between the city's liability and the mayor's personal liability, and so it's a proactive spending that might inoculate them against a much bigger judgment."
However, he questions why the city council also spent approximately $7,500 to hire Hennes Communications, a Northeast Ohio public relations firm, to help them craft statements about the investigation and removal proceedings.
"I am always surprised at the degree to which public entities feel the need to spend public dollars convincing the public that their position is right," he said. "It seems to me, somehow, inherently wrong that a city should be pitching to its taxpayers 'We did the right thing' with the help of a professional ad man."
Barberton response
Justin Guyton, who owns Rubber City Bargains, a retail business in Downtown Barberton, said he and his customers want more information about what led to the mayor's resignation.
"It's a mystery, and being that he's a public official, it shouldn't be a mystery," Guyton said. "If he did something wrong, people should know what it was that caused him to be removed from office."
Guyton said the mayor, who was serving his fourth term in office, was well-liked by residents and business owners.
Judge was first elected in 2011.
"He was voted in by the residents of Barberton, so they have the right to know why he's no longer in office," he said.
Former mayor's response
News 5 Investigators reached out to William Judge. He declined our request for an on-camera interview.
In an email, he sent us the following statement:
"As I mentioned in my press release, this was an unwinnable situation and It was clear that no matter what my response would be to the complaints, they wanted me out of office. This ongoing no-win situation from City Council and the law director made it impossible to effectively present my side or to effectively carry out the responsibilities of the office.
I am grateful for the opportunity I had to serve my community and the great people of Barberton. I am proud of what my administration accomplished over the 14 years that I was in office. This includes vast improvements in infrastructure upgrades; creating the city's first sustainable road resurfacing program, a sustainable dedicated water line replacement program, huge upgrades in mitigating storm water, internal improvements with SOPs and creating processes for more efficiency and effectiveness of local government. We were able to acquire around $80 million in grant funds for infrastructure projects, park upgrades, assistance to firefighter Grant, COPs grants and other local, state, and federal grant funds; we were able to move the city in a positive direction forward.
Coming into office the community was still feeling the effects of the housing bust, but we were able to stabilize property values by removing blighted structures, infilling vacant lots with new houses, stabilizing our budget, growing our income tax collection with new jobs in the community, fostering relationships at the local, state, and federal level and functioning as government should, for the people."
