TOLEDO, Ohio — Toledo City Council voted Tuesday to fire suspended city auditor Jake Jaksetic during a special meeting.
The motion to fire Jaksetic passed by a vote of 7-4. Council members Theresa Gadus, John Hobbs, Cerssandra McPherson and Katie Moline voted no.
Council president Matt Cherry declined an interview request, instead giving a written statement, reading "The decision to remove the City Auditor, made today by a majority vote of City Council, was made after serious deliberations.
We will be posting the job description for a new City Auditor immediately and look forward to working with a new auditor who will help Council serve the residents of Toledo."
Moline introduced a resolution during the Nov. 22 council meeting to conduct an independent investigation of Jaksetic. The motion failed.
City council voted on Nov. 1 to suspend Jaksetic for 30 days without giving a specific reason, but Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz has been critical of Jaksetic's work performance, repeatedly saying Jaksetic has never completed an audit since being hired in 2014.
Kapszukiewicz declined to comment Tuesday on Jaksetic's firing.
In the weeks leading up to the vote to fire Jaksetic, Kapszukiewicz was not always so tight-lipped.
"You would think a city auditor should produce some audits," Kapszukiewicz said in an interview with WTOL 11 earlier this month. "I don't know that he has ever, literally ever, produced an audit report. Now I might be wrong, there may have been one or two, but as someone who worked as the auditor for eight years, there should be hundreds of audit reports."
WTOL 11 submitted a public records request specifically asking the city for any audits Jaksetic has conducted. The city sent us eight separate files in return.
After publishing the information, Kapszukiewicz claimed those files were not audits and instead called them "financial reviews." The mayor and a city spokeswoman have also made references to Jaksetic making city employees feel unsafe, but have not provided any evidence to support those claims.
A review of Jaksetic's personnel file did not reveal any allegations of making people feel unsafe. The file did include emails from city officials and contractors complaining about Jaksetic showing up at job sites and questioning city-funded projects, including the installation of new city water meters.
Jaksetic has turned down multiple requests to speak with WTOL 11. He could not be reached for comment as of Tuesday afternoon.
Council members have criticized the mayor for inserting himself in council business regarding Jaksetic. Many took issue with Kapszukiewicz’s comments about Jaksetic’s performance. Many particularly objected to Kapszukiewicz’s move to cancel all one-on-one meetings between his administration and council members in recent weeks.
On Nov. 9 the mayor joined Scott Sands on AM 1370 WSPD for his weekly "Wednesday With Wade" segment and used the opportunity to repeat his complaints about Jaksetic as well as slam council members, who he said should grow up and work on real issues. He asked if the feelings of council members “had a boo-boo.”
After backlash to the comments, the mayor issued another statement that read, in part, “I certainly could have used some softer words, but the frustration in my voice came from the anger taxpayers have expressed to me about how City Council has allowed an employee of theirs to earn a $90,000 salary, even though public records reveal that he has failed to perform even the most basic duties of his job.”
Kapszukiewicz and Jaksetic also sparred this year over tax documents perceived by Jaksetic and Moline to have been kept in an unsecure location for months.
RELATED VIDEO