Interim commissioner re-appointed to seat vacated by Dicken

LOGAN — The Hocking County Commissioners’ meeting Thursday, originally scheduled for the morning, was postponed until four in the afternoon due to a lack of quorum stemming from Commissioner Jason D’Onofrio’s absence and Jessica Dicken’s resignation from her post earlier this week.

The situation came about as result of an interesting legal technicality. Since late January, Michael Linton had been serving in place of Dicken. The latter was suspended in that month by a panel of three judges appointed by the Ohio Supreme Court, based on her indictment on criminal charges. On Tuesday Dicken pled guilty in Hocking County Common Pleas Court to counts of theft, telecommunications fraud, and soliciting or accepting improper compensation.

Due to the former commissioner’s resignation, which was required as part of her plea agreement, Linton was technically removed from his position briefly and needed to be re-appointed. Only Commissioner Sandra Ogle was available at the regularly-scheduled meeting time, leading to the lack of quorum.

As a first bit of business on Thursday afternoon, Linton was re-appointed, and what followed was a fairly brief meeting with one notable piece of news: the county officially signed its contract with American Structurepoint to move forward as its consultant on a zoning ordinance.

This coming Tuesday, Aug.13, at 6 p.m., the Hocking County Republican Party will meet to appoint a new interim commissioner for Dicken’s unexpired term — which is “99%” likely to be Linton, according to party Chair Michael Harris.

Also as part of that meeting, the party’s central committee will have to decide on a candidate to run in November’s general election for the permanent seat vacated by Dicken.

The Logan Daily News reached out to the Hocking County Democratic Party to see if they had discussed a candidate to run for that position, but did not receive a comment by press time.

Email at rmorris@logandaily.com