Yesterday, August 23, 2016, the Geauga Park District published an announcement to promote their upcoming Parks Appreciation Day which contained a prominent mention of a certain candidate for Geauga County Commissioner. The announcement that was sent by e-mail to Parks supporters contained not one, but two versions. In the original version, the candidate is described as “future County Commissioner.” The second version was revised to reflect the fact that the election has yet to take place, so it describes the candidate as “candidate for County Commissioner.” Apparently the original text was inadvertently left attached to the e-mail along with the revision.

This is not the first time certain political candidates have been promoted in Parks publications. In 2014, Brian Johnston made an appearance in the Voices of Nature, the Parks’ quarterly newsletter, while he was also a County Commissioner candidate.

Today, less than 24 hours after the announcement was first published, a second revised version was sent out which no longer contained the name of the political candidate. A letter from Grendell to Executive Director, John Oros, has come to light in which Grendell chastised Oros for including the candidate’s name in the announcement. Damage done, point a finger, problem solved.

Grendell not only reads everything published by the Park District, but approves it prior to publication. To now pass the blame for this “mistake” off to Park staff is beyond belief.

The original announcement:

The first revision:

The second revision:

And then…this: