6 apply to lead Fulton County MRDD board

3/15/2005

WAUSEON - Three consultants, two county mental retardation employees, and a mental health manager have applied to be the next superintendent of the troubled Fulton County Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities board.

The application deadline was March 7 to the Ohio Association of County Boards of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. Fulton County board President Lisa Meeker said she received and compiled the applications yesterday.

The applicants are:

●Timothy Bish of Uniontown in northeast Ohio. He is founder and director of Counseling, Consulting, and Educational Enterprises, which advises businesses and government agencies on safety and mediation.

●Gary Easterly of Toledo. He is chief executive of OYM Consulting, through which he is a consultant and teacher of certification classes for disabilities workers. He was previously a behavior habilitation coordinator with the Lucas County disabilities board.

●Craig Gebers of Sylvania Township. He is a director of work-force development services and vocational program manager at Zepf Community Mental Health Center. He was previously a program coordinator with Family Service of Northwest Ohio.

●James Huntington of Ashland in north-central Ohio. He is director of residential and community services for the Ashland County disabilities board and has been employed in the mental retardation field for 17 years.

●Brenda Oyer of Archbold. She is adult services director and assistant superintendent of the Williams County disabilities board, where she has been employed since 2001. She was a case manager for the Fulton County disabilities board in the late 1980s.

●Jeffrey Wilson of Sylvania Township. He is a management consultant and general counsel for Next Level Management, which has implemented business turn-around plans for real estate and building companies. He was previously a juvenile court mediator in Lucas County Family Court, and he applied for the Fulton County disabilities superintendent post in 2002.

The Fulton County disabilities board has suffered from power struggles for years, and the board asked its last two superintendents to leave. In recent months, several employees filed equal employment opportunity complaints against the organization.