Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Now former Walbridge police officer Michael Ervin was criminally charged with disorderly conduct, obstructing official business, OVI and having a weapon while intoxicated after an incident Aug. 23.
Ervin responded to a 911 call in the village after some residents returned home to find their truck door open, but police were called once again by those same residents to check on Ervin after it appeared he was intoxicated.
Lake Township Police responded to the follow-up call and officers wrote in the subsequent reports that Ervin’s speech was slurred, his gait was unsteady, and his eyes appeared dilated. His blood-alcohol level was .168, which is more than twice the legal limit to drive. The incident was recorded on body cameras.
Ervin had an initial court appearance in Perrysburg Municipal Court on Sept. 2 for five misdemeanors. His next court appearance is Sept. 29 at 9:15 a.m.
Walbridge mayor Ed Kolanko confirmed that Ervin was officially fired on Aug. 25.
Ervin previously resigned from the Toledo police department on Sept. 1, 2022 after an internal affairs investigation resulted in him being found guilty of conduct unbecoming of an officer, willful violation and habitual drunkenness. He was hired in Walbridge on Oct. 5, 2023.
Kolanko gave the following statement to WTOL earlier this month.
"I trusted the due diligence put into the background check by Chief Ken Campbell and Sgt. Tom Roberts at the time,” he said. “I had no reason to not support their request to hire Michael Ervin. I was unaware of the issues mentioned. As mayor, I have to trust the department heads in their respective positions and recommendations. This incident gives me pause, and we will re-evaluate our hiring practices."
WTOL’s 11 Investigates found multiple cases during an investigation in February 2024 where a new department did not know about previous issues because of unions working to seal the previous records. In one case, for example, Delta hired Robert Austin as its new police chief, not knowing he resigned from Sylvania Township under investigation.
Kolanko was also recently made aware of the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy (OPOTA) website, where you can search a database of active or inactive law enforcement individuals. Created by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, it gives you their work history, if they’ve been terminated or resigned, what agencies they are currently working at, what agencies they worked at previously, training that they may have taken on, etc.
“It's a tool. It's not the end-all be-all, but it seems to be a good tool,” Kolanko said. “It gives you some information about an officer — have they been to 12 different departments, have they worked for one for 30 years? It's kind of a great starting spot really to get some baseline information.”
This is a resource that Kolanko will consider going forward in an effort to better vet potential applicants. Currently, the department looks at the applicant’s resume, application, previous places of employment, and personnel files, while also having conversations with references to determine if he/she will be a good fit for the department.
“When we look at Officer Ervin, he had some issues at TPD, but he also resigned,” Kolanko said. “He wasn't terminated. He had this Michigan incident where he had a driving incident, but that case was dismissed. It's easy to all of a sudden throw darts and kind of say you guys are bad for doing this, but given the information that you have at the time, and you're making the determination at that point in time, it's easy to reflect and say we should have did more, but what we have to look at is that when they're looking at a person's file, and they resigned from an agency, they weren't terminated. We possibly we need to look at a further deep dive in terms of why they resigned, and maybe that OPOTA website will be helpful in that regard.”
Kolanko also had this to say about Ervin’s performance since being hired in Walbridge.
“There was some counseling sessions with Officer Ervin as far as maybe his attendance or his activity levels and things of that nature,” he said. “He has been counseled in the past, during the past two years. I know that the chief had asked for an extension of his probationary period at the end of six months, because he probably wasn't meeting the expectations that we would expect of somebody, but nothing kind of alerted us to the extent of what happened the other night.”
Regular council meeting
In a brief regular council meeting that included 15 minutes worth of regular agenda items and 30 minutes of an executive session (with no action taken), there was several items of note.
Parks committee chair Sue Hart-Douglas asked for and was given approval to apply for a Wood County Parks grant.
Similarly, streets committee chair Thomas Urbina referenced wanting to apply for an Ohio Public Works Commission grant that is due Sept. 12, which was on the agenda. Council members passed the resolution, which authorizes the application for work through the OPWC’s State Capital Improvement program.
Kolanko said that Earl and Warner streets are having traffic counts currently done, and those are the streets right now that the engineer feels would be the optimal ones to apply for improvements in that regard.
In the safety and criminal justice committee report, Caryl Stone said that police body cameras are in.
“They’ve been in, they’re working, and they’re working as expected — saving time, saving energy, saving money, and saving lives, hopefully,” she said.
Ordinance 18 was untabled and passed as an emergency. It authorizes the village administrator to purchase a 2025 Silverado for the Walbridge maintenance department from Dunn Chevy.
In addition to the termination of Officer Ervin, police officer Nina Kilcorse also submitted her resignation effective Aug. 31. Subsequently, Kolanko confirmed that the village will be looking to hire one full-time and one part-time officer. On a related note, Coffee with the Cops will be held Oct. 1 from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. inside the administration building located at 705 N. Main Street.
The new sign for the administration building has arrived and will be installed soon.
Maintenance department worker Gavin Kohlhofer submitted his resignation effective Sept. 3.
Kolanko made a motion to replace a 33-year-old air conditioning unit in the administration building at a cost of $16,887. The work, which was approved, will be done by Noron, Inc.
Village administrator Todd Robson made mention in his report that the village is out cleaning catch basins, and he was thankful for a recent Facebook post from the village about what residents can do to help with that.
The report said the No. 1 thing pulled from catch basins are leaves. When leaves pile into the street, they wash into the catch basins, clogging them and causing water backups. Residents are urged to remember to place leaves at the edge of the yard and not in the street. It helps keep the catch basins clear and water flowing where it should be instead of in the street, your yard or your basement.
Next meeting
Council is slated to meet again Sept. 17 at 6:30 p.m. at the admin building.
