Mayor Kramer recuses himself from B9 matter after recognizing prior work ties to law firm named in attachments

Mayor Phil Kramer told the council Tuesday that he would recuse himself from Franklin Township matters involving the B9 warehouse project after identifying a law firm named in documents related to the project with which he has done prior expert-witness work.

Kramer said he opened emails from a constituent that included two attachments and, upon reviewing them, found the name of the law firm representing B9. He said he has performed consulting and expert-witness work for that firm in other matters. To avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, Kramer said he would not participate in any township business related to B9 and would leave the executive session while the council discussed the matter.

"While I do not feel conflicted, I wish to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest. I'm therefore immediately recusing myself from any Franklin Township matters dealing with B9," Kramer said on the public record. He asked the municipal clerk to place minutes of the B9 discussion in a separate file and said he would not review those minutes until they had been accepted by the council.

The mayor’s recusal was made publicly before the meeting moved into executive session; the council then entered executive session for pending litigation updates. Kramer’s action leaves the deputy mayor to preside over the closed-session discussion of B9. No other details on the content of the executive-session discussion were disclosed in open session.

Kramer also asked the manager or clerk to advise if any further steps were required beyond his public recusal statement.