The Lucas County Board of Elections today voted down an effort by one Republican board member to remove the director, Republican Gina Kaczala.

The vote was 3-1 on the motion by board member James Hartley. Mr. Hartley’s fellow Republican on the board, Peter Handwork, sided with the two Democrats in voting to retain Ms. Kaczala.

Mr. Hartley was appointed in March to the four-person board at the recommendation of the Lucas County Republican Party.

Mr. Hartley said his experience as a board member since March and his observations since before that had caused him to lose confidence in Ms. Kaczala.

The motion was seconded by Democratic board member Joshua Hughes as a courtesy to Mr. Hartley, he said.

Mr. Hartley has clashed with Ms. Kaczala and other members of the board over what he sees as a misuse of closed-door meetings, known as executive sessions, and for not having a policy requiring background checks for new hires.

Ms. Kaczala survived a purge of the elections board in 2014 when three board members were removed by Secretary of State Jon Husted because of what Mr. Husted said was chaos in the board office.

Mr. Hartley said he was disturbed by two errors of the board in the last two elections, and what he felt was an inadequate response. In the November, 2015 election, the board omitted the names of two candidates for Sylvania Township offices from the Sylvania city ballot, and in the March 15 primary a data card with 71 votes was accidentally excluded from the vote count in Toledo.

Neither mistake affected the outcome of an election.

“We were fortunate when it didn’t cause a bigger problem. When you have two items of this magnitude and I see the general tone [from leadership], that is what has really set me off,” Mr. Hartley said. He said he has complained to the Lucas County Prosecutor that the board is trying to conceal problems by talking about them in executive session.

Ms. Kaczala said Mr. Hartley made “a lot of completely untrue statements” to reporters covering the meeting.

“He’s just rehashing problems that were solved. This board has run extremely well … and has been a cohesive group that are here to solve problems — not cause problems,” Ms. Kaczala said.

During today’s meeting, Mr. Hartley cast the sole no vote on a motion to raise the number of compensatory days that managers can cash in, from 100 hours a year to 150. The vote was 3-1.

The board also tied 2-2 on the question of whether to hire a Republican applicant for a permanent part-time position, after Mr. Hughes sided with Mr. Hartley as a courtesy because the vote involved a Republican appointee. The board agreed 4-0 to table the vote until the next meeting to give Mr. Hartley time to review the employment documents.

Contact Tom Troy: tomtroy@theblade.com or 419-724-6058 or on Twitter @TomFTroy.

First Published August 2, 2016, 7:49 p.m.