After first prodding Lucas County Board of Elections members to fix a personnel issue themselves, the Ohio secretary of state's office Monday broke a deadlock between the board's Democrats and Republicans, ruling two employees should be fired while three others the Republicans sought to dismiss would keep their jobs.

The secretary of state's office also ordered full evaluations of all at-will employees.

Jon Stainbrook and Anthony DeGidio have pushed for a complete overhaul in the office since taking over the two Republican board seats this year.

They voted Aug. 2 to fire five employees from their own party but were stonewalled by Democrats Ron Rothenbuhler and Rita Clark, who voted against the terminations.

At the time, Mr. Rothenbuhler cited concerns over firing employees so close to an upcoming election.

The split vote brought high-ranking officials from Secretary of State Jon Husted's office to Toledo last week, where they said personnel decisions are best made locally and urged the board to come to a consensus.

The nudging didn't work.

"It was just apparent through conversations we had with the board they weren't going to be able to resolve the matter themselves," Matt McClellan, a spokesman for the secretary of state's office, said.

With that, the office decided Dennis Lange, a booth official, and Kelly Mettler, elections manager, would be let go.

In a letter to the Lucas County Board of Elections outlining the decision, Assistant Secretary of State Scott Borgemenke wrote it was "terribly disheartening but abundantly clear that there are irreconcilable differences between these two individuals and the Republican board members."

Ms. Mettler declined to comment. Mr. Lange could not be reached last night.

Mr. Stainbrook said the two didn't fit into the plan to move the office forward.

"We have a duty to serve the voters in a fair and transparent manner, and they were just employees that were not willing to do so," he said. "They weren't willing to do their job, and they were not willing to work with the new leadership. It's very sad."

Ms. Mettler has been an employee of the Board of Elections since 1994.

She was appointed elections manager in 2009.

At the time, Mr. Stainbrook, as GOP party chairman, opposed that promotion. She was paid $59,934.45 in 2010.

Mr. Lange, a former interim chairman of the Lucas County Republican Party, was hired by the board as a registrations clerk in 2004.

As a booth official, he was paid $38,415.34 in 2010.

Mr. McClellan said the effective date of the dismissal is up to the board.

"We're just saying this is what needs to happen," he said.

The three staff members whose jobs were spared by the secretary of state's office were Lori Jacek, Timothy Reynolds, and Matthew Ward.

Mr. Borgemenke's letter included a rebuke of the office, which remains under administrative supervision by the secretary of state's office.

The board, he wrote "continues to show no ability to self govern."

Mr. Husted ordered the Lucas County Board of Elections in March to fire its director and deputy director over their handling of provisional ballots.

Republican Ben Roberts, 43, of Maumee was recently hired as director and Democrat Daniel DeAngelis, 48, of Toledo was hired as deputy director.

The board has also suffered through some intraparty fighting the last few years -- Mr. Stainbrook and Mr. DeGidio ultimately replaced two board members whose resignations Mr. Stainbrook had been seeking -- Ben Marsh and Patrick Kriner.

Staff evaluations are to be done by the board and forwarded to the director and deputy director, who will have until Nov. 30 to make a joint recommendation back to the board on potential personnel changes.

Mr. Stainbrook said he and Mr. Rothenbuhler are in agreement that office-wide evaluations would be beneficial, though he wouldn't speculate on what possible changes might come of it.

"I think what we're going to have to do is work together, between the deputy director and director, and Ron and I, to make sure this reevaluation is done and after that's done we'll see if further changes need to be made," he said.

"We won't know until those evaluations are done."

Mr. Rothenbuhler could not be reached for comment last night.

Contact Tyrel Linkhorn at: tlinkhorn@theblade.com or 419-724-6134.

First Published August 9, 2011, 4:15 a.m.