ATHENS, Ohio — An Athens Board of Zoning Appeals member resigned via his attorney at an Athens City Council meeting Monday night, following weeks of controversy regarding his reappointment.
At council’s Oct. 21 meeting, attorney Rusty Rittenhouse read aloud a zoning board resignation from local landlord Joe Krause, which read in part:
I faithfully served the city of Athens for five years, and like to thank Steve Patterson for appointing me to this position. I have always felt incredibly indebted to this wonderful community that has been so good to me and my family, and being on the board has been my way of giving back. I want to thank the members of city council for giving me this opportunity and I would like to thank my fellow zoning board members, Aaron Thomas, Ben Lachman and Chair Rob Delach with whom I have faithfully served. It has been a great privilege of mine to have been on the board of zoning appeals.
The Board of Zoning Appeals comprises five members, appointed by the mayor and subject to council confirmation, who may grant variances from zoning requirements, subject to council approval.
Krause’s proposed reappointment had been criticized by United Athens County Tenants, a renters’ advocacy group, on grounds that Krause’s properties repeatedly failed code inspections. Based on public records, UACT released a report in 2022 accusing Krause of 90–100% failure rates for various inspections over a 14-year period. The Independent has not verified the accuracy of those claims.
Records obtained by the Independent show that council member Alan Swank, 4th Ward, sought to verify UACT’s data. In an email Oct. 21, Swank told the Independent that “the administration” said on Sept. 23 that “Mr. Krause is not out of the ordinary with either violations or reinspection no shows.”
Krause’s reappointment also caused a clash between Mayor Steve Patterson and members of the city council, who disagree about whether the mayor can legally reappoint members of city boards and commissions without council approval. Although council voted to table the question of Krause’s and Lachman’s reappointments at its Sept. 23 meeting, Patterson proceeded to swear in both men without council’s approval, WOUB reported.
Public records obtained by the Independent show that Lachman’s term expired Oct. 4 and Krause’s expired Oct. 9. Krause was set to serve a third, three-year term. The council on Monday unanimously confirmed Lachman’s reappointment for a three-year term.
Krause’s withdrawal from the zoning board proves that “community activism works,” UACT member Damon Krane told the council Monday night.
“It works even for renters — who, despite making up the majority of city residents — historically have not had many allies in city government,” Krane said. “I think renters found some allies in city government this week.”
Krause did not provide comment(s) in time for publication. Rittenhouse told the Independent by email that “Joe decided to step down out of respect for the BZA and his fellow board members. He did not want the spectacle of these personal attacks to occur at BZA meetings, which would only distract from the important work that it does for our community.”
The mayor did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
Debate over Patterson’s appointment power
Patterson originally suggested the council reappoint Krause and Lachman at the council’s Sept. 16 meeting. At Swank’s motion, the council tabled the issue because, while the meeting agenda included an item for “Mayor’s appointment and reappointments to the Board of Zoning Appeals,” it did not include the names of those being appointed or reappointed or any information about them.
When Council President Sam Crowl said he was “comfortable” moving on the issue immediately, Swank noted that a “significant number of members of the community” had “concerns” about one of the appointments. “Had we known those were going to be on [the agenda] tonight, they could have been here to speak to that,” Swank said.
At the council’s Oct. 7 meeting, the council unanimously brought the item off the table and then unanimously referred it to the committee of the whole. At the council’s Oct. 14 committee of the whole meeting, Patterson suggested again the council move to re-appoint Krause and Lachman to the board.
Patterson said on Oct. 14 that because the code is “silent” on his ability to reappoint the individuals to the board, he may do so without council’s approval. An appointment is different from a reappointment, he argued.
However, Athens City Law Director Lisa Eliason informed council members by email on Oct. 10 that in her opinion, “a reappointment by the mayor would require confirmation by council.” Since the city code does not specify reappointments, though, she suggested that the council might consider amending the code.
Eliason’s email noted that council has historically approved reappointments.
At the Oct. 14 council meeting, members rejected Patterson’s assertion that he can reappoint board members without their approval.
“I think it is fair that we should have a say in what kind of person is best qualified, and after having seen what they’ve done, perhaps their reputation or their cooperation or lack thereof, or some other qualification would make them less ideal than someone else,” Spjeldnes said.
Councilman Michael Wood, 3rd Ward, said that council’s input provides necessary oversight of board appointments.
“If there’s no reconfirmation on our part, then I think that that in effect, becomes a lifetime appointment, and especially on an immensely powerful board such as the BZA,” Wood said. “I think that that is something we should rectify quickly.”
The mayor responded that if the council amended the city code to specifically include approval of reappointments, he wanted veto power over their decisions.
Earlier in the meeting, Krane accused Patterson of “behaving like an autocrat” in rejecting council approval of reappointments. Patterson said that was “silly.”
Spjeldnes said UACT’s report of Krause’s record as a landlord influenced her views.
“I think if you’re going to be on a commission, you should be an exemplary person in that field,” she said. “I don’t see him [Krause] as exemplary.”
Board of Zoning Appeals Chair Rob Delach told the council that “[Krause’s] representation on the board of zoning appeals really doesn’t interact having to do with his capacity as a landlord.”
Spjeldnes also objected to Krause’s “abrasive” behavior at the zoning board’s Oct. 8 meeting. (A former city resident who watched the meeting online wrote to Patterson on Oct. 9 describing Krause’s behavior as that of “a loud, hot-tempered bully.”)
“I find that uncomfortable and I don’t really understand why [Mayor Patterson] would stake so much for Mr. Krause,” Spjelndes said. “I’m curious about that.”
Rittenhouse rebuttal sparks objections
Around 1 a.m. on Oct. 14, UACT sent a letter to members of city council outlining its objections to Krause’s reappointment. Those objections were based on its 2022 report on the collapse of a ceiling in a house at 79 Shafer St. UACT then shared its letter with the mayor around noon.
Spjeldnes forwarded the letter she received to Walker at around 9 a.m., asking that it be shared with the rest of council. Records show that the mayor forwarded Spjeldnes’ email to both Krause and his attorney, Rusty Rittenhouse around 10 a.m.
Shortly before that evening’s council meeting, Rittenhouse sent a statement to council clerk Debbie Walker, asking her to share it with council members. He also read the statement aloud during the meeting.
Apparently referring to Spjeldnes, Rittenhouse said, “Earlier today, a City Council member disseminated defamatory statements about Mr. Krause that appear to have been originally provided by the ‘United Athens County Tenants.’”
Rittenhouse called UACT’s letter to council a “smear campaign” that had nothing to do with Krause’s work on the board of zoning appeals.
“Instead, these malicious and false statements focus on Mr. Krause’s profession,” Rittenhouse said in his statement. “They are designed not only to hurt him as a public servant, but also his ability to make a living in our community.”
UACT disputed the idea that his profession is unrelated to his role on the board of zoning appeals in a letter to council dated Oct. 18. The letter was read aloud at the Oct. 21 meeting by Caitlyn McDaniel, an attorney representing UACT.
“Mr. Krause’s history of housing code violations and unsafe business practices directly undermines the municipal ordinances BZA members purport to uphold,” the letter states. “For the BZA to be credible and effective, Mr. Krause’s misconduct must disqualify him from serving.”
In his statements, Rittenhouse also referred to the structural collapse at 79 Shafer St., which triggered the 2022 UACT report, as an “allegation.” However, WOUB reported in 2022 that a ceiling in the property did collapse due a roof leak — something code inspections do not account for.
In his statement, Rittenhouse suggested that a dog walking on the roof caused damage related to the collapse. He provided a photo, which he also sent to council; the Independent obtained it via public records request. He said Krause moved quickly to remedy the situation.
Rittenhouse said that the tenants of the property where the roof collapsed (they did not live there when it collapsed), “were released from their lease after one of them represented that they were battling cancer and were facing financial difficulties. Mr. Krause later learned that these individuals were members of ‘United Athens County Tenants’ and may not have been forthright.”
That drew a sharp rebuke from the former tenant, who wrote to the council on Oct. 15.
“To be clear, my husband did have cancer,” she wrote. “Suggesting that may or may not be true is not only upsetting but profoundly offensive.”
She also objected to Rittenhouse’s implication that their work with UACT undermined their position.
“Just because we support fair housing initiatives … does not mean we had ulterior motives when asking to leave the lease,” she wrote. “The fact that we advocate for tenant rights does not give anyone the moral right to question the validity of our personal hardship.” She attached proof of her husband’s diagnosis and treatments with the email.
In a separate email, also on Oct. 15, a Shafer St. resident told council members that the property was a “dump” and a “perfect, PERFECT example of neglect and continual blight in our community.”
“Krause Rentals has no business whatsoever having a part in deciding anything related to the zoning and housing regulations in our city,” she wrote.
Accusations of antisemitism
In addition to rebutting UACT’s statements about Krause’s maintenance of his properties, Rittenhouse accused UACT of antisemitism because Krause is “one of few Jewish public servants in Athens.”
“One of the most vocal members of ‘organization’ is a staunch pro-Palestinian supporter,” Rittenhouse said in his written statement, though he did not say aloud at the Oct. 14 meeting. “The other nominees for the Board of Zoning Appeals are not Jewish. Interestingly enough, they have not been subject to these personal attacks.”
According to Athens County Auditor records, the other nominees — Lachman and new appointees Paul Isherwood and Shay Myers — own only their personal residences.
Rabbi Levi Raichik, the director of Chabad at Ohio University (a Krause tenant) spoke in Krause’s favor at the Oct. 21 council meeting.
“I’m very good friends with Joe,” he told the council. “Many students come in with problems, with issues, problems with their housing … It’s almost like he treats most of his tenants like his own children in the way he helps them, walks them through the process, does whatever needs to be done … We need more people like Joe involved in the city, not less.”
UACT rejected Rittenhouse’s accusation in its Oct. 18 letter to council, calling it “a derogatory and bald-faced attempt to obfuscate the real issue at stake: tenants’ rights to safe and habitable rental units in the City of Athens.”
None of the group’s materials about the reappointment have mentioned Krause’s ethnicity.
Rittenhouse responded to the UACT letter during the council meeting, noting that he offered to meet with UACT.
Krane responded, “I appreciate that, Rusty. I just don’t think that the response to public accusations is private conversation. I think the appropriate response is a public apology.”
Dani Kington contributed to this story.
Correction: A previous version of this article erroneously conflated a couple of individuals who sent aforementioned emails, obtained via public records request. The article has been corrected and we apologize for this error. Clauses have also been added since initial publication to clarify the distinction between tenants and what Rittenhouse said aloud to council vs. his written statement.
Let us know what's happening in your neck of the woods!
Get in touch and share a story!
