“It came to my attention last week that he had not paid his taxes and had a court order out,” Shamy said.
Shamy called Lowrey, “a hypocrite,” for trying to oust the city’s previous mayor, Ethan Reynolds, for tax issues while his own were ongoing.
Reynolds stepped down as mayor in May 2019 to, “pursue other life and career goals.” While serving as mayor, Reynolds was accused by Lowrey, and other members of the council, of not filing his city taxes for five years. Reynolds denies the accusation.
Lowrey said Shamy’s accusation is, “inaccurate and not true.”
“It was proven wrong as soon as the council meeting was over,” Lowrey said. “As soon as the meeting was over, I pulled out my phone and pulled up the tax website right then and there and showed everyone that all my taxes were filed and it said no taxes were owed.”
While Lowrey denies Shamy’s accusation, he did say there was a mistake made on his and his wife’s taxes in 2015.
“There was a mistake made on our taxes in 2015 and they told us about it in 2018 and gave us some time to get them paid, and which we did,” Lowrey said.
According to documents from the Ohio Department of Taxation, the Lowrey’s paid the $978 lien in full in February of this year, but the case against them remains “open” according to Clark County Common Pleas Court records.
Lowrey said he is in the process of resolving that.
“We have all of the proof and documentation. I’m sure someone will say, ‘Oh well he went home and paid it all that night,’ well unfortunately for them, it shows exactly when it was paid,” Lowrey said.
Shamy said he doesn’t care whether or not the issue has been resolved, he still believes Lowrey should be ousted.
“I still think he violated the city charter by not paying his taxes,” Shamy said. “I still think something should happen, I think he should be ousted because he still violated the charter by not paying taxes while he was on council.”
Lowrey has the opportunity to request a hearing from the council to hear relevant evidence. Following the hearing, the council will have 30 days to vote on whether or not to remove him, but Lowrey said he isn’t worried.
“I don’t think anything will come of this. I would assume it would just die because there is nothing to prove it,” Lowrey said.
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