The censures levied against a former Hudson councilwoman were recently rescinded by the city’s Council in a 6 to 1 vote.
Patricia Goetz, who introduced the proposal, said during the June 16 Council meeting that she “wanted to right a wrong” and that the actions to censure former Councilwoman at-large Nicole Kowalski were “excessive, unwarranted and likely politically motivated.”
Kowalksi, who was appointed as the clerk of courts for the Stow Municipal Court in January, was censured by City Council in December 2022 and October 2024. She served five years as a City Council member for the city of Hudson. She did not run for re-election for her Council seat in November 2025.
“I am grateful to Council for righting this wrong,” Kowalski stated to the Beacon Journal staff. “It has been a relief to my family and me to have my good name cleared of these partisan, politically motivated accusations. The type of partisan attacks I endured while serving on Council are why people are often reticent to run for public office.”
Council President Michael Bird, the Ward 4 representative, said he agreed with removing the censures.
“I think censures are always pretty much partisan,” Bird said. “I think it makes sense to rescind these two.”
Ward 3 Councilman Skyler Sutton, who cast the lone “no” vote, said that there were issues with the censures that much of the rest of the Council “don’t understand what they were rescinding” because they were not on Council at the time.
“This was a complex issue,” Sutton said. “I can’t discuss why decisions were made due to privileged information. Most people don’t have the full story.”
Censures stemmed from actions regarding campaigns, information
The censure from December 2022 stemmed from allegations former Councilman Chris Foster made that Kowalski had, without the consent or knowledge of the Council, pursued the prosecution of a political rival over alleged campaign finance violations. In doing so, Foster said, Kowalski spent money that would have required legislative approval.
Shortly after the December 2022 censure, Kowalski had filed a case against the city and City Council, asking for the censure to be overturned and for her to be allowed unredacted copies of documents. In February, Summit County Common Pleas Judge Tammy O’Brien stated she lacked jurisdiction to nullify the censure. Then in July, O’Brien ruled that attorney-client privilege did apply to the unredacted documents Kowalski sought.
However, O’Brien also ruled at a later date that Kowalski did not engage in frivolous legal actions, as city officials had claimed.
Hudson City Council again voted to censure Kowalski in a 4-2 vote during the Oct. 15 meeting. Goetz and Bird cast the dissenting votes against the measure during this meeting.
The Oct. 15 censure was because Kowalski shared privileged records to a Hudson resident shortly after the 2022 censure, Foster had said.
Reporter April Helms can be reached at ahelms@thebeaconjournal.com
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Hudson City Council erases censures against former Councilwoman Kowalski
Reporting by April Helms, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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By April Helms, Akron Beacon Journal | USA TODAY Network
