The Stow Ward 1 Council Vacancy Sham
Position Goes to McIntire Buddy without Interviewing Any Applicants
Although Ward 1 residents decide the city councilperson who will represent them, the position is important to the entire city.
The area of Stow City Council Ward 1 encompasses the Southern-most section of the city, everything East of Englewood Drive and South of Graham Road.
Notable features of this ward include Adell Durbin Park, Wetmore Park, Northport Park, Kent State University Airport, Roses Run Country Club, the retail plazas along Kent Rd., five grocery stores (if you count Target) and the annual 4th of July parade route along Kent Rd. So, it’s likely that every resident of Stow, not just those living within the boundaries of this ward, has been impacted by the goings on in this area.
Unfortunately, for the past two years, Ward 1 has been represented by someone the residents didn’t choose and who perhaps wasn’t the best option for the position.
On January 27, 2022, Stow City Council President Jeremy McIntire nominated former term-limited councilman Matt Riehl to a Ward 1 Council vacancy that occurred as a result of the death of Councilman Dennis Altieri on November 27, 2021.
The appointment occurred a little over a month after 9 residents filed applications for the position. On December 6, 2021, the clerk of council’s office sent an email to city officials and the Akron Beacon Journal outlining the details and process for selecting a new Ward 1 councilman as determined by the council elected for the 2022-23 term.
The position was advertised on the city’s website and Facebook pages:
Council met for its January 3, 2022, organizational meeting and began discussions of the position and the applications. There is no specified process in Stow’s Charter for how council shall fill a vacancy; it only specifies that it must be done within 45 days or the decision goes to the mayor.
During the three council meetings that occurred before the final selection, not one of the applicants was interviewed by the full council before McIntire nominated Riehl on January 27 and called for the vote. Riehl was accepted on a 4-2 vote, with McIntire, Ward 2 Councilwoman Sindi Harrison, Ward 3 Councilman Brian Lowdermilk and Ward 4 Councilman Mario Fiocca voting in favor; Councilmen At-Large Cyle Feldman and David Licate voted against on the basis that a proper interview process had not been conducted.
Qualified Applicants Ignored
Applicants for city positions are considered to be public information. The following information was gathered as a result of a Records Request to the Clerk of Council. (We have redacted the phone numbers and email addresses of the applicants.)
The other applicants for the Ward 1 City Council vacancy were:
Bruce Campbell, a longtime Stow resident who had served as the Director of Public Safety in North Royalton for more than 11 years, exhibiting credentials that would have been helpful as the city proceeded to enter a regional dispatch center with nearby communities. See Campbell’s application here.
Campbell was at the Jan. 27, 2022, city council meeting where Riehl was appointed and addressed the council on another topic of importance – the regional dispatch center. Had council interviewed him, they might have recognized the contribution he could have made to the city. See his comments here:
Chad McCracken, a career IT specialist who had served on the Mayfield Heights Police Department Auxiliary Unit, also applied. See McCracken’s application here.
David Baumgardner offered extensive experience in business management as a healthcare executive. See his application.
John Olzinger was a retired manager in safety, health and regulatory program management. See his resume.
John Reid was the former mayor of Chardon, Ohio, and former president of its Chamber of Commerce. He also was a top executive for a national trade association. See his application.
Trina Poole is a social studies teacher at Stow-Munroe Falls High School who teaches Government, AP Government and Politics, and who has a Master of Educational Administration degree. See her resume.
Mark Baxter offered varied experiences in education and business along with numerous volunteer engagements. See his application.
Sheryl Hall is a retired teacher who presented a philosophy for how she would represent the residents of Ward 1. See her application.
An Expedient Choice
Matt Riehl’s application consisted of a one-page letter touting a few city council accomplishments from his prior 12 years in City Council and two newspaper articles. There was no resume describing his education or work experience. See Riehl’s application here.
Selecting Riehl to fill the vacant council position must have been an obvious choice for several council members. Not only had he previously held the position, he also was the president of the Stow Conservative Coalition, a group to which several other council members belonged (Sindi Harrison was Vice President and McIntire’s wife Claire was Secretary). See the group's letterhead below.
Although Stow elections are considered non-partisan, the GOP majority in City Council wanted to replace Altieri, a Republican, with someone sharing their same political pedigree, even though doing so would bypass other registered Republicans who had sent in applications, including Campbell, Baumgardner, Olzinger, Reid, Poole and Hall.
For the majority of Stow residents who voted in favor of City Council term limits that caused Riehl to be term-limited in 2019, his appointment to the vacant, full two-year term is a violation of the spirit of that law. With eight other seemingly qualified applicants, McIntire had a duty to set up interviews, which should have been done in public during City Council’s meetings to ensure full transparency of the process.
In less than 1 minute during the Jan. 27 City Council meeting, McIntire nominated Riehl, took the vote and invited no comment. There was no public discussion of the appointment by council during the meeting or acknowledgment by McIntire of the other applicants.
See the appointment here:
Councilman Licate expressed his dismay at the way the position was appointed. See how McIntire cuts him off as he’s thanking the other applicants:
Resident Mike Daniels, who was present at the meeting, addressed council with his concerns over the process.
Later, applicant Baumgardner posted this on Facebook in response to a post by Licate about what happened.
Several other applicants sent emails to city council questioning the process. Copies of those emails were requested for this article through a Records Request, but were not received in time for this article. They will be added once received.
In the letter from Riehl’s, Harrison’s and McIntire’s Stow Conservative Coalition, you’ll notice that the group claims an adherence to government transparency:
Well, there was no transparency in the filling of the Ward 1 vacancy.
Further, while the controlling faction of council has deemed it appropriate to reject re-appointments the mayor has made to the various all-volunteer city boards and commissions on the basis that those people have served the city for too long, it turned around and appointed someone who had been term-limited out of his council position. See the story regarding conflicts with the mayor over commission appointments.
But, beyond that, the result of this sham vacancy appointment has been a Ward 1 councilman who finds attending twice-monthly meetings to be too demanding. See Riehl’s attendance record as part of his report card.
The lesson here is that a better-defined process for filling a council vacancy should be included in the Stow Charter, and City Council has had two years to address that. Instead, council has written charter amendments on which Stow citizens will vote in November that serve no purpose other than messing with the administrative functions of the mayor’s office or his administration. See the charter amendments that are on the ballot in November.
Ward 1 residents and the rest of Stow deserve better.
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