REPORT CARD: Jeremy McIntire - Council At-Large
Obstructing the Mayor at Every Turn Isn't Leadership
NOTE: The article below was published on Oct. 9, 2023, in advance of the Nov. 7 election for Stow City Council. McIntire won the third City Council At-Large seat by a margin of 164 votes (5,621 vs. 5,457) over Dr. David Licate, who had completed his first term on council. Since then, both men have announced their candidacy for Summit County Council in Nov. 2024. McIntire applied for Republican nomination, for which he will compete against long-time incumbent District 3 County Councilwoman Gloria Rodgers, in the March 19, 2024 Ohio primary. Licate will run unopposed as the Democratic candidate.
City Council President and At-Large Councilman Jeremy McIntire seems to think that being a good leader means trying to prove every day that you’re the smartest person in the room.
Or, that holding an administration accountable means relentlessly questioning the expertise of city employees who have been doing the work of keeping the city safe, well-funded and operational for many years.
Or, that collaboration means blowing up proposals that the administration has spent months (or years) preparing, just for the sake of putting his thumbprint on the matter.
In McIntire’s reality, he runs the city, and the mayor, law director, finance director, police chief, fire chief, city engineer and 275 or so other city employees report to him. At least that’s what appears to be the case if you attend or watch any city council meetings.
In McIntire’s reality, everything he says and does is in the service of the people of Stow. But, to anyone watching his performance, it is a performance. McIntire steamrolls anyone who has a point of view different than his, ignores good questions that deserve answers, and refuses the advice of other councilmen or city officials who have valuable input based on their experience, just to get done what he wants and how he wants it.
Here are a few examples:
Appointing former term-limited councilman Matt Riehl to the vacant Ward 1 council position in January 2022 after the death of Dennis Altieri, without consideration of or interviewing the 8 other applicants. See the full story about the appointment.
See resident Mike Daniels’ public comments about this:
Disregarding the mayor’s concerns about the performance audit after Mayor John Pribonic addressed the issue in a Jan. 26 meeting. See McIntire move onto the next item without addressing Pribonic’s comments:
Ignoring the advice of the city’s law department and mayor that a charter amendment requiring the city’s all-volunteer boards and commissions to broadcast their meetings violates multiple sections of Stow’s Charter. See the mayor's letter beneath the legislation, explaining the reasons for his veto of the original legislation.
Leading council to over-legislate by writing charter amendments that aren’t needed and concern topics that shouldn’t be in the city charter or be decided by voters.
Asking voters to force boards and commissions to broadcast their meetings (even though very few people even watch city council meetings online) because the mayor had already vetoed McIntire's legislation to force this.
Asking voters to instruct the mayor to give a “State of the City” speech to city council, when all McIntire needed to do was ask the mayor to give a speech and set aside the time in the city council’s agenda (which he controls) for him to do it.
Asking voters to tell an administrative assistant where to sit, rather than letting the administration handle city employee seating assignments.
Disregarding the administration’s and law department’s expertise in negotiating contracts; unreasonably delaying and trying to micromanage and re-negotiate an updated compensation plan for non-union employees who hadn't had merit pay increases in 15 years. After five months of delaying the issue, he voted against giving the employees merit raises on Sept. 28 because he wanted council to maintain control over approving every individual pay raise for approximately 50 employees. Read about this debacle.
Voting down legislation to use $90,000 in opioid lawsuit settlement payments for a new two-year program for youth substance abuse counseling and drug prevention services after none of the other council members would second his motion to only spend half the received amount on those services.
See Police Chief Film describing the need for this program, the funding sources and the counselor selected to administer the program, as well as McIntire's concern about not knowing enough of the details to approve:
See McIntire's comments before the final vote on Sept. 28 as well as those of Councilman David Licate, who sponsored with bill with the Chief Film and Law Director Jaime Syx:
And, who can forget how long City Council fought against joining a regional dispatch center, even after the city’s police chief and fire chief explained many times at council meetings that this was a good move for the city AND the city’s voters approved a charter amendment in November 2020 to join. Voters passed the amendment by a large 58%-42% margin. McIntire was tireless in trying to derail this effort before finally voting to approve it on Jan. 27, 2022.
See comments from citizens who addressed council’s delay of approving the regional dispatch center at the Jan. 27, 2022 Council of the Whole meeting, including Mike Daniels, who said: “Regional Dispatch Center, why is there any conversation on us joining still. People voted. Your job should be to execute the will of the people.”:
See Councilman At-Large David Licate's comments about the amount of research and effort that had gone into vetting the plan. McIntire follows with his comments; despite all the information and input he acknowledges having gotten, and endorsement of the proposal from the police and fire chiefs, dispatchers, administration and the public, he ultimately views joining the regional dispatch center as a zero-sum game, with Stow being on the losing end:
Disrespecting the expertise of department heads, disregarding the input of other city councilmen, city officials and residents, and micromanaging on issues that the city’s charter specifies as being within the authority of the city’s administration has led to unnecessary delays in completing important city business and damaged the relationship between council and other city employees. Appointing a friend for the Ward 1 council position rather than interviewing other qualified candidates may happen in private companies, but this is a taxpayer-funded job that deserves more consideration.
McIntire should be fired -- both as City Council President and as Council At-Large. It’s up to the people of Stow to do that on Nov. 7.
