AND THE WINNER IS........?

Council held a special meeting on Thursday to select a new Council-at-Large replacement for Chuck Brunello, who stepped into the mayor’s chair after Scott Coleman resigned in disgrace.

Although there was some uncertainty last week as to how Council would proceed with the selection process, consensus on the subject was apparently reached pretty quickly on Monday.

Council developed and shared a standardized list of interview questions. It then invited all of the residents who had timely applied for the position to attend Thursday’s meeting, present themselves and answer the questions….subject to a five minute time limit.

Council Clerk Regina Cahill‘s gentle taps with a gavel proved quite effective at enforcing the time limit.

Maybe they should hire Cahill as the time enforcer for next year’s Oscar awards ceremony….

Council chambers was a sea of gentlemen in ties and coats.
Except for a 23 year old recent College of Wooster grad, the rest of the bunch were seasoned lawyers, engineers, businessmen and economic development professionals.
Many served on city boards or committees, such as the Planning & Zoning Commission, the Planning & Zoning Appeals Board, the Park & Recreation Committee and the Community Day Committee.

I was disappointed not to see any women applicants address Council on Thursday.
I later learned that one woman had timely applied but was unable to attend the meeting (Rose M. Burrello Gype).
Council accepted a written submission from her along with submissions from two other timely applicants who were similarly absent (Bryan Carr and Gerald L. Sink).

Two women sent applications in after the deadline….Amy K. Dhillon and Elizabeth M. Kryszan….and one applicant withdrew her name from consideration (Carol A. Ganser).
Council accepted the applications that Dhilon and Kryszan submitted but, enforcing the deadline, did not invite them to speak on Thursday.

All in all Council heard presentations from 10 applicants: Frank DiLalla, Scott Andrew Mills, Sean Milroy, Vince A. Adamus, Sol H. Chalhoub, Robert D. Warner, Patrick Mohorcic, Joe Corradetti, David A. Corrado and Anthony DeLisio.
Of that list only one…Sean Milroy…is a long-time, regular Council meeting attendee.

The presentations varied but several themes emerged: concerns about keeping up infrastructure and fostering economic development in the city, the need for collaboration and problem solving, the desire to give back to the community.

Pretty much what you’d expect.

What I didn’t expect was to see Acting Mayor Brunello join in the executive session that followed the meeting.

According to the city’s Charter, it’s up to the Council---and Council members alone---to select the winning candidate for the empty Council-at-Large chair.

It wasn’t clear to me why the Acting Mayor insisted on injecting himself into Council’s closed door selection discussion.

What was clear to me is that not all Council members were comfortable or pleased that Brunello did so.

Council President Lisa Marie Stickan attempted to explain that Brunello would be present:

“for the purpose of observation….If Council doesn’t reach a decision then it will be up to the mayor to appoint someone (to fill the Council-At-Large seat) after a certain period of time."

But she was immediately contradicted by Law Director Tim Paluf.
Paluf made clear that Brunello was not going to simply sit quietly and observe the discussion:

“He (Brunello) can discuss. He can share his observations (with Council).”

In other words, Brunello’s attendance put him in the position of potentially influencing Council’s decision.

Like I said, that didn’t sit well with everyone.
Councilwoman Cathy Murphy retorted:

“That’s not something the mayor should be influencing.”

But, once again, Brunello apparently disagreed.

After more than an hour I gave up waiting for Council to reach a decision.
I’ll post the name of the winning candidate as soon as I hear it.