08/19/2026
WHERE DID CITY COUNCIL GO?
Multiple questions have been raised about the disappearance of the Bucyrus City Council page, the lack of meeting announcements, and the cancellation of scheduled Council meetings. The public deserves a clear explanation.
The previous City Council page was deleted by a former Council President after questions arose regarding how the page was being used. At the time, I was personally advised that creating a replacement Council page was unnecessary because the City’s Communications Director could post Council meeting notices and announcements directly to the City of Bucyrus page.
That provided residents with an accessible way to know when their elected representatives were meeting.
That practice appears to have stopped abruptly, without explanation to the public.
Residents should not have to regularly navigate a poorly designed municipal website just to determine whether their elected officials are meeting, particularly when social media had already been used as an additional means of communicating this information.
The timing makes the lack of communication even more concerning.
Residents are currently asking significant questions about decisions involving Flock cameras, garbage trucks, City finances, and other matters affecting the community. At precisely the time when public attention and scrutiny have increased, communication from Council has decreased.
There is also a separate issue contributing to the cancellation of Council meetings.
Former Council President Kevin Myers resigned after moving outside the city limits. That vacancy left President Pro Tempore Jim Mee serving as Acting Council President and, consequently, created a vacancy in the President Pro Tempore position.
Mr. Mee had advised Council well in advance that he had a previously scheduled family vacation. Following the Council President’s resignation, and with that absence approaching, Council was advised by legal counsel to appoint a new President Pro Tempore so that Council could continue conducting its business during the Acting President’s absence.
Council chose not to make that appointment.
That decision (or, more accurately, that failure to act) has consequences.
Ohio law assigns responsibility for presiding over Council meetings to the Council President and, in the President’s absence, the President Pro Tempore. Council members knew there was a vacancy. They knew the Acting President would be unavailable. They were advised of a mechanism to address the problem.
They nevertheless declined to act.
Whether one characterizes that as poor planning, dysfunction, or a failure to fulfill Council’s responsibilities, the practical result is the same: the people’s business is not being conducted.
And when scheduled meetings are canceled, residents should not have to discover that information by chance.
Transparency is not merely posting legally required notices somewhere on a government website and expecting residents to find them. Good government requires actively communicating with the people you represent, particularly when previously established methods of communication suddenly stop.
There may be perfectly legitimate explanations for each of these decisions.
Then explain them.
Why did Council meeting announcements stop appearing on the City’s page?
Who made that decision?
Why was the public not informed of the change?
Why did Council decline to appoint a President Pro Tempore after being advised to do so?
Why were scheduled meetings allowed to become impossible or impractical to conduct?
And what is being done to ensure this does not happen again?
Residents asking these questions are not the problem.
Public officials refusing or failing to provide clear answers is.
While Bucyrus residents continue waiting for answers about Flock cameras, garbage trucks, City finances, and other consequential decisions, City Council should be making itself more accessible, not less.
The public deserves functioning government, adequate notice, accessible meetings, and answers from the people elected to represent them.
