Fulton County Ohio Media

Brooklyn Green (pictured) knocked down four three-pointers on her way to 24 points and Braelyn Wymer had three triples and 20 points as the Delta Lady Panthers took home a victory at Evergreen, beating the Lady Vikings 64-50. Delta held a 21-point lead in the second half before Evergreen rallied to pull within 12 before finally falling by the 14-point margin. Bekah Bowser scored 17 points for the Lady Vikings including a halftime buzzer-beating three from approximately 15 feet behind the arc.

The Delta Lady Panthers raced out out to a 22-9 lead early in the second half then had to withstand a furious rally by the Evergreen Lady Vikings to squeak past the home team 27-25 in JV basketball. Alani Haas (pictured), who led Delta with 11 points, drained a late three-pointer to provide the winning margin. Lucy Serna had 13 points for Evergreen, including eight in the final quarter, to fuel the comeback.

The word “coup”, used in the context of taking control or overturning a government, has been used countless times in the past four years and an unimaginable amount in the past week with the chaos involving the insurrection at the U.S. Capital Building in Washington. We always think of coups taking place at the highest level of a country’s government. But make no mistake, no matter how you choose to define it, it can happen with any governing body of any organization.

What transpired at Swanton’s first Village Council meeting of 2021 this past Monday night may not have officially been a coup, but it absolutely had the feel and effectiveness of one. Topping the list of housekeeping priorities at the beginning of every year for the Swanton Village Council is the election of a President Pro Tempore or President of the Council and establishing the Rules of Council. The Council re-elected Craig Rose by a 6-0 margin after which Mr. Rose read two major changes to the Rules of Council which would need Council’s approval.

The first was the elimination of the Mayor’s Report on the meeting agenda. Furthermore, all items placed on the agenda must be pre-approved by the President Pro Tempore, Mr. Rose. This report has been used by Mayor Neil Toeppe to inform the Council and the public of activities, events, meetings and various interactions with other state and local officials as they relate to the duties of the mayor of Swanton. He also uses the time to bring up new initiatives to improve the Village and it’s standing in Fulton County and Northwest Ohio and sometimes areas of concern that he has been made aware of by Village residents.

Mr. Rose justified this change by saying the Mayor’s only duty during Council meetings is to be a non-partisan observer of the process and not to give his opinion on matters being discussed by the Council as the legislative body. He added that the report was something implemented by the previous mayor, Ann Roth. “It was not part of the process before, stated Mr. Rose. We’re going to go back to the old process.” Maybe Mr. Rose believes the best way to adhere to the portion of Swanton’s motto that states “Honoring the Past” is to live in it.

The second major change to the Rules of Council was to remove the position of the mayor from being an “ex officio” on the Village’s standing commissions such as the Planning and Tree Commissions. An ex officio attends meeting only to participate in the discussion and does not have a vote when deciding on recommendations to the Council. As explained by Mr. Rose, the reason for this change was to give Council control of that process even though the Council had full authority to accept or reject any recommendations by the commissions. Mr. Rose also stated the the practice was not standard in the State of Ohio to which Councilman Dave Pilliod responded by saying, “We don’t have to emulate anybody.” The rationale was not only weak, it was unsubstantiated.

When the discussion was finished the Council voted 5-1 to approve the changes with only Mr. Pilliod voting against while Mr. Rose, Tony Stuart, Kathy Kreuz, Mike Rochelle and Dianne Westhoven voted for. It seems obvious to me this action by the Swanton Village Council amounts to no more an attempt to minimize any effect or influence Mayor Toeppe would have in the governance of this Village. They would like him to sit and be quiet not allow another voice of the people to be heard. Mr. Toeppe ran and was elected on a platform of boosting the Swanton economy with economic development initiatives and has been blocked every step of the way by the Council.

I attended every Village Council meeting in person or by live-streaming through Zoom in 2020 and witnessed first-hand a lack of cooperation with Mr. Toeppe by the Council, mainly coming from Mr. Rose and Councilman Rochelle who was in lock-step with Mr. Rose when it came to objecting to the Mayor’s initiatives. In the end, who winds up on the losing side of all of this? The Village of Swanton.

As we are all aware, sometimes painfully so, elections have consequences. Who, as a people, we choose to lead us, may have a significant impact on our lives. And once those governing bodies are seated, they elect someone to lead them. For example, when the 117th Congress began, the House of Representatives re-elected Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. It is a position that carries a lot of power and influence.

Like most municipalities, the Village of Swanton has a similar protocol. One of the first orders of business to begin the new year is for the newly seated village council to elect a President pro tempore. According to the Ohio Revised Code, Section 731.10, “When the mayor is absent from the village or is unable, for any cause to perform his duties, the president pro tempore shall be the acting mayor, and shall have the same powers and perform the same duties as the mayor.” Simply put, the president pro tempore is the mayor’s understudy.

However, the Swanton Village Council calls this position “Council President” and gives this individual far more power than just serving as a fill-in. He is allowed to include or reject items of discussion on meeting agendas, including ones proposed by the mayor. He is also allowed to call for votes to “table” issues indefinitely without any timetable to bring the issue back up before council, effectively killing any proposed legislation. This “arrangement” severely limits the mayor’s ability to guide the Village of Swanton down a path of continuous improvement if the council president objects to it.

Last year, Neil Toeppe took the gavel as the newly-elected Mayor of Swanton, having defeated incumbent Mayor Ann Roth by a wide margin. It was a result not result easily accepted by all council members. During the first Swanton Village Council meeting, Councilman Mike Rochelle nominated Councilman Craig Rose for council president. What quickly developed and continued over the next 12 months was a culture of obstructionism aimed at almost all proposals brought to the Council by Mayor Toeppe.

The mayor proposed the formation of an all volunteer economic development commission that would work to increase the number of businesses within the village and expand the tax base. The increase in business tax revenue would allow the village to maintain and improve village services to the residents without adding to their individual tax burden. This was vigorously rejected several times by Mr. Rose and Mr. Rochelle, even when small businesses in the local economy were heavily and negatively impacted by COVID-19 pandemic.

When the Council was forced to meet remotely because of the pandemic, they were also required to broadcast the meetings using Zoom. Mayor Toeppe recommended broadcasting all meetings to the public as standard operating procedure to allow all Swanton residents to attend and be informed without having to be physically present. This was rejected by Mr. Rose and Mr. Rochelle, first on the grounds that there was not enough interest and then because of cost. When the interest was shown to be significant and the cost could be covered by COVID relief funds, Mr. Rose cited potential legal consequences because of words spoken during the meeting though no examples these consequences involving village councils in the state of Ohio were found by the Village’s solicitor.

Mr. Toeppe forwarded and supported a request from the Swanton Local School District for assistance with the Village’s youth sports programs. Mr. Rochelle and Mr. Rose both cited agreeing to this request would be “bad business.” Supporting the youth of our community should never be considered as bad business.

This obstructionism has its roots in personal agendas and is detrimental to the progress and economic future of the Village of Swanton. Tonight, January 11th, 2021, the Swanton Village Council meets for the first time in the new year. Another election will be conducted to name the council president. We can only hope that personal agendas are checked at the door and the council chooses wisely.