Columbus City Council member Mitchell Brown announced Friday that he will step down at the end of this year. It鈥檚 the second Council resignation in two weeks, and the timing is raising some eyebrows.
Brown鈥檚 announcement signals the end of a 20-year run serving the city. In a statement, Brown calls the experience 鈥渉umbling, challenging and rewarding.鈥� He speaks about being a 13-year cancer survivor and that he鈥檚 looking forward to enjoying time with his family.
Prior to joining Columbus Council in 2016, Brown spent 15 years as Columbus鈥� director of public safety with oversight of the city鈥檚 police, fire and support services agencies 鈥� a tenure length that remains a city record.
Before coming to Columbus, Brown led various state agencies including the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Public Safety during the Voinivich administration. His work in paramedic response prior to that, in Pittsburgh, not only laid the ground work for his future career, it helped refine what we now think of as modern EMS.
Like Council member Priscilla Tyson, Brown was planning to run in this November鈥檚 election before announcing his resignation. The deadline to qualify has passed, so the only way replacement candidates can run is if a five-member nominating commission chooses to put them on the ballot.
That doesn鈥檛 sit well with former candidate Liliana Rivera Baiman.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really hard to see two people might end up on there who didn鈥檛 have to do any of the legwork," Baiman says. "Especially knowing the conditions in Columbus, when it鈥檚 zero degrees and you鈥檙e standing outside of Whetstone Library asking to people to come over during a pandemic to sign.鈥�
Ordinarily, candidates have to collect signatures from 1,000 registered voters.
In an interview after announcing her resignation, Tyson explained the process of selecting replacement candidates, but insisted she would not have a hand in the decision.
鈥淔rom this point, I鈥檓 not involved in that,鈥� Tyson said. 鈥淏ut that group of people on the petition would be the one that would select someone to be added to the ballot鈥攕hould they decide to do that. It doesn鈥檛 necessarily have to happen, but that鈥檚 the process.鈥�
Baiman suggests if the nominating commission does decide to select replacements candidates, perhaps they should ask the candidates to collect signatures anyway as a ways of demonstrating community support.
City council spokeswoman Lee Cole issued a statement saying, "We respect the decisions of Councilmembers Mitchell J. Brown and Priscilla R. Tyson to retire at the conclusion of their respective terms. The electoral process is beyond the purview of City Council. We look forward to accepting the results of the general election in November."
Joe Motil, who ran for Columbus Council the same year as Baiman, criticizes the timing of Tyson and Brown鈥檚 departure as well. In an emailed statement, he accuses them of acting as "placeholders."
鈥淭yson and Brown most likely kept other potential candidates from getting on the ballot who would have been more interested in running for an open seat on City Council rather than going up against an incumbent,鈥� Motil writes. 鈥淭his is just another instance of Columbus' establishment Democrats using deception to avoid competition and to maintain their control and power on city council.鈥�
Motil compares the move to Council鈥檚 reliance on the appointment process to fill vacancies. Since 1998, only two Columbus Council members have initially won their seat through an election, while the rest have been appointed first by the Council itself.
Council president Shannon Hardin is the only incumbent left on the ballot this November. Lourdes Barroso de Padilla, an executive with City Year who was previously shortlisted for a council vacancy, and Tom Sussi, an independent investigative reporter, are also running for the three seats up in this November鈥檚 election.
In statement, Sussi criticized the 鈥渟tranglehold鈥� Democrats have on city politics.
鈥淭he people of Columbus need to wake up,鈥� Sussi wrote. 鈥淭his is not democracy but a cunning and disgusting chess game in which career politicians use citizens as pawns to advance their careers and agendas. This needs to stop.鈥�
星空无限传媒 has requested further comment from Barroso de Padilla's campaign.
