Dog and pony show part two: the email edition

BUCYRUS—An explosive city council meeting on Tuesday night led to a departing citizen leaving a cryptic warning.

Bucyrus Council Clerk Megan Conley read two emails. The accusatory email sent from Dan Wirebaugh’s daughter Brittany Wirebaugh further upset citizen Carolyn Shireman when she was not given an opportunity to respond. Wirebaugh’s email read:

March 17, 2022

Elected officials of Bucyrus:

I am writing to all elected officials of the City of Bucyrus to express my concern and extreme disappointment of the lack of support that some elected officials of Bucyrus have received on behalf of the city. Elected officials are employees of the City of Bucyrus. They should all be supported and held with the utmost respect at all times, and most certainly from their fellow elected officials.

Over the past +/- 2 years, you have had numerous people of the public become more and more aggressive with their harassment towards your elected officials. For nothing more than a power trip to exacerbate some sort of superfluous superiority complex. It is time to stand up and start supporting your employees and coworkers. Namely, Vicki Dishon, Kurt Fankhauser, and Carolyn Shireman are to name a few examples. Vicki Dishon, on numerous occasions, has berated, belittled, and even harassed countless officials to the point of resignation. When is this behavior going to be addressed? When do you put your foot down, step in, and say that enough is enough? This behavior is an extreme toxicity to the service that your elected officials provide to Bucyrus. How can anyone succeed or accomplish any progressive actions towards bettering the city when they have this to encounter week after week? How many hours have city council members and the law director spent researching and responding to pointless complaints made by these members of the public? There has to be some resolution to these antics before you end up losing more and more devoted city employees who sincerely have the city’s best interest at heart. With the lack of support I have seen city officials receive and watching employee after employee resign from their positions, how are you ever going to encourage upcoming members of the community the confidence to take over these seats? The answer is, you won’t.

I operate a real estate brokerage in Columbus, Ohio. I have 8employees on my payroll. Their actions are my actions. When they are in the wrong, then I am in the wrong. However, if they were to do something that was not correct, I immediately step in and support them in some way to be able to succeed and grow. I would never allow customers, clients, or the public the ability to berate or belittle my employees or coworkers. Even more so to the point where they would resign from their positions. You have a severe issue going on with the way meetings are being run and, more importantly, the lack of support you all are showing your fellow elected officials. I ask that you all do your due diligence and seek to find a better resolution to how things are being handled during public meetings. I fully comprehend that there are rules and procedures with how things are to be handled when it comes to holding public meetings.

However, there is no excuse whatsoever that employee after employee are being treated the way that they have been at nearly every public meeting for the past +/-2 years. It is time to step up and make some changes. Not only for yourself but for your employees, colleagues, and your city.

In closing, I want to thank you for taking the time to understand the sincere concerns I have for your city and your employees. There are major issues that your elected city officials should be devoting their time to, rather than wondering what topic they are going to be publicly berated on during the next public meeting. This behavior is counterproductive and should be addressed and how it can be resolved while still supporting your employees, to be able to progress forward with your city.

Respectfully,

Brittany Wirebaugh

After the email was read, Shireman asked to be able to make a short reply. Council President Jenny Vermillion told her no. Shireman asked: “Do I have to sit here and take that insult from Wirebaugh’s daughter?”

“It was a correspondence that was read that was sent to all city officials.” Vermillion said.

“I should be able to speak to that because my name is in it.” Shireman said.

Shireman told council she had a one-minute response. Wirebaugh called point of order, but she was again denied.

Wirebaugh to council:

“We are elected to do the cities business and all of us up here need to do that. Now some of you guys sit there with your heads under your wings. Stand up. We’ve got a job to do people elected us.” Wirebaugh said.

Then Reser addressed council:

“I would like to add something here. People watch this. Potential employers watch this dog and pony show. And I would like to just point this out that we have got to get control of this situation here, all right? Reser said.

Carolyn Shireman

Shireman then asked again to respond and was denied.

As she was leaving, Shireman left a cryptic warning for Wirebaugh: “You’ll not get away with this one Wirebaugh.”

Crawford County Now reached out to Carolyn Shireman to give her an opportunity to give the response council denied her regarding Wirebaugh’s daughter’s email:

“I would like to thank Britney Wirebaugh for her email because it lets me know that other citizens are watching what’s happening at the Bucyrus City Council meetings where her father serves and the turmoil that he brings with him to Council meetings. Too bad Brittany you don’t live in Bucyrus,” Shireman said.

Crawford County Now will continue to follow this developing story.