BUCYRUS—In an email to all Bucyrus City Council members on Thursday morning, City Council Clerk Todd Hill made it clear that he will not be working from home as he is unable to do his job effectively after an email was sent out by council president Kurt Fankhauser on Wednesday demanding he attends the council committee meeting on Thursday evening.
Below is Hill’s email in its entirety:
Council members —
Let the record show that, despite the persistent lies of this Council President, I am NOT presently working from home. I have told this Council President on dozens of occasions, going back to March 2020, that I cannot effectively perform the duties of Council Clerk outside my office, which is now closed to me and everyone else until this Council President’s sham conspiracy surrounding a years-old security camera in my office, one of several inside and outside City Hall, is resolved. This Council President does not have a clear understanding of my work duties, just as he has no clear understanding of his own. As soon as my office is reopened, I will return to it, regardless of what this Council President directs. The City Council, and the City of Bucyrus, deserve better than the deliberate chaos sowed by this Council President, so far successfully, to make City Hall the laughingstock of Bucyrus.
At the conclusion of Tuesday’s council meeting, I told the Law Director and then this Council President in no uncertain terms that I would not be working until I once again have access to my office. I told the Law Director that I was willing to burn as much of my sick time as necessary until that comes to pass. He told me that will not be necessary. I will hold him to that.
For the past 16 months, this Council President has been using my office, my job, and lately my reputation and actual livelihood, to engage in a political spat with the Administration, since this is all he has control over (and that’s debatable). This situation cannot and must not continue. I am willing to give Council a reasonable amount of time to attempt to change this situation. Should Council prove unable or unwilling to do so, it will receive my resignation. That’s not a threat nor a warning; it’s a promise.
Any future communications from myself on this matter to Council, the Administration or the media will be handled by my attorney.