Bucyrus City Council Spirals Into Disorder After Heated Attacks and Walkout

Frustrations over leadership style, personal attacks, and political maneuvering push Bucyrus City Council closer to open collapse.

Thursday night's Bucyrus City Council committee meetings quickly devolved into chaos, with personal attacks, walkouts, and threats of legal action dominating the evening. The dysfunction has pushed Councilman Zyan Hickman to publicly say he is considering resigning, joining a growing list of council members who have suggested they may step down in the near future. Councilwoman Vicki Dishon floated the idea herself during Tuesday night's meeting, and Carolyn Shireman resigned earlier this year.

The evening started on a rocky note during the Economic Development Committee, when former city employee Al Frazier delivered a series of controversial remarks, questioning the heroism of firefighters and suggesting the fire department was overfunded. His comments came after the firefighters’ union had walked out of the meeting earlier, frustrated with council's handling of a minimum staffing ordinance. Councilman Kevin Myers forcefully rebuked Frazier from the floor, shouting, “Have you ever done the job?!” The two later spoke more cordially, but if Frazier was aiming to ruffle feathers, he succeeded.

In the background, Council President Fankhauser, who has been personally filming council meetings for his YouTube channel Bucyrus Exposed, quickly seized on the outburst, posting video clips to fuel his latest wave of attack ads. This behavior stands in stark contrast to Fankhauser’s repeated claims that he does not personally attack members of council.

The night continued downhill.
Fankhauser, during public participation, launched into a tirade against local resident Adam Frizzell, accusing him of lying about owning a business called "Frizzell Passage" because it was not registered with the state — and even going so far as to suggest, without evidence, that Frizzell was under the influence of drugs during a previous meeting. His accusations, made despite objections from nearly every council member and audience member present, prompted a series of shouted "point of orders" and forced Hickman, as committee chair, to abruptly adjourn the meeting and walk out of City Hall.

Hours later, Hickman posted his dissatisfaction, sharing campaign materials created by Fankhauser criticizing Councilwoman Clarissa Slater, with a not-so-subtle caption: "F*** you Kurt Fankhauser."

The evening didn’t end there.
After Hickman's exit, several committee meetings were unable to proceed due to lack of quorum. Meanwhile, Fankhauser, still present, photographed Slater with her sister Adrienne Kemery (a candidate for city treasurer), their mother, and Kemery's daughter as they sat quietly in chambers watching the proceedings. Frizzell responded by approaching Fankhauser to make a public records request from a previous council meeting.

Fankhauser reacted by fleeing council chambers, walking around City Hall, and ultimately filing a police report against Frizzell for alleged stalking. Two Bucyrus police officers had to be pulled off the street to "babysit" the remainder of the committee meetings — further highlighting the breakdown of order inside city government.

Throughout the night, Fankhauser and his associate Greg White continued their coordinated attacks on the Bucyrus Tourism and Visitors Bureau.
Both raised allegations that the bureau was improperly favoring businesses that were members of the Bucyrus Chamber of Commerce. However, nearly all businesses in Bucyrus are Chamber members, and naturally, the Chamber only represents those who voluntarily choose to join. Suggesting that the bureau should advertise businesses who have not opted into membership reveals either a fundamental misunderstanding — or a deliberate distortion — of how tourism promotion works. No evidence was presented that the bureau engaged in any wrongdoing.

In fact, Becky Lutz, the assistant director of the Chamber of Commerce, responded by saying, "We encourage all to come up and ask questions and get what they need. Our goal is to highlight all tourism destinations."

The latest round of attacks on the Tourism Bureau closely mirrors Fankhauser’s previous attack on the Bratwurst Festival committee. The council president has developed a pattern of targeting government-affiliated organizations when members of those organizations question or disagree with him. He demands access to their records, and when they do not immediately comply to his satisfaction, he publicly shames them or threatens legal action. On Thursday night, he again threatened legal action against the Tourism Bureau if they did not allow him access to all their internal records — an action that, as Adam Frizzell correctly pointed out, would be akin to allowing any member of the public to micromanage every internal document created by public employees.

Law Director Brandon Gobrecht later clarified that whether a nonprofit is registered with the state is irrelevant to its standing, and any disputes over public records would be between the complainant and the nonprofit — not the city.

Amid the wreckage, there are deeper issues simmering, particularly regarding the fire department.
On April 3, Jeremy Gilliam of the firefighters' union called minimum staffing "crucial" to union negotiations. Although negotiations were reportedly finalized, an executive session earlier this week seems to suggest otherwise. Chief Chad Schwemly has found himself caught in the middle — with union members previously questioning why he wasn’t fighting harder for them, and some city officials now criticizing him for speaking up Thursday night. After Schwemly raised objections to the minimum staffing ordinance as written, Myers made a motion to adjourn the meeting, stating, "nobody is on the same page."

Given the complexities involved, FreeWire will be publishing a second article soon detailing the full backstory behind the fire department situation, the council’s internal divisions, and how leadership struggles are impacting critical public safety decisions.

Thursday’s meeting was less a forum for civic discussion and more a case study in dysfunction — a night that Bucyrus residents and public officials alike are unlikely to forget.