36 years later: Brecksville finds itself a new mayor

The City of Brecksville will see a mayoral election without Jerry Hruby for the first time in 36 years. Feb. 20, 2022(Akron Beacon Journal)

On election day,for the first time in 36 years, Brecksville residents will not find the current mayor. After nearly four decades of service to the Cleveland suburb, Hruby will be retiring from office. Known as one of the longest-serving mayors in Greater Cleveland, he is stepping down from his long-held position, saying that the decision to not run again is “… going to be very difficult for me to make the transition, but it needs to be done,”

This leaves the citizens of Brecksville with a burning question: who will be the next mayor?

One potential candidate is Daryl Kingston who joined the city council in 2020. He hopes to bring a smooth transition between his term as mayor and Hruby’s legacy. “Having acquired a thorough knowledge of city operations and cultivated working relationships with city directors and staff, I will implement a seamless transition,” he said in his statement on why he is running for mayor.

While Brecksville sees a candidate who is capable of creating a frictionless adjustment from one mayor to the next, the other candidate on the ballot does not seem to provide that for its citizens.

Jack Petsche, the other candidate on the mayoral ballot this year, has been in hot water in the past with the City Council. Around the time he took office in 2018 as a councilman, he questioned a decision that the city made to pay close to $682,000 in back sewer taxes for residents in Four Seasons, one of the neighborhoods in the suburb. Petsche, believing that the city was not honest about its mistakes, advocated for this issue that impacted every taxpayer in the city. It was precisely this advocacy that would be his downfall.

To get back at Petsche’s loyalty to the people of Brecksville, Law Director David Matty, council President Laura Redinger, former council members Gerald Broski, Louis Carouse, Jr. and Kim Veras, along with Mayor Hruby himself tried to exploit Petsche’s company, USA Roofing, to get him indicted and removed from city council.

They succeeded, as in 2020, Jack Petsche was expelled from the Council. In 2021, he was indicted on corruption charges, but those charges were later dismissed. Now, Petsche sued all of the city officials involved in the scheme. Even if he wins, he said that he will not drop the lawsuit.

With all of this in mind, many people at John Carroll University might be wondering how this transition of power would impact the people in University Heights.

This election for the new mayor of the City of Brecksville is not the first to have to make a difficult choice as to who they want as their leader. That seems to be the case for every election.

So, why should students, staff and faculty members of John Carroll University care about this new mayoral election?

“Generally speaking, people should care about their local politics because it is likely to affect them…”, says Dr. Andreas Sobisch, associate professor of political science at John Carroll University.

It does not matter if someone is a student, faculty or staff member, is a resident of Brecksville, University Heights or another suburb of the Greater Cleveland area. What matters is that what happens in a particular area of a region could happen in a similar fashion in a similar region.

By being aware of politics at the local level, citizens of other cities can be more informed and civically responsible voters, which could in turn help their city if they find themselves in a related situation. Sobisch said, “If they don’t pay attention they have no right to complain later.”

With one chapter of the political power of Hruby coming to a close, it is unclear what kind of leader the City of Brecksville will have. One seems to want to bring a smooth transition of power between Mayor Hruby and himself. The other one had a scheme planned against him while looking out for the people of the Greater Cleveland suburb. This issue remains pressing not just in Brecksville, but also across Northeast Ohio, because of the issues in other cities that might impact one’s own.