Automatic Recount Confirms Dunbar Third-Place Winner in City Council Election
There were no changes in the Cleveland Heights City Council results, so incumbents Wilcox, Evans and challenger Dunbar will serve in 2012
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The winners of the 2011 Cleveland Heights City Council election are now confirmed. Incumbents Dennis Wilcox and Phyllis Evans along with challenger Mary Dunbar will serve their four-year terms starting in 2012.
Three four-year seats were up for grabs on Cleveland Heights City Council this election year. Wilcox was the clear winner, snagging 7,140 votes, according to final results from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.
But the second and third place winners, Evans and Dunbar, had only 47 votes separating them, according to the final results, receiving 6,494 and 6,447 respectively. And Jeff Coryell was just 64 votes behind Dunbar at 6,383.
The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections called for an automatic recount Nov. 29 because Ohio law dictates that if the difference between votes cast for the declared winning candidate and the declared losing candidate is equal to or less than .5 percent of the total votes cast in the race, it must conduct a recount.
But after tallying the votes again at 9:30 a.m. today, the Board of Elections confirmed the results did not change, said Shantiel Soeder, ballot services division manager.
Dunbar thanked voters again today after hearing about the official results.
"Thanks again to the voters for the confidence they’ve shown in me. And I’m honored to have this opportunity to serve this community’s residents. I’d also like to congratulate the other elected officials. I thought everybody ran a great campaign, and we have a lot of ideas to work on."
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Fran Mentch
7:46 am on Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Nothing Dennis Wilcox, Phyllis Evans and Mary Dunbar can do in the next 4 years will equal the impact on our local economy or quality of life that saving Oakwood would have had. The damage to local business, water runoff, air quality, and property value that developing Oakwood will have cannot be mitigated. Did any of these public officials work on a regional approach to Oakwood? Or speak out on behalf of Cleveland Heights' interests? Or work with Metroparks for the YEAR Oakwood was for sale before First Interstate purchased it? For those of you who did not follow the Oakwood situation, the answers are No, No, and No.