Lucas Co. GOP fills executive posts

Lucas County Republican chairman Jon Stainbrook. JETTA FRASER Enlarge

The Lucas County Republican Party has finished filling positions on its executive committee.

In a small, hot room Saturday night, 43 members of the Lucas County Executive Committee voted unanimously to appoint the three remaining executive committee positions: Scott Snyder as vice chairman, Hans Schnapp as secretary, and James Damas as treasurer.

The smooth election was a far cry from one earlier this month, a five-hour, argumentative affair that led to Jon Stainbrook's re-election as the Lucas County Republican chairman.

"It's a big night," Mr. Stainbrook said.

"Before, the meeting might have been contentious … this shows that the Republican Party is moving forward to unite to fight the Democrats."

Mr. Stainbrook said that the next step is to work on supporting the Republican slate of candidates on the ballot for the Nov. 2 election.

As they left, attendees Saturday night were asked to peruse a copy of the potential Lucas County charter, for which Mr. Stainbrook hopes to garner support. With language based on that of Cuyahoga County, the charter calls for doing away with the local government's current setup of elected county administrators and enacting a system of appointed administrators.

Mr. Stainbrook said the prospective reform would garner more representation for Republicans in the county.

Although the charter Mr. Stainbrook has been working with is similar to the one that Lucas County Commissioner Ben Konop has been touting, Mr. Stainbrook said he is still ironing out the charter's language within his own party, and that he has not met with Mr. Konop in any formal way.

"What I'm working on is what would be best for Republican candidates," he said.

Mr. Konop hopes to put his charter proposal on the ballot this fall, which would require 14,289 valid signatures. Mr. Stainbrook said he would be circulating the proposed language within the party to gain interest and input.

He added that, before setting up a plan to collect signatures, he would meet with all the interested parties to finalize the proposed charter's language.

"Before we print this thing, I'm going to make sure we're all on the same page," Mr. Stainbrook said.

Attendees seemed to support the proposed charter, though few took time to fully review the 24-page document.

Mr. Stainbrook said he was heartened that no one had dissented, but added that not every member of the committee had shown up for the meeting.

Contact Greta Stetson at:

gstetson@theblade.com

or 419-724-6050.