Four Seats, Many Aspirations: Primary Races Begin to Organize for Hilliard City Council

With petitions filed and party lines redrawn, voters face new choices this election year.

Races for Hilliard City Council might be contested in both the Republican and Democrat party when voters go to the polls May 6.

The general election is not until Nov. 4 but Hilliard is one of the few local municipalities in Franklin County, along with Reynoldsburg and Whitehall, to have a primary for City Council.

The City of Columbus also has a primary election for City Council.

The filing deadline is Feb. 5 but several candidates have either obtained or already filed petitions for Hilliard City Council.

Four Hilliard City Council member seats are up for re-election: Council President and Democrat Tina Cottone and Republicans Les Carrier, Andy Teater and Peggy Hale.

Hale is not seeking re-election. She was elected in 2021 and will leave City Council after one term.

UPDATE:
Hale, a physician, said while she has loved serving on City Council, it is time “for the next phase of my life.”

Hale said “it was the perfect time” for her to join City Council in 2022 as she was part of bringing the Hilliard Recreation and Wellness campus to fruition.

“I’m excited to see it coming along,” said Hale, adding she “isn’t going anywhere” and will find other ways to remain involved with the city.

Teater is running for re-election but as a Democrat.

Teater was first elected to City Council as a Republican in 2017 and was re-elected in 2021. He will complete his second four-year term on City Council this year after having served three terms (12 years) on the Hilliard Board of Education through 2017.

UPDATE:
Teater said “very few issues” come before Hilliard City Council that have a “Republican” or “Democrat” answer but that he nevertheless changed his affiliation as a result of what has occurred at the national level to the Republican Party.

“In the past, I had always considered myself a moderate Republican and in the future I will probably be considered a moderate Democrat,” said Teater, whose parents are the late Bob Teater, a past Columbus Board of Education member and director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, and Dorothy Teater, a past member of Columbus City Council and a Franklin County Commissioner.

“The reason that I am choosing to run as a Democrat is that my values and the issues I care about more closely align with the Democrat party than the current Republican Party,” said Teater, adding that he is a “fierce supporter” of public education and the current GOP promotes policy that does not do so.

Teater also said he believes something can be done to reduce access to automatic weapons used in school shootings and that he is more aligned with the Democrat party views on women’s reproductive rights and LGBTQ rights.

Les Carrier, who was first elected in 2013, is completing his third term on City Council, is the only Republican seeking re-election.

At least one other Republican is in the running.

Bevan Schneck, a member of the Hilliard Planning and Zoning Commission, is also seeking election.

UPDATE:
“I feel like I am in a unique position” to contribute to City Council, the 38-year-old Schneck said.

Schneck is a founding board member Keep Hilliard Beautiful, a citizen organization that promotes recycling and plans community clean-up efforts, and has been a member of the planning and zoning commission since 2020.

He is the public affairs director for the Ohio Municipal League and has previous worked at the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission.

His work experience, Schneck said, provides him with experience in issue such as annexation and zoning that a City Council is often required to consider.

A brief explanation of our primaries

• If five or more Republican candidates file- one greater than the number of open City Council seats- then a primary election will be held. The same applies to the Democrat party.

• If four or fewer candidates from either party file, then those candidates, if certified to the ballot, would automatically advance to the general election.

• Only a maximum of four Democrats and four Republican candidates can appear on the general election ballot- equal to the four seats up for election.

• But independent candidates- whose filing deadline is May 5- one day before the primary election- can also appear alongside the Democrats and Republicans in the general election.

Five Democrat candidates have already obtained or filed petitions for City Council.

Cottone said she is seeking re-election to City Council.

Cottone was elected in 2021 and in January 2022 joined Cynthia Vermillion as the second Democrat on City Council. It was the first time two Democrats served on Hilliard City Council in three decades.

A brief historical detour

• Vermillion was elected to City Council in 2019, the first Democrat elected to the council since 1989 when Norm Puntenney, a teacher at Hilliard High School, was elected.

• Paul Burkitt, a Democrat, was also serving on council in 1989 when Puntenney was elected.

• Burkitt’s four-year term ended in 1991 after he unsuccessfully challenged Roger Reynolds for mayor.

• In 1993, Puntenney did not seek re-election and a slate of four Republicans- John Bryner, Barb Rushley, Bill Uttley and Larry Wolpert- beat four Democrats- Jim Hertenstein, Sonia Lanning, Shirley McEvers and Tom Robson and an independent candidate, Kerry Kay, according to Franklin County Board of Elections records.

No Democrat was elected to Hilliard City Council again until Vermillion in 2019.

Durable New Era?

In 2023, Democrats Greg Betts and Emily Cole were elected to City Council sealing a Democrat majority on City Council in January 2023.

In addition to Cottone and Teater, three other Democrat candidates have petitions.

Tony Moog, also a member of the city’s planning and zoning commission, has filed a petition and two other candidates pulled petitions, as of Jan. 20, according to the Franklin County Board of Elections: Kathleen Parker-Jones and Nadia Rasul.

Check https://hilliardbeacon.substack.com/ for updates to this story. Additional updates and interviews with candidates will appear throughout the Beacon’s ongoing coverage this year.

For a list of questions we’ve asked to every representative of Hilliard Government and School Board - check the link below!