Test of Leadership
Hilliard City Council President Cynthia Vermillion will not step down, she reiterated May 13, after receiving sharp criticism but also support to stand her ground after demands from the Jewish Community Relations Council to resign.
Eighteen speakers addressed Hilliard City Council for an hour, with some speakers using sharp and intense language to describe the actions of either the Israeli Defense Forces or Hamas, yet no one interrupted any speaker and there were no disruptions during the public speaking segment of the May 13 meeting of City Council.
Some speakers directed their comments toward Vermillion, criticizing her leadership. Others applauded her taking a stand to call for peace in the region. Still others criticized City Council as a whole for weighing in at all on a war on the other side of the world far outside the day-to-day responsibility of Hilliard’s safety, services, and operations.
Vermillion, as promised, read her public apology May 13, the same apology published April 30 on the city of Hilliard’s website.
But she did not respond to any speakers during the meeting nor take the opportunity to address the public or council at the end of the meeting during time reserved for comments from the council president.
City Councilman Les Carrier, who had previously publicly criticized Vermillion, offered her support at the conclusion of the meeting.
“(Vermillion) deserves some grace,” said Carrier, who asked for a resolution to be written formalizing the apology that Vermillion read at the start of the meeting.
“We stepped into is as a group and now we need to get out of it,” Carrier said.
Because it was a resolution that caused the reaction from some Hilliard residents and the Jewish community in central Ohio, it should likewise be a resolution in response, according to Carrier.
Councilwoman Peggy Hale seconded Carrier’s motion and the resolution is expected to be introduced at the next council meeting at 7 p.m. May 28 for all members to consider.
The original resolution, 24-R-31, reads: TO CALL FOR PEACE AND AN IMMEDIATE, SUSTAINED AND MUTUAL END TO HOSTILITIES IN GAZA; THE RELEASE OF HOSTAGES AND DETAINEES; AND THE URGENT EXPANSION OF HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE.
The resolution passed on April 22, the first evening of Jewish Passover, 4-2 with Vermillion and council members Greg Betts, Emily Cole, and Andy Teater voting in support of it, and Carrier and Hale dissenting. Vice president Tina Cottone abstained.
Speakers at the May 13 meeting were often clear and direct.
Addressing City Council with regard to the resolution passed April 22, Hilliard resident Jeffrey Gergal said, “You knowingly, wantonly, with malice and forethought caused this to go forward on Passover. (It is) prejudicial, discriminatory, and antisemitic.”
Attention was later called to whether council’s action on April 22 was in violation of Hilliard’s own anti-discrimination legislation City Council enacted in 2021 and championed by Vermillion.
Gergal said Vermillion, and City Council, acted outside its bounds and was not representing the opinion of the residents of Hilliard when it approved the resolution.
Speaking to Vermillion he said, “I am ashamed and appalled at you, and for the city,” Gergal said.
Lisa Chaffee, a past Hilliard school board candidate, said that while all can agree peace is desired, Vermillion “failed as a leader” when ignoring advice from City Manager Michelle Crandall not to advance the resolution on April 22.
“In doing so, you have created more division in our community,” she said.
An apology is not enough, Chaffee said, who called for Vermillion to step down as president.
But Cathy Levine, a Bexley resident, said she was present to “oppose strenuously the efforts orchestrated by JewishColumbus and the Jewish Community Relations Council, which does not speak for all Columbus Jews, to intimidate (Vermillion) into resigning.”
While the timing could have been different, “that is no reason to call for the president’s resignation,” said Levine, adding that effort is a “smokescreen” to “punish” Vermillion for advancing a “moderate” resolution that many Jewish people support.
“Bullying the council president violates the Jewish values I was raised on,” she said.
A Hilliard Darby graduate and former Hilliard teacher addressed City Council and called attention to the situation on the ground that while the IDF continues to bomb displaced Palestinians, council is discussing whether anyone was offended by the language of a resolution calling for a negotiated peace.
“It is a peace resolution. (Some of you are being attacked) for having the moral courage to stand up for what is right…You had the moral courage before, now have the backbone to follow through,” she said.
Noura Dabdoub, using Mother’s Day as a reference, spoke about how mothers are giving birth amidst the warfare in Gaza and the degenerating conditions on the West Bank, “and this is what our government is funding, arming and supporting. It’s why we’ve been here for the past two months.”
Pro-Palestinian advocates had attended Hilliard City Council meetings for two months prior to the April 22 resolution.
A Columbus resident also offered Vermillion support, “Not all Israelis or Jews are asking your resignation, I am horrified we are wasting City Council’s time… thank you for adopting that balanced resolution (on April 22) that recognized (mutual) pain.”
Others criticized City Council for taking any action.
Hilliard resident Wayne Genter said council should not consider matters outside its borders.
“Your action drew unwelcome and negative reaction from both inside Hilliard and our neighboring communities,” while leadership exhibited “profound insensitivity (and) callous discrimination)” in disregarding the advice of the administration, said Genter, who called for Vermillion’s resignation for her “gross lack of judgment.”
Jonathan Feibel, of the JCRC and co-chair of JewishColumbus, criticized City Council for taking stands on the actions of foreign countries because local governments doing so “foster a sense of mistrust and animosity.”
He recounted the position of the JCRC reiterated in a previous statement concerning the April 22 resolution and again called for the resignation of Vermillion.
Comments from those asking for her resignation- and those praising her for advancing the resolution- drew applause from the filled council chambers.
Several speakers offered historical dissertations on the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, the intricacies of a potential two-state solution, and the numerous conflicts - dating back decades - that preceded the Oct. 7 attack of Hamas on Israel and on the response that followed.
Video of the evening’s full meeting can be accessed here
Minutes from the city’s official website will be added to this story when they become available.
Fascinating story.