Lebanon voters to chose from 6 candidates for 4 city council seats

Local voters are expected to elect at least two new members to Lebanon City Council in the Nov. 7 election.

Six candidates, including two incumbents, are running for four seats on the seven-person council.

The final tallies could shift the voting majority on the council, which sets priorities and votes on resolutions and local ordinances through which the city functions.

Paula Cramer, Doug Shope, Ryan Tasseff and Krista Wyatt are new candidates.

Amy Brewer and Wendy Monroe are seeking reelection.

RELATED: 2013 Lebanon City Council candidates

Two other incumbents’ reelection bids were foiled due to problems with their nominating petitions, leaving a simpler path to election to the city council.

RELATED: 16-year Lebanon councilman’s nominating petitions rejected

In 2017, the council members are being paid $6,000, the mayor $9,000.

Brewer, a retired teacher who operates a store downtown, has served on council for 28 years.

The council decides who serves as mayor. Brewer has held this position since December 2001.

Monroe, who operates a gun store outside Lebanon with her husband, Jeff Monroe, chairman of the Warren County Republican Party, has been on the local council for four years.

RELATED: Gun shop owners plan indoor range

Wyatt is a retired assistant fire chief in Lebanon.

Tasseff, a scientist with Procter & Gamble, advocated for the city to allow cultivation, processing and distribution of medical marijuana.

MORE: Local governments struggle with medical marijuana response

After extensive discussion, the council declined to prohibit these uses within city limits.

Shope is a regulatory specialist for Mane, a local industry.

In the Dayton Daily News Voters Guide. Cramer said the past two years she spent attending city meetings and questioning staff " led me to the decision to run for City Council."

The candidates answered a range of questions and provided other information available in the voters guide.

Read the candidates’ full responses to this and other Voters Guide Questions 

The group was split on the city’s use of nearly $1 million in racetrack redevelopment funds to assist the LCNB building project in downtown Lebanon.

“I believe there is too much focus on the LCNB Project, and not enough focus on the fact that the land on North Broadway, between Oakwood Ave. and the Fairgrounds, is a great location for new business development,” Wyatt said.

Brewer noted “our soon to be adopted downtown master plan was paid for as well” with the city’s $1.5 million share of funds set aside for cities that lost racetracks after legalization of racinos in Ohio. Monroe said she supported the first funding set aside for the project, but not the an additional $200,000 later added.

“The investment LCNB made in purchasing numerous vacant, run-down and otherwise challenging properties and locating their headquarters here will bring much good to that area,” she said.

MORE: Downtown plan also receiving racetrack redevelopment funds

Tassef questioned the location and suggested the money should have gone to manufacturing, healthcare or education, not “well-established companies.”

Shope said the city shouldn’t “pick winners and losers with money meant for the betterment of the entire community.”

Lebanon City Council members serve four-year terms as at-large members representing the entire city.

About the Author