UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio — University Heights City Council members have censured Mayor Michael Dylan Brennan for a second time for “inappropriate language.”
The Mayor reportedly posted to his professional Facebook page a status regarding the presidential election.
Brennan “called out and belittled” residents living in two precincts, according to University Heights Vice Mayor Michele Weiss. One of those precincts falls under Weiss’ jurisdiction.
Both precincts are home to many Jewish residents.
The post has since been removed and followed up with another from Brennan.
“A post I made this morning has been misinterpreted and I have taken it down. I'm focused on leading our community at a time where many are feeling vulnerable and afraid because of the outcomes of the election. I wish I could tell them everything was going to be alright,” Brennan shared on Nov. 7.
Comments on the post have been limited.
A third post still on Brennan’s page continues to call out those who voted for President-elect Donald Trump, saying, “a vote for xenophobia, sexism, racism, transphobia, and mass deportation.”
Monday night’s city council meeting was packed as a move to censure Brennan for his initial social media post was on the agenda. There were reportedly 130 people who attended in person and an additional 100 who joined via Zoom.
“As it is not, or at least should not be, city business, before [October 18] I did not intend to bring up the election of November 5, 2024, or comments made publicly in its aftermath. But as the council has chosen to make this a matter of public business on tonight’s agenda, I will address it here,” Brennan stated at the meeting.
"As mayor, indeed, as a citizen of this city and community, I have opinions on matters of public interest. As a community leader, I share those opinions. Sometimes I share those opinions with eloquence, and sometimes I fail to do so. Which is why I took down some comments that were unclear and therefore misunderstood. The outcome of the November 5 election is disappointing, but I take heart that results locally uphold democratic values by better than a 2 to 1 margin."
Ariella Schlesinger attended the meeting. She said she felt the urge to speak up against the Mayor’s social media post.
“When these posts came out, I was really shocked, honestly. I was disappointed. I was hurt. I was also scared because if you think about how big University Heights, I think it's like only 13,000 residents and to kind of specify two precincts, which is like 35% of the entire city, that was just scary and I felt like it kind of put a target on my back,” she explained.
Schlesinger said she voted Brennan into office and was disappointed to see someone she held to a high standard write on social media as he did.
“It really felt like he could not see our point of view. It didn't feel like he cared. He didn't seem to feel like he had any remorse or want to take any responsibility for his words,” Schlesinger said.
Brennan’s remarks were as follows:
“As someone who stands for:
The rights of women, including their right to bodily autonomy;
The rights of the LGBTQIA+ community – including the T for trans people;
The rights of people of color and Black Americans especially -- including through the continued support of the City’s Juneteenth celebration, which has been opposed by three members of this council repeatedly, and without apology or censure for their racist or racially tinged comments.
I stand for and support the religious and the non religious. And I support the freedom of all to live and let live.
Most of all, I support the rule of law and equal justice under the law.
None of these things are or should be radical. All of these things are under threat at all levels of government including this one.
I have a duty to stand up for what is right. As mayor, I did not check at the city hall door my opinions or my right to express them. Quite the contrary. I have an obligation to speak out and speak up in support of democracy when it is under attack.
And members of this council. They are free to engage in using their freedom of speech to criticize me for using mine. They are free to use their political speech to stir people up, and to launch their next campaign – as clearly some are doing here this evening.
But what the council does not have the right to do is misstate and fabricate the record with their proposed resolution. I have not violated my oath of office. There is no evidence that I have, and they cannot prove that I have, for I have not. Mere political disagreement is not a violation of my oath of office. To say that it is, is false. And the council has a legal obligation to ensure that what they put in their resolution is neither false nor in reckless disregard of what is false.
Likewise, the council cannot cut the mayor’s pay because they disagree with him. At least not now. But with proposed ordinance 2024-82 on the agenda tonight, if that were to pass, beginning in 2026, the council can do exactly that. Mayors they agree with can make $100,000/year. Mayors they do not agree with may have the safety director position taken away from them and then make just $50,000 – down from the current salary of $75,500 and $1. That is an abuse of power that the community should not tolerate, regardless of who the next mayor is. If this law were in effect now, I do not doubt members of this council, in retribution, would be moving to cut my pay in half tonight.
If the law would have been in effect several years ago, I am certain that council members would have moved to cut the pay in half for Mayor Infeld in her last term or Mayor Rothschild in her last term. And in a parallel universe, since this council never gets along with any mayor, I’m sure some council members would have already turned on a Mayor Blankfeld, or a Mayor Atkin, or a Mayor Simmons.
That said, I continue to do the work for the benefit of ALL – ALL of the people of University Heights, Tonight we will consider and hopefully approve the proposed ALDI grocery store. I have been working on bringing ALDI to the City since the day after the proposed Chick Fil-A failed this council by a 7-0 vote. My administration’s record of accomplishment will continue to speak for itself and for the benefit of ALL in the community.”
David Farkas has lived in University Heights for more than two decades. He also made his concerns clear at Monday’s meeting and told me Brennan’s response didn’t sit well with him.
“What the mayor should have done was apologize, and maybe it should have taken him a couple of days to sit there and do some soul searching and to think about it. He should not have done just like a pro forma type of apology. I think even if he didn't realize what he was saying, I don't know frankly how you couldn't, how he wouldn't, but let's say he didn't. When everybody spoke up, that's a sure sign he hit a raw nerve and all he had to do was say, ‘I didn't realize what I was saying,’” Farkas said.
He, too, said he was shocked by Brennan’s social media post.
Farkas added that the post was about national politics but that the mayor’s job should be to discuss only local issues, especially on a professional page.
“No mayor should be speaking like that. You want to express your personal opinion? You can do it somewhere else on a personal page. That's not what the mayor should be [doing]. That's really what surprised me,” Farkas said. “For anyone who was there last night would have seen it wasn't just one. It was lots of people who stepped forward not just from the Jewish community, but from the Catholic community, the general community. A lot of people are really outraged.”
City council unanimously censured Brennan Monday night.
Both Farkas and Schlesinger are happy with the outcome.
“The unanimous vote demonstrates the severity of the Mayors words,” Weiss stated. “His post was divisive to the residents. Constituents felt that he was intimidating voters. But most of all we have residents that now feel unsafe.”
This marks the second time Brennan has been censured as the University Heights Mayor.
Brennan was first censured in 2021 for “use of offensively coarse and unwarranted and inappropriate language and for the conduct unbecoming of the office of mayor.”
