You can tell a lot about a person by who they blame for their own mistakes. In her first week on City Council, Patricia Goetz is already publicly blaming City of Hudson staff for her swearing-in public relations disaster. Even if there was miscommunication, naming an employee to deflect criticism on a public platform should never occur. City staff deserves better than this.
Patricia Goetz* and Mike Bird* are the subject of an Ohio Elections Commission probable cause hearing for campaign coordination with “nonprofit” Clocktower Collaborative and former City Manager Jane Howington’s “nonprofit” is also facing an OEC hearing for operating as an unregistered Political Action Committee (PAC). This has been a pretty stressful situation for Hudson’s newest elected officials and the cracks are starting to show.
Despite running a highly partisan campaign for Ohio Senate just a year ago, Goetz rebranded herself as “non-partisan” on the campaign trail. Her social media took a dramatic turn from being far left to being in the middle. A few minutes of scrolling through her Facebook page will bring up plenty of her highly partisan attacks during her Senate race.
It shouldn’t be shocking that Goetz immediately took a sharp turn left after winning her City Council race. She and Mike Bird* had a separate swearing-in ceremony and with a Democratic judge. It had already been arranged for Judge Lisa Coates to officiate, but Coates is a Republican and Goetz and Bird definitely aren’t, so Judge Teodosio (D) officiated for the Clocktower Collaborators.
Goetz isn’t handling the heat well and decided to take her turn spinning the situation. Typically, elected officials are very protective of their staff, but Dr. Goetz decided to back the bus right over the Clerk of Council in a very public way right on her Facebook page. There was not a quorum issue. There is not a concern about a quorum at a swearing-in. Other municipalities have swearing-ins separate from meetings.
Nicole Kowalski quickly jumped in to assist. Goetz was in over her head and needed some backup from her fellow Collaborator. “Conspiracy Theory” Kowalski took another swing at the blame game by trying to tack it onto “Council majority.” The Council majority certainly didn’t ask for a second judge after Judge Coates had been booked. There is a lot at stake here as Kowalski tries to hold her team together, so she joined in with additional spin.
Who performed the ceremony has a lot to do with it. It highlights the fact that Goetz and Bird pretended to be something different than they are. And the insistence in having a Democratic judge rather than being sworn in by the judge who had already been arranged is very telling. They campaigned as non-partisan and when they got what they want, they immediately revealed their true partisan colors.
Now that they are being called out for their decisions, they are looking to point the finger at someone else – anyone else.
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