Pepper Pike voters re-elected on Tuesday two long-time members in addition to a political newcomer to fill three seats on Metropolis Council.
Of the five-candidate discipline, veteran councilmen Jim LeMay acquired probably the most votes, 1,537, or 22.2 p.c of the vote and Anthony “Tony” Gentile acquired 1,490 votes, or 21.58 p.c.
Jackie Godic in her first bid for public workplace received 1,514 votes, or 21.9 p.c.
They defeated first-time candidates Brittany Shatteen and Sandip Dev Mody.
The one Metropolis Council winner to reply to The Instances on Wednesday morning, Mr. Gentile stated that “it didn’t look hopeful” when he had gone to mattress round 11 p.m. Tuesday regardless of main earlier within the night.
“I awakened at one level and checked the (Cuyahoga County Board of Elections) website, but it surely nonetheless wasn’t finalized. I discovered perhaps at 5:30 a.m. ,” he stated. “I’m very blissful that the voters of Pepper Pike are giving me 4 extra years.”
First elected to Pepper Pike Metropolis Council in 2011, Mr. Gentile and Mr. LeMay have been re-elected each 4 years since.
“At the moment, in 2011, the mayor was simply beginning, too, so we have been campaigning collectively,” he stated.
What made this yr’s election totally different, Mr. Gentile stated, was the opposition. He was unopposed in 2015 and 2019, and didn’t must marketing campaign.
He credit Cindy Ikoff for serving to together with his marketing campaign.
“With out her, I’m undecided I’d have been capable of win,” he stated.
Ms. Godic, who had been lively within the Orange Space Service Committee and the Orange faculties, has a profession in finance and is in her ultimate yr of regulation faculty. She campaigned in favor of sidewalks on the principle roads, and addressing infrastructure issues to minimize flooding and energy outages within the metropolis. The mom of two sons stated she additionally would have voted in favor of making use of for a grant to put in a splash pad at Pepper Pike Park, which Council turned down final yr.
“Anybody with small youngsters would like to have a splash pad on the park for warm summer season days,” she had stated.
Mr. Gentile, a CPA who has a regulation diploma from Cleveland Marshall College, says that now that voters have had their say, he’ll abide by their help of Pepper Pike’s “walkability” plan, though he had stated when campaigning that “leisure trails will change town and value hundreds of thousands of {dollars}.”
Though Mr. Gentile and Mr. LeMay didn’t run for Council re-election as a staff, Mr. Gentile stated he had endorsed his opponent, and that each of their stable enterprise, finance, and regulation backgrounds have helped their metropolis.
“With out Jim, and me, Pepper Pike may have seen some harder instances. Now we have plenty of monetary experience and historical past and dropping all of that at one time would have been powerful on town,” he stated.
