BUCYRUS—Current council president Kurt Fankhauser has withdrawn his candidacy to run for re-election for the position in the general election in November.

“I ran for office on the platform of “transparency.” I always have advocated for more transparency at city hall. There is no working with the current administration at city hall. On top of that, there is a council that is not willing to stand up to this mayor. If they are just going to let the mayor decide everything then we might as well save a bunch of money and form a charter city that does not have a council and instead just has the mayor, auditor, and law director making all the decisions because that’s basically what is going on right now,” said Fankhauser in a written statement to Crawford County Now. “At the July 20th meeting, the mayor would not even sit in his assigned seat in Council Chambers. Even a 1st grader knows how to sit in their seat. I appreciate all the support I had from many citizens which I know many will be disappointed with this news. But until this mayor is removed from office or council is willing to do its job there is very little I can do at city hall for the Citizens of Bucyrus.”

Fankhauser was slated to run against Independent Brian Seybert in November.

According to Ruth Leuthold, director of the Crawford County Board of Elections, both the local Republican and Democratic parties can possibly place candidates on the ballot.

“We are awaiting confirmation of that from the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office,” said Leuthold.