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Dirty Delaware Deetz Delivering you the dirt on Delaware County politics and political players! We do not endorse candidates or issues.

🚨County Issue🚨On Friday, campaign finance was due for the pre-primary election. After reviewing both candidates’ financ...
29/04/2026

🚨County Issue🚨

On Friday, campaign finance was due for the pre-primary election. After reviewing both candidates’ financial filings, it seems that one candidate is totally backed by the development community, while the other is backed by grassroots supporters.

In our pinned post from April 9th, we posted about how 2 of the 3 county commissioners have endorsed Joe St. John for county commissioner and posted copies of some of their recent contributions as we awaited the campaign finance due date. St. John’s campaign finance was filed Friday, and as we suspected, he received over $122,000 in donations from dozens of developers. As you filter through the pages, you can see that the majority of the names will look familiar, as they are mostly the same exact donors that have dumped hundreds of thousands into the current commissioners. Some notable contributions would be $5,000 from each of Lewis and Benton’s campaign accounts, $10,000 from a REALTOR pac, $2,500 from Build PAC of Central Ohio (developer slush fund), and thousands from other developers and people out of state. As far as expenditures, Joe spent nearly $95,000 during this same time period. He seems to have spent over 20% of his contributions on consulting fees.

Looking through Renee Vaughan’s finance, it looks like she has mainly self funded her campaign. She brought in nearly $22,000 in contributions during the same reporting period. The majority of these donations seem to be from residents within the county. Renee’s expenditures totaled $6,905 for normal campaign expenditures like mailings and materials. One thing we did not see….a single consultant fee.

If you are sick of big money and developers buying our elections, the choice for county commissioner is pretty clear.

🚨County Issue🚨We have posted previously what the County Commissioners job responsibilities are. You can scroll down thro...
18/04/2026

🚨County Issue🚨

We have posted previously what the County Commissioners job responsibilities are. You can scroll down through the posts to see the whole list. One of the biggest duties is ensuring that there is proper road infrastructure. We all know traffic in the county as a whole is a nightmare. I am sure you have heard by now that the Ohio budget, which was signed into law, mandated that a Route 23 study take place. The last 2 possible routes will begin in Delaware County and would eminent domain hundreds of properties across three counties. The state legislature believes this "connector" study is needed because of the disasterous lack of planning and over development that has over crowded US 23. Here you see Commissioner Barb Lewis bragging about an award she received from the Building Industry of Ohio, who is responsible for in her words, HUNDREDS of developments throughout her tenure. This is the type of over development that now jeopardizes hundreds, if not thousands, of acres of farmland from being turned into a highway.

Do you want more irresponsible over development? They are running out of room on the west side of the county to develop and will soon have their eyes set on the east.

Elections have consequences. Lewis has endorsed St. John in the primary. Do you want more of the same?

🚨State Issue🚨New information is coming out regarding Non-Disclosure Agreements(NDA), as a new subsection to the current ...
12/04/2026

🚨State Issue🚨

New information is coming out regarding Non-Disclosure Agreements(NDA), as a new subsection to the current ORC 9.66 took effect March 20, 2026. It seems that the Ohio legislature has approved developers and our townships, cities, counties & county commissioners to enter into NDAs for economic development. Taking your right away to know what tax incentives are being offered and to WHO. At some point once these agreements reach a certain phase, the information will then be made public.

So let's walk through how this became law.

🔸️March 18, 2025 - Bill 184 was introduced regarding collegiate athletic NIL contracts, transportation and budget adjustments
🔸️March 26, 2025 - Bill was referred to the House Workforce and Higher Education Committee.
🔸️May 14, 2025 - THe bill was reported out of committee and the house passed the bill
🔸️May 20, 2025 - The bill was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, who then referred it to the Senate Finance Committee in November.
🔸️November 19, 2025 - A substitute bill was reported by the Senate Finance Committee & passed by the Senate. Included in the provisions were:
➡️Confidentiality Clause - the bill specifies that information submitted to political subdivisions and port authorities by applicants for economic development like grants, loans, tax incentives, are all now confidential
➡️Public Records Exclusion - it added verbiage that states explicitly that the records above are now NOT public records under law. This will allow governments to keep the identities of companies or persons confidential during the negotiation process.
November 19, 2025 - The House voted on the Senate amendments and passed it the same day.
🔸️December 19, 2025 - The bill was sent to Gov Dewine and signed.

Some items regarding the appropriations went into effect immediately, while the addition of the NDAs went into effect on March 20, 2026.

Who sits on the Senate Finance Committee that added this amendment:

Chair: Jerry C. Cirino (R-Kirtland)
Vice Chair: Brian M. Chavez (R-Marietta)
Ranking Member: Paula Hicks-Hudson (D-Toledo)
Members:
Louis W. Blessing, III (District 8)
🔸️Andrew O. Brenner (District 19)🔸️
George F. Lang (District 4)
Susan Manchester (District 12)
Nathan H. Manning (District 13)
Thomas F. Patton (District 24)
Mark Romanchuk (District 22)
Shane Wilkin (District 17)
Hearcel F. Craig (District 15)
Catherine D. Ingram (District 9

As you can see, our State Senator Andrew Brenner sits on the Senate Finance Committee. For those not aware, there was an amendment done to HB 96 (Brenner was a co-sponsor) last year, in the Senate Finance Committee that increased the percentage of signatures needed for referendums from 15% to 35%. Effectively making it unattainable for voters to put measures on the ballot for the PEOPLE to vote regarding things like laws, policy changes, high density housing proposals or even small scale data centers proposals. The Ohio House Finance Committee included an amendment to the same bill, excluding mega projects (like Amazon in Sunbury) from the people being able to do a referendum entirely. HB 96 was signed into law in June 2025.

We know that the majority of Ohioans are NOT in favor of all of this high density, high number of data centers and our rights being taken away. But we continue to allow our elected officials to continue in office without listening to WE THE PEOPLE!

If you want to see how your elected officials voted during each step of the process of HB 184 - we will put the link in the comments.

Please continue to invite friends to our page, like and share to help others become aware of what is happening across our county and state!

11/04/2026

According to Beth Lear, the American Conservative Fund is a federal dark-money PAC being funded by online gambling groups pretending to be pro-family and we shouldn't support her opponent because he was endorsed by them. So, I guess we shouldn't support Brenner either, right?!

🚨COUNTY ISSUE🚨So let's talk about the race for County Commissioner. Barb Lewis is not seeking re-election. In the Republ...
09/04/2026

🚨COUNTY ISSUE🚨

So let's talk about the race for County Commissioner. Barb Lewis is not seeking re-election. In the Republican primary there are two candidates running. Joe St. John, Sunbury Mayor & Renee Vaughan, Genoa Township Trustee.

We have went and looked for campaign finance reports for both candidates. There are not any campaign contributions to show as of right now and campaign finances are not due until April 23rd but early voting has started.

Looking at campaign pages, it seems that Renee Vaughan has been endorsed by many of the current and former county trustees. St. John has been endorsed by 2 current county commissioners (Lewis & Benton). So we have compiled previous campaign finances of the two commissioners that have endorsed St. John. In the reports you will see MANY donations from developer slush fund PACs that we discussed in a previous post, realtor PACs, Developers themselves, apartment complex owners, and even Pat Tiberi 🤢. So, go ahead and take a look for yourselves. It is no wonder Delaware County has earned the fastest growing county designation for years, just look at the amount of money dumped into these 3 commissioners' seats (Merrell's reports also reflect the same type of donations and he is sitting on over $135k as of his last report). It is hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions!

Typically those doing the endorsing will endorse those with the same mindset. It is all about what you, as the Delaware County residents, want to see!

🚨Sunbury Issue🚨At last week's State of the City address, the mayor said they're calling for a “pause".Let’s call it what...
30/03/2026

🚨Sunbury Issue🚨

At last week's State of the City address, the mayor said they're calling for a “pause".
Let’s call it what it is — kicking the can down the road.

The lack of due diligence research regarding water, infrastructure, environmental impact, and long-term consequences is becoming impossible to ignore.

Sunbury residents aren’t asking for delays.

Sunbury residents deserve transparency, accountability and real answers!

🚨STATE ISSUE🚨Let's talk about SB 107, introduced by Senator Andrew Brenner in Feb 2025. In this bill Brenner seeks to ch...
27/03/2026

🚨STATE ISSUE🚨

Let's talk about SB 107, introduced by Senator Andrew Brenner in Feb 2025. In this bill Brenner seeks to change requirements for school board races at the state and local levels. Currently, school board races are non-partisan but if Brenner has his way, he would force candidates to declare a party. This might sound like a good idea in theory to some, but this would adversely affect a large segment of the population. By forcing a person to declare a party, active duty military members, as well as some civil service employees, would not be able to run for these offices due to rules and regulations that prevent these groups from running for partisan seats. Additionally, by forcing political affiliation, the bill dictates that if a person wishes to file as an independent, they must gather more signatures on their petitions than those who declare as a democrat or republican.

Recently, a supporter of Brenner has been repeatedly condemning Brenner's opponent, Shawn Stevens for not introducing any new legislation in the nine whole months he was in office. The supporter goes on to brag about how much legislation Andy has introduced and how quickly he introduced legislation once he took office. To that we say - THANK YOU Shawn Stevens! True conservative minds believe in FREEDOM from less laws and less government overreach. This is just one example of Brenner’s overreach, which would take our military members’ rights away to serve the public should the bill pass.

⭐️⭐️⭐️TEACHING TUESDAY⭐️⭐️⭐️On today’s Teaching Tuesday, we are going to dive into Political Action Committees (PACs). ...
25/03/2026

⭐️⭐️⭐️TEACHING TUESDAY⭐️⭐️⭐️

On today’s Teaching Tuesday, we are going to dive into Political Action Committees (PACs). PACs are set up to either support issues or candidates. People donate to a PAC, then the PAC can make campaign contributions to candidates or causes. For instance, you can have a group of concerned citizens that organize a PAC to fight back on an issue, like a referendum. Or you might see schools that are trying to pass a levy or bond that have parents who start a PAC to help get information out to the public to help pass their levy or bond issue. These monies donated to the PACs can be used for yard signs, literature, campaign promotions, etc.

Then there are PACs that are nothing more than developer slush funds. It is exactly what it sounds like. These slush funds are primarily funded by real estate developers, construction firms, engineering companies and anyone in between that looks to profit from growth and development. Those slush fund PACs then turn around and make campaign contributions to those running for public office who have the authority to introduce legislation, change zoning, approve permits, or have a say in what projects go forward. It is unfortunate but most of our elected officials in Delaware County have taken money from numerous slush fund PACs, developers and construction owners. Hundreds of thousands of dollars, perhaps more than a million, that have been contributed to these slush fund PACs, just in Delaware County. Each of our commissioners have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions. As of the latest BOE filing, one commissioner is sitting with over $135,000, another is sitting with over $116,000 and the third is not seeking re-election and has nearly $25,000. They are not the only elected officials/candidates taking in the money, but they are by far the ones that have reaped the most financially!

We need to start being informed voters. Stop blindly voting. Elections have consequences and Delaware County residents have paid the ultimate consequence by high taxes, over development, crazy traffic and now data centers!

Please continue to share these posts to help others become informed! Voting starts soon for the primary.

24/03/2026

🚨STATE & COUNTY ISSUE🚨

In February 2025 a bill was introduced at the state house regarding annexations. HB113 was introduced by Rep Adam Bird & Rep Johnathan Newman and it looks to tighten & strengthen laws regarding municipal annexations, including expanding the requirements of who has to file financial disclosures and would also require local school districts to approve certain tax exemptions. Should this bill pass it will help reduce the strain that rapid development is causing on our schools and infrastructures. It is important to understand that annexations are rarely denied because our current law only gives commissioners and municipalities the option to deny if all of the legal criteria is not met. Typically if there is something not being met through the legal requirements, the land owner will withdraw their application to remedy the error. We asked google to help break down and compare the current law vs the proposed benefits of HB 113.

1. Veto Power Over Expedited Annexations

🔴Current Law: In "Expedited Type-2" annexations (where all property owners agree), county commissioners cannot veto the petition if it meets basic technical criteria.
🟢HB 113: Grants county commissioners the authority to veto any annexation, including expedited ones, if they determine it does not serve the "general good" of the county.

2. Stricter Physical Requirements

🟢HB 113 makes it harder for non-adjacent land to be annexed by tightening the physical standards for "Expedited Type-2" petitions:
Acreage Limit: Reduces the maximum allowable land area from 500 acres to 200 acres.
Contiguous Border: Increases the required shared border between the municipality and the land from 5% to 20% of the perimeter.

3. Response "Default" Changes

The bill changes how local governments' silence is interpreted during the process:
🔴Current Law: If a municipality or township fails to respond to an annexation notice, it is legally considered consent.
🟢HB 113: Failure to respond would be considered a refusal or objection, potentially halting the process.

4. Mandatory Full Service Delivery

🔴Current Law: Municipalities must state what services they will provide and "approximately when" they will begin.
🟢HB 113: Requires municipalities to provide all services generally available within their existing borders to the new territory. It also removes "approximate" dates, requiring services to start as soon as construction begins.

5. School District Authority

🔴Current Law: School districts have limited formal power to block residential tax exemptions in certain development zones (CRAs).
🟢HB 113: Gives school districts veto power over residential property tax exemptions in CRAs. It also requires the State Board of Education to automatically transfer annexed land to the municipality's primary school district

🟢This bill would also expand the requirements for who has to file annual financial disclosures to include village administrators, assistant village administrators, city managers and assistant city managers.

I think it is safe to say that most of the people living in our county can see and agree that the overdevelopment has not been responsible and is harmful in many ways such as our school systems. The infrastructure was not in place for all of the development and has created a significant tax burden on the tax payers to compensate for it.

Contact your state elected officials and ask why they are not co-sponsoring this legislation.

In the comments we will post a info graphic with further detailed information regarding HB113.

🚨 Sunbury/County Issue 🚨The hypocrisy that tonight the City of Sunbury's zoning commission denied a woman's application...
24/03/2026

🚨 Sunbury/County Issue 🚨

The hypocrisy that tonight the City of Sunbury's zoning commission denied a woman's application (3-3) to run an in home pet setting business from her home, but want to push thru annexations and data centers!

One zoning member was worried about the # of dogs & animals housed at one time and compared it to the Wild West! 🤣 Others were worried about the noise that a high number of dogs 'COULD' cause. That's rich considering the City is trying to push through the Amazon Data Center even though MANY citizens have shared concerns about the noise it WILL bring. Apparently a couple of dogs barking is super worrisome but a data center that emits low frequency noise that can literally drive you crazy is all good. 👌🏻

At last week's meeting Mayor St. John instructed citizens to do research regarding data centers and to share that research with the city. Seems the Sunbury zoning board researched in home pet sitting longer than they or council did about the effects of light industrial zoning, annexations or data centers! I have always hoped that my elected officials were making informed decisions. Doesn't seem that is the case in this instance and we the people are who suffer the consequences.

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