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Tiffin City Council swears in first female mayor in city history

Councilmember Dawn Iannantuono was sworn in Tuesday afternoon as the 50th mayor of Tiffin.

TIFFIN, Ohio —

Tiffin City Councilmember Dawn Iannantuono has been sworn in as the city's mayor.

Iannantuono is the first female elected mayor in the city's history and the city's 50th mayor overall, according to the city of Tiffin.

She has represented the third ward on the council since 2016.

There have been two women prior to Iannantuono who have served as the city's acting mayor, most recently Council President Bridget Boyle.

On Monday night, councilmembers voted 4-1 for Iannantuono to become the next mayor.

Council had met last week on July 12, where they decided to move forward with a vote to replace former mayor Aaron Montz, who resigned to take a new role as president of the Tiffin-Seneca Economic Partnership.

Members voted last week for at-large councilmember Zack Perkins to become the next mayor. He resigned from council the following day and announced he would not accept the mayoral nomination.

RELATED: Tiffin mayor-elect Perkins declines office, resigns from city council effective immediately

The only other candidate besides Iannantuono for mayor after Perkins resigned was Brian Cole, the national sales manager for OSSTSports USA/JBA Services LLC.

Montz congratulated Iannantuono Monday evening in a tweet:

The original story is below:

Council met in a special meeting last Thursday to set a new course for electing a mayor, and members quickly reached a standstill.

"We weren't coming together as a group," newly sworn-in council president Steve Lepard said. "I think we really need to come together as a group right now for the city of Tiffin."

On Monday, July 11, council elected at-large councilmember Zack Perkins to fill the position of mayor. Perkins resigned less than 24 hours later from council and announced he would not accept the office of mayor of Tiffin.

Lepard agreed to speak with WTOL 11 after the meeting. He said the council's inability to come to an agreement after almost two hours was disappointing.

"The city now expects quality leadership, and we need to give them that," Lepard said.

The biggest source of conflict was council's disagreement over whether or not to open up election candidacy to members of the public again or proceed with a vote on the remaining candidates, Dawn Iannantuono and Brian Cole. 

The third candidate, Bryce Riggs, withdrew his name from consideration early Thursday.

Lepard told WTOL 11 he believed, at that time, Iannantuono should be elected mayor, having earned more votes than Cole during the first election meeting, which went through four rounds of voting before Perkins was selected. 

Cole received no votes during the original election, but Law Director Brent Howard said there is nothing in the city's charter that disqualifies Cole from remaining in contention for the office.

"I think we have two candidates. According to the law director, we have two candidates. In my opinion, we have one candidate, and that person should be elected," Lepard said.

Tiffin's former mayor, Aaron Montz, was in attendance at last week's meeting. WTOL 11 asked the former mayor for comment, but Montz said he's been advised not to speak publicly.

If council had not decided on a new mayor before Aug. 4 the decision could have gone to the common pleas court. 

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