The St. Joseph County Council elected a new president to start the year at their annual organizational meeting Tuesday night. The vote had Republicans disowning the winner.
Republicans have held a 5-4 majority on the council since the 2022 elections. To start Tuesday’s meeting, in a planned strategy, Democrat Bryan Tanner nominated Republican Dan Schaetzle for president. The other three Democrats also voted for Schaetzle, giving him a 5-4 win over Republican Randy Figg.
Schaetzle and the Democrats then elected Tanner as president pro tem and Democrat Mark Catanzarite as vice president pro tem. The three offices make up the Rules Committee, which picks committee chairs and performs administrative functions like conducting employee reviews for the council attorney.
Republicans were furious. Council Member Amy Drake, Figg, and Republicans Joe Thomas and Andy Rutten issued a statement saying Schaetzle’s “willingness to gamble away the Republicans’ majority for personal gain is disgraceful.” They said they "call on Mr. Schaetzle to formally renounce his association with the Republican Party as he no longer adheres to the principles we hold dear."
But Schaetzle afterward said he will continue to work with members of both parties.
"I'm a Republican, I will always be a Republican, but before I'm a Republican, I'm an American," Schaetzle said. "We intend to collaborate in a bipartisan fashion and I encourage collaboration and bipartisanship among all nine of our members."
