Council President claims former Telegraph Forum reporter was “run out of town” by Council member, mob.
After having been censured by a near unanimous City Council vote for conduct unbecoming a Council President, Kurt Fankhauser doubled down and released another video on his Youtube page, this time making the stunning accusation that Council member Kevin Myers and his ambiguous “mob” threatened and verbally attacked a Telegraph Forum reporter so much so that she was forced to “flee the state.”
Oksana Kotkina is a Russian born journalist who left her country to take a scholarship in Boston, Massachussetts. She applied for and received political asylum soon after she graduated with a degree in journalism. She joined the Telegraph Forum at the end of 2023 and left in May of 2024. If Fankhauser is to be believed, her departure is all due to Kevin and Rachel Myers and a mob which they control.
Fankhauser’s video accusing Myers of threatening reporter causing her to “flee the state”
After much research and speaking to all parties involved, it appears that the truth of the matter pales in comparison to the reality that Fankhauser wants his followers to believe. Obviously, as a new media company with a few writers on staff who will be writing about local politics, we do not take Fankhauser’s allegations lightly. After all, if a town mob truly ran a reporter out of town for simply writing a story, that does not bode well for us. We take our jobs seriously, and if wrongdoing occured on the part of Council member Myers, his wife, or any groups to which they belong, it is in our best interests to report on it so as to avoid receiving the same treatment.
That being said, early on it became clear Fankhauser’s accusations are dubious at best, and at worst defamatory. To begin with, we’ve reached out to Fankhauser as well as Kotkina, neither of whom wished to speak with us. Kotkina, it should be noted, seemed unaware that any video regarding her alleged treatment had been made.
This begs the question: if the Council president is so concerned with the wellbeing of Oksana Kotkina, why would he not ask her permission to use her name and text messages in his accusation, much less even let her know?
Secondly, if his allegations are to be believed, why has he blocked all comments to the video? It is almost as if he’s afraid of any discord whatsoever concerning the salacious accusations he’s making.
Lastly, if the accusations Fankhauser makes are above reproach, why would he not answer our repeated attempts at interviewing him? One would think he would welcome extra media coverage for an allegation he’s making about a fellow Council member he so obviously despises, and yet he remains silent.
Council member Zyan M Hickman, however, shared his thoughts on Fankhauser’s video, “The reporter did not get "ran out". She was fired. Every time she made a report, it was full of spelling errors and grammatical mistakes. She was a sweet lady and awesome to talk to, but whatever was going on between her and the company that runs the TF was what the problem was. She didn’t even live here, as far as I was aware.”
There’s no way to know for sure why Kotkina left Bucyrus. The Telegraph-Forum has yet to answer our request for comment, possibly due to the fact that they have no staff available whatsoever. However, Council member Hickman and many others paint a very different picture than Fankhauser, that she did not quit and “flee the state,” but was simply let go due to the many mistakes in her stories. We saw many grammatical errors in our research. It is no surprise given the fact that English is not Kotkina’s first language. She writes English much like she speaks it, like she is Russian. It is no fault of her own; she may be a great person, but writing is arguably the most important part of journalism. The blame lies not on her, but on the Telegraph-Forum for hiring a journalist who isn’t a strong English writer in the first place.
In regards to the supposed bombshell story Kotkina was uncovering, once again Fankhauser’s fantasies do not line up with the basic facts. In his video, Fankhauser admits he spoke to Kotkina about the verbal agreement between Officer Devin Wireman of Bucyrus Police Department and Print Happier, Rachel Myers’ T-shirt printing business.
On March 12, 2024, Officer Wireman posted a Facebook post detailing the sale of T-shirts for their K-9 fundraiser. The entire K-9 portion of the police department is funded from donations. The City of Bucyrus does not pay for the vehicles, the dogs, supplies, or anything else having to do with the K-9
According to video footage of the interview that took place between Rachel Myers and Kotkina as well as statements from Print Happier, Officer Wireman and Rachel Myers were having a conversation when the department’s K-9 fundraiser came up. Officer Wireman mentioned they were selling T-shirts and told Myers what the department was paying, to which Myers expressed disbelief and offered to sell the department t-shirts from her business, Print Happier, for a substantially cheaper price than he was being quoted. Myers tells Wireman, “Let me help you so that the K-9 fund can make more money because… I want you to be better.” She quoted a price of $10 per shirt to Officer Wireman.
According to information we obtained, Officer Wireman was paying about $11 more per shirt to the original company whom he commissioned to create the t-shirts than what Mrs. Myers offered. In order to sell the shirts for a cheaper price while making more profit, an agreement in theory was made, and on March 25th, the department shared this post with the updated prices:
However, when Fankhauser caught wind of this, he objected, claiming it is unethical for the wife of a Council member to profit from a deal made with the police department which is funded by the city — even though technically the fundraiser was for a part of the department not funded by the city — because her husband sits on the Council that votes on the department’s budget.
Still though, in order to not give the appearance of moral turpitude, Rachel Myers decided to sell the t-shirts at cost, around $8.25 per shirt. Fankhauser then objected to this as well, claiming that the very act of advertising the donation was a violation of ethics. This runs counter to the fact that Fankhauser makes mention of his donation of cameras to the city any chance he gets.
In the end, Rachel Myers and Print Happier decided not to donate anything so as to not give the impression of an ethical dilemma. Presumably this means the police department made less money, but Fankhauser is at least satisfied in knowing no ethics were violated. Except that he isn’t, and still regularly brings this issue up whenever he can.
In a receipt we obtained from Print Happier, we see that the Bucyrus PD would have sold a grand total of 46 t-shirts. These shirts were returned once Fankhauser raised an objection to Print Happier making the T-shirts for $10 and ultimately making them whatsoever — even at cost.
This means that if we were to grant Kurt’s grand conspiracy that a cigar smoke-filled backroom deal took place whereby Print Happier and the Bucyrus Police Department were scheming to profit money from a fundraiser, Print Happier stood to make. . . $80.50. This is the big story which Kurt allegedly sent Mrs. Kotkina to uncover, the wife of a Council member profiting $80 from the police department for a fundraiser that had nothing to do with city finances.
We reached out to Officer Wireman who directed us to the Law Director, Brandon Gobrecht. Gobrecht has yet to respond to our request for comment, but it is important to note he was not the Law Director during the time these events took place.
We’ve also reached out to Kevin Myers who refused to comment so as to not give Fankhauser’s video the dignity of a response. His silence makes more sense than Fankhauser’s, given the fact that the allegations against him have little basis in fact.
We have, however, obtained cell phone footage of the interview that took place between Mrs. Myers and Mrs. Kotkina.
In the video, it seems clear that Mrs. Myers is giving factual answers, just not the answers Kotkina appears to be looking for. After repeating herself many times, Mrs. Myers becomes frustrated and ends the interview. This video footage tells a much different story than the one Kotkina relays to Kurt in their conversation through text, and is certainly different than how Kurt portrays the interaction throughout his video.
As a journalist, it’s important to give good interviews and ask tough questions. It’s a skill any serious journalist needs to have in order to report on stories that matter. We would never begrudge another reporter for asking questions. That being said, if you pay close attention it is evident that Mrs. Kotkina had already assumed answers to the questions she was asking Mrs. Myers. Where those assumptions came from is anyone’s guess, but Mrs. Myers gives a good one during their conversation: Kurt Fankhauser who, again, admits to speaking with Kotkina about this “scoop” before any of these events took place.
Now, what about this mob Kurt continually refers to throughout this and all his videos? In short, there is no mob, and there never has been. What Kurt refers to as a mob are simply citizens who don’t agree with him and his brand of politics. The closest thing we could find to what Fankhauser calls a mob is a Facebook group called Free Speechers, which is a group that formed as a counter to Councilperson At-large Carolyn Shireman’s group. Shireman regularly conducted herself as a Council member in these groups but kicked out anyone who dared to disagree with her. Essentially, when Kurt has a problem with this group, what he truly dislikes are those who disagree with him. Fortunately for the Free Speechers, the founding fathers put their namesake into the Bill of Rights as the First Amendment.
Other Council members have a name for what Fankhauser and Shireman call a mob: their constituents.
In fact, when asked, Councilperson Zyan M. Hickman echoed those sentiments. “There is no "mob". This "mob" got started when one citizen started asking questions, and it eventually snowballed into more people asking more questions. It’s the right of the people to ask these questions and make their opinions. They elected us to listen to them. The "mob" pays our salaries. To attack them when they come to speak and label them as such is asinine and unprofessional.”
As to why Kotkina left Bucyrus, there’s no way to know for sure. The Telegraph-Forum has yet to answer our request, possibly due to the fact that they have no staff available to answer questions. However, Council member Hickman and many others paint a very different picture than Fankhauser, that she did not quit and “flee the state,” but was simply let go due to the many mistakes in her stories. We saw many grammatical errors in our research. It is no surprise given the fact that English is not Kotkina’s first language. She writes English much like she speaks it, like she is Russian. It is no fault of her own; she may be a great person, but writing is arguably the most important part of journalism. The blame lies not on her, but on the Telegraph-Forum for hiring a journalist who isn’t a strong English writer in the first place.
As has become commonplace after watching a video on his Youtube or Facebook page, Kurt Fankhauser’s latest batch of accusations fail to hit their mark. His allegations fall to even the smallest bit of scrutiny. The degree to which his political posturing is a success is due in large part to laziness on the part of those viewing his narcissistic diatribes.
As a new publication, it is important to us to represent all parties fairly when writing news stories, and we take that charge seriously. In deciding whether or not to pursue this story, we weighed many factors including but not limited to the seriousness of the allegations, how truthful the accusations, fairness to all parties, and newsworthiness to the public. It is not lost on us that fans of the Council President will read this and be upset just like fans of Councilperson Myers will read this and wonder why these allegations are being further disseminated. We have done our best to be as fair as possible to both men as well as Mrs. Kotkina especially given the fact that none wished to comment. A famous quote by George Orwell reads that “Journalism is printing something someone does not want printed. Everything else is public relations.” We take solace in the fact that he, and maybe he only, would approve.
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