Same commissioner, different year, different story
Richard Koonce revises record on his support for youth programming at new city community recreation center
SANDUSKY —
For decades, Sandusky’s vision for a new recreation center centered on one idea: a place for the city’s kids. It’s why parents, community leaders, and the recreation department worked tirelessly to pass an operating levy in 2023 — a levy campaign that prominently featured children in the city’s out of school programs.
Voters approved the levy by a razor-thin 52-vote margin in November 2023, with the understanding that the youth programming run out of the old Mills Elementary School would move into the new facility. With at least $14 million already earmarked from future tax revenue to build the center, it seemed a done deal.
But just months later, some city leaders floated a different vision: no youth programming in the new rec center. Commissioner Richard Koonce, the city’s liaison to the city’s recreation board, not only failed to defend the kids’ programs but agreed with those who wanted to exclude kids from the new center.
At a rec board meeting in June 2024, Koonce suggested the city’s youth programming at Mills School might be excluded from a new rec center, agreeing with an advisory committee’s decision.
“That to me, logistically speaking, that's not wise, right? So we're absolutely right that that committee is absolutely right in doing that.”
Watch the June 12,2024 rec board meeting here (13-minute mark)
Fast forward to this week, at the rec board meeting on Wednesday (Aug. 13), when Rec program supervisor Tondra Frisby reminded the board — and the public — what the rec center was supposed to be about.
Frisby, who has spent years running programs for Sandusky kids, was responding to Koonce’s claim that he always supported the kids’ programming and whether the city can make it work.
“When we started this campaign for the levy… it was always about the kids. They deserve a place to be… We’ve visited cities with rec centers that serve everyone — seniors, young adults, pre-K — and they make it work. We can to.”
Koonce responded, insisting he had always supported the programs:
“If anybody at any time said that they wouldn’t support those programs, I’d like to know who they were… I never said that.”
Frisby didn’t let it slide:
“I think you did mention something about it… that it didn’t make sense logistically to think that the kids’ program would go into the new rec center.”
Koonce doubled down, claiming:
“I did mention something … the same way that it looks right now, is what I said.”
Except… it wasn’t.
Koonce’s 2024 statement directly undercuts his 2025 claim. Then, he said it wasn’t wise for the afterschool programs to move to the new facility. Now, he says he’s always been for it.
Watch Wednesday’s rec board meeting here (28-minute mark)
It’s a neat trick — the political equivalent of moving the fireworks show and then swearing you never touched the calendar. But unlike fireworks, the record here is clear.
In 2024, Koonce sided with a plan to keep the kids out. In 2025, facing public pushback, he says he’s always been with them. The tape says otherwise.
Koonce was not immediately available for comment on Thursday.
