Just two weeks after a failed recall attempt targeting the city’s Mayor and two at-large council members, a Whitehall resident announced that she is seeking signatures for a recall petition to oust a council member who was accused in December of sex crimes involving a minor.
Tiffanie Charles Haver made the announcement during a July 7 City Council meeting. While speaking, she directly addressed Council member Gerald Dixon and the charges he was accused of when he was arrested at his home in December. Those charges were later dismissed.
Haver cited Dixon’s writings detailing his attraction to underage boys – information released by Chief Michael Crispen at the time – and said that residents of Ward 1, which Dixon represents, had lost faith in his leadership.
Haver ran against Dixon in the November 2025 general election in 2025 and was overwhelmingly defeated. Dixon received 70% of the votes, according to the election results from the Franklin County Board of Elections.
Sean Eshleman, who lives in Columbus but said that he grew up in Whitehall, also spoke during the meeting and accused Dixon of allegedly assaulting a relative of his. He also decried the failed recall attempt targeting the city’s Mayor and two council members.
“I hope we can do the right thing and get Dixon not just off of city council, but in prison,” Eshleman said.
Dixon fiercely pushed back against the accusations during the meeting. He called them untrue and defamatory.
City Council President Thomas Potter interjected several times to stop the speakers from going further with their respective comments.
Two other attendees at the meeting also held a “silent protest” at the microphone and did not speak for the entire three minutes allotted for public comment for individual speakers. One stared at Dixon throughout the silence, but the pair never addressed why they were there.
Haver did not say how many signatures, if any, she had gathered for the petition. To trigger a special recall election to remove Dixon from office, Haver and anyone assisting her must get signatures from at least 25% of the electors from Ward 1 who voted in the most recent mayoral election, according to the Whitehall City Charter.
For Ward 1, that means collecting 105 valid signatures from registered Whitehall voters, which is 25% of the 420 who cast votes in the November 2025 election in Ward 1.
The recent special recall election for the mayor and the two council members cost the city $40,000 to hold. After the recent recall failed and before the recount that showed Elmore had also retained her seat, Givens and Hacar had said they hoped that the community could heal and move forward.
Dixon’s December arrest thrust back into the spotlight
Dixon was arrested in December 2025 in connection with sex charges involving a minor. At the time of the arrest, Whitehall police said the charges stemmed from an ongoing investigation in coordination with other law enforcement agencies.
Dixon was charged with gross sexual imposition and compelling prostitution of a minor. He was released on his own recognizance the day after his arrest when a Franklin County assistant prosecutor could not provide more details on the charges against Dixon to the court.
Dixon was sworn in for his term on City Council a day after being released. The charges against him were dismissed shortly before Christmas 2025.
After Dixon’s arrest, Crispen wrote a letter to Mayor Bivens documenting what he said were Dixon’s writings and journal entries documenting his attraction to underage boys.
Shortly after his arrest, City Council tried and failed two separate times to vote Dixon out of his seat. The second vote, which took place in January of this year, was split 3-3 among council members, with Harcar, Devin Brown, and Elmore voting to expel Dixon. Council members Larry Morrison, Brian McCann, and Mike Adkins voted against the resolution.
Reporter Shahid Meighan can be reached at smeighan@dispatch.com, at ShahidMeighan on X, and at shahidthereporter.dispatch.com on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Former candidate seeks recall of Whitehall Council member Gerald Dixon
Reporting by Shahid Meighan, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Shahid Meighan, Columbus Dispatch | USA TODAY Network
