Q:  Why do you want to be on City Council?

A:  I fell in love with Columbus shortly after I arrived here to attend college.  There is a visual beauty in the core city and in the diverse neighborhoods – that captured my passion.  There is an underlying attitude of optimism that is unique in contrast to my observations of other Ohio and American cities.  Since 1976, my life has been about investing myself in issues that impact the quality of life of my neighbors.  I have been blessed to have been able to be a community volunteer since the early 1980s – primarily working with the City of Columbus to accomplish projects in a very broad range of topics.  As I approach my mid-50’s – the passion for Columbus continues to burn bright within me.  I want to leverage the experiences, knowledge, and my aptitude for seeing projects through – to delivering public service for the benefit of the entire City of Columbus.  I want to return the notion of “citizen stewardship” to City Hall – to bring a differing perspective, a differing way of thinking and doing than is presently occurring inside City Hall.  I want to help nurture Columbus forward, through upcoming troubling financial times to remain a progressive and growing city that is an enviable American city.  I want to deal with issues directly, honestly, and in the open.  I know that I am a unique person in comparison to the characteristics of the present Council Members – and I am certain that Columbus will benefit from my skills and approaches being integrated in the activities of City Hall.

Q:  What are the most pressing issues for Columbus, right now?

A:  Columbus has been uniquely blessed by several past decades of a growing economic base and a growing attraction to outsiders to choose to call Columbus their new home.  The glory days of a robust economy have, perhaps too quietly, slipped into the past.  The City of Columbus is suffering from the impact of its income tax revenues not growing as fast as are the expenses of running a municipality for more than 730,000 residents.  Overlooked in the general public’s mind is the raw fact that the City is operating at a service level that is below the expectations of its citizens and below the desired levels of service of City employees – by necessity.  The City’s ‘basic services’ costs are exceeding the available supportive revenues.  There are no more services that can be cut, without outright elimination – in order to provide the quantity of revenues that are needed just to address normal cost-of-living expense increases that lie ahead, let alone for the City to restore funding to prior activity cuts and to meet neighborhood appeals for enhanced funding of a multitude of topical areas of City service.

Thus, as I see it, the most pressing issues include:

1.       Sustaining and growing the general ‘economic engine’ so that the region is vibrant – and the City of Columbus has a revenue stream that allows it to accomplish more than it is able when the revenues are constricted, as they are today.

2.       Politicians creating unsupportable expectations for what the City of Columbus can do:  Example - citizens believe that the City merely has to choose to employ more safety forces and the City would suddenly be without crime.  Example – the City can presently afford to deliver more services than the City is presently.

3.       The public education system is misunderstood by the general populace and the negative perception is contributing to a steady exodus of residents to outside of the Columbus school district, eroding the quality of life of our central neighborhoods.

4.       The City’s hidden and visible infrastructure system is decaying – and time has been working against our ability to fund comprehensive upgrades.

5.       We have cut our City employee workforce in address of economic realities – leaving some City services under-attended.  Additionally, the growing number of potential retirees will contribute to a loss of valued knowledge for the inner-workings of this great city.

 

Q:  What makes you different from the present Council members and why does that matter?

A:  I am different in numerous ways and that both assures that I will compliment the Council members who are in service after January 1 – and that I will challenge the traditional mannerisms and thinking of Council.

1.       My resume is constructed on hands-on experience with a wide array of City issues.  During the past 23 years, when I have chosen to engage in an issue, (a) I have immersed myself in learning all that I can before forming a final opinion, (b) I have strived to engage in discussions with both proponents and opponents to increase my knowledge and to open opportunities for consensus being achieved, (c) I have adjusted, without hesitation nor remorse, my initial opinion when new knowledge outweighed my past knowledge, (d) I focused on the details while giving attention to the larger context of how the issue fits into the broader picture of other community issues, and (e) I worked to convey the discussions to the public and to engage them in the outcome development and implementation.  My reputation has been to not engage in issues merely to say that I ‘touched’ the matter to enhance my resume.  I will work hard for Columbus.

2.       I am a fiscal conservative.  I do not believe that government should nor can jump into every issue of a community as if it alone were responsible for resolving the matter.  The City has more power of influence than it has the human and financial resources available to tackle the very wide range of issues that a city of 730,000 residents faces.  That caution for exploring how best to leverage the appropriate city resources will temper the traditional politicians’ desire to be the hero and fix all societal ills.  Nevertheless, government has a duty to protect its citizens, in a broad interpretation of the word ‘protect’.

3.       I am a social moderate.  My life has been a journey that has included high points and very low points.  I have lived adult days of having no money to buy neither food, nor a car to drive – and will never forget the humiliation that I felt while living that life and trying to find my way back to my feet.  That experience is embedded in my being – a moment that I tried to hold as a secret, yet it has strengthened me in recognizing the challenges that my neighbors face when they find themselves in similar circumstances.  I was able to climb back up to a comfortable place in life.  I will always be especially sensitive to looking for opportunities to help others release the burdens of their lives to find their way to a more comfortable life.

4.       My allegiance will be to the citizens of Columbus, not to the majority political party that has controlled City Council for several decades – and that has appointed a majority of the present Council members.  I will not be influenced by party leaders seeking a uniform consensus of the Council members for sake of future elect-ability.  I will strive to take positions that benefit Columbus as my first priority.  I have never used my political party loyalty to impede good decision making.  I pledge to strive to honor and respect the political system while being a public servant to all citizens of this great city.  That clearly is different from what I have observed with the present Council.

5.       My service as a Council Member will be as a ‘citizen servant’.  My service will not be a career.  As such, I will not shy from potentially controversial positions on issues that may hurt my future elect-ability – if I believe that my position benefits Columbus in the broader perspective of time and interests.  My interest will not be to padding my political resume – for I have no ambitions beyond City Hall.  This too will differ my approach from that of Council members who have an interest in making political service their career.

 

Q:  Have you run for office before or worked on political campaigns in the past?

A:  Officially, I have not previously run for office.  I hesitate, because service on the Clintonville Area Commission is technically an appointed position – but we have local elections within our representative districts to ‘nominate’ an appointee.  I served on the CAC as a commissioner between 1992 and 1999, including a stint as their chair.

In terms of campaigns, I have been engaged for as long as I can remember.  Supporting candidates of both political parties and at least one Columbus City Schools issues campaign.  I have volunteered with Bush HW’s presidential, Voinovich’s gubernatorial, Hatch’s Ohio House,  Lashutka’s and Teater’s mayoral, and Griffin’s City Council races, to recall most.  Gosh, I remember supporting Springer when he was a Cincinnati Councilman and he was running for governor – but that was a long time ago, before his television craziness.  In hindsight, how silly was that!

I have enjoyed the sport of the political process.  I have enjoyed the candidates that I interacted with.

Q:  What do you do for relaxation?

A:  Since I declared by candidacy in January, relaxation has become a mere illusion.  There is no time for relaxation!

Before this year – my relaxation occurred in many forms.  Anything that I do with my Columbus sons is mentally relaxing for me.  We love to debate.  We enjoy competitive board games and bowling.  I am energized by being outdoors, whether hiking, bicycling, canoeing, brush-cutting on our property in the Hocking Hills, or just puttering in our garden at home.  I love exploring Ohio roads and Columbus streets – getting lost is a goal as it teaches me to use the sun or waterways to find my way back home.  In the summer, Linda and I usually spend time with our nieces and nephew, usually at Lake Erie.  In rare quite times, I work on jig-saw puzzles and catch-up on my always-behind stack of magazines.  And Linda will tell you that I always have numerous home update projects underway, whether in pages of sketches or in piles of saw or plaster dust.  Relaxation for me is hard to do – as my mind is always with a series of community projects that beckon my attention.  Thus my family and friends accept that I get restless after sitting still for short periods – but I make for a good handyman when I am visiting their homes!  Once a month, Linda and I try to have a movie night, whether at the drive-in, in theater, or at home.  And then there is ER on Thursdays and the Friday evening PBS political shows that tend to slow me down.  Or so I remember from the past!

Actually, I find it relaxing to serve as my community’s webmaster and as fiscal agent for community groups.  Doing research and crunching numbers is a relaxation for me – geek-like as that sounds.