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Ian on the Issues I am happy to say that while we face many challenges, we are still one of the best major cities in the country. Our commitment to diversity shows up in the great people that choose to live here and in the sense of pride we all share in our great city. The city continues to have one of the highest bond ratings in all fifty states, and the good fiscal stewardship of city leadership has provided a strong foundation through the most trying economic times since the Great Depression. The arts community continues to bring an aesthetic that rivals that of some of our larger counterparts. Our police, fire and public service departments are some of the best, most courteous and dedicated in the country. We have beautiful parks connected by bike paths that actually inspire us to “commit to be fit.” We are a great city, and it would be my honor to strive to make it better in the next decade as a Columbus City Councilperson. In these difficult economic times, it is critical that our tax dollars are used efficiently and effectively to ensure delivery of the services we depend on. As an area commission president, I made it a point to save taxpayer money and return commission funding to the city during the 2008 budget crisis. While it was not a substantial amount, during tough times, every penny counts. I believe strongly in personal fiscal stewardship, and will apply the same common sense to our hard-earned taxpayer dollars. If chosen to serve, I pledge to help ensure the fiscal health of our city budget. I believe we must plan to protect our city in the event of another economic downturn and be prepared to protect residents from service cuts in such areas as parks and libraries, trash removal, road maintenance and fee increases. Neighborhood Resources and City Services My main priority as a Columbus City Councilmember would be to ensure we get the city resources and services we need and our taxpayer dollars support. I believe we need to increase access to city services through new technologies like smart phone apps, while enhancing all of the current reporting methods we have been accustomed to, including the Columbus 311 Call Center. In the information age, we should not only be able to easily request city service requests, but we should be promptly informed when the request has been addressed. Other major metropolitan cities have proven that smart phones are essential tools to reporting and communicating the status of code violations and other important city service requests. If selected to serve as a Columbus City Councilmember, I promise to do everything I can to make that a reality for Columbus.
Any crime is too much crime, and the safety and security of our residents and businesses is vital to our citizenry and our city's success. As an area commissioner I continuously work with community members, businesses, the City Attorney's Office and the Columbus Police Department to improve communication and overall effectiveness of our joint safety efforts. I believe that together we can make the Columbus the safest city in Ohio, but it will require a strong sense of community and continued support of our local law enforcement officers. The current Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP) and other factors are having a negative effect on police officer morale and, ultimately, our neighborhoods. Low morale is a real problem, as it negatively impacts the mission and efficacy of our city’s police department. In turn, officers are less likely to proactively police our communities and take the risks necessary to keep our communities safe. While the fifty new cruisers budgeted for purchase in 2011 will go along way in supporting our officers, morale is not an issue that can be fixed through new equipment alone. If selected to serve, I will request that the growing issue be addressed by conducting a survey of officer morale to identify the sources of their dissatisfaction. Once the true causes are better understood, they can be addressed. We have the best police department in the country and we need to support the emotional and physical well-being of our officers. I have also been a long time advocate for Community Crime Patrol and their efforts to work as a force multiplier in our neighborhoods. I would like to see their resources increased so that they can expand their coverage to other city neighborhoods. I also believe we need to hold people and businesses accountable for creating environments where crime is allowed to undermine the security of a neighborhood. As an area commission president, I have worked with the Columbus City Attorney's office to identify and successfully prosecute liquor establishments that negatively impact our communities. I also proactively work with businesses through good neighbor agreements to set clear expectations for them and the neighborhoods in which they serve. If selected to serve I will work to create policy that promotes entrepreneurship while generating business opportunities to create the jobs of the future right here in Columbus. We are incredibly lucky to have the best research institutions in the country in our back yard. The discoveries being made through these research efforts and the individuals behind them need to be leveraged by Columbus companies to produce the products and services that will drive this economy. Thomas Edison once walked these streets, and it is exactly that type of American innovative spirit that will be key to the success of our city and our nation. But it will require the larger successful businesses of today embracing the new technologies of tomorrow. Columbus' small businesses are the economic backbone of our city. They are also the first places to create new jobs and to hire locally. As a person that has owned and managed small businesses, supporting them has always been a major priority to me. The entrepreneurial spirit is strong in our city, and we need to nurture it and continue to support it. I recently spoke with a young entrepreneur working out of TechColumbus in the field of alternative energy technologies, and he told me that the greatest barrier to success in his business is getting the face time with potential major buyers like AEP. These businesses have a model that works, at least for the time being, so taking the risk to get from what works now to an uncertain prospect requires city government to continue to incentivize the major businesses to take these risks on new technologies for a better future. As Columbus City Councilmember I will work hard for small businesses by:
We also need to look to our inner city and provide access to the resources and training young people need to develop the skills and education that will serve them and the economy for a lifetime. The information age makes it easier than ever to access these resources, but getting young people to these resources still provides a challenge. As a Columbus City Councilmember, I will do what it takes to engage and empower future generations. Protecting our Environment The City of Columbus has made great strides in promoting alternative transportation, green building projects and recycling for every household in 2012. The responsible, progressive policies that Mayor Coleman and Erin Miller, Columbus’ Environmental Steward, are developing will put us on the right track to become a better Columbus for future generations. I believe that every decision made at Council needs to take into consideration the impact on our environment, energy, water, and air quality and should promote sustainability throughout all levels of city government. As a Columbus City Councilmember I would work to replace all non-emergency city vehicles with either hybrid or electric alternatives. This would help to reduce our consumption of fossil fuels, reduce our negative impact on air quality, and send a message that Ohio’s capital is looking to a future where anything is possible. While we have several commercial and government green building projects throughout the city, we need a large scale residential green building project that invests in alternative energy production. As a member of council, I would create legislation to fast-track developments that generate electricity through solar or wind while at the same time reducing energy consumption through increased efficiency. This would help revitalize a neighborhood and send a message to the world – and the young professionals it wants to keep -- that Columbus is creating the neighborhoods of the future. These types of projects should be targeted for mixed use and to a diverse mixed-income community. This would allow people from all walks of life, and all ages to live and work together in homes and businesses that are less expensive to operate, while providing a sense of community dedicated to protecting our vital natural resources. Housing Today, Columbus homeowners are being forced out of their homes, creating both vacant housing and a growing homeless population that includes entire families. I don’t believe there is a more pressing need facing our city at this time, and I am thankful for Erica Clark Jones’ leadership in helping us to better understand the problem, and for the incredible work she does as our city’s Director of Homeless and Social Service Advocacy. Our continued support of organizations like the Columbus Shelter Board and the Mid-Ohio Foodbank are essential to addressing these immediate issues. It is no surprise to me that our oldest citizens are probably the best prepared to understand this problem, and we need to listen to them, their experiences and their insights to get back to being a more sustainable community. More than ever, we need to come together to support those less fortunate and to promote policies that will work to keep people in their homes. This also will allow us to avoid large areas of blight that have faced other metropolitan areas, including Cleveland. I also believe that financial institutions that helped to create these problems also need to support education for sustainable living and responsible personal finance while they work with families to keep them in their homes. The City of Columbus is great because of the generosity of its people, and we need to support them in these incredibly trying times. Vacant housing was already a problem for our neighborhoods and has been compounded by the number of recent foreclosures. Our already understaffed code enforcement division is now having to deal with a new set of issues related to identifying those responsible for these properties during the transition from homeowner to bank control. Property values in the surrounding neighborhood suffer as yards go unmowed and properties fall into disrepair. Ultimately the best solution remains for the banks to work with families to keep them in their homes, but when that fails, we need to increase Code Enforcement staffing and help them with new technologies such as a cell phone app for citizens to report code violations with photo submissions and GPS information. This could give Code Enforcement Officers additional evidence for the courts, keep citizens in the loop as to progress made, and alert them as to when court dates are set in the event they want to support the City’s case. Supporting our Veterans We owe a great deal to the men and women that continue to serve our country in two of the longest wars in our nation’s history. As a city and in our neighborhoods, we need to be prepared to support them as they come home. The City of Columbus Office of Veteran Affairs needs to broaden its mission to provide a central point of contact to our veterans as they transition back into civilian life. As they did after World War II, my hope is that they decide to take advantage of their GI Bill at any one of our local, prestigious higher education institutions and move back into our neighborhoods. I also hope we are prepared to give back to them as much as they have sacrificed for us.
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