For Kettering City Council — “At Large” Positions — I Am Voting For Jacque Fisher and Jyl Hall

In this election, two candidates will be elected to serve on the Kettering City Council. I am voting for Jyl Hall and I am voting for Jacque Fisher —  the incumbent first elected in 2017

There are three candidates for the two “at-large” positions. I sent each candidate three questions — with a lengthy introduction explaining my concerns. Fisher and Hall replied. But from the third candidate, Joseph Patak, I got no response, even though his webpage says, “Please, contact me and ask me anything. I will try to personally respond to each and every email.” I sent Patak the same message three times — with no response. His refusal to respond says a lot about how he would behave as a Council member, if elected. (See:Joseph Patak, CONSERVATIVE Candidate For Kettering Council, Boasts That A Crackpot Propagandist — David Barton — “Is One Of My Heroes”)

I like Fisher and Hall because they both are committed to service. Fisher is the founder of Kettering Backpack Program and has managed the Neighbor to Neighbor Food Pantry.  I like that in her answers to the DDN, Fisher said, “As I have continued to champion, the most at-need in our community are our working poor.” Fisher was the highest vote getter in 2017 for the “at-large” position.

Jyl Hall earned a Master’s and PhD from Asbury Theological Seminary — in Wilmore, Ky. — adjacent to my alma mater, Asbury University. She teaches part-time at United Seminary. She says, “In my family, dinner table conversations centered on the importance of having the back of the working people in the Dayton region.” She is the daughter of Tony Hall, who served as a U.S. Congress person for the Dayton region as well as a U.S. Ambassador, and the granddaughter of Dayton Mayor Dave Hall.

My questions deal with what is the central problem of our time — the disunity and polarization of the citizenry.  Here are the questions and the answers given by Fisher and Hall (My lengthy intro is shown below.)

1)  What is your response concerning the urgency to build citizen unity?

Jacque Fisher:

Jacque Fisher

Data pulled from our citizen surveys show the residents aren’t radically divided on the direction our city is proceeding.  Yes there are times when residents want something immediatelychanged in their neighborhood, but I would not characterize our city as divided.  I do agree there is always more that can be done to ensure synergy, but diversity of thought always brings great ideas.

Jyl Hall

You make an important point with your question because the situation is urgent.  Many people would not guess that the huge majority of voters agree on much more than we disagree on when it comes to policies.  At the same time, misinformation and division have reached a boiling point. Some studies have shown that even before 2016 politicians were more polarized than the at the time of the Civil War. Though we often want the same things, in truth we have mistaken beliefs about what the “other side” actually thinks.  Extremists on both sides often have the microphone, but I do not agree with extremists on either side and neither do most people. We can’t solve our problems in the city without some unity.  At the end of the day, we all hope for a safe and peaceful place to live and raise our kids, with decent jobs in a city we take pride in.

2) Do you agree that as an elected leader you should work to help build a civic community in Kettering that at present does not exist?

Jacque Fisher:

As a leader in the city, yes I believe I am a role model on bringing our residents together.  Being the liaison of the Board of Community Relations is a role in which I can and have used those skills.  Each time a resident uplifts an issue to me as council, I again get an opportunity to use my collaborative skill set.

Jyl Hall

It is vitally important for local politicians in particular to build civic community.  Local politics in Kettering is not supposed to be partisan because the issues that City Council actually influences are not partisan: paved roads, efficient services, and property maintenance for example. The Dayton Daily News recently did a great op-ed on how inappropriate it was to use to use partisan titles at the local level.  It is a critical time to demonstrate more humility in civil discourse. I believe it is important to be humble as a leader, seek consensus, and to condemn hatred from either side.

3) Would you be willing to form a group of interested citizens to study this challenge of creating a meaningful civic community in Kettering and to make recommendations?

Jacque Fisher:

With our current city manager form of city government, the role of the city council has specific roles.  It’s not as easy to click fingers and just create a group but rather it would be a topic to discuss for council to establish. Ultimately, a charter would need to be formed. 

Jyl Hall

I would love to be a part of a Kettering citizen group for meaningful civic community! It would be wonderful to see public/private partnerships towards building unified consensus and peaceful, inclusive neighborhoods. I hope you will be part of helping to make it happen!

Premise of the Questions:

Tony and Jyl Hall. Tony Hall represented this district in the U.S. Congress from from 1979-2002. From 2002 to 2006, Hall served as United States Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture.

The disunity, division and polarization of our citizens is becoming so severe that I am increasingly afraid that our republic might collapse. The dissolution of our republic would be a calamity of Biblical proportions leading to great suffering, turmoil and lasting consequences. 

What our nation desperately needs is leadership with a vision and a plan for unifying the citizenry. The most likely place for citizen unification is at the grassroots level in a prosperous and pleasant place like Kettering.

Kettering has a wonderful volunteer program and a leadership training program. But, like most jurisdictions, Kettering is lacking a meaningful organized civic community. Twelve years ago, I decided to offer to serve on the Kettering School Board and I quickly discovered how hard it is to seek election to this non-partisan office. I had assumed that in Kettering there was an organized civic community with members keenly interested in making our public schools as good as possible, but I discovered that such a community does not exist. As a candidate it was up to me to create my own audience and to somehow pay for the huge expense of delivering my message to Kettering’s 40,000 registered voters. (The League of Women Voters organized one event to “meet the candidates,” and only about 30 people attended — all friends and relatives of the candidates.)

In Mayberry, with Andy, Opey, and Aunt Bea, etc — I still watch that show — the townspeople come together as a community to discuss town issues. The elected officials are held accountable by this group. If someone was seeking election to the Mayberry Town Counsel or the Mayberry Board of Education, he or she would address this Mayberry community and would answer questions. When elected, he or she would be a partner with this community.

In the traditional non-partisan Vermont Town Halls, in local jurisdictions, citizens regularly came together to discuss town issues and to meaningfully communicate with elected officials. Now the term “town hall” indicates a shouting match with angry partisans.  

Disunity is not just a national problem. Somehow we need to build unity, we need to build “community” at the grassroots level. The challenge is to build a Kettering civic community that at present doesn’t exist. In the ideal, at the center of our politics, I believe our long-term goal should be — as MLK and John Lewis advocated — a “Beloved Community” with citizens connected by love and mutual respect doing the hard work of building harmony and consensus.  

Our hope for the future is that citizens of good will, citizens dedicated to “civic virtue” — on the right and left — will unite. A united citizenry would not tolerate hunger or privation in our great country. A united citizenry would find consensus to deal with the enormous challenges plowing towards us. This unification will require imagination and leadership and the place to start is not in Washington or Columbus. Citizen unity must bubble up. Unity must start in the grassroots. It must start in a place like Kettering. 

See:

 

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My Snowball Viburnum Is Blooming And It Is Magnificent

Wow. This bush get better every year. I bought it about twenty years ago from Siebenthaler’s. It produces such spectacular blooms. It is a Chinese Snowball Viburnum. Siebenthaler no longer carries them for sale. Last year a friend who wanted to find this variety could find it nowhere in the area, but found one on-line. I think in Arkansas. It’s a treat every year. I wonder how tall it will grow.

Wow. This bush gets more magnificent every year!

 

This picture was taken five years ago!

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Would The Democratic Party Be Improved If The Leaders Of The Party Were Chosen By Rank Choice Voting?

I always check out Esrati’s website. In his newest post — Why our political candidates generally suck — David advocates that there be a change in the Dayton Charter so that Dayton City Commissioners are elected through rank choice voting.  Esrati writes:

“We are starting the 501(c)(4) Reconstructing Dayton to try to bring sanity and better candidates and forms of government to Montgomery County, we’ve just founded a 501(c)(3) The Modern Policy Institute to work on plans and policies to create a system that actually provides us a chance to select from the best and brightest to make decisions that will affect us all.”

David Esrati explains his rank choice voting proposal in his youtube video — Let’s Improve Dayton Elections.

I like David’s rank-choice proposal but I can’t agree that our democracy would be improved if candidates for office were required to pass a test demonstrating their preparedness. David writes:

“Maybe it’s time that we create a test for public office, to make sure that candidates actually know something about the office they are running for, what their responsibilities are and what rules apply to them as elected officials….We don’t require proficiency in Roberts Rules of Order, which most public bodies nominally follow, nor do we require any understanding of public finance (it’s not the same as either business or personal for a multitude of reasons), nor do we have any kind of standing job description or “company handbook” available to help them do their job well. It’s almost as if we want our politicians to fail. There are no other jobs that affect this many people and risk so much, that require no preparation, training or qualification. “

To me, that sounds anti-democratic. I responded:

The only way to get a higher quality of elected officials is to somehow repair our dysfunctional system of democracy. Democracy demands: Let the people decide. If the people want to act like asses, then elected asses are what we get. It’s a small matter that a candidate might not be proficient in Robert’s Rules, or whatever. The big factor that has the largest impact on the quality of the official’s work is the official’s overall character.  Democracy means we have faith in a system that an informed and engaged citizenry will have the  discernment to choose leaders of good character and good motive. An informed and engaged citizenry is the only hope for our republic’s survival — an alarming thought.

I agree with Esrati that implementing rank choice voting would be a big improvement. Of key significance is its potential to engage and empower many rank-and-file citizens who are now on the sidelines. Implementing a rank choice structure, I believe, could help repair our dysfunctional system.

Now that David Pepper has resigned as Chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, a new leader must be selected. I’ve got to think that if the ODP used a rank choice system, Ohio Democrats would get a more effective leader. (Whatever the voting method, only the 148 Democrats on the ODP Executive Committee will get to vote on the leader for 1.5 million registered Democrats in the state, of these only 66 are directly elected.)

In 2022, the newly elected Central Committee of the MCDP Montgomery will meet at the quadrennial MCDP Reorganization Meeting and, by majority vote, will approve changes to the MCDP Constitution and will elect (or reelect) party officers. I wonder if there could be consensus among Montgomery County Democrats that it would be an improvement to change the MCDP Constitution so that at the 2026 Reorganization Meeting, the new chair and other officers would be chosen by a rank choice voting method, rather than a simple majority method?

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The Mission To Flip OSD-06 — Valiant, But A Failure. We Need A DeBriefing: “What Went Right, What Didn’t, and Why”

Ohio Senate District 06 had a great candidate in Democrat Mark Fogel — a 40 year old graduate of Air Force Academy who served as a jet pilot for the Air Force — and it looked like Fogel had a great chance of flipping this Republican district. Fogel was very qualified, informed, and likable. He ran a good campaign. His Republican opponent, Niraj Antani, in his six years in the Ohio House was famous for extreme views and awful pro-gun and anti-abortion legislation — far out of the mainstream.

Thanks so much to Allison Benford — our President of The South of Dayton Democratic Club — for posting this map showing the presidential vote in each of Montgomery County’s 360 precincts. I very much appreciate this effort which, I know, represented hours of work. The map shows Dayton solidly Democratic and the the region west of Dayton, solidly Republican — merging with Prebble County which voted 78% for Trump. Senate District 06 is two-thirds of the county — everything north, east and south Dayton. It is an interesting mix, with various islands that are solidly Democratic.

This Republican District would not yield. It stayed Republican and Antani won with 53.2% of the vote. The problem for Fogel was not money — Fogel had three times as much campaign cash as Antani. This from the DDN:

Democratic candidate Mark Fogel outraised by a 3-to-1 margin state Rep. Niraj Antani, R-Miamisburg, who is serving his third term as the representative of the 42nd district of the Ohio House of Representatives.
Fogel’s campaign raised the money via 1,026 more donors than Antani’s.
Antani’s campaign raised $76,746.37, according to a pre-election campaign finance report. Of that amount, $63,242.35, a little more than 82 percent, came from Political Action Committees or PACs, with contributions received from 44 individuals.
Fogel’s campaign raised $242,650.73 via more than 1,500 individual contributions, with unique donors comprising 1,070 of them.

In keeping with his experience in the Air Force, I’m thinking that Mark is working on a debriefing of his campaign. He explains in The Culture of a Fighter Squadron that after every mission there was an intense debriefing to understand “what went right, what didn’t, and why.”

I contributed money to Mark’s campaign and I’m hoping that Mark will share his debriefing with his donors and supporters — and the Montgomery County Democratic Party Central Committee. The mission to flip District 06 was a flop. What can we learn from that failed effort? For the mission to have been a success, two things had to happen:

  • Enough non-voters had to become registered and then had to vote Democratic.
  • Enough previous Republican voters had to vote Democratic.

So, 2024 will be here before we know it and Democrats will once again have the opportunity to flip District 06. What should be the strategy? What is the plan that Democrats can, over the next four years, implement so that the Democratic candidate will have a better chance? Debriefing the District 06 election would make for a good discussion at a South of Dayton Democratic Club Zoom meeting.

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It’s October 30 And My Dahlias Are Still Blooming — In Dayton Ohio — But Some Claim That Frost Is Coming

Wow, this might be a record. My dahlia plants are still alive and still producing new flowers here at the end of October. I’m seeing it as a positive sign of something positive.

I was telling a friend on the phone that it’s wonderful and unusual that my dahlias are still blooming and he said, “Yeah, but it’s suppose to frost this weekend.” What kind of a friend says things like that?

I’m cutting the nicer flowers to make bouquets and I’m covering the plants with some tarp and old sheets.

So, yes, some claim that frost is coming. It’s Frost, Frost, Frost. I’d like to think all of this Frost attention is just part of the Fake News. I’d like to think that if people stopped predicting Frost so much, we’d have a lot less Frost.  Anyway.  These plants have been faithful to produce a lot of great blooms this year and I’m thinking that if they can withstand just one more cold snap — they might make it to Thanksgiving !  Please people, let’s stop predicting Frost.

 

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K. George Kordalis Put Up $90,000 Of His Own Money To Massively Outspend Susan Solle In Contest For Judgeship

K. George Kordalis

Susan Solle

The pre-election Finance Report, filed October 22, shows that in the contest for Common Pleas Judge, the Republican candidate, K. George Kordalis, loaned his campaign $90,000 and that, by using this money, his campaign outspent Susan Solle’s campaign six to one.

The Report shows that Kordalis spent $91,058 and Solle spent $14,491.

The Report shows that Solle received $27,361 in individual contributions — almost twice the amount that Kordalis received: $15,526.

In order to have the cash needed to massively outspend his opponent, Kordalis loaned his own campaign $90,000.

SEE:

 

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