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    Better Know A Candidate 2009: Priscilla Tyson

    Over the course of the next two weeks, Columbus Underground will be providing you with an in depth look at each of the six candidates running for Columbus City Council this November. All six interviewees are being asked the same set of questions, most of which were submitted from Columbus Underground readers. This feature should give everyone a better understanding of where these candidates stand on a variety of important local issues, and help you to decide how to vote this coming November.

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    Our final interview is with Democrat Candidate Priscilla Tyson. Priscilla is currently serving on City Council and chairs the Recreation and Parks Committee and the Zoning Committee, and is running for re-election.

    Q: Can you tell us a bit about your personal, professional, and political background?

    A: My name is Priscilla Tyson. I was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio. I have about 30 years of leadership experience in the for-profit and non-profit world. I was a banker at National City for 16 years. I was Vice President there. I was a Vice President at Ohio Health. I was the founder of City Year Columbus. I served in that capacity for 13 years and also ran five other sites across the country for City Year. I was on the Civic Service Commission for 13 years and I was the President for a little over five years. I serve on the GCAC Board, I’ve served on the Community Shelter Board, Phoenix Theater Board, and a number of other boards. At Columbus City Council I was appointed in 2007 and was also later elected in 2007. I presently chair the Recreation and Parks Committee and Zoning. I think I’m the first woman to Chair the Zoning Committee. My focus on Council is on safety, neighborhoods, and economic development. I’m also the “quality of life” council member, so I focus a lot of effort on recreational activities, the arts, bike paths, dog parks, senior citizens, and other things of that nature.

    Q: What drove you to run for City Council, and what are your most inspiring areas of interest when it comes to Columbus issues?

    A: I think what really drove me to run for council is my commitment to public service. I’ve always been involved in some sort of community service, and I’ve always thought that my business background and my public service background are important in terms of a leadership role on Columbus City Council.

    Q: With the income tax increase recently passed, how do you plan to keep the budget in line going forward?

    A: Well, as you know for right now, we still have a budget deficit. But we’re going to be focused in making sure that we’re running our government in an efficient and effective manner. We will continue to look at growing our economy, so that we’ll continue to bring dollars in for city services. So we’re going to work on that. We’re also going to be focused on reforms within city government. We made a commitment over the next 10 years to try to take between 100 to 150 million dollars out of the city budget.

    Q: What plans do you have to help attract and retain businesses in Columbus?

    A: Well, first we need to continue to market our city as far as what we have to offer. We’re big in technology and research, so we need to be sharing that information with the rest of the country. We need to also do everything in our power to continue to retain our businesses in Columbus because we have some amazing businesses here. We’re working with Battelle, we’re continuing to work with OSU, and we’re working with the hospitals. The hospitals are certainly growing their businesses, so we want to do everything to continue to make Columbus a good place for them to continue to grow. I think we have to continue to focus on our visitors and the economics of that. We bring about $330 million into Columbus with our convention and visitors bureau. The culture and arts also bring a tremendous amount of dollars into the city. We need to focusing on Rickenbacker and the logistics area. And again, continue to focus on our quality of life.

    Q: What can council do to continue and encourage the development and growth of our small business community?

    A: We’ve got to continue to do something to make it easier for them to grow. Some things that I think are important that we’ve been doing includes working with Tech Columbus to make sure that’s a good incubator for our technology businesses. We work with the North Market, and a lot of businesses grow out of that environment. We need to continue to work with the Ohio Department of Development because they have a lot of incentives for small businesses. Also, the Minority Contractors Business Association Assistance Program… I know that Turner Construction is working with them for people who want to get involved in that business. Those are the kinds of things I would reach out to and encourage them to continue to grow our small businesses.

    Q: Given the current economic climate, should we consider finding new ways to attract residents beyond 10 year tax abatements?

    A: To attract residents, there’s some things that we have to do that go back to our quality of life. Residents want to come to a place for jobs, and once they get here, they look for what else we have to offer. With that in mind, we need to continue to talk about quality of life, but we also need to focus on making sure that we have capital improvements in our communities. Everyone wants to live in a nice community. So whether we’re putting in a dog park or new lights or working on commercial overlays or bike paths or a recreational facility… that’s what people want. We really have to understand what’s going to be important to people who want to come to Columbus.

    Q: There was a lot of emphasis on the “creative economy” right up until about a year ago, when everything started to crash. Given our new economic context, what place does our “creative sector” have in the hierarchy of economic priorities?

    A: The creative sector plays a major role in the continuing growth of our economy. I’ve been working on the 2007 Creative Economy Plan, the 2009 Cultural Blueprint Plan, and a new plan will be coming out by mid-December that will really focus on this Creative Economy, because it brings in a tremendous amount of money to our city. Whether it’s performing arts or visual arts or the creative portion of their jobs… we want to make sure that young people who are creative in the arts want to stay here. We want to make sure that we look at things like Artspace, where we can have a work/live space for artists. So I think that right now just being on these different committees… people are really aligned to make sure that arts and culture will thrive in Columbus. Even though we may have an economy that’s in a recession, we’re doing the work right now because it won’t stay in a recession forever. We’ve been work over the last few years to get a plan together to make sure that individual artists, artists that work within businesses, and the cultural organizations can all be funded. We’re realize how important it all is to the success of our economy and we’re putting the time and effort into making sure that Columbus will grow because of our Creative Economy.

    Q: What are your thoughts on various transportation improvement initiatives (bikeways, passenger rail, pedestrian safety, etc) both from a mobility standpoint as well as an economic development standpoint?

    A: Well, they’re very important in terms of economics. I think we do a good job with traffic calming, pedestrian safety, commercial overlays, and bike safety programs. We need to continue to invest, especially in our bike paths. What needs to be addressed is our development patterns that encourage low-density sprawl. We have 220 square miles of city, and our community was built so that we don’t have any density. People don’t mind that we can get around quickly and easily here, but we must adopt some smart growth and higher density, especially within our central city area. We must look at some mixed development patterns and encourage more development in existing areas of Columbus, and then I think once you have that we can begin looking at Light Rail, Streetcars, and those kinds of opportunities… and we obviously have to do that with the federal government’s assistance.

    Q: What plans do you have for aiding in the redevelopment of downtrodden neighborhoods in Columbus that suffer with blighted or abandoned properties, safety issues, and image problems?

    A: We need to work with organizations like United Way, because they’re focusing in a lot of the same areas. We need to make sure that we’re working collaboratively. I think we need to put some visible capital improvements in some of our neighborhoods. We need to make sure that people still want to live in these neighborhoods, and we need to sustain the focus on code enforcement and have housing rehab initiatives. We also must make sure we’re seeking input from our community leaders as to what they want to see happen within their neighborhood.

    Q: What do you think about the proposed use of Cooper Stadium as a racetrack and its impact upon the surrounding neighborhoods?

    A: Well, we really haven’t gotten all of the information on the Cooper Stadium Racetrack. There’s been some noise studies, and we need to get all of that information and review it. I also want to say that it’s very important for us to hear from the neighbors and the people who live in that community. So, once we get all of this information, then I’ll probably be able to give you a better answer on that particular question.

    Q: Do you support waste disposable services that would include curbside recycling for all?

    A: I think curbside recycling would be great to have in Columbus. I know that right now it’s very costly and so based on the fact that we just had this tax increase and we still have a deficit… it will cost millions of dollars more to do recycling in addition to the present collection we have right now. So I’m all for it, but we’ve got to find the money to be able to do that.

    Also, in looking at recycled materials right now, the bottom has really dropped out of that market. It really has. it doesn’t change the fact that I certainly do believe in recycling and that we should do everything in our power to try to make that happen, but we just have to figure out a way to fund that. I also think that we need to work with SWACO to look at a cost effective way of utilizing breakthroughs with mechanical separation.

    Q: How do you feel that all of the members of City Council have originally been appointed to their positions, and do you think these advantages of incumbency make for a Council that best represents the City?

    A: Well, a couple things on that. In terms of the appointment of council members, the city charter says that you can’t have a vacancy and that you have to appoint a person to that vacancy. With that in mind, even if you’re appointed, you still have to run in the next municipal race. I was appointed in 2007 and had to run in 2007, and now I’m running 2009, so I’m running twice in three years. You need to have someone in the position because it takes seven council members to do the work. If you have a vacant seat there, that means that sometimes you can’t get the work done. If someone has to abstain from legislation, or if someone is sick that day, you can’t do your work. You have to have so many votes to be able to pass legislation. So I would just say that it’s really important that we have a full compliment of people on council.

    As far as there being advantages to being an incumbent… you’re there and doing the work, however, people still have to vote for you. I know that it wasn’t always that way in the past. In the past you didn’t have to run in the next municipal race. So that has changed to require the council members to run in the next race so that this would not continue be an issue with people. You can run, and you can win, or you can lose. But the work has to get done.

    Q: Would you be willing to support restructuring City Council so that Columbus can move to a district/ward/parish system? Why or why not?

    A: No, I really like that we’re an at-large system. For Columbus to grow and be successful we have to look at the entire city. Often times what you’ll find with a district or ward system are people who are only focused in their own area. So sometimes some areas get more than others, and that’s not fair. We do have Civic Associations and Area Commissions, and they speak for their communities and they are represented at City Council and they certainly do meet with us. If they have a particular issue in their community, then they talk to us about it and hopefully talk to all of the council members so that everyone knows what the issue is and everyone can work collectively on whatever the situation happens to be. I think the only reason we’d need something a ward system if people weren’t being listed to.

    Q: Where do you see the City of Columbus being in 2012?

    A: Well, I’m excited about 2012. I’m hoping that the economy is in a much better place and that we’re not in a recession in 2012. I think that it will be important for us at that time to look at making sure we’re trying to put more money into reserve accounts. We will have more people working again by 2012. People will back and living in more urban settings, so we’re bringing that density to our city. We’d also like to have a lot of arts and culture here and make this a very inviting place for people to live and raise families, as well as for this to be a great destination place for visitors from all throughout the country and the world.

    Q: Something fun to end on – Your favorite places in Columbus?

    A: Well, you know… I love going to the zoo, and I’m so sad that Jeff passed. I love going to Franklin Park and all of our parks. I love looking at art, so I like going to art galleries and art venues. I like Junctionview. I like anything associated with the arts. I also like going to the mall too… going out to Easton. I like the new Audubon. You know something, there’s so many wonderful things. I just really love Columbus. I’m excited about the growth of Columbus, so there isn’t really isn’t any place that I don’t enjoy going.

    For more information, visit www.AStrongerColumbus.com/Tyson.html.

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    Walker Evans
    Walker Evanshttps://columbusunderground.com
    Walker Evans is the co-founder of Columbus Underground, along with his wife and business partner Anne Evans. Walker has turned local media into a full time career over the past decade and serves on multiple boards and committees throughout the community.
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