Congratulations!
Any batshit stuff on the agenda for you, or are you an Anti-Batshit-ist?
Good going, Zip,
You have my vote for POTUS, when the time is right.
Nope. I actually ran “on a ticket” as it were with one incumbent and one other person, a guy who is my dad’s age. We were endorsed by the other 2 council members and the mayor, as well as service, fire and police. All of the department heads and city staff know us and respect us, and now it seems that the residents do too.
The city is broke, not really by any wrongdoing other than people being scared as hell to raise taxes. We’ve got a small tax base - we collect income tax but don’t have any hospitals or office buildings to bring in the bucks, and we have a lot of homes but very low property tax - and the city has been living right at their means for a decade or more. Roads are crumbling and we have a lot of stormwater problems, so that is what our tiny tax increase addressed in May. Roads are getting paved and the rec center will continue to run but otherwise it’s going to take a lot of budget prioritizing and hopefully economic development (within existing spaces - we’re built out) to get things moving forward around here and keep the people happy with their low taxes.
I think the thing I bring to the table, aside from a total dedication to civility and teamwork, is technology. I’ve been in technology for 20 years. The Web is my thing. The city’s Web site is a piece of junk. I’m already working with the IT director consulting on a complete new site/portal. I think technology goes beyond the web site too. Everything from road paving technology to LED lighting to technology-based safety measures need to be considered. Not just the same old shit because of inertia.
I also have a journalism degree and I think pro-active communication is key. We’ll be paving some 30 streets in the next 2 years and the residents are ignorant of the process (it takes like 3 months and 5 passes to do the streets). I told the mayor we need to send out information to every house on every street being paved that succinctly lays out the process. Then people can refer to the mailer to follow the process and not be upset with what’s going on, thinking that phase 1 is the only phase, and then they start lashing out on Facebook. Just tell them beforehand and they will be happy.
Anyway, I definitely don’t plan on doing anything batshit. Trying to pass the levies was crazy enough for me. I don’t want to raise taxes anymore. I just want to work together with the other 4 people, the mayor and the department heads to get shit done. No more bickering, no more complaining, just teamwork with a common goal.
Wow, congratulations! Please give frequent updates!
Is it a full time or part time position? Do you get a staff and an office?
Congrats!!
Uh, can you fix a speeding ticket for me? I could make it worth your while…
More seriously, best of luck, and congrats again! I hope you’ll post about some of your experiences. I’ve toyed with the idea of running for my local school board or city council. I’d love to hear firsthand what it’s like.
Awesome!
It’s just part time, paid like $7k a year. The absolute minimum I have to do is show up for a council meeting every other Thursday and the worksession that comes before it. Of course there will be much more to do than that but I will keep my 9-5. There’s no staff or office, there is a council clerk. Since I’ve lived here forever I of course went to school with her kids.
Our city has just over 11,000 residents and just under 10 square miles of land.
If you are thinking of running for either I HIGHLY recommend going to their meetings on a regular basis. Not just to see how the meetings go but to interact with the crowd and the existing board/council members afterward. Volunteer for committees, speak at meetings, and you will soon find yourself befriended by or hated by people on the board/council. Then you can learn who you want to work with and who you want to run against. Or if nothing else you can get an idea of how things are for them as a public figure and you have a much better idea of whether or not you can do it yourself.
That’s fantastic. Congrats.
does the city have a fb page ? that might be helpful also
Congratulations, ZipperJJ!
Are you considering adding to that by forceful annexation of neighboring towns?
Shhhh! Don’t say the “A” word! That’s actually a hotbutton around here right now. Our city did a new fire district last year with two neighboring townships (we share a school district with them), and it worked out very well. Especially for us because we always had the big equipment anyway and always did the mutual aid anyway so now the townships are giving us a little money for the use of our bigger equipment and stuff. And we save money on both sides.
Our mayor is now trying to propose that we try to combine service departments to reap the same benefits (state and federal funds to cities and townships in Ohio, and I’m sure everywhere else, have dried up). But he did a shitty job communicating the proposal to the townships, and some of the township trustees are screaming “NO ANNEXATION!!!” and the township residents are all “OMG NO ANNEXATION!!!” but we don’t want to annex them we really just want to go halfsies on a Gradall.
As someone who grew up here, I know for a fact that there’s a distinct personality to each of the 3 townships and our city. I totally can’t see us merging in to one. People in the townships looooove their “country life” even though those townships are 90% the same as our city, they just don’t have a Wal Mart. It’s kind of silly but I feel them.
So no, we won’t be annexing anyone any time soon! I can barely stand the idea of me representing 11,000 people. Can’t imagine adding 20k more
Congratulations!
Does anyone know if this is the first case of an openly Doper candidate being elected to office? Another glass ceiling shattered!
So if I buy you tickets to a Tribe game, and maybe at the same time suggested you could send me an autographed picture, would that count as a quid pro quo?
Seriously, congratulations! Awesome news!
I asked in April if anyone was involved in local government. A handful of Dopers have been involved on a volunteer basis like I was but it seems like only rbroome was an elected official (school board). Not sure if anyone is involved in State or Federal government, nobody chimed in.
I’m actually kind of surprised and a bit saddened that there’s so many smart folks here and they’re not involved in government. I have a ton of smart friends IRL and I’m the only one I know who has ever run for or been elected. Says a lot about our government!
I actually posted something on FB the other day, calling scientists to run for office. My scientist friends were dead set against it. They just couldn’t stand the idea of being “a politician.”
SO FAR, since beginning to run in June, I haven’t felt at all like I’ve had to “act like a politician.” I’m saying the same things in the same way as I was the year before that when I was PAC Treasurer and “your neighbor who really thinks it’s in your best interest to vote Yes on these issues.” I just answer questions when I’m asked, listen to concerns, try to think of solutions or answers, and tell people to have a nice day.
No doubt I’ll have to act like more of a “politician” in the coming months and years but for now I’m just JJ From the Block.
That’s terrific, ZipperJJ! Congratulations!
Uh, I already sent you your one autographed picture, Paul.
Congrats, Zipper! The world needs more Dopers in government.
Congratulations, Council-um. Person. (WTF is the gender-neutral handle for that office, anyway?)
Don’t forget your Doper friends when it comes time to spread around the taxpayer largesse, IYKWIM. 
Oh, crap. Ixnay on the orruptioncay. Carry on.
That’s wonderful! Thank you for doing this, I’m so glad to know there are some smart people in politics.