Tiara Ross and Jesse Vogel are trying to define themselves and their policies to voters ahead of November's election for the Columbus City Council District 7 seat.
The two spoke to a small crowd at a candidate forum Thursday evening at Family Ministry Baptist Church on the city's south side, primarily touching on policing, housing and development.
District 7 covers much of downtown Columbus and its surrounding neighborhoods. The candidate has to live within the district's boundaries but the entire city gets to vote for the seat.
Vogel, a public interest and immigration attorney, begun calling out Ross more than before the primary at these forums after she has consolidated support from much of the county's Democratic establishment.
Because of that support, Vogel is in an uphill battle in this election, needing to win the backing of voters while defying all of Columbus City Council, the Franklin County Democratic Party and many of the larger labor unions. Vogel has raised more money from Columbus residents compared Ross, while Ross is getting a lot of support from elected officials.
Ross did hit back Thursday night, calling Vogel out for using a minor curse word — "damn" — in the church. Vogel apologized the next time he got the microphone, and said he is "fired up" to do what he can for the city of Columbus.
When asked about policing and public safety, Ross said she was proud to build up the Civilian Police Review Board and the independent department that investigates police misconduct.
Ross, an assistant city attorney and the general counsel with the police oversight office of the inspector general, said police should be mandated to show-up when the Civilian Police Review Board looks at an officer's misconduct.
"We need to think about how we are giving both the department and the board additional resources so that officers understand that it is a mandate to participate in the investigatory process when there is a claim of misconduct by a citizen," Ross said.
Ross said she'd like to continue expanding community policing back into the culture of CPD. She said its critical to train both new and current officers this way.
"Officers don't know the resources that are here in the city of Columbus, and they don't know the people who live here in this city of Columbus, and that is unfortunate and also unacceptable," Ross said.
Ross said social workers or a clinical healthcare worker should respond to nonviolent offenses so police don't find themselves responding to contentious situations.
Vogel said public safety is important to him because he lives in the same neighborhood as the church and is concerned after the July 4th shooting that left one juvenile dead. He said he'd like to address violence by getting to the root causes.
"Community safety requires safe housing. It requires a way to get to work. It requires education you can depend upon and a good job. And that's why those are all things I'm fighting for in this campaign," Vogel said.
Ross later agreed that the root causes of violence need to be addressed by the city to make a dent in youth violence.
Vogel said the city also needs to address violence perpetrated by police and allocate funding to the police department in more effective ways.
Vogel panned the city's purchase of two new police helicopters and said Columbus police officers should live in the city.
"If elected to council, I would focus on looking carefully through the budget and finding ways we can invest in the things that actually keep people safe, rather than the things that don't work," Vogel said.
Vogel criticized Ross and questioned the effectiveness and transparency of the Civilian Police Review Board Ross herself helped build.
"We don't know why decisions are made as they're made (at the Civilian Police Review Board) about what discipline was given to an officer. So we need someone on council who's not just served as an advisor to the review board, but we need someone on council who is prepared to ask those kinds of questions and advocate for results," Vogel said.
Neither candidate was endorsed by the police union representing city officers. Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge #9 President Brian Steel told WOSU Vogel and Ross didn't screen with the FOP committee for the endorsement.
But Steel said in an email Ross asked him if she can screen with the committee, but did not want endorsement.
"I advised that would be a waste of her time and ours if she doesn’t want endorsement but let her know door is always open for discussion with me, our leadership team and members," Steel said.
The FOP endorsed incumbent Council members Emmanuel Remy, Rob Dorans and Christopher Wyche who have all endorsed Ross and contributed to her campaign.
When it came to housing, Vogel criticized the current city council for only wanting to build new housing in the city. He said existing housing should be preserved and lower rents for new housing should be prioritized.
"Absolutely, we've got to build more. What I'll tell you won't work is a trickle-down theory of housing that says we just build whatever the developer wants and hope it trickles down and eventually people have what they need when folks right now are living on the streets," Vogel said.
Vogel also proposed a law that allows tenants an opportunity to purchase a property from a small landlord before it is sold to a larger property management company. He said some funds being raised on the bond market from the city can be earmarked in a fund to help residents afford this type of purchase.
Columbus residents will see $1.9 million in bonds on the ballot this November, $500 million of which Mayor Andrew Ginther said will go towards affordable housing.
Ross said Vogel's policies are "interesting" but stressed the importance of building new housing at the pace Columbus is growing.
"In a lot of the cities that folks have thrown out there for the city of Columbus to look at as examples, those cities have met the demand of growth first," Ross said.
"I don't want to have to come back to the city of Columbus in a few years and ask for more dollars because we didn't spend them appropriately to meet the moment," Ross later said.
Ross said the city should also prioritize keeping seniors housed and lowering code penalties on them through the owner-occupied initiative.
"I don't think you should have to wait for a lawsuit to be filed against you to access those resources. We can push a lot of that stuff upstream," Ross said.
Ross called for more senior housing in communities where seniors are already living.
Ross and Vogel said the city should provide more property tax relief to citizens.
Both candidates were also asked about the role of tax abatements for developers and how that plays into the city's relationship with Columbus City Schools.
Ross said she thinks the city has overextended incentives to developers that are not pouring back into the community, based on the benefit that they receive from the city.
"When I say we need to have responsible developers, we need the process of incentivizing development more transparent to the community. The school board should be at the table every time," Ross said.
Ross called these incentives "foregone dollars that could have gone to the school system that don't go to the schools system." Ross said affordability should be built into the agreement more.
"Right now, you know, the federal government is doing a time, the state government is going a time really to strip and disinvest in our public school system. So if the city has to step up and fill those gaps, the city should be ready to meet that moment," Ross said.
Vogel said the city doesn't have accountability for the companies and developers that are getting the benefit of those abatements.
Vogel said he'd like to do three things to fix the system. First is to question developers more about the need for abatements and whether the private market can provide benefits without city assistance.
Vogel said the second proposal would be to create a fund from these abatement dollars to provide relief to older and low income residents that are struggling to stay housed and keep up with property taxes.
Third, Vogel said he'd like to enforce clauses in the contracts for these tax abatements that can claw back the money if developers don't deliver on what they promised the city.
"I'm passionate about standing up as a partner with CCS. And with public education districts across the city and to say we can't grow as a city without protecting and defending and investing in public education," Vogel said.
More forums are planned ahead of November's election in Columbus. Early voting begins Tuesday, October 7.
