After 14 years leading the city of Bexley, Ben Kessler is ready for his next challenge.
He will step down as Bexley's mayor at the end of September to join the Columbus Partnership as executive director of the Regional Housing Coalition.
Kessler joined Morning Edition host Stu Osborne to discuss his time in Bexley and what he hopes to accomplish at The Columbus Partnership.
Ben Kessler: I really enjoyed my work working here as mayor of the city of Bexley. It's been an incredibly rewarding career getting to help shape change in our community and really make improvements throughout the time that I was working here. This opportunity popped up as an opportunity to help shape the next generation of housing within our region and really helped to clear runways. It is an incredibly important mission because of as we know that we're going to have this influx of population into our region and as we know that our, you know, our top employers have a need to bring in the right workforce for our economy and as we know that residents throughout the region need to have access to quality housing. We need to be prepared and ready and working harder than we are today and making sure that that housing is available. It's critical for the cost to every household in the region and it leads to trickle-down effects in terms of helping to prevent increase in homelessness and home insecurity all sorts of things get touched by this regional need that we have and so it's an opportunity for me to be a partner in this at a regional level, and I'm very excited to be working with the partnership and with all of the thought leaders in the region and tackling this.
"It's a job that you will always be surprised by."Ben Kessler on his 14 years as Bexley Mayor
Stu Osborne: What are you most proud of during your 14 years as Bexley mayor?
Ben Kessler: I think all the improvements that we've done that just have helped to build community, whether it's been expanding our park and green spaces or creating an ecosystem of more community events, working on a variety of safety initiatives for pedestrian safety and for safety within our households. There's not any one thing I can point to other than just a whole slew of work that's been done in those areas as well as economic development. This bustling Main Street that we have [is] ever increasingly active and a lot of the beautification efforts that we've put in place, whether it's been planting out our arboretum walks within our parks or bringing trees to the center medians along Main Street and Broad and Drexel. Putting these touches throughout the community that have really helped solidify what it means to be in our walkable, tree-shaded Bexley community and bringing new value to our residents in fun and innovative ways.
Stu Osborne: The process is ongoing to find your successor. What would your message be to that person when they take over?
Ben Kessler: Oh my goodness. It's a job that you will always be surprised by. It will demand more of you than you can imagine. And there's never a dull moment. I mean, every day is a new adventure in terms of this position. One moment you're working on a long-term strategic plan or you're dealing with figuring out a fairly sophisticated and difficult financial model for maybe a development or for your budget. Then the next second, you're out in someone's yard, maybe helping them chainsaw a tree from storm damage or helping people clear things out of their basement when there's flooding. It's a hands-on job. It requires every practical skill and it's a creative job. It's a job that requires creativity and ingenuity, and I think that's actually what I've loved the most about it, is the creative community building aspect of it.
