Better Know A Candidate 2009: Eileen Paley

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.

Our next interview is with Democrat Candidate Eileen Paley. Eileen currently operates her own legal practice, and is running for election following her City Council appointment in January.

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

A: My name is Eileen Paley. I was born in Fort Huachuca, Arizona, but I moved to Columbus when I was six months old. My father was in the Army. I went to Columbus Public Schools, and graduated from Walnut Ridge High School. I went to The Ohio State University and got a degree in Psychology with a minor in Business. I then went to Capital University and got a Law Degree. I’ve been in private practice for over 21 years. I spent over 3 years as a Commissioner on the Columbus Civil Service Commission. I ran for Franklin County Municipal Court Judge in 1997. I’ve been a Vice Chair for the Democratic Party for 10 years, and was the Chair of the Judicial Committee for the Democratic Party. I’m on the Board of the Neighborhood House and the Board for the National Council of Jewish Women. I am a member of the NAACP… hmm… I know there’s more, but I don’t have my resume in front of me.

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: This was the fifth time I’ve applied for Columbus City Council, so this wasn’t a new idea for me. In fact, the first time I applied was when Mike Mentel applied. I’ve always been a public servant in one way or another and I kind of went back and forth between the judicial position and a City Council position. I like everything about City Council. I utilize my legal knowledge a lot at City Council. It gives me the diversity that I’m looking for in a career, not to mention that I’m still in private practice.

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

A: Well, I’ve been appointed since January, and since then, and going forward, I have gone through my budgets and I think that we are concentrating on making city government more focused and diciplined in charging fines, collaborations and partnerships for cost reductions… and I’ve been pretty instrumental in doing that in my committees. I’ve come up with several ideas for better quality services at less cost to the city.

I’m the chair of Public Utilities and Court Administration & Judicial. Public Utilities is self sustaining. It doesn’t come out of the general fund. It’s funded by rates. So I don’t necessarily have to worry about their budget for the city’s budget. Although we are working on their budget too because it affects rates.

With Judicial & Court Administration, we’re kind of going line item by line item and trying to find ways to provide better services at less cost, and we’ve been pretty effective but it’s an ongoing process.

One of my first initiatives was the Specialty Docket that’s in Municipal Court. The Specialty Docket is a drug court and a prostitution court that is a collaboration between a lot of different agencies… the county, the city, ADAMH Board, Ron O’Brien’s Office… and the purpose of it is to stop the revolving door because that’s costing all of the agencies a lot of money and jail time. It costs the city $75 per day every time somebody’s in jail, and these areas are areas where we have a lot of recidivism. We were trying to think of creative ways to stop that revolving door, so we have wraparound services in these new courts that are going to save the city all of that jail time because it keeps people out of jail… but it’s also not a free ride for them. It’s actually pretty hard to make it through these new Specialty Dockets. You have to go to court every week and deal with the judge and the wraparound services, but it’s been statistically known to save lives and save an enormous amount of money.

Another thing I’ve done is I’ve worked with Lori Tyack… and this isn’t done yet but we’ve passed the legislation to do it… is to put in credit card kiosks in the Clerk of Courts, because the Clerk of Courts was paying for the credit card fees when people to pay their fines. So, we are providing these kiosks so that they’re open 24 hours per day, and they should be online when they’re installed so that you can do it from your house, and it saves the city over $100,000 per year.

And that was part of the three-part plan when we initiated Issue One.

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

A: That’s been a collaboration also. There’s all kinds of leaders in Columbus and I’ve been going to all of the meetings that are working on all kinds of things… from changing our city image, to the new tech corridor, to the new logistics hub. You know, quality of life, which Issue One dealt with, deals a lot with attracting and retaining businesses because businesses aren’t going to come to a place that doesn’t have a good quality of life. So, the hospital and biotech expansions, supported by city incentives and capital investments with Nationwide and OSU, the convention and visitors expansion, the logistics with Rickenbacker and the rail connections, OSU and Battelle, and the Tech Industries, and again, quality of life.

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

A: You know, when I put in my application for City Council, you have to write an essay on something that has to do with the City of Columbus, and mine was on Cluster Businesses. What Cluster Businesses are, are businesses that cluster around bigger businesses that need support. For example, Ross Labs or Battelle or Net Jets. Let’s say that Ross Labs was making a baby food, and they need baby food bottles… we have to look at clustering the baby food bottle company around Ross Labs. And cluster the businesses around Net Jets that would support Net Jets. So cluster businesses would be good idea, and that’s being talked about. I think that incentives work. Tech Columbus is not only bringing big jobs but it’s also bringing smaller jobs, and so is biotech research. I think that developments with CCAD are attracting and keeping creative people in Columbus. We need to work on different development patterns to make the city more denser.

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

A: We have to be creative with our investments. For example; the dog parks, traffic islands, decorative street lights, bike path extensions… those are relatively small investments that bring people into neighborhoods. Neighborhood pride, code enforcement, social services, historic districts, investing in tools to help historic districts.

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: We need to support major arts organizations. High tech incubators, which there are smaller and bigger incubators… I know that some of the neighborhood houses have started incubators. Commercial districts in Downtown and the neighborhoods, student internships, redesign some art space for artists in central city neighborhoods.

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, transportation is huge for both. People go to jobs that they can get to, so it’s important that we provide mobility, both pedestrian, passenger, and bikeways. I think we’re doing a good job with traffic calming, pedestrian safety, commercial overlays to encourage alternative transportation, and bike safety programs. We need to work on development patterns and encourage less density sprawl. Once we get a higher density in the Downtown area, we can look at Light Rail and Streetcars. There’s lots of opportunity, but without the density, we can’t meet the federal funding standards.

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 address it at multiple levels. We need to deal with capital improvements, code enforcement, and housing rehab incentives. We’re getting a lot of stimulus money for that, but it’s not going to be the answer. One of the things that I’ve seen when I’ve been out there, is neighborhood pride. The recession has brought people together, and neighborhood pride will go a long way. We can’t tolerate litter, graffiti, absentee landlords, or drugs. We need more block watches, more neighborhood pride groups and civic associations… and they’ve become a lot more active in the city. We’re certainly supporting all of the above. And also, it’s low cost.

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

A: There was ROAR study that just came out. It’s about five inches thick, and to be honest with you, I have not read it yet. However, I have to tell you that I have real issues with whether the environmental noise impact is appropriate for such an urban location, so I’ll have to look at it.  My mind is open, you know. I’ll listen to both sides, but that is really close to Downtown and a lot of neighborhoods. So we really have to look at use when it comes to that. Noise is going to be a big deal.

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

A: We support curbside recycling for everyone now. The problem is that you have to pay for it. It costs millions of dollars at this present moment to do recycling. We are looking at all kinds of ways to address that issue. This city is really supporting “green”, and obviously recycling is part of that, so we want to support recycling. We just have to find a more creative way to do it. SWACO is exploring more cost effective recycling techniques including some breakthroughs in mechanical separation, but at the present time, it’s not cost effective for the city to pay for it in full. We couldn’t pay for yard waste pickup, so it’s going to be almost impossible to pay for curbside recycling. Do I support it? Absolutely. In fact, that was going to be my topic of my application for City Council, but then when you look into the cost, it’s astronomical. So, I think people should pay for it. It’s not that expensive, and it really supports our city.

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, even though they’ve all been appointed, they’re all very diverse in backgrounds… and that’s the way all public officials are if somebody steps down… they’re all appointed. I don’t know why everyone’s making such a big deal about it just on City Council. In fact, on City Council, it’s a lot more open. There’s charter laws that require City Council members to not even discuss between each other who they’re going to vote for, which makes it quite difficult to make decisions. You’re not allowed to have more than three City Council members in one place without doing a public meeting notice. There’s been a couple of changes to the process more recently, and you have to run for office at the next municipal election, so I think it does go to the voters relatively quickly. It would not be an exaggeration to say that if you left vacancies on Council for more than that period of time, it could grind the city to a halt. So, there’s no alternative.

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: I don’t believe that works because then you have the district fighting against each other for who gets more money. I think it’s much better that everyone supports all of the city. I like the committee idea where you concentrate on zoning or development or the courthouse or public utilities, so that you can get some in-depth information on those area and you have a go-to person that is more informed on certain areas. I’m really happy that everyone on Columbus City Council cares about the southside, westside, northside, and eastside, and that we’re not fighting against each other for funding and acknowledgment. I don’t think districts and ward systems are the best way to run a City Council.

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

A: Hopefully we’ve recovered from the recession and that we’re well underway to refunding our reserve accounts. We’ll be selling houses in suburbia and moving into the urban settings to create the density that we need. We’ll be in the final stages of constructing the 3C Rail system and planning for the North Corridor Light Rail line. The hospital centers will see large expansions completed, our bike systems will be expanded, the construction of I-70/71 interchange will calm traffic headaches, and hopefully Columbus will remain in the top rankings for quality of life as it is today. I expect that we will be higher than the 15th best city in the country.

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

A: The new Audubon Center… I love it. It just came off the top of my head. I don’t know if you’ve been there yet but it’s just wonderful. It’s only been open for so long, and I’ve been there four times already. I’m not a real big hiker, but I love birds. Also, the Conservatory… I love it. The North Market and the Short North too. Lets see… there’s so many things I could say. You know, this is kind of weird, because I didn’t really go there a lot, but since I’ve been on City Council I’ve been there a lot and I really enjoy it… and that’s the Wexner Center.

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