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    Better Know A Candidate 2009: Matt Ferris

    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 next interview is with Republican Candidate Matt Ferris. Matt operates his own financial advisory firm in the Brewery District, lives in German Village, and is a first time candidate running for City Council.

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

    A: My name is Matt Ferris. I’m originally from New Philadelphia, Ohio. I went to school at Ohio University, got my undergraduate degree in Business Administration, and my MBA also in Business Administration. After grad school I moved down to Charlotte, North Carolina for five years and started my career there with New York Life Insurance Company. Since returning to Columbus about three and a half years ago, I started my own business in 2007. I’m the President and Financial Adviser of Ferris Financial, LLC. I live in German Village, and my offices are in the Brewery District.

    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’ve always been very interested in politics and current events. I guess I realized at an early age that most of our current events were shaped because of politics. Since returning to Columbus, I finally had enough time to lift my head out of the water from being so focused on business, and I had to really see that when I looked at the budget that Columbus was facing, and some of the things that were going on at City Hall… this isn’t what I signed up for, and this isn’t what I moved back to Columbus for. We’re capable of so much, and we have so much potential in this city that I feel we weren’t even close to realizing that potential with the leadership that we currently have at City Hall. It concerned me enough to the point where I said it’s time put up or shut up, and I decided to do something about it. If you’re going to complain, that’s fine, but nothing’s going to get done until you really do something about it. So that’s really my main reason for running.

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

    A: Well, it’s more important now than ever. Of course, as you know, I led the opposition to the tax increase. My campaign was the only organization to put a penny towards defeating the tax increase. But now that it has passed, we have to make sure that we hold their feet to the flames. We have to make sure that every single penny spent from this point forward is spent efficiently and spent prudently. They’re going to have between 90 and 100 million dollars more to spend. This is the very same group that has been deficit spending seven out of the past nine years, and what do we give them? More of the thing that they’re incapable of managing.

    So, we need a watchdog. We need somebody in there that’s not going to say no just for the sake of saying no, but who has a true proposal, like my proposal to balance the city budget without a tax increase. We need to hold them accountable. Right now there is zero accountability at City Hall. There’s not one single soul in City Hall that is capable of providing the watchdog function that we all need as taxpayers. We deserve that as taxpayers and we’re not getting it.

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

    A: Obviously, we can talk about streamlining government operations and making things more efficient and cutting, but we need to grow as well. So, as far as attracting and retaining businesses goes, it sounds very simplistic, but I believe that we need two things. We need to make Columbus an attractive place to do business by keeping taxes low. That’s one thing that I thought we hurt ourselves with by increasing taxes. I think it’s just as important to go out and court businesses to come here. I know that sounds so simplistic, but I’m not convinced that we’re doing that at all right now. Just as I would go out and solicit a client to do business with with me… I want to earn their business, and we’ve got to want to earn the business of corporations to come to Columbus. We’re not doing that. It sounds very simplistic, but if we spent half as much time on courting businesses to come to Columbus as we do trying to create projects here like this Main Street Bridge that’s $20 Million over budget and growing, and if we spent half as much time realizing that economic development and bringing jobs is where it’s at, rather than building a building or talking about light rail, we’d be much further ahead. So, it’s a matter of going out and earning people’s business by showing them the highlights of Columbus and what we can provide them… and that’s not being done right now.

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

    A: Some of the questions here overlap a bit, and I think it’s very basic… if we’re going to be a city that people are attracted to, whether it be small, medium or large businesses… it all comes down to a couple of important things. First and foremost it comes down to making sure that your city is safe and secure. It comes down to education. Can we make sure that we move to an area where we can get our children educated? That goes back to our school system here. We’ve had some decent results over the last couple years, but we’ve got a long ways to go. Finally, realizing that if we have those foundations laid, and we’re out there attractively courting businesses, and can and show them that we want their business and are in partnership with them, and that we are a good community that is safe and clean and can provide a good quality education, we can bring those employers here.

    I think one of the things that we need to do on City Council besides keeping taxes low and courting businesses, is realizing that we have a problem here in Ohio where people might say “Hey Matt, we like Columbus, but we don’t like Ohio.” We have a situation here where taxes are out of control in Ohio, workers compensation laws are out of control, and we’ve got a lot of other things going against Ohio in general. We’re losing two more congressional seats next year because of population loss. Until we can effectively lobby our State legislature and say “Hey guys, we’re getting killed down here”, they continue make it very difficult for us to have a lot of wiggle room when they impose these high taxes and make Ohio in general a very unfriendly place for businesses to come to. I think as part of being on City Council in our capital city, we can put tremendous leverage and have tremendous influence on our state legislature to help get Ohio back on track. I think that’s an issue that few people talk about, but it is absolutely paramount.

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

    A: Again, I think it goes back to the very basics. I’m from a small town of 14,000 people and I know why people move there or why they left. Even though we’re the largest city in the state, Columbus is just a big community. It comes back to safety, it comes back to education, and it comes back to jobs. It’s all intermingled. I’m a very big believer that too many times in this society we treat the symptom rather than the root cause, and we spend so much time trying to tell people that these issues are so complex and that without these political leaders we cannot solve anything. It’s all very basic. Keep the streets safe, provide education and provide jobs. Everything else will come as a side effect of doing those things. I think here in Columbus we put the cart before the horse too much. We do things in the name of economic development that actually hurts economic development, and so we need to get back to those basics.

    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: I don’t know if I’m a believer of segmenting any one particular job or industry like that. I’m a big believer that if you have a good enough city, all of those things will happen as a side effect. That’s the great thing about attracting jobs and keeping taxes low and getting government out of people’s way. All of those things flourish because if people want something to happen, or to pursue a particular career, or people want to start a particular sort of business, then they are more readily available to do so in an environment that’s nurturing. So, as far as what I would say particularly about the creative economy, I would think all segments of the economy should be treated equally as far as just getting these barriers out of people’s way so that they’re able to start these sorts of businesses. So, to me, I don’t really differentiate one between another. These things will happen as a side effect of a nurturing city, where businesses can flourish.

    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: I look at this and I segment bikeways and pedestrian safety in one category and passenger rail in a completely other category. I think when you’re talking about bikeways and pedestrian safety, those are things that I would argue are more quality of life than you can argue passenger rail as quality of life. To me that’s more of an economic thing.

    Bikeways and pedestrian safety are more of a community issue. People are attracted to particular areas of town because those are important. I’m all for the bike trails and and all for pedestrian safety and those sorts of things. We need to make sure that we foster those and that those are available throughout our communities.

    Light Rail, passenger rail, trolleys and all of those kinds of things are completely different issues as far as I’m concerned. I think it’s very premature if not crazy for us to talk about those things right now when we had to do everything we could just to plug our own budget. We’re not even close to there yet. We’ve got a lot of issues here dealing with our budget, making sure that every dollar that’s spent is spent wisely… making sure we don’t have projects like the Main Street Bridge that go $20 Million over budget. How are we going to manage a rail system when our bridge is already $20 Million over budget?

    To me, when we look at these reports that benchmark Columbus against other cities, on one page they say that Columbus is very good because our commute times are some of the lowest in any major city, and then they flip the page and bash us saying that we don’t have a Light Rail system, and shame on us for not having Light Rail. Well, they just got done saying that we’ve got one of the best road systems in the country. So let’s play off those strengths. Maybe take the money that we would have spent on Light Rail and do other things with it. I think too many times we try to have something to one-up another city. I didn’t move here because of the way a bridge looked or because of the possibility of Light Rail. I moved here because Columbus offers a lot in the way of being a very down home environment in a big city. You have the arts, you have sports, it’s a very family-oriented area, but we still try to be cities that frankly, I moved away from. I was in Charlotte, North Carolina, and that’s a great city. I love Charlotte a lot, but I’m an Ohio boy, and I wanted more of the down home Ohio feel. I get really tired and frustrated with us trying to be like other cities just for the sake of being like another city, when we don’t realize that maybe people live here because we are Columbus and we do have these particular core values and we do have these other things.

    That’s not to say that I’m not against innovation. We’ve got to innovate. But let’s take a step back and realize what we have instead of trying to mope all the time in trying to be some other city that maybe some folks wouldn’t be attracted to.

    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: I’m going to sound like a broken record, but it goes back to jobs and education. We have a program here in Columbus called Home Again that spends over $5 Million per year to buy houses in what you would call slum areas of town. The city comes in and buys a house and might put $100,000 or even substantially more than that into it, and they’re all sold at a $50,000 to $100,000 loss. I’ve been out with the fire department, I’ve been to 14 stations, I’ve been on over 80 EMS runs, I’ve been with our police officers, I’ve been on three or four full shifts, I’ve been in The Bottoms, I’ve been in these other areas, and I’ve seen what the city’s economic revitalization programs do for the redevelopment of downtrodden neighborhoods. They don’t do anything. In theory they sound good, but in practice when you go and see a crack house, abandoned house, crack house, and then a brand new Home Again house… you’re going to tell me that someone’s actually going to move to that neighborhood because there’s a new home there? When it’s crime ridden when the schools are a mess and there’s no jobs to be had around there? You’re throwing money in a fire. So we’ve got to get back to the basics and get off of these schemes that may sound good, but are complete and utter failures. Don’t take my word for it. Get in a car and go to these neighborhoods and look for yourself. They don’t work. They’re miserable failures.

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

    A: Let me preface by saying that I’m a huge race fan. I’m a NASCAR fan and I love racing and those kinds of things. In theory it sounds good, but I’m not so sure about this. I live in German Village and I’m still waiting for the results of this sound study to see what that’s going to do. In theory I’m for it, but practically I don’t know how that’s going to work out. I still need some more information on this before I make a decision. I am a little concerned with the noise and everything else. You know, the city spends tens of millions of dollars to revitalize Downtown and we want to make our city wholesome and secure and everything else. Then we turn right around and talk about having a racetrack that could potentially be very noisy which could make Downtown unattractive and then also talk about this Casino issue. We try to make these areas wholesome and nice and beautiful and then we have a potentially very noisy racetrack and then a few blocks away have a casino. We’ve got out-of-towners coming in, potential higher crime… so we’re our own worst enemy. What are we trying to do here?

    I think it all goes back to a lack of vision for the city. What’s been going on for a lot of years at city hall is “Oh, that sounds good, let’s do it,” but does it fit in to any real plan? There’s no real goal or vision where the citizens of Columbus can say “Hey, here’s what we want to achieve and what we want to be in a few years”. Instead it’s “Oh, that sounds good, do it”. It’s a la carte, and that’s not the way you do a city. Otherwise, you have competing projects that zero out some of your other efforts. I think the racetrack or casino is a prime example of those sorts of things.

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

    A: That program is never going to happen unless we buckle down, tighten our belt and get efficient within our current spending right now. I’m all for talking about curbside recycling if we can afford it. Plain and simple. It makes sense in a lot of ways, but I’m not so sure we can even afford to talk about it because of the way that money is being spent right now. We give city hall a blank check, we give them another $90 to $100 million in tax revenue, and yet we don’t have a list of real items and where that money is going go go. And conveniently, those items don’t have to be disclosed until after the November election, because the budget doesn’t have to be submitted until after the City Council race. People have got to realize that this what we’re fighting against. It’s almost like shadowboxing here. Every time they want us to give proof or give numbers on something, those numbers aren’t out yet for us to disprove or talk about. We can talk in generalities based on how we’ve been deficit spending seven out of the last nine years and maybe based on what we’ve been doing from a budgetary standpoint from the last two years. But at a time when we have $90 Million extra coming into City Hall, we need to realize that we should be having open debates on these things going into the City Council races. We don’t have an idea of where a single dime of this money is going to go, because the budget doesn’t need to be submitted until after the race. Or, if we do have promises by City Hall, such as reconstituting yard waste pickup, well… that’s a broken promise already. That was supposed to have happened almost immediately after this income tax increase, and now it’s pushed back into next year already. So the things that we are told are going to happen, aren’t happening. So again, it’s like shadowboxing.

    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: I’m very concerned with that, obviously. Every single member of Council was appointed, and then ran. Even two of the three that are running this time were just appointed in January. So, it is concerning to me. The appointment process is part of politics, and I wouldn’t mind if you have an appointment here or there. Things happen, somebody goes on to a different role or somebody resigns… that’s just part of the game. But when it’s a habitual pattern like it is, and when you use City Council like a bullpen for other sorts of government functions or positions, that’s when it’s concerning.

    I know that as a candidate, I had to do this thing from scratch. Fighting the odds that I am, to try to overcome this entrenchment of what’s happened in our city… I’ve had to go to all areas of the city. I’ve had to go out there and shake the hands and talk to the folks and see what the issues are and go door to door. It’s a lot of blood, sweat and tears in this campaign. You don’t expend the same amount of blood, sweat and tears when you get appointed, and then you run as a slate and then you get into office. You don’t earn your keep, I guess. That’s very concerning to me. I don’t think it best represents the city because City Council is picking the representatives and not so much the citizens. I know that the citizens ultimately elect them when they’re in, but unfortunately because people don’t pay a whole lot of attention to city politics, and somebody can say “Well, I’m your current representative”, that carries a lot of weight. Right, wrong or indifferent, it does. So I don’t think that it best represents our city, and it is of concern to me.

    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: Yeah, absolutely I would. This is something that in the next couple of weeks we’ll be talking about a little bit more. We have some plans to advance the city, and this is one of the issues that I’m raising. I would be supportive of sitting down and discussing more of a ward sort of system. You’ve got to be careful… if you look at Cleveland right now, their system seems to be kind of a circus up there. But I wouldn’t be opposed to maybe slicing the city up into seven or eight areas and maybe having seven or eight district-style seats and maybe a couple at-large. I think that’s healthy. I think there are definitely some areas of the city that are either unrepresented or underrepresented. I think it’s something that we seriously have to consider at this point in time. I think it keeps everybody honest, and it helps the individual citizens have a better say in their own local government.

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

    A: By 2012 I would like to see us progress on our education system, and maybe progress in that area means coming to a realization that we have some big issues here, and maybe coming out of the denial phase a little bit. I would like to see a true vision of our education system here in the city. I want to see a true vision for business. I would like to see private-sector jobs accelerating or coming back to Columbus. I would like to see us have a vision for our safety forces and such, and streamlining our police and our fire departments so that we can make sure we’re serving the tax payers to the greatest extent possible. I would like to see areas of the city that have done well in the last couple of years continue to flourish. The Short North has been an incredible area of this city and I think its best days are ahead. I would also like to see some of these areas of town that we talked about earlier, with abandoned houses and those kind of things, have people taking a look at and saying “This is worth an investment. We’re going to buy a house here and we’re going to fix it up and bring more people to these communities”. I’d like to see those things start over the next two or three years.

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

    A: Well, we have so many great places here in Columbus… it’s very difficult to narrow it down… but I guess if I had to say only a few… obviously The Shoe. Going to Buckeyes games and being at The Shoe would probably be number one. Being a German Village resident, I really cherish Schiller Park. I enjoy running and walking and decompressing and taking in the beauty there. Huntington park would be another one on my list. I think that was a very good project, and they did it right. That’s been a lot of fun even though I’ve only been there a couple of times. Lindey’s is another favorite place of mine. I eat there quite a bit. Due Amici is another one of my favorites. I’m sure I can come up with an extended list, but those are some of the places that really stick out. We’ve got a lot of great things here in the city of Columbus and hopefully we can keep things going in the right direction and make sure that we continue to flourish.

    For more information, visit www.MattFerris.org.

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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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