In 2009, I decided to run for Council because I have lived here all my life and wanted to give back to the community that has given me so much. I ran on a platform that I have lived up to with every decision I’ve made on Council. My experience as a business owner brings a different perspective on some of the issues, and as we learned in the November 2010 election, just because I’m on the minority side of a decision on Council does not mean I’m wrong.
My business started when I was 12 years old. I rode my bike around the new neighborhoods in the Powell area for piano and other music lessons students, charging a few dollars a lesson. My first few months were a little rough, but I eventually grew my business to the point that I was teaching 35-40 hours a week in high school. My business continued to grow and morph in to what it is today. One of our many accomplishments is that we are the only Powell area music lessons company that has its teachers as W2 employees rather than 1099 contractors, meaning that my company actually pays taxes on its employees rather than trying to skirt that responsibility. I made the decision when I opened my company in 2006 that even though our competitors had their teachers as contractors, mine would be W2 employees. It’s a competitive disadvantage, but it’s the right thing to do for the employees who really make my company what it is.
I built my home in Golf Village at the age of 22, thanks to the business I had developed that was growing in leaps and bounds. I will be 32 next year. Despite the economy in the last decade, I have remained in the first home that I built. I also fought the merger of the Delaware and Powell Chambers of Commerce to make sure that Powell maintained its own chamber for our businesses, served on the transitional chamber board, and decided to run for Council when I saw that taxes and other policy matters were not going in a direction that I thought would be healthy for this community.
Like any business owner, from time to time there are issues with various governing agencies. That is not unusual. In fact, I am not aware of any business owner who just rolls over when the government comes knocking. The lien that has been filed against my business is regarding a dispute that I have had with the IRS for nearly a year, and in the spring my last conversation with them was that a lien would not be filed because we were working through the situation. When it was filed I was surprised, and my representatives are working with them. In fact, we have a tentative agreement that is being finalized. My business is a private, not public company, and the details of this matter are private.
This situation with my business is not unlike my other experiences in life: when I believe in something, I stand up for it. There are many businesses, buildings and individuals with liens, and once the matter is resolved the lien is released. This is not a political issue, but it’s being made in to one by those who do not know the details of the situation. Mr. Bermingham is asking questions of me tonight, in a forum that most would agree to be inappropriate, and he jumped to conclusions even without the answers to his questions. In fact, none of those who are accusing me of doing something wrong have ever even asked me for the details. While I’m not going to discuss them in a public session, anyone who has actually asked me and had a conversation with me about this situation understands and realizes that this is not a political issue. The important part of it is that I am on top of it and have been on top of it, and am working to make sure that it is resolved properly.
Character is not judged by what happens to us, but by how we respond to the matter. It is clear that the responses of some are for political purposes only, continuing to play a game of politics of personal destruction rather than even considering that maybe, just maybe, they should ask me first to see what is really going on. And of course, the vast majority if not all of those attacking me on this are people who have disagreed with my positions since I entered the political arena, making it even more clear what the real motivations are of people going after me on this.
The great Winston Churchill said, “You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.” However, I never imagined that I would be the target of attacks like I have been, all because of what I believe in and stand up for or against. In early 2009, before I had officially announced but my running was known, people were posting my then fiance's and my wedding invitation on a blog, and commenting on it in a negative way. An event in my life that was supposed to be a wonderful one was smeared by those who don’t agree with my husband’s and my views on political issues. We even had to have private security watch our home during the wedding because of a fear of vandalism that was based in comments we had seen online.
After I was elected and sworn in, it was clear that I was going to differ with other members of Council on fiscal issues. That’s where the attacks really started to heat up, and unfortunately, even from other members of this Council. When Councilman Grubbs stated he wasn’t going to run for Council again, it was somehow my fault for making the meetings “painful.” If someone reviews the meetings where Councilman Grubbs and I have disagreed, I am never the one on the offense. What some don’t realize is that most of our votes are actually seven to zero. The vast majority of our votes are non-controversial and are unanimous. There are some votes, though, where I believe that something is not fiscally prudent, is not good for business or is not what the residents of this community want. That’s where I stand up for what I believe in because of what I promised I would do in the election. One Council candidate said in the fall of 2009 that he was not going to support raising the income tax. Once he was on Council, he reversed his position and supported the tax increase. It’s very easy to get on Council and just go along to get along, but I believe that I was elected to stand up for certain principles, and that is what I do. It’s also what I’m attacked for.
In 2010, when I missed a few meetings and sent in comments by email, I was told that was not acceptable by Councilman Grubbs, in one of the public sessions where he went after me. However, when a former member of Council could not attend many of the last meetings of his term, he sent in comments by email, some of which were entered in to the record. When I did it, I was literally lambasted in a public meeting of Council.
I was also asked to bring forward ideas after the tax issue failed last year. When I did, I asked for several things to be studied. Just like the finance committee and this Council had spent several years studying funding capital improvements, I asked for a few ideas to be studied for cost savings. Instead of that happening, Councilman Grubbs again lead a charge against those ideas, and other members of Council who had studied the capital improvement funding idea that had just failed refused to allow one of the ideas I had brought forward to even be studied.
These are just a few examples, and there are many others.
This process of the politics of personal destruction has to stop. Whether it’s Mr. Bermingham, who has always strongly disagreed with me, or anyone else, this isn’t how we fight our battles like adults. The attitude of being the high school bully, going after the person who you just don’t like, must stop. Whether you agree with me or don’t, it was clear last fall that there was one member of Council who had the real pulse on the community. Despite my saying so all through 2009 and 2010, no one would really listen. It took an election with over 70% of the residents saying “no” in order for the train toward doubling our income tax to stop. Since that defeat, some have taken it personally rather than simply regrouping and working together. I reached out to everyone right after the election so that we could work together to find a solution that the residents would actually accept. Of the two Council members who actually met with me, they both accused me of saying something that I did not say, and I demonstrated this by forwarding the literature to them showing that the lit piece did not say what they thought. Even if it did, so what? We can either take things personally, or let it roll off and maintain an element of professionalism and decorum.
The time has come to end the personal attacks and the underhanded tactics, and work together. Everyone on this Council has a personal or business matter in their life, just like I do. The difference is that I don’t try to make a political issue of what other people are going through in their personal or business lives. We have problems to solve here in Powell, and being part of a group of people who only wish to seek and destroy is not going to get us anywhere. I am willing to work with anyone who is willing to do the same, because I take this position seriously as a position of service to the community.
I hope that we can all stop the politics of personal destruction, restrain the sharp tongue and remember that we are elected to Council to represent and serve. Henry Ford said, “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.” For the residents of Powell who elected us to get a job done, let’s put our differences aside once and for all, and work together to achieve success for our community.
