Why I Want to be Mayor of Columbus

from January/February Issue 2023

Meet The Artist

By Joe Motil

Born, raised, and shaped in Columbus, I want to be your Mayor. Allow me to share some of my background and life experiences that shape my desire to serve this city.

These and other experiences have led to interactions across all of Columbus and all walks of life. As an athlete, musician, worker for 40 years in the commercial construction industry as a union laborer and then construction safety manager, decades of advocating for social and economic justice, and candidate for public office since

1995, taken-together, allows me to learn and interact widely.

For 37 years, I worked with the City of Columbus government. I learned how it functions and misfunctions. Who the players are and why? And to whom our tax dollars are spent disproportionately. Our mayor has held office at City Hall for 15 years. Before that, he served on the Columbus Board of Education for 6 years. Unethical and corrupt activities have consistently accompanied his political career since chairing the Columbus City Schools Audit and Ac- countability Committee during the 2004 data scrubbing scandal. er deals persist. The promises of a new sports complex to replace Mapfre Stadium never materialized. The cost to Columbus taxpayers to build the new soccer stadium jumped from $50 million initially to $113.9 million. And balanced by a $10 unpaid annual rent fee for Lower.com field.

In 2014, a sports junket paid mostly by a city lobbyist that led to an FBI and Ohio Ethics Commission investigation. In 2015, the same city lobbyist and Ginther campaign contributor was found guilty of extorting money in the form of campaign contributions for Ginther and other elected officials from the City’s red-light camera contractor Redflex.

A 2020 Recall effort accused Ginther of gross incompetence for his tax abatements that defund public education, failure to provide oversight of Columbus Police, and breaching public trust.

To stop the lack of transparency, unethical and corrupt City Hall activities, I will immediately create a Department of Anti-Corruption. In part, it will:

1. Dissolve the city’s Ethics Office and replace the Chief Ethics Officer with a non-partisan civil service Inspector General who will investigate allegations of unethical and corrupt behavior of city employees and city elected officials.

2. Establish a confidential anonymous reporting hotline.

3. Discipline city employees and elected officials who are aware of unethical and corrupt activities and do not report them.

4. Prohibit solicitation or acceptance of campaign contributions from persons with a financial interest in city business while such business is pending before city council. We must end the pay-to-play awarding of contracts.

Our current Mayor’s inadequate approach to the affordable housing crisis, evictions and homelessness is centered on tax abatements, tinkering with the city’s outdated zoning code, and the recently approved $200 million affordable housing bond package.

I propose:

1. The city and county allocate $60 million each of the taxpayers American Rescue Plan dollars towards truly affordable housing, with the Columbus Partnership matching the $60 million. I also suggest the 81 member Columbus Partnership establish their own affordable trust fund.

2. Increasing Columbus’s Hotel Motel bed tax that is earmarked towards the Affordable Housing Trust Fund from 8.43% to at least 25%.

3. I have proposed an “Empty Homes Tax” on the hundreds of vacant properties in. They attract crime and lower the quality of life in our neighborhoods. Out-of-town investors own many properties, holding them for resell when gentrifying so they can reap bigger profits. Taxing the properties spurs reconstruction and tax revenues would go towards affordable housing. We need housing now!

I would also leverage Intel’s need for our water in return for contributing towards affordable housing. Mentoring and crime prevention programs for our youth are important. But until we address structural racism and systemic economic, social and educational opportunities, crime and violence will increase across the city. To help address this, I will appoint a Community Social Justice Director who has been active on the frontlines of social justice in our community. I will improve our neighborhoods crumbling infrastructure, ensure individual and neighborhood economic prosperity, and modernize our mobility and transit to 21st century standards.

And on a larger level, I commit to do everything in the mayor’s power to reform Columbus City Council and create a more democratic form of city government. Real democracy will never come until the power of developers, corporate Columbus, local established institutions and current and former politicians have over City Hall is eliminated.

Joe Motil Candidate for the May 2, 2023 City of Columbus Mayoral Primary Election

I support the proposed Columbus Fair Housing Code citizen ballot initiative that will create incentives for property owners to offer fair rents and disincentives for those who gouge renters.