Onumba.com founder and editor Ike Mgbatogu with Columbus Mayoral Candidate Franklin County Sheriff Zach Scott at his campaign headquarters on 5th Avenue in Columbus, Ohio on Sept. 25, 2015
Exclusive Onumba Q & A interview: Franklin County Sheriff Democrat Zach Scott, Candidate for Mayor of Columbus
Onumba Q&A – The battle for a chance to become the next mayor of Columbus is heating up.
Interestingly, there was a time when victory, some would say, was a shoo-in for City Council President Andrew Ginther in the mayoral race against Franklin County Sheriff Zach Scott, especially after nicely pocketing Mayor Coleman’s complete and unwavering endorsement.
But that was then.
Today, without a doubt, the contest is fierce and victory is a tossup.
Scott, for one thing, has come out swinging, trying to ensure that change in city leadership is a fierce contest of ideas, not a coronation, telling Onumba.com in a recent interview at his campaign headquarters on 5th Avenue that he is the absolute right man for the job.
Below is the complete interview, featuring candidate Scott in his own words.
Ike Mgbatogu of Onumba.com: Good evening Mr. Scott.
Zack Scott: Good evening, Ike, good to see you.
Ike: Thank you, Sir.
Onumba.com: Please introduce yourself to our readers.
Democratic Candidate for mayor of Columbus Zach Scott: My name is Zach Scott. Presently, I am the Sheriff of Franklin County and I have the jurisdiction of Franklin County, even the municipalities in the county. People get a little confused about what my job duties are, my job duties consist of, I got about 11,000 employees, a budget of over $100 million, I have two jail facilities, two court houses, I have a patrol division, I have an investigative division, I have a real estate division, I have a civil division, I have bomb teams, dive teams, dog teams, SWAT teams, so we are very busy. I have been in public service for over 30 years, and I guess, that’s kind of who I am. I am originally from Kentucky. I moved up here when I was 12 years old, been up here since then; went to Hamilton Township High School, which is in the south end, south side, I call it south end, but some people call it the south side; played basketball at Hamilton Township, honorable mention of Ohio, that’s kind of who I am . My family is involved in law enforcement and I am running for mayor because I think that we need some changes, a lot of it stems around safety but also jobs, proper education, and so those are the reasons I decided to run for mayor.
Onumba.com: One of the issues raised repeatedly by your former opponent James Ragland when he was in the race was what he decried as the paucity of attention being paid to the problems of the inner city communities —– education, jobs, economic development, housing and others. Do you agree with that indicting assessment, and if you do, what would you do differently to address that concern?
Scott: First of all, the current mayor, when it comes to actually doing anything to the schools, he has no authority. I think there is some confusion there. People think that the mayor has authority over the schools; you need to let them know that you do not. The only entity with authority over the schools is the school board, that’s it. And I have no problem with having a school board as long as it is effective. One reason James Ragland is so upset is because he has kids in the schools, and he has, even on TV, asked Mr. Ginther to apologize to the students for his role in the school data rigging scandal. Mr. Ginther had the opportunity to actually do a real investigation but Dave Yost report showed he killed the investigation and he caused the kids to be disadvantaged. I mean tens of thousands of our kids. You know, I read an article the other day in the Dispatch two days ago. It talks about the country’s homelessness going down by 15% except for the city of Columbus. Homelessness has gone up by 7.6% since 2010. Why do you think that is? Well, I attributed this to the fact that we disadvantaged our kids; they can’t get jobs because the school system failed them presently. When we talk about the school system, it is my point of view that at some point we have to do some type of school reform. I said last night during the business chambers meeting that I would be willing to say, let’s get with some experts when it comes to school, to advice school, get with parents, get with the business community, let’s get a plan together to take to the school board and say we need you to implement this type of plan with the school system. You have to figure out how to make sure that these plans work, and then if they don’t listen to us, if they ignore us or they won’t implement these plans, then we will look at school reform and we will find some model that fits Columbus and then we take it to the voters, have the voters vote if they want to put it under the mayor’s authority, which is going on in several urban areas throughout the country. And I find it interesting that the Chamber of Business, House Bill 167 that they were using, actually, were putting some languages in there that they would like to see that certain levies, that we can take money from levies and apply it to high performing charter schools that would be under the mayor’s authority. So there, they are already kind of pushing for this, they want to see this, it’s kind of a trend to start having someone accountable versus a whole board, you know, they can always point fingers at each other. So what we have to do is to start working with businesses to find out what they are looking for, and I tell a story, this is a simple story. I’m talking with Steve Germain, he tells me that his mechanics and technicians who make six figures, he can’t find anybody that’s coming up behind them, that’s trained to take their jobs because they are getting ready to retire. Now my idea is to get into the schools and start teaching the trades, to teach these career paths, to give these kids options to understand what is out there available and then let them start making up their mind what direction they want to go in, and to make sure that we facilitate the connectivity with the business community that is out there to make sure that we create a path for them. Obetz, the little suburb of Obetz, which is not even an actual municipality, it’s a village, is starting to work with the industry that they have down there with a high school. So people are already starting to do this. Columbus seems to be so far behind in doing it. And it’s nothing against Mr. Ginther, and I’m not trying to beat him up, I am stating facts, he was on the school board for 6, 7 years, where was he, other than screw up the whole data rigging scandal? Where has he been? The Columbus Dispatch has changed ownership but even back then, said that Mayor Coleman and Andy Ginther, they have a legacy of neglect, they have let the city fall down the way they have, so I guess, I am saying to the voters, he had his shot, it’s time for change; it’s time to actually have some people who want to do the job and move the city forward. So my idea, like I just said, we are going to have some school reform and get with businesses and get these jobs to match what our schools are doing. And it takes leadership to do that, engaged leadership, not perceived leadership.
Onumba.com: What do you make of the red-light saga involving RedFlex, with your opponent Ginther allegedly receiving illegal campaign contribution through a guy, lobbyist named John Raphael? Ginther has denied any wrongdoing.
Scott: I can tell you what I know. I know that Karen Finley pleaded guilty to bribing elected officials. Now, who are those elected officials? I think it will come out in the very near future. There are allegations made by her that Andy Ginther was one of them. Now, that’s not me making this up. That’s them saying it. I know that the lobbyist Mr. John Raphael, he is in talks with the feds, and he is in talks with his lawyers. I know that to be true. And I do know what this has done to us. When you start adding up the data rigging scandal that Mr. Ginther was involved in and failed, when you add up the allegations that these people are making against him, when you add up the allegation with the whole situation with the football tickets with him hanging out there with the lobbyist and getting treated nice and just so that the lobbyist can make sure they get, it was all friendly payback, and then you also attribute that, for years, he is on the Hunger Alliance board, he sits on the board, he is paid by the Hunger Alliance, and the city votes to support money to Hunger Alliance, that about that Conflict of Interest. Now, he always says, well, I don’t vote on it, but all his friends vote on it for him and then he votes on others for his other friends. When you add all that up, it does leave a very, very bad smell there, when you look at the cloud of corruption that’s over the city Hall, it hurts the reputation of the city. Now, do I think it is going to affect our triple A Bond Rating, I don’t know, I guess it could, I do know that when you have this type of alleged, using the word ‘alleged’ corruption at this time, and data rigging scandal did happen, that’s not alleged, he did do that, when you have this type of situation going on, you lose confidence of the voter, you lose confidence of the citizens, and when you lose that confidence, when you try to move the city forward, and you need their assistance, you are not going to get much assistance from them because they don’t trust you. I equate it last night to a stock. When you have a CEO in a business that does this kind of damage to the company, what happens, the stock goes down, and what does the board do, fire the CEO, that way it brings the stock back up. There is no difference here. The CEO at the city hall, they need to be fired and we bring new ones, we get the stock backup and restore the shareholders’ confidence.
Onumba.com: You and your opponent Andrew Ginther are democrats, and as such there are some things you agree on What are those things and why would you make a better mayor than the council president?.
Scott: The difference between me and Ginther is real simple. It’s called leadership. That’s what really all about. Mr. Ginther’s idea of leadership is about putting together a committee, charging that committee to go and do something. My idea of leadership is being engaged and being part of the solution. That’s what I do today. I have several different divisions that I work with. I am very involved with my divisions. I deal with labor a lot. I think Ginther has a very distorted idea of what leadership is. I understand leadership because I do it every day. When you practice and you have experience doing this, you get better at it. So I think that’s the biggest difference between him and I. He has never been a CEO. He doesn’t understand the responsibilities of a CEO. And I think that’s what will cause us to move forward once we put people in leadership positions that actually have been real leaders.
Onumba.com: I read in the Columbus Dispatch where you spoke about transparency in city government, and somewhere in that article you said, “I have a lot more friends now for some reason.” Why is that? Why do you think all of a sudden your circle of friendship widened?
Scott: You are referring to that, Mr. Ginther was giving $2 million to try and make sure that he beats me in the primary. That didn’t work. But people were still somewhat, I guess, nervous to pick side at that time, even though we got through the primary, and then when that comment was made after the red-light scandal came out that I was tongue and cheek joking, but I wasn’t to some degree, because the day the red-light scandal hit, Karen Findley was talking about Andy Ginther, my phone was literally, was ringing for four hours straight, everybody going, Hey, Zach, I was getting ready to call you. So, now, all of a sudden, it is a whole lot easier to raise a little money and get people to do fundraiser because now they say they don’t think Andy is going to do well with the whole red-light situation. But I don’t know. I don’t know what’s going to happen with it.
Onumba.com: What do you think about Mayor Coleman and the legacy he leaves behind?
Scott: Well, it depends, if he gets in more trouble with this whole selling of his house, maybe he has a part in red-light scandal, I don’t know, it could destroy his legacy. It can make him look really bad. I think he did a lot of good things when it comes to downtown but unfortunately, the newspaper has called it ‘a legacy of neglect.’ He was on the United Way leadership video in 2014, and this is Mr. Coleman saying that poverty the last decade has gone up over 70% in Columbus, well, who’s been in charge, you know, we have lost a lot of manufacturing jobs that we don’t have any more, we have a lot of poverty, we have homelessness, I don’t know, I guess history will just have to play itself out to what his legacy is going to be.
Onumba.com: A lot of people know Coleman very well, and by virtue of them knowing Coleman, they link him to Ginther. What would you say to the folks in the inner-city, to the folks in the immigrant communities, about you so they get to know you very well?
Scott: I think it is that I have been a public servant for a long time. I have been in those communities. I have for the last 5 or 6 years going to different churches, a lot of ministers know who I am. I did not need Larry Price to introduce me to the Black community. Andy did, which was in the paper. If someone had said that we are going to hire someone to introduce you to the African-American community and minority communities, I would have been embarrassed. Andy wasn’t. And that’s just concerning that you don’t even understand how embarrassing that it is you have been an elected official for 15 years and you don’t know anybody in our African-American community and minority communities. So, I am very proud that Ray Miller’s magazine came out and endorsed me. And very proud that Jon Beard, Free Press came out and endorsed me. I think that speaks volumes. I think that Maurice Clarett, who is our comeback kid, he is doing awesome, has come out and endorsed me.
Scott’s Closing remarks
It’s time to make Columbus great. It really is, and what we have been lacking, I think, personally, is we have been lacking engaged leadership, I think we have done pretty good in certain areas, we have been successful when it comes to downtown development, but we need leadership that will go after our challenges and make them successes as we have made successes with these other areas (downtown development). That’s what I intend to do once I’m there. I am a problem solver. And I love to work and I can’t wait to be your mayor.
end.
