Disclosure: Members of the Richland Source leadership team support the Banks campaign for Richland County Commissioner.
The Board of Commissioners represents some of the most important elected officials in Richland County government. They employ approximately 150 people and control a budget of $30.9 million. In many ways, the board is the face of Richland County government, and critical human capital in engineering change, collaboration, and significant progress.
The men campaigning for the GOP county commissioner’s seat are interviewing for a job. It’s that simple. The job description is demanding and the salary is a good one.
In that environment, voters should expect excellence, and nothing less. Executive leadership for Richland County should never just meet requirements. It should set the bar far higher. A commissioner is elected to be a leader.
Darrell Banks is a proven leader, and that’s why we are endorsing him.
Banks’ track record of success as Bellville mayor is a shining example of the leadership skills Richland County deserves.
When he took office, Bellville’s general fund balance encompassed less than $10,000. Today, eight years later, it’s more than $200,000.
One key to that success was Banks’ willingness to collaborate.
Take, for instance, the Bellville Streetscape project. Nearly every property in and around the streetscape upgrade has made tangible improvements to their respective Main Street locations.
“I can confirm that the streetscape project was a catalyst for economic growth,” said Jeff Mussman, president of the Clear Fork Valley Chamber of Commerce and the proprietor of a law office on Main Street. “The welcoming atmosphere of Main Street has not only attracted customers to existing businesses but, in my opinion, also attracted new businesses who want to be part of Bellville’s Main Street. Every single property and storefront within the streetscape project is now occupied.”
This is the kind of foresight and leadership Richland County should expect from its elected officials. In today’s global economy, we are no longer in competition with neighboring counties in Ohio, but around the country and indeed around the world.
Those facts seem lost on incumbent Tim Wert.
According to multiple sources associated with the Richland County Land Bank, Wert’s participation in that project was minimal at best, little more than a rubber stamp. Yet he points to this as one of his achievements, and complained in 2014 when he didn’t get more credit for his part in the project.
Wert recently said, “Richland County has finally got a good economic development group.”
We aren’t sure how Wert can evaluate the Richland County Development Group. We found no evidence he has attended any of the group’s executive or leadership meetings, despite the fact county commissioners are invited to attend.
In response, Wert simply turned the query back to RCDG.
“I would question if (RCDG leaders) have been to any of the commissioner meetings – have they?”
Again, Wert misses the point. It’s not just his job, but it should be his passion to foster economic development. It’s not his role to question the commitment of others, but to lead others.
Sources tell us Wert is rarely in the commissioner’s office beyond attendance at 76 of 97 meetings in 2015. At last week’s debate, Banks charged Wert with not returning “hundreds” of phone calls and not bothering to open emails.
“I don’t believe that I misuse or don’t call people back, like you say,” Wert said. “And if I have with you, I publicly apologize.”
In a Q-A with Richland Source, Wert termed social media “mostly fluff” and insisted it’s used merely “for insulting people we don’t know and looking at pictures of cats.”
To be in a county leadership position and believe those comments, let alone voice them for the record to a media outlet, reveals a shocking lack of foresight and understanding of today’s business world, which has embraced technology and social media wholeheartedly. Yes, there are plenty of cat pictures on Instagram, but so are some of the largest and most influential companies on the globe. It’s not a tool to be scoffed at, but to be used.
To re-elect someone as a public servant with such a philosophy in this era is beyond reckless, it’s irresponsible. Richland County needs leaders to be focused on the future, not with a world view chained to the past.
For those reasons and many more, Richland Source encourages you to vote for Darrell Banks as commissioner at the GOP primary on March 15.
