Chamber of Commerce Forum

Earlier this evening, I had my first opportunity to watch the replay of the Chamber’s candidate Forum. Following are my thoughts on same:

Armbruster:

Cited a lot of NEW businesses when questioned about “improving relationships with existing businesses.”

Mostly just rambled and told stories that may or may not have been relevant to the questions.

Seemed to opine that if we had better shopping and restaurants, high income families from West Chester and Springboro would move here.

Did I hear him say that “the steel industry and the paper industry are finished here!”??? If so, doesn’t he realize that AK is still our city’s largest employer? Or that the paper industry (collectively) is among the largest?

Fell back to his “plant grass, trees, and flowers and they will come” solution of the last four years.

His “no ward” presentation was basically a “Seinfeld” (nothing). It still baffles me how he can brag about all the great things council has accomplished “working together during his four years” yet still be against the very same structure.

His first summary was to continue to march in the current vein, keep dreaming, and do nothing.　

Barge:

Honest and direct in his presentation.

His first summary (before the closing statement) was his best segment.

Smith:

Certainly appears to have done his homework, BUT, is he just saying what he thinks will “play well”??? (He did state that his experience is in “campaigning” and “getting issues passed” and “getting people elected”. Nothing about keeping promises afterward.)

At times seemed that he has been “coached”, and was giving someone else’s views (Obama’s perhaps?) and not his own.

Closing statement was more of the above.

Soppanish:

Seems to be striving to improve leadership skills by continuing education. Also seemed honest and direct.

His first summary was his best segment also.  His closing was not as good.

Marconi:

During opening remarks, said that he has worked for the betterment of city these last four years, but city has actually declined. Says council has worked very well together these last four years, so why does he want to change its very structure?

Denies that there is anything wrong with city’s relationship with existing businesses, but then says that businesses call him to try to cut through red tape because city doesn’t understand business.

Defied anyone to say Middletown was business unfriendly.

Re: Improving existing business relationships, he also cited mostly new businesses, and then claimed Atrium added 200 jobs…but didn’t they just lay off 300???

Seemed to constantly be trying to defend the past.

During his “ward” presentation, claims he represents the whole city, not just his ward, yet claims the ward system is divisive. His “pre-judging” statement was ridiculous. As with Armbruster, it still baffles me how he can brag about all the great things council has accomplished “working together during his four years” yet still claim it was divisive and be against that very same structure.

Claims unique qualifications in the areas of “proven leadership, proven knowledge, and proven experience”. Judge that for yourselves.

Laubach:

His tax structure reduction vision could be a key to the future.

Has a good overall grasp of economics.

Understands that our young people are also an important part of our city’s future.

Closing statement was direct, and seemed genuine, well thought out. His “Four Part Plan” is a great general outline, the devil is in the details of how to implement it. Too bad there wasn’t enough time allotted to hear more.

Mentioned opening his law office, but didn’t mention that he opened it in Monroe…Why?  Why not Middletown???

Gave specific example of city being unfriendly to existing business.

Made a good point about going direct to the sources to find out why businesses don’t come to Middletown.

Seemed to be overly concerned with “gateway appearances”.

His “ward” stance was somewhat spurious in my view.

Said that businesses are “NOT hamstrung by the number of laws that a city is.” That is simply WRONG!!! That is a BIG part of the problem here. It appears that he does NOT get that Middletown’s “codified ordinances” are longer than the Ohio Revised Code, and that is exactly one of the reasons businesses choose NOT to locate here! A good lawyer should realize that.

Gave concrete examples of items in the regulations that add costs to new businesses and existing business expansion.

Built on Picard’s point about why businesses don’t locate here and gave specific examples of positive actions to be taken.

Made a point that , while he has been at the forefront of promoting high-tech, research, etc., our demographics demand that we bring in many blue collar jobs as well to provide a living for the “54%” of our community that our leaders have stated are living in poverty and are not educated for those high-tech jobs.

Tried to give a complete plan in sound bites throughout his answers. This would have been more effective if he were allowed the time to do it all at once.

Explained his “ward” stance well.

I liked his “bold” closing statement.

General:

Neither Mr. Soppanish nor Mr. Barge come across very well in this type of forum. However, of all the candidates, they are the least experienced at public speaking and we are not trying to elect great orators. (We have Lawrence P. Mulligan, Jr. and Ms. Gilleland, both of whom get paid for that.)

They both do seem to be genuine, honest, “regular guy” type citizens with NO conflicts of interests and good common sense. They both seem to have the good judgment to ask others when items come up outside the areas of their experience or expertise (unlike some of the know-it-alls with which we have been plagued in the past). Perhaps that is what we need at times like this?