Joseph ready for challenges as council president

Incoming Reynoldsburg City Council president Doug Joseph says he would like to continue open communication with residents and see council become more engaged with issues and the legislative process.

Joseph, a Republican, said after serving on city council for six years, his decision to seek the council presidency was a natural progression. He ran unopposed in the Nov. 8 general election and will begin his term Jan. 3.

Born and raised in DuBois, Pa., Joseph, 45, has lived in central Ohio for 19 years, including the past 10 years in Reynoldsburg.

He received a bachelor’s degree in political science from Liberty University (Lynchburg, Va.) in 1989 and a master’s degree in business administration from Franklin University in 2000.

Joseph has been a self-employed political consultant for the past 11 years. He was first appointed to Reynoldsburg City Council as the Ward 3 representative in 2005 after Eric Gilbert resigned to take a job in Florida.

After serving out the rest of that term, Joseph then ran and won a full term for the same seat in 2007.

As city council president, Joseph said one thing he plans to do is continue to build on the idea of open communication with Reynoldsburg residents, encouraging them to come to meetings and speak their minds on issues, such as they did with the senior center and on whether residents should be allowed to keep backyard chickens.

“While those tend to be contentious issues, it was definitely positive to see that we had citizens in the community willing to come forward to make their positions known on an issue of importance, and I would like to see more of that,” he said.

Joseph said he would also like to see all members of council be more fully engaged in the legislative process.

“We’ve had a lot of turnover on council in the past decade, and with two new council people (Cornelius McGrady and Scott Barrett) coming on, and with the issues becoming more and more complicated and challenging, I think it’s very important to have every member of council engaged as much as possible,” Joseph said.

“I guess what I’d like to do in a general role as council president is I want to be able to work with everyone to make sure they are taking care of the constituents that they serve,” he said.

In the next three months, city council will be discussing how to fill an estimated $1.1-million shortfall in the city’s budget for 2011. Joseph said he thinks any potential solutions should be broad-based.

“I think we should treat all city employees equally, and I think what is fair as we go into contract negotiations (with union employees) next year, what we need to seriously do is sit down with them and say, ‘these are the realities.’

“The citizens voted no on Issue 2,” he said. “They don’t want to make radical changes to labor law and they voted no on a tax increase. What other option do we have?”

Joseph said other options to reduce the $1.1-million shortfall in 2012 must be considered, including asking all city employees to share in cuts.

“If we can’t come to any agreement on that, what we’re probably going to be looking at is layoffs because there’s really no other options,” he said. “We could probably do some transfers and get through 2012 one more time, if the mayor and council decide that’s the direction to go. But since we are coming to the end of a (union) contract in 2012, we need to be serious about saying we don’t want to shortchange the citizens of Reynoldsburg by laying off police officers at a time when, as president Hills has said, we need to be adding them.”

Joseph said continuing to have opportunities to serve the public is the mission, and beyond serving as council president, he cannot tell what his political future holds.

“I’m looking forward to this role, and working with every member of council,” he said. “Bill Hills has been there for 18 years, and him stepping off of council will be a major change for the city, because he’s always been someone who’s brought forward thoughtful commentary and food for thought, basically.

“It’s an important position and important role for whoever serves as council president, so after 18 years, him stepping away is going to radically change the makeup of city council,” he said.