County Council Candidates Discuss Experience, Priorities
By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews
WARSAW — Those running in contested races in the May 3 GOP primary for Kosciusko County Council answered a variety of questions on Wednesday, April 27, ahead of next week’s election.
It was the second of the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce’s Candidate forums. Council candidates participating included District 1 incumbent Kim Cates and challenger Todd Davis as well as the three running for the open District 3 position: Tony Ciriello, Scott Clay and Josh Lozano.
The five had a limited amount of time to answer seven questions, with a sampling of their answers below. People may watch the full portion of their questions and answers by clicking here.
One of the questions was: “What skills, abilities, and experiences do you possess that make you the best candidate?”
“I’ve been involved in this community since I was 18 years old,” said Clay. “I serve on the board of directors for the Warsaw Breakfast Optimist Club. I serve on the board for Senior Services and also the CCAC. I review the expense reports, the budgets, the profit loss of these organizations and I help bring new ideas to fundraising.”
“I also serve as an ambassador for the chamber of commerce,” he continued. “I go to as many ribbon-cuttings and after hour events as I can throughout the county and I feel like I have a good insight on what our county needs. I also think that it’s important that we have somebody around my age to represent my age group on the board, someone who understands the new ways of marketing, social media, cybersecurity, cryptocurrency. There are so many new things on the horizon, I think that it’s extremely important that we have somebody younger get on the board and start to learn from the people who we have on the board now, on the council now so that we can continue to carry this torch for Kosciusko County and assure that it is managed the right way into the future.”
“I guess I’ll start with a skill that I don’t possess, and that’s I’m not a politician,” said Davis. “What I will bring though is hard work. One thing that I’ve done throughout my entire life is worked harder than the next person. I started my orthopedic career as a machinist at DePuy and I finished 40 years later as the president and general manager of Zimmer Biomet. You only do that through hard work.”
“I think in that role as president and general manager I bring huge business leadership skills to the county council that are really unparalleled,” he added. “Nobody has run a business the size of mine. I had a $300 million dollar annual budget with 500 employees. The county government is a big business: $60 million dollar annual budget, 450 employees, so again, nobody else has done that in the county council. I think lastly budgeting skills. I set a budget. I kept to the budget. For the last two years we’ve overspent our budget and that’s not sustainable. I’ve paid for my own campaign, and I’ve stuck to that budget.”
“I’ve been involved with government pretty much my entire adult life, from being a police officer on the sheriff’s department to being the police chief at Syracuse to being your currently elected coroner,” said Ciriello. “I’ve had to do budgets: when I was with the sheriff’s department, when I was in the drug task force, I did the budget for that. When I was the police chief at Syracuse, I did the budget for that. As the coroner, I do the budget for that.”
“So I’m familiar with the budgeting process of the county and how it works and how the tax rates are set,” he continued. “I also feel that as an elected official, as the coroner for the last seven years, that I have an obligation to attend the council meetings. So I’ve attended a majority of the council meetings even when I didn’t have business there because I felt I had an obligation to be there during that time and not just when I’m running for office because I got to learn during those meetings that I went to. I usually go to nine or 10 of the 12 a year, and over the last seven years or so, I’ve learned a lot by attending those meetings. So I bring a skill set that’s unique, but experienced, and I look forward to serving.”
“Well, I’ve owned and operated and sold a successful business in addition to my 35 years as a businesswoman, and I am an IRS-credentialed tax advisor with a decade of government budget experience,” said Cates. “I have a track record of being involved in the community beginning 35 years ago when I served on the first day care board. I serve KEDCo on their housing, finance and agribusiness committees. I serve on the Main Street and Beaman Home boards.”
“I also serve on the housing and place-making committees of the Syracuse-Wawasee Chamber of Commerce, so I understand government funding, and I also understand the COVID-related funding which we used to build our communications towers, paying for radios for our first responders and funding LaunchPad and I believe that I am the most qualified person for this job,” she added.
“So I agree with Todd. I’m not a politician either,” said Lozano. “In fact when I think of politician, I think of poly being many, and tick being a blood-sucking insect, and so I think of politicians in the same way. I am definitely not that. I have not served in government my entire adult life, and in some ways, it might be a beneficial thing, but in other ways I’m kind of glad that I haven’t.”
“With that being said, I think that as far as just my experiences I would be coming in fresh as a family man, as a business professional, as somebody that is a continuous improvement expert that understands cutting certain areas within the budget or cutting certain processes within a certain situation while also not sacrificing service,” he continued. “I can do that. I have done that. I do that every single day as part of my profession. I also was a teacher.”
The five also answered the question: “What is your overall opinion on tax abatements and are there any changes to local taxation that you would recommend?”
Ciriello said he’s “not a huge fan of (tax abatements),” but said they could be used under the right circumstances. He noted that the council could choose to grant a company only part of the abatement which it is requesting.
Regarding local taxes, he said he didn’t “want to see our taxes raised or … have to create new taxes.” That includes not creating a public safety income tax.
Cates said like Ciriello she thought abatements could sometimes “be a necessary tool” to help businesses. She added those on the council are “pretty rigid” with what abatements they allow, adding that the council has a handbook they use for evaluating potential ones.
She noted that a wheel tax, which the county has and that was mentioned related to another question earlier Wednesday night, is beneficial because funds taken from each payer go back to fix roads where those drivers live.
Lozano agreed with the other two that tax abatements could be used “on a case-by-case basis.”
Clay noted that tax abatements were phased in, with companies still having to pay some taxes over the life of the abatement. “It’s a great economic development tool,” he said of abatements, adding that not only does the initial business benefit, but also other businesses may be attracted to the area.
He added that the abatements should still be given out on a “case-by-case basis” as the others had said.
Davis said tax abatements were also a good economic tool, noting like Clay that businesses still pay some taxes over the length of their abatement.
He added tools like abatements were necessary as he’s concerned about the area losing orthopedic jobs. He added abatements should be used “judiciously.”
Davis added he didn’t want to make any changes to the county’s tax rate other than looking for ways “to reduce it.”
A third question was: “Do you support a county park board and what are the pros and/or cons of having a park board?”
All five said they supported a county park board as it would encourage further development of recreational activities in the county.