Latest / Chuck Douglas / Cadidate For Ohio District 7 Bill Mercier

Transcript

Cadidate For Ohio District 7 Bill Mercier · Chuck Douglas

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  Speaker 1: Greetings, salutations, welcome, my friends, to another edition of the
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  Speaker 1: Power Hour on 610 WTVN. I'm Chuck Douglas. You know
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  Speaker 1: who you are, and we take it from there. We
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  Speaker 1: get one hour together, which means I talk really fast,
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  Speaker 1: and you must listen even faster. The number's kind of
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  Speaker 1: meaningless tonight, 821-9886-821-WTVN, because I've got a guest, and he
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  Speaker 1: will be the final guest as we work our way
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  Speaker 1: toward Election Day on Tuesday, November 3rd. I've been, the
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  Speaker 1: last four weeks or so, been trying to bring you
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  Speaker 1: as many candidates as possible, and this is the end
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  Speaker 1: of the road for me, because He's going to have
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  Speaker 1: a Bucks line on Thursday night, programming for the defense
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  Speaker 1: on Friday. And then I've got Pathways Credit Union in
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  Speaker 1: for Money Monday for the first Monday of the month.
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  Speaker 1: So this is the culmination of the last four weeks.
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  Speaker 1: I'm going numerically. Last night, House District 6 was in. Tonight,
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  Speaker 1: it's House District 7. His name is Bill Mercer or
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  Speaker 1: Mercier or William or I don't know. What do you prefer?
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  Speaker 1: What do you like people to call you when they're
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  Speaker 1: talking about you?
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  Speaker 2: We'll go by Bill Mercer, Chuck. All right.
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  Speaker 1: Bill Mercer. He's he's running for the House District seven.
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  Speaker 1: Do you have a political history, Bill? I mean, I
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  Speaker 1: was I was kind of surprised when we were talking about,
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  Speaker 1: you know, what you do for a living and so forth,
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  Speaker 1: because you've got a big brain on you. But but
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  Speaker 1: have you have you sought office anywhere at any time
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  Speaker 1: before this?
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  Speaker 2: No, I haven't. And actually, real quick, I just want
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  Speaker 2: to thank you for having me on the program today.
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  Speaker 2: It's a real pleasure to be a part of your show.
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  Speaker 2: And honestly, it's programs like these that are so important
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  Speaker 2: to help inform people about candidates like me who may
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  Speaker 2: not have a political background and raising awareness around the issue.
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  Speaker 2: So thank you for what you do there. But no,
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  Speaker 2: on my side of it, I have not sought political
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  Speaker 2: office before. I have worked in the legislature back when
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  Speaker 2: I was in college. But this is something that, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I had to sit and think about and think about
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  Speaker 2: with my wife quite a bit before we embarked on
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  Speaker 2: this journey, because these state legislative seats are so critically
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  Speaker 2: important to the future of our community. So, you know,
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  Speaker 2: when we decided to go forward here, you know, this
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  Speaker 2: was a big leap for us, as I said, because
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  Speaker 2: it is my first running as a candidate for public office.
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  Speaker 1: Working inside, you've seen the insanity of the legislature, of
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  Speaker 1: politics in general. Is there an issue? Are there a
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  Speaker 1: couple of issues? What is it that really motivated you
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  Speaker 1: at this point to say, I need to do this?
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  Speaker 1: I need to make this difference?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So, you know, I'm running because, you know,
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  Speaker 2: as someone who grew up in central Ohio, I mean,
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  Speaker 2: I'm a proud Buckeye alum. You know, my wife and
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  Speaker 2: I got married in this community, you know, and we
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  Speaker 2: share its values. You know, I want our community to
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  Speaker 2: get stronger and not just for everyone today. But, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I've just I've got a son who just turned two
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  Speaker 2: and I want his generation to have an even better
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  Speaker 2: childhood than I did. And I want my son to
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  Speaker 2: feel safe and have opportunities to learn and grow and
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  Speaker 2: ultimately become an outstanding citizen who contributes to our society
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  Speaker 2: and is guided by those same values that I think
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  Speaker 2: were instilled in me. So. You know, the reason I'm
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  Speaker 2: running is, I think, to me, fairly straightforward. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: I don't want to just say, you know, it's like
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  Speaker 2: the citizen legislator per se. But, you know, I do
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  Speaker 2: think we, you know, with term limits, we've got a
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  Speaker 2: lot of different movement within the chambers. And we do
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  Speaker 2: need to start getting some people back in, I guess,
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  Speaker 2: to be cliche and just get back to the blocking
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  Speaker 2: and tackling of good state legislating.
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  Speaker 1: What do you see that's right at the top of
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  Speaker 1: the agenda? Do you get elected? You get in there.
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  Speaker 1: You're sworn in. You figure out where the bathrooms are.
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  Speaker 1: It's time to get to work at this point. What
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  Speaker 1: is at the top of the list of things that
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  Speaker 1: Bill Mercer wants to put in front of the legislature
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  Speaker 1: and see if we can get something done?
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  Speaker 2: Certainly. I think one of the biggest things that I
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  Speaker 2: want to get in front of the legislature, I think
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  Speaker 2: there's two issues. One of them is public safety. understanding
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  Speaker 2: that our men and women in the blue uniforms and
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  Speaker 2: our prosecutors should be working to make sure that our
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  Speaker 2: community stays safe. That is, I think, just fundamental building
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  Speaker 2: block of any great community is both the citizens and
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  Speaker 2: the businesses need to feel like they're in an area
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  Speaker 2: that is safe. And if someone is endorsed by the FOP,
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  Speaker 2: I wear that very proudly in this campaign. I can't
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  Speaker 2: stress enough the importance that these issues need to start
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  Speaker 2: coming back to the forefront and need to be addressed
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  Speaker 2: with some vigor. And the second issue that I would,
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  Speaker 2: I really want to kind of, I'm not going to
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  Speaker 2: say I'm going to fix it, but I definitely think
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  Speaker 2: we need to have some conversations around school funding. You know,
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  Speaker 2: in a couple of conversations I've had with people, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I was back in the legislature when they still printed
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  Speaker 2: bills on legal size paper to distribute for the session
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  Speaker 2: and school funding was an issue back then. And I
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  Speaker 2: think what we have to get back to now is
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  Speaker 2: realizing throwing money at education isn't going to solve the problem.
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  Speaker 2: There's a lot of other issues that need to be
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  Speaker 2: done there. But we do need to tackle this funding
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  Speaker 2: issue and just once and for all get to a
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  Speaker 2: system that's going to allow each kid in Ohio to
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  Speaker 2: have a solid education so that they've got a good
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  Speaker 2: future in front of them.
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  Speaker 1: We are at, what, year 24 since the pandemic? State
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  Speaker 1: Supreme Court issued that directive to the legislature, change school funding,
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  Speaker 1: and it's something that keeps getting kicked down the road
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  Speaker 1: and kicked down the road. And now that we have
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  Speaker 1: this property tax conversation going on at all kinds of levels,
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  Speaker 1: those two things really walk hand in hand. So if
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  Speaker 1: that's an agenda item for you, I have a feeling
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  Speaker 1: that will probably be one of the first things that
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  Speaker 1: you get to stand on the floor.
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  Speaker 2: And argue about. Yeah, I think property taxes definitely will.
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  Speaker 2: And that's a tricky issue, Chuck, because, you know, on
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  Speaker 2: one hand, we do have seniors that we want to
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  Speaker 2: protect and we want to make sure they don't have
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  Speaker 2: to give up their home because of the fact that
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  Speaker 2: the property taxes are running away. Secondarily, if we relieve
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  Speaker 2: that tax burden, we then put it on top of
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  Speaker 2: the working families of the community. So that tax burden
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  Speaker 2: will actually increase. So I think we do need to
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  Speaker 2: find a way to help seniors. But we need to
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  Speaker 2: find accountability for where this money is going and how
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  Speaker 2: it's being spent. And that's the biggest thing that I
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  Speaker 2: want to help drive the conversation with that is, first,
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  Speaker 2: are we getting the best bang for the buck with
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  Speaker 2: the money we have? Then build in the relief and
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  Speaker 2: then discuss what these tax brackets need to look like
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  Speaker 2: after that.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you know, and in the world of nonprofits, most especially,
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  Speaker 1: probably the largest, most recognized nonprofit in Central Ohio is
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  Speaker 1: United Way. And they do what they call results-based assessments
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  Speaker 1: of the things that they fund. I don't see any
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  Speaker 1: reason why that kind of philosophy can't be adopted by
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  Speaker 1: the legislature. Because when you're looking at per capita spending,
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  Speaker 1: look at what Upper Arlington schools spend per capita versus
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  Speaker 1: what Columbus City schools spend. Columbus is outspending Upper Arlington,
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  Speaker 1: but the end results are dismal compared to Upper Arlington schools.
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  Speaker 1: So that kind of outcome based funding of the schools,
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  Speaker 1: I think that needs to be brought to the table.
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  Speaker 1: If you cannot do a better job of educating and
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  Speaker 1: graduating good citizens, we're not going to keep increasing your
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  Speaker 1: funding so that we can pad the teacher retirement system
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  Speaker 1: and so forth.
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  Speaker 2: No, you're right on the money there. You know, the
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  Speaker 2: city of Columbus schools, if I'm remembering correctly, are spending
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  Speaker 2: about a third more per pupil than Upper Arlington. And
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  Speaker 2: that is something I think that needs to be evaluated
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  Speaker 2: and there needs to be some accountability there. You know,
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  Speaker 2: another example I use, I believe it is East Cleveland
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  Speaker 2: Schools up in Cuyahoga County. In the current fair school
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  Speaker 2: funding plan, they're actually, I mean, their funding numbers are
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  Speaker 2: built on when that school had 40% more population than
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  Speaker 2: what it does right now. But there's no mechanism to
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  Speaker 2: make that adjustment, you know, in terms of how their
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  Speaker 2: enrollment has gone. So there's a lot of money going
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  Speaker 2: into a district that may or may not need to
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  Speaker 2: go in there. And that's back to the point I
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  Speaker 2: think you're making there. No one's asking these questions right now.
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  Speaker 2: And as important as school funding is, I mean, you know,
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  Speaker 2: in District 7 where I'm running right now, the three
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  Speaker 2: main districts are Columbus, Upper Arlington and Granby schools, and
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  Speaker 2: they're somewhere around 80, 85% locally funded. And I bring
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  Speaker 2: this up because everyone wants more state funding, more state funding.
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  Speaker 2: But you can go down to Vinton County, which Vinton County,
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  Speaker 2: I think, is only 25% locally funded, or Tremble local
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  Speaker 2: schools in Athens County, it's only 15% local funded, because
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  Speaker 2: the property values in the business area or climate just
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  Speaker 2: doesn't support the funding for those schools. So I acknowledge
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  Speaker 2: there's areas in our state that need help and we
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  Speaker 2: need to do what we can to help those areas.
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  Speaker 2: But if we come back, you know, into central Ohio
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  Speaker 2: where local school districts are funded, you know, 80, 85%,
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  Speaker 2: and we're saying there needs to be more money into
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  Speaker 2: the system. We, we need to, we need to ask
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  Speaker 2: where the money's going for right now, before we start
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  Speaker 2: talking about putting more money into the, into some of
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  Speaker 2: these school systems.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. I agree there. You mentioned, uh, The FOP endorsement,
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  Speaker 1: by the way, this is Bill Mercer joining us on
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  Speaker 1: the LegacyRetirementGroup.com phone lines. He's looking for your vote on
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  Speaker 1: Tuesday as the representative of the Ohio House of Representatives,
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  Speaker 1: District 7. What from, at least your understanding, what from
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  Speaker 1: the state level, the statehouse level, can be done about
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  Speaker 1: those problems you talked about earlier as far as law
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  Speaker 1: enforcement and first responders having support? because the municipalities, you know,
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  Speaker 1: largely have control of that situation and aren't doing well
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  Speaker 1: around most of Ohio.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. First, we got to start letting policemen do their
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  Speaker 2: job and not bog these brave men and women down.
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  Speaker 2: with just unnecessary paperwork and various different forms that need
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  Speaker 2: to be filled out. Due process is one of the
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  Speaker 2: most important things that I think is out there. So
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  Speaker 2: don't let that be misconstrued in any way, shape, or form.
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  Speaker 2: Of course, and you talk to the men and women
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  Speaker 2: in blue, probable cause is always central to anything that
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  Speaker 2: they start, and they document so much as it is.
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  Speaker 2: But at the same time, with the amount of effort
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  Speaker 2: that some of these prosecutors are making uh, police departments
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  Speaker 2: go through in order to, to bring someone in and, and, and,
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  Speaker 2: and allow, uh, the judicial process to play through on,
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  Speaker 2: on various crimes. Um, like that relationship's actually kind of
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  Speaker 2: becoming adversarial. And so, A, we need to make sure that,
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  Speaker 2: you know, prosecutors are doing what they are supposed to
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  Speaker 2: be doing, which is prosecuting the law. And I think
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  Speaker 2: there's a lot of, the vast majority of them want
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  Speaker 2: to do that, but there are some actors out there
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  Speaker 2: that kind of feel like they're both legislative and judicial officers.
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  Speaker 2: But secondarily, the police officers of our state need to
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  Speaker 2: have the resources, not just training and equipment, but they
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  Speaker 2: need to have the resources necessary you know, in terms
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  Speaker 2: of both medical and mental health protections for doing such
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  Speaker 2: a dangerous job. They need to know that safety net's
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  Speaker 2: there so that when they're out there protecting our community
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  Speaker 2: and something happens to them, both them and their families
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  Speaker 2: are taken care of and they shouldn't have to lose
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  Speaker 2: a wink of sleep thinking that our communities won't support them,
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  Speaker 2: especially when both the officers and their families are giving
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  Speaker 2: so much.
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  Speaker 1: In speaking to somebody from the left side of the
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  Speaker 1: political fence about a week and a half ago, I
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  Speaker 1: was apparently speaking with a demon tongue or something. As
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  Speaker 1: we were talking about law enforcement, the challenges that they
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  Speaker 1: have and the fact that nobody can go to jail
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  Speaker 1: in this town for anything I think they should go
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  Speaker 1: to jail for. And I said, you know, we keep
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  Speaker 1: coming up with these review committees, people to oversee how
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  Speaker 1: the police use force and how the police adhere to
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  Speaker 1: due process. Why do we not have a civilian judicial
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  Speaker 1: review board in Franklin County for judges that continually release
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  Speaker 1: bad guys onto the street? And, you know, just a
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  Speaker 1: few days ago, here's the announcement. Guy runs from the police,
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  Speaker 1: 130 miles an hour, crashes into somebody's house. He gets
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  Speaker 1: community control. No jail time. And I saw nothing in
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  Speaker 1: the news coverage about him reimbursing or paying for the
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  Speaker 1: damage done for the house he drove into. And that's
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  Speaker 1: that is maddening. And I have to wonder, why are
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  Speaker 1: we not setting up a citizens committee to start pulling
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  Speaker 1: the plug on some of these judges that make the
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  Speaker 1: job of the police officers so much more difficult?
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's a good thing to talk about there, Chuck.
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  Speaker 2: But we also, we do have, as both citizens in
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  Speaker 2: our community and the state legislature, we have vehicles that
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  Speaker 2: we can use to try to make some of these corrections.
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  Speaker 2: You know, you bring up a really good point because,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we've had so many cases in the news
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  Speaker 2: over the past, you know, five, six, seven years, you know,
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  Speaker 2: where a police officer may, you know, was in a
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  Speaker 2: very tough position to make a call in a very
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  Speaker 2: short amount of time. And We then try that officer
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  Speaker 2: in public in hindsight and pick apart every single move
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  Speaker 2: that he does. And then in some instances now, these
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  Speaker 2: police officers are now facing scrutiny and perhaps losing their
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  Speaker 2: jobs because of one particular issue or decision. But somehow
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  Speaker 2: or another, prosecutors aren't liable for fraud. Criminals, they're putting
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  Speaker 2: back on the streets or judges are the same thing.
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  Speaker 2: The judges, you know, I think we have to look
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  Speaker 2: at the prosecutor's office first to be real candid with
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  Speaker 2: you before we start looking at judges, because prosecutors make
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  Speaker 2: a lot of decisions on whether or not to bring
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  Speaker 2: charges to court. So we have to make sure these
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  Speaker 2: people who commit heinous crimes are these cases are getting
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  Speaker 2: before the judge without any type of prejudice. and that
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  Speaker 2: the officers and that the citizens who are victims here
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  Speaker 2: are getting their chance in court to make their case
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  Speaker 2: before a judge to make sure that justice is fought.
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  Speaker 2: You know, one of the things that I've talked to
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  Speaker 2: a lot of people in the short and awkward is
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  Speaker 2: they do feel, you know, the lack of presence with
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  Speaker 2: policemen down there. And the only, you know, City of
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  Speaker 2: Columbus's response at that initial point was just to put
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  Speaker 2: more cameras down there. And so we've been talking to
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  Speaker 2: people where cameras can't un-rob you. They can't un-assault you.
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  Speaker 2: they can't un-murder you. And as obvious as that sounds,
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  Speaker 2: we need to put policemen on the street. We need
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  Speaker 2: to have them out there with the confidence that we
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  Speaker 2: have their back, that when they apprehend these individuals and
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  Speaker 2: they book them and bring them into court, that these
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  Speaker 2: citizens are going to be protected by the court and
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  Speaker 2: that these perpetrators are going to be tried and appropriately punished.
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  Speaker 1: Bill Mercer is running for the Ohio House of Representatives
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  Speaker 1: District 17.