Latest / Chuck Douglas / Candidate For District 10 Mark Sigrist

Transcript

Candidate For District 10 Mark Sigrist · 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 WTV. And I'm Chuck Douglas. You
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Speaker 1: know who you are, and we take it from there.
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Speaker 1: We get one hour together, so I talk really fast,
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Speaker 1: and you must listen even faster. My number, 821-9886, 821-WTV,
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Speaker 1: and 1-800-610-WTV. And the man behind the glass is always
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Speaker 1: Zach Attack, who will not, absolutely will not be playing
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Speaker 1: any Celine Dion bumper music this hour. I want you
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Speaker 1: to know that. It will happen no longer, because I
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Speaker 1: know where he lives. In the studio... I've got to
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Speaker 1: guess because what do we got? Is it 13 days?
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Speaker 1: Are we 13 days till election? My gosh, it's going
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Speaker 1: quick and not quick enough, if you know what I mean.
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Speaker 1: But we have had a veritable parade of candidates and
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Speaker 1: issue people through here so far this year. And tonight
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Speaker 1: is no different. I've got Mark Sigrist, who is he
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Speaker 1: is the incumbent Ohio House District 10. And you've been
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Speaker 1: there for how long?
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Speaker 2: I just this is the end of my first session.
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Speaker 1: This is your first?
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Speaker 2: So 22 months. 22 months.
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Speaker 1: Do you feel good about it? Are you done learning
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Speaker 1: where the bathrooms are and getting yourself acclimated? Do you
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Speaker 1: feel like a productive member of the legislature and everything's
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Speaker 1: nice and routine for you now?
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Speaker 2: Yes, I feel somewhat acclimated, yes.
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Speaker 1: Okay. I know it takes a while. I mean, it's
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Speaker 1: a whole new world the first time you get elected.
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Speaker 1: You don't know what's what and who's who and where
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Speaker 1: to sit and all that kind of stuff. And it
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Speaker 1: takes a while in that first term to get yourself together.
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Speaker 1: Once you were acclimated, you started doing things, hopefully making
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Speaker 1: things happen. What do you consider this first term? Where
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Speaker 1: do you hang your hat? I did this, man. I'm
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Speaker 1: really proud of it.
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Speaker 3: I think the thing I'm most proud about is we
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Speaker 3: have 13 bills in the queue. And by that, I
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Speaker 3: mean they're in session, they're going through the process, and
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Speaker 3: we're looking forward to a busy lame duck session to
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Speaker 3: try to finalize a lot of these bills. Of the 13,
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Speaker 3: seven of them are with GOP members, Republican members, and
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Speaker 3: I really am excited about that because I think we
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Speaker 3: have a good shot and, um, it's just good teammates
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Speaker 3: to work with.
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Speaker 2: And, um, just trying to do right by Ohio.
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Speaker 1: We, uh, we spent what, almost an hour, I guess,
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Speaker 1: on the phone the other day, just kind of a pre-interview,
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Speaker 1: get to know each other. Uh, you and I, I,
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Speaker 1: there's not a lot of battleground stuff. Uh, we seem
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Speaker 1: to have the, even if we disagree on, you know,
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Speaker 1: on specifics, we've got the same overall philosophy. And, uh,
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Speaker 1: and plus you have a connection to my beloved West side,
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Speaker 1: which doesn't hurt. Um, I love the bipartisan stuff, which is,
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Speaker 1: as we were talking about the other day, that's how
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Speaker 1: and why we were formed as a country. That is
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Speaker 1: how it's supposed to work. You sit down in a
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Speaker 1: room and you bang on the table and you argue
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Speaker 1: about things until you reach a compromise that works as
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Speaker 1: best as possible for all involved. And it's kind of
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Speaker 1: a forgotten art. So you are a little old school
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Speaker 1: when it comes to the way you do things.
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Speaker 2: Well, I appreciate that.
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Speaker 3: And, you know, a long career at Honda, there was
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Speaker 3: a lot of consensus building, two cultures you can imagine,
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Speaker 3: and trying to get things done across a wide amount
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Speaker 3: of activities.
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Speaker 2: And in the Statehouse, it's not that much different.
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Speaker 3: And once you kind of know where your Republican colleagues
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Speaker 3: can go or not go on an issue, it's just
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Speaker 3: easier to kind of get to the end game that
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Speaker 3: you're trying to do. And there's certainly a lot of
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Speaker 3: good people in this space on both sides. And I
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Speaker 3: I truly was surprised about that because I didn't think
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Speaker 3: it'd be just that easy to get along with people
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Speaker 3: and identify good things for Ohio and say, do you
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Speaker 3: want to do this with me? And basically the answers
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Speaker 3: were often, yeah, let's do it. And it was so
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Speaker 3: exciting to have joint sponsorship on some really good issues
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Speaker 3: like property tax issues or issues helping hire veterans and
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Speaker 3: giving credits to business owners or not allowing drones flying over.
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Speaker 2: Schools and daycares.
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Speaker 3: These are kind of, I like to call them motherhood
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Speaker 3: and apple pie kind of things that we should say, yeah,
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Speaker 3: These are good things to do. And, yeah, and I
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Speaker 3: have a business background, so I'm kind of pragmatic and
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Speaker 3: know how to approach the problem solving and stuff like that.
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Speaker 3: So it's really– I'm really grateful just to have a
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Speaker 3: chance to work with good people in the statehouse on
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Speaker 3: both sides.
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Speaker 1: One of those active resolutions you've introduced is– this is
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Speaker 1: another one of those common sense things that honestly until
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Speaker 1: I started reading up on you, I hadn't even thought about.
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Speaker 1: But local police or law enforcement organizations– Participating in investigations
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Speaker 1: every day. It seems like we've got another news story.
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Speaker 1: Ohio BCI has taken over and the local law enforcement
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Speaker 1: is completely left out of the loop. They have no influence.
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Speaker 1: They can't. I mean, it's them on the line. It's
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Speaker 1: their reputation, their department on the line. And yet they're
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Speaker 1: not involved. Am I understanding what you're trying to do
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Speaker 1: here is to make sure that we do have a
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Speaker 1: level of involvement on that local level? Absolutely.
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Speaker 3: You know, you get any layer of government coming to
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Speaker 3: work in your city and you are not even aware
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Speaker 3: of what they're doing. I mean, I sat down and
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Speaker 3: had coffee with Brian Steele about this very bill before
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Speaker 3: I even put it down. And I said, Brian, you know,
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Speaker 3: I'm hearing from our police in Grove City and my
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Speaker 3: brothers and sisters are all law enforcement. I'm like, if
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Speaker 3: you come in and and start to erode the trust
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Speaker 3: in our city that we've built up because of your activities.
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Speaker 2: Or hurt our property, hurt our people.
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Speaker 3: We've got to be involved in when we start to
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Speaker 3: hear the complaints, we can't be shut out of the
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Speaker 3: very people we're trying to protect. We can't be shut
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Speaker 3: out of what went down because often we didn't know
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Speaker 3: what went down.
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Speaker 2: So it's just, it's all about trust, right?
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Speaker 3: I mean, the whole society and the whole importance of
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Speaker 3: the blue protecting us is, is just trust. And if you,
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Speaker 3: if some other entity comes and violates that trust, you're
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Speaker 3: left holding the kind of like association with it.
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Speaker 2: And it's just not good.
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Speaker 1: You know?
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Speaker 3: Yeah.
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Speaker 1: That, that, and that's one of those things where I
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Speaker 1: said just before, we, we actually agree on there's, there's no,
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Speaker 1: I don't see any reason to push back. It's a
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Speaker 1: common sense piece of work here.
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Speaker 2: Thank you.
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Speaker 1: The opposite extreme. And I, this is one of those
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Speaker 1: ones where I don't think you and I would ever
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Speaker 1: agree that house bill two 49. That is a refreshment. That,
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Speaker 1: that is the, the performative neutrality. Um, I was reading
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Speaker 1: about this, and Representative Segrist rejects House Bill 249, calls
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Speaker 1: out performative neutrality in a controversial bill. Basically, it's a
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Speaker 1: drag show bill. And if I'm understanding again what I read,
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Speaker 1: because I never know anymore, the restrictions that are attempted
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Speaker 1: here to make sure that these shows are not in–
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Speaker 1: you know, the public library, the, in front of kids
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Speaker 1: and school, things like that to make sure that they
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Speaker 1: are in adult only situations. I guess you, you were
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Speaker 1: not necessarily in favor of that. You think that there
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Speaker 1: should be some more flexibility, I guess, in where those
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Speaker 1: shows can be performed. Am I understanding it correctly?
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Speaker 3: Yeah. I, I'm a little cold on it right now of,
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Speaker 3: of the, where I was on this. I, I, I
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Speaker 3: guess basically I would just say that I feel just.
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Speaker 2: Kind of, again, a little bit off the cuff. I
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Speaker 2: feel that.
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Speaker 3: There's gotta be adult responsibility on both sides. I think
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Speaker 3: of people where you're hosting these things as well as
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Speaker 3: people perhaps with your children or people under age where
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Speaker 3: you're going or what you expect to see or not
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Speaker 3: to see. And I don't think this should be in
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Speaker 3: your face and kind of a, public setting, but I
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Speaker 3: also think that certain people, they like to do this
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Speaker 3: as kind of like a cabaret type thing, and I'm
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Speaker 3: not sure where the line is necessarily, but it felt
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Speaker 3: like a little overreach, and so I voted against it.
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Speaker 2: Okay.
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Speaker 1: I didn't want to— I mean, it's on your page on
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Speaker 1: the legislature's thing. I didn't want to surprise you with anything.
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Speaker 1: I didn't mean to feel like you're—or want you to
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Speaker 1: feel like I'm sneaking up on you. Oh, no, you're good.
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Speaker 2: It's all good. It's all good.
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Speaker 3: I mean, I am— I mean, just if you want
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Speaker 3: where my values are, you know, generally I am someone
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Speaker 3: that's always kind of watched out for what I call
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Speaker 3: underdogs or people that I feel are not always given
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Speaker 3: a fair shake. And I have gay people in my family.
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Speaker 3: And I just think that sometimes there's just kind of
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Speaker 3: a non-tolerance for things that I think are, you know,
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Speaker 3: borderline or maybe it's okay or not. I certainly don't
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Speaker 3: support public indecency or anything vulgar. anything flagrantly vulgar in
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Speaker 3: front of children and stuff like that especially. But sometimes
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Speaker 3: I just feel like there's a lot of just– I
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Speaker 3: don't know. It's almost like marginalizing of these communities that
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Speaker 3: I'm a little sensitive to. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: Again, when you and I talked the other day, I
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Speaker 1: felt like, okay, this is kind of a mom and
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Speaker 1: apple pie type of guy. So when I was reading
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Speaker 1: over these, I'm like I'm kind of surprised there. I
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Speaker 1: went to a drag show myself years ago. I had
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Speaker 1: a friend of mine who goes, You got to come
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Speaker 1: see me work tonight. And he was in a drag show.
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Speaker 1: He was Tina Turner, and he was a better Tina
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Speaker 1: Turner than Tina Turner. It was awesome. But it was
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Speaker 1: in an adult place where, you know, there were no
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Speaker 1: kids involved. And I think 249 largely might have been
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Speaker 1: inspired by things like Fairfield County was going through last
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Speaker 1: year with, you know, Town Square and kids gathered around and,
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Speaker 1: you know, Lancaster was– on fire with the argument about
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Speaker 1: what was going on down there.
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Speaker 2: Yeah.
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Speaker 1: That kind of thing I can get. It's out in
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Speaker 1: the open in public and the little kids are watching
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Speaker 1: the guys. Yeah. That's iffy for me.
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Speaker 2: No, I'm hearing. And I'm not, uh, yeah, I'm not
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Speaker 2: saying one way or the other.
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Speaker 3: I'm just saying that, uh, maybe on this one, I
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Speaker 3: felt it was just a little too restrictive, but, um, that's.
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Speaker 1: Kind of that. Okay. But a little, a little too
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Speaker 1: restrictive is that I won't do it. And that's, that's
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Speaker 1: what I'm talking about. That's where, You talk things out.
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Speaker 1: You work things out. Who knows? You revisit in the future.
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Speaker 1: Maybe there's a compromise thing that makes everybody happy.
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Speaker 2: Right, right.
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Speaker 1: So tell me right now, I mean, in this stage
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Speaker 1: of the campaign, definitely. to the last couple of weeks here,
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Speaker 1: what have you done most of? Are you a lot
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Speaker 1: of door knocking? Are you doing a lot of events?
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Speaker 1: How are you getting in touch with your voters?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm for sure door knocking. I mean, I think
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Speaker 2: it's really where you learn.
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Speaker 3: You learn a lot about where people's mindsets are. You know,
10:16
Speaker 3: we I try to go in the hours where people
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Speaker 3: are home. A lot of times people knock at like
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Speaker 3: 8 or 9 in the morning and I'm like– I.
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Speaker 1: Don't want to do that. Or during a Buckeye game.
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Speaker 1: Don't ever knock on my door during a Buckeye game.
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Speaker 1: You're going to lose votes there, right?
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Speaker 2: You're going to lose some votes. But no, for real.
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Speaker 3: I mean I really like to just hear where people
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Speaker 3: are at and especially– it's interesting.
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Speaker 2: The closer you get to.
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Speaker 3: The election, the more engaged they are and that's always
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Speaker 3: exciting because you're out there in June or July and
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Speaker 3: people are like, what are you doing here?
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Speaker 2: When is the election? It's like, what are you doing, man?
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Speaker 1: Like, no, no.
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Speaker 2: You don't realize I got so many hours to go to.
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Speaker 1: You know?
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Speaker 2: Stuff like that. But we're close to the election.
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Speaker 3: People are engaged, and especially Grove City right now, there's
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Speaker 3: some hot topics that people want to know about at
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Speaker 3: the local level. And it's a very engaged community right now.
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Speaker 2: So that's exciting.
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Speaker 3: And you can offer clarity, at least try to be
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Speaker 3: a neutral voice of clarity of pros and cons over
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Speaker 3: the different issues. And people aren't necessarily talking about candidates
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Speaker 3: in our town right now.
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Speaker 2: They're talking about a school levy.
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Speaker 3: They're talking about a citizen's referendum on data centers. And yeah,
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Speaker 3: and then sometimes they're asking about property taxes and stuff
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Speaker 3: like that. But but yeah, so that's really important because
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Speaker 3: I was a council member there. And so it's easy.
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Speaker 3: It's easy to know how the workings of the city,
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Speaker 3: the city budget, why things are the way they are.
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Speaker 3: And many of the issues they're asking about, honestly, are
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Speaker 3: really local and they're not necessarily state. You know, I
11:39
Speaker 3: think there's some statistic out there that only two percent
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Speaker 3: of the people in your area know who.
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Speaker 2: Their state rep is. And I think that's really true.
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Speaker 2: I think that's really true.
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Speaker 3: And, you know, and if I can make a little
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Speaker 3: statement here, you know, when I first got elected, I
11:51
Speaker 3: was so fortunate and grateful for Dave Dovis, Rep. Dave Dovis,
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Speaker 3: who I was taking his seat. He met with me
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Speaker 3: over Christmas and he said, Mark, don't, you're going to
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Speaker 3: get elected. Don't think you're too important. Just, I know
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Speaker 3: it's cool. It's going to be cool to be elected,
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Speaker 3: but just be yourself and be an approachable guy because
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Speaker 3: people just want that. They want that from their public
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Speaker 3: office and And he's so right, and I was so grateful.
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Speaker 3: He's a really good guy, West High grad.
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Speaker 1: West High school graduate and, yeah, another part of my
12:19
Speaker 1: beloved West Side.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's just enjoyable to meet people, all kinds
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Speaker 3: of different people and stuff like that.
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Speaker 1: And, you know, it's all about people ultimately, even though,
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Speaker 1: you know, Grove City has this moratorium on data centers
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Speaker 1: right now. Whatever happens at that level is going to
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Speaker 1: need either support or shot down at the state level next.
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Speaker 1: It's not– You're not going to be able to see
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Speaker 1: these– by the time this washes out, municipalities are not
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Speaker 1: going to be in complete control of what happens with
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Speaker 1: this data center growth. So government at all levels right now,
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Speaker 1: it's essential that those paths are built between each level
12:58
Speaker 1: because they're all going to need each other to make
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Speaker 1: whatever happens happen.
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Speaker 3: Oh, 100 percent. And it's that classic thing in life.
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Speaker 3: We don't know what we don't know right now. And
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Speaker 3: even at the state level, we– I think we've left,
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Speaker 3: in my opinion, we– we've left cities and townships unprepared.
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Speaker 2: And so we're unprepared.
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Speaker 3: We voted for a data study task commission, you know,
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Speaker 3: or a data study task force. And we're not done
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Speaker 3: with that work. And to put some kind of structure
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Speaker 3: around this topic, we've got a lot more work to do.
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Speaker 3: We have some of our brightest people on both the
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Speaker 3: Republican and Democratic side on that committee.
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Speaker 2: And we're not done.
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Speaker 3: And I think it's just because it's such a vast
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Speaker 3: topic that there's like no kind of clear you know,
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Speaker 3: kind of finite understanding of where we're going or what,
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Speaker 3: you know, what the demand.
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Speaker 2: Is, what the supply is.
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Speaker 3: But bottom line is, I think the town of Grove
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Speaker 3: City got in what it's in because we didn't have
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Speaker 3: much structure available.
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Speaker 2: We don't have judgment.
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Speaker 3: Criteria or evaluation criteria, technical, financial, societal criteria that we
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Speaker 3: can say, this is kind of a good way to
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Speaker 3: gauge whether this is going to be a good deal
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Speaker 3: for you or not.
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Speaker 2: And we don't have that. And that's probably true across
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Speaker 2: the country.
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Speaker 1: Coming into a break here. Yeah, this whole data center thing, though,
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Speaker 1: there will be no productive conversation about data centers until
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Speaker 1: we get through the election, period. It is that and
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Speaker 1: property taxes are the elephant in the room, as they say.
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Speaker 1: And at one point, every Democrat was like, yeah, data centers.
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Speaker 1: And the Republicans were saying, no, we don't need it.
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Speaker 1: And now it's reversed and data centers are evil. Whatever
14:28
Speaker 1: makes for a good commercial copy to get your vote
14:30
Speaker 1: is what it comes down to. Until this election is over,
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Speaker 1: we can't have any real conversation. So, but. 13 days.
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Speaker 1: Just get through the next 13 days.