There are seven candidates running for four seats on Upper Arlington City Council.  Pencilstorm asked each of the candidates five specific questions centered around issues that impacted Upper Arlington residents and questions that were being raised by fellow voters.  Pencilstorm will be posting their complete and unedited answers individually throughout September and reposting all their answers together before the election. School Board candidates will appear in October. Answers will be posted in order they're received. Our sixth candidate, Brian Close, is featured below.

Brian Close
www.CloseforUACouncil.com

What makes you qualified to have oversight of the $72 million city budget?
Serving on City Council for the past four years, I have an established track record of listening to our residents, focusing on the issues that matter most, and delivering a balanced budget that addresses those issues year-after-year. Oversight of our city’s budget not only requires that we stay focused on spending our resident’s tax dollars in the right areas, but also making sure we take advantage of the right type of development for our commercial areas in order to broaden our business base and increase revenues so that we can provide the types of services and amenities our residents expect without raising taxes.  It’s hard to overstate the amount of learning (especially about the city budget) that goes on in the first few years of serving on Council and I believe that my experience greatly benefits our residents. In addition, my educational background in finance (B.A. – Economics and Management) and law (J.D. and LL.M – Taxation) together with over fifteen years of experience providing strategic business and tax counsel give me the training and experience needed to understand and negotiate all the variables that go in to our city’s budget.  My firsthand experience and expertise together with my background and training most qualify me to serve on City Council. 

What steps do we need to take so that the new community center is the best it can be for all Upper Arlington citizens?
I was very happy that our residents supported the Community Center at Kingsdale and I am very proud to have been part of the city leadership that helped bring this project together. Fostering dialogue and collaboration are the cornerstones that led to voter approval of the Community Center, but now we must double down on these efforts.  First, we must provide significant outreach to our residents and get them involved in the design process.  A significant factor in approving MSA Sport for the Community Center’s design professional services contract was its community outreach plan.  Second, we must listen to our residents by conducting an extensive, open and transparent resident feedback process to ensure the end result meets and exceeds the expectations of the residents.  Finally, we as a Council need to provide careful oversight of the Community Center’s finances and produce a sound budget for funding the facility’s ongoing operations, programming and maintenance. It is up to us on City Council to ensure the Community Center reflects the values and needs of our community now and for generations to come.

Much work has been done over the past two decades to improve the financial well-being of our city. What are the next steps we need to take for our parks and pools as we continually improve?
As a frequent user of our park systems, this issue is near and dear to me.  I have three young children at Tremont Elementary School and Jones Middle School and I live directly across the street from Northam Park.  From after-dinner walks around the park, to football, softball, lacrosse, and baseball practices and games, we are heavy park users.   Even for those folks who aren’t heavy parks users, I believe investing in our parks is a prudent decision as we make our community attractive to potential homebuyers and businesses.  As an aging city, many of our parks and recreation equipment and infrastructure are ending their serviceable lives and need improvements.  Over my last 4 years on Council, we have focused on upgrading our playground equipment (Westover and Miller Park), updating our pools and related infrastructure (Devon and Reed Road Pools), and providing improved connectivity to our parks (Northam Road multi-use path).  But in order to take our parks and pools to the next level – in addition to the new Community Center – I believe we need to preserve and enhance the neighborhood feel of our existing parks and focus on drainage and turf management issues that continue to plague our parks. 

Central Ohio is the fastest growing area in the state and the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission projects we’ll have 3 million residents by the year 2050. What are two things Upper Arlington needs to do to maintain its position as one of the best places to live in Central Ohio? 
First, we need to keep the city focused on the right type of development for our commercial areas and continue to work on sensible guidelines for our residential areas.  These are not easy issues and they invoke the most passion from our residents.  But a proactive development program that diversifies our business base and increases our tax revenues are necessary to fund the capital improvement projects (such as the Community Center) that will best position Upper Arlington in the future.  Since I took office, we have also continued to update our code to address city-wide and neighborhood specific issues, but we must continue to refine and update our code to help ease the transition for the inevitable updating of our housing stock.  Second, we need to stay focused on repairing, replacing and improving our aging infrastructure, roads and parks.  These, quite literally, are the bedrock of our community.  If we want to maintain our position as one of the best places to live, we need to keep our 10-year CIP updated and financed, and find ways expand the scope of these projects so that the character of our community properties is comparable and consistent with the unique character of our resident’s properties.

Here’s a fun question. We’re all musicians here at Pencilstorm and are excited about the return to live music. What band or performer are you most excited about seeing live again?
Not sure if this is cheating, but my answer is actually a festival: Comfest!  I have been fortunate to catch up with most of my favorite bands over the last year, but the absence of Comfest for the last two years has left a hole in my heart that can’t be filled with one-band shows.  My wife and I (and kids, but only Sunday mornings) love checking out the new local bands and always seem to come away with a new favorite (Doc Robinson being the last).  We are 9 months away from the next potential festival, but unless one of the other 7 Biblical plagues keeps us away, you will see me wondering around people-watching in the heat while being moderately overdressed in a collared shirt.

Pencilstorm would like to thank Brian Close for taking the time to answer our questions.  Learn more about Brian at his website: www.CloseforUACouncil.com. Look for responses from future candidates in the coming days. Pencilstorm is an independent news source and does not endorse any individual candidate.

Local UA Politics coverage provided by Wal Ozello. You can email him at Pencilstormstory@gmail.com or try to catch him at Colin's Coffee. 

 Check out coverage of all the candidates we've received responses from by clicking here.