The Carla Fiehrer file
Occupation: Office manager
Age: 58
Residence: Hamilton's West Side
Previous political experience: Vice Mayor for two years, city council for six years
Website: www.citizensforfiehrer.com
COMPLETE, BALANCED COVERAGE
Carla Fiehrer is the first of two interviews conducted by the Journal-News of the candidates seeking your vote on Nov. 5 to be Hamilton's mayor. An interview with candidate Pat Moeller was published in Tuesday's Journal-News.
Vice Mayor Carla Fiehrer said communication with citizens is a key to success, including in economic development.
One of two candidates to be the city’s mayor, Fiehrer said growth by having businesses expand and move into the city is done with economic development and having a partnership with citizens.
Q: There's been a great deal of focus on the city working to move forward the South Hamilton Crossing and East High Street Gateway projects. Talk about the importance of these projects and why the city is actively involved?
A: "One of the first things the city manager did when he came in was to talk to some of our larger businesses, and he talked about how we can improve businesses coming to town. One of the things he first pointed out was when you're coming down Ohio 129, everything is attractive and when you cross over Ohio 4 it's not an appealing site at all. And it's also very difficult to get through with the flow of the traffic. He approached us all and said this is an area we need to improve. Everything we do any more is about economic development and bringing new businesses to down, and that's going to enhance it and make it much more efficient for cars to get through.
“It’s almost the same way with South Hamilton Crossing where a lot of times we had businesses come to down, once they got in town they would say, “this is great, but it takes twice as long to get through town as it does to get to (Interstate) 75. We can’t move ourselves closer to the interstate so in creating South Hamilton Crossing, that’s going to open up 100 acres of new land that we can bring new business to, and it’s going to help Vora Technology, Miami University and Matandy Steel and all the businesses over on that side.
“They’re both huge economic development tools for us and it will improve the appearance as well as the flow of traffic.”
Q: The city has been working on economic efforts to develop its downtown area and South Hamilton Crossing/East High Street projects, what other parts of the city need this types of attention to help revitalize those areas?
A: "One of the things that we are looking at, if you go down to the other end of Main Street after you cross over the bridge to where Millville Avenue and Main Street, that's another highly congested area we're looking at to make traffic flow easier.
Q: There have been companies that left the area, including for neighboring communities like Fairfield. What has the city done to encourage business retention and growth, and how do you think it should bolster that?
A: "One of the things we've done is we beefed up our economic develop department. Four years ago they did away with the department altogether, which probably we shouldn't have done because you're always going to need economic development. Just like with the improvements we're doing with the South Hamilton Crossing, East High corridor and Main Street, economic development is huge."
Q: There have been recent cuts in public safety, that have not been received well by the public. How do you restore confidence in the city's ability to safeguard its citizens and businesses?
A: "I'm afraid this is just one of those things that is going to take time to restore. We're going through changes in everything that we do and no one likes the direction that we've had to take. And I do believe it's a situation that we're going to do our very best to maintain the level of safety that we have in town, in cour community, and it's going to be the passage of time to be able to prove ourselves that we can do this and it is important to us."
Q: The city has been involved in partnerships in the past, whether that's to organizations like the chamber or the school district. The city of Middletown has partnered with its city school district to share offices. What partnerships does the city currently have, and how can you grow them to the point of saving tax dollars?
A: "I think we've already done it with the dispatch and working with the county, aligning with them. One of the most logical partnerships should be with the county. The whole point of the Government Service Center was to have one-stop shop and combined services, and to make it more convenient for citizens.
“The other partnerships I believe the city manager is already working on, in talking with the larger businesses in town and asking them, ‘What can we do to help make your business stronger? What can we bring to you?’
“I think that we’ve established several partnerships, Fort Hamilton Hospital, Community First Solutions we have worked with them, we are working with the schools.
“I think now that we have the strategic plan in place, I think there’s a lot of people that understand what our goal is and the direction that we’re going. So now that we have this strategic plan, businesses to Vision 2020 to community organizations, there’s a lot of people that want to be a part of that strategic plan and know how they can fit into the plan — and how they can fit the plan into their own agencies.”
Q: Because of the Great Recession and near collapse of the national economy, hundreds of jobs have left the city of Hamilton. How has the city helped to recoup some of those jobs, and how would you bring more jobs to the city?
A: Our economic development department, that's what's recruiting it. This is what they do for a living, they know the ins and outs of economic development. I think what we can do as a council is to make sure if we hear any kinds of concerns as a council that we're bringing it to the attention of the economic development department so they can address it immediately. I think a big part of our retention is we have to got to make sure we emphaizie to our citizens to patronize these businesses, to encourage people to patronize all of our local businesses. Because if they're not supporting them, you can have the greatest restaurant or store in town, but if it's not being patronized by the citizen it's not going to succeed.
Q: How informed is the public in your opinion, and how, if needed, can you improve how the public is educated on various topics/discussions of the city?
A: "I obviously think that citizens can be much better informed. I think that it would be key for to work in the school systems and partner with them to get the information out. If you get the two entities that touch the most lives of citizens … I think that would be a huge benefit if we could be working together.
“I think it would be another huge benefit for the city, with the schools, Fort Hamilton Hospital, with some of the larger businesses, if they can have a link to the city web page and they can include what’s going on in the city.
“Right now a PR person for the city of Hamilton really is a luxury. But in a way you have seven PR people in council members. I think it would be good for council members to go to PTO meetings, or to go to different organizational meetings and just be present at those meetings or asked to be put on agendas so that we can have a face to face discussion with citizens as to what’s going on. And citizens can recognize the council members and come up to them and ask questions and get accurate information. One of our biggest problems, maybe even bigger than not getting information, is all the misinformation out there. We’ve got to get the right information out there. Now’s the time we’ve got to include the citizens in what we’re doing. I think Hamilton’s elected leadership needs to recognoze that the people that live here and invest here is what will make us strong; they are our foundation.”
Q: Hamilton had been known as an industrial city and the county seat. It's home to a hospital and a healthy arts community. It's a hodgepodge of items. But what is the city known for now, and what should be the city know for? What can the city be known for?
A: "I would point out that we are the county seat, so we have that to our advantage so the hub of a lot of the governmental agenices are right here. We are turning into an arts community … and that's a part of what's going to be what's draw people to us right now. Another thing we are known for is education, with having Miami Unviersity, and the way the Hamilton campus is growing, I think we can talk about the educational compentnt of our town."
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