Candidate Emmanuel Remy

Tim Fulton 00:07Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Confluence Cast, presented by Columbus Underground. We are a weekly Columbus-centric podcast focusing on the civics, lifestyle, entertainment, and people of our city. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. This week, in anticipation of this fall's election, the Confluence Cast is endeavoring to introduce Columbus voters to the 12 council and two mayoral candidates in their own words. Today, Emmanuel Remy, incumbent and candidate for Columbus City Council District Four, discusses his work as a neighborhood advocate, the importance of a diverse council, and the appointment process that has defined council for so long. You can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Enjoy the interview. Sitting down here with Columbus city councilman Emmanuel Remy. How are you, sir?

Emmanuel Remy 01:04Great. How are you today?

Tim Fulton 01:05I'm doing well, I'm doing well. You are currently a candidate for the newly formed Columbus City Council District Four. First of all, tell us about yourself and what brings you to your candidacy?

Emmanuel Remy 01:17Absolutely. I had the distinct pleasure of leading in the Northland area since roughly around 2010. My lady got me involved with my neighborhood association—"By the way, you need to go to Northland"—and next thing you know, I raised my hand and became president. It was great. It was about 16% of the city at that time; it was about 130,000 people. Now it's grown exponentially, one of the fastest-growing parts of the community because of the type of housing stock and the affordability in the area. But once upon a time, I had a pastor that sat in the crowd and said, "Hey, you've got to go for the seat on council. You run a great meeting, you are very level-set, you know, level-minded." And so I said, "That's not a bad idea." Because politics wasn't my thing—it was community advocacy, being the champion of a neighborhood, and building coalitions. Because I felt like if I worked with the Clintonville Area Commission, or the Northland Area Commission, or any surrounding commission, we could do more with the people down at city hall. So I went ahead and applied. And I thought, while I was on the Board of Realtors at the time—the board of directors of the Realtors—I thought, well, I've got this type of support, that should be enough. Well, I didn't realize the extent of what it meant to really have a coalition behind you, and that sort of thing. So I took the opportunity to build. I didn't get it that time. That was okay. Here's what happened: Hearcel Craig was elected into the Statehouse, and so that was the seat that I was going for—Zach Klein I think ended up getting it. And so I continued the work, because I thought this would be kind of a great extension of what I was doing in Northland. So I went out, and if you told me to go meet with so-and-so, I went and met with them, and they told me to go meet with someone else, and I just continued to do it. It was an investment, to ultimately, hopefully get the role, but had it not happened, I kept saying to myself, "Listen, you met most of the people that make a difference in this community, so it's not for naught. It's not a bad thing." So then, again, in 2016—that was when Eileen Paley got elected a judge—I was having lunch with Stinziano, and he said, "By the way, do you know that Mitch Brown"—that's his name—and I was like, "Well, I'm pretty much guaranteed I'm not gonna get it this time." And so finally, when Zach Klein was elected City Attorney, I was like, "This is it, because if I don't get it this time, I gotta go back and sell houses—my wife's gonna kill me." So I'm a realtor, by the way. So fortunately, my colleagues selected me, and it's been just a great journey so far, the opportunity to work and be a neighborhood advocate. I feel like most people have seen me in their neighborhood over and over and over again, and that's just what I enjoy doing. And so I definitely look at it from a different lens than some of my colleagues, and that's the beauty of our body—everybody brings a different perspective, and I think that collaboratively we get the whole picture.

Tim Fulton 04:36Okay. A little bit about your general bio: you're from Worthington, you did college up in Michigan, you're a realtor by trade. Anything I'm missing?

Emmanuel Remy 04:49I would point out that we lived in Columbus, just went to Worthington schools. So part of the community raised by a single mother—couldn't afford a big house in Worthington, but lived up at Worthington Woods, in Worthington, Galena, and a rental that we had up there was a townhome. So that was my journey. And then up to Michigan, like I said. And then when I met my wife in 2010—or 2000, excuse me—we decided eventually to come back to Columbus and make Columbus our home.

Tim Fulton 05:17Gotta talk me through some of the issues you think Columbus is facing, and how you do and how you will deal with that on council.

Emmanuel Remy 05:27I think, first and foremost, rapid growth creates great opportunity. However, it also causes pains, and those are things that elected leaders really have to grapple with, and making sure that there's space for all of us to thrive in this community. That's where the opportunity is—to try to capitalize on this growth and the opportunities that it can bring, but we've got to make sure that if you're working here, no matter what type of job it is, you have the opportunity to live here, raise your family, and be in this community. So those are the challenges. I am the public safety chair. And so my mind is constantly thinking about this concept of safety. It's a feeling, right? People deserve the right to feel safe in their neighborhood. And so that is something that I'm constantly thinking about. And it's not something, unfortunately, with society today, that we're going to police our way out of. It is not something that government can do everything to solve. It's really a collaborative effort of getting together with faith leaders, area leaders, neighbors, grandparents, grandchildren—it's everybody coming together and saying, "Look, we're not going to tolerate this in our community anymore. Enough is enough."

Tim Fulton 06:54Okay. The districting system—how do you feel about it? And forgive me, this is a bit of a curveball, but I think you're a really good example to sort of point out that most folks who are on council were appointed rather than elected, and then they ran for re-election. You went through that process a couple of times, or at least maybe considered it the second time and then ended up being appointed. Talk through the new districting system, maybe through that lens, and be as frank as you can about it. Like, how do you feel about the new districting system? Is it good? And also the—I don't want to put too much on it, but it sort of feels like the construction of what a council is.

Emmanuel Remy 07:49So there's a lot there. So, we'll unpack it a little bit. It's a very unique system, as we're well aware. I used that argument when I was trying to get on the council. Hadn't had anybody from the Northland area in decades. And I tried to suggest that it made sense to have somebody from that part of the community. Because—and I use this argument, and it stands true today with this new district—when somebody's on council, at the time, I remember sitting in the interview, and a council member said, "It doesn't matter. We could all live in the same building or the same neighborhood, and it doesn't matter." I said, "Yeah, but when you live in a neighborhood, you know where the potholes are, you know where that sign's broken. You are very intimate with your own community." I am a little better than most, I would argue—at the time, at least—I was a realtor that sold in every stretch of the city, every street you can imagine. I did BPOs, which are broker price opinions, just many appraisals at the time, during 2010, 2011, 2012. I did thousands of them. So I was on every street. I met Lisa Boggs—in fact, if you're familiar, on the Hilltop, who's a great advocate for cleanups in the community—I met her handing out flyers while I was doing a foreclosed listing up there on Ogden, which is the street that she lives on. So I had a great familiarity with every street in the community. But not everybody does that. We're taught as realtors that you never go the same way twice. You go one way and drive back the other way. It makes sense—you want to get to be familiar with the community. And so when we think about this districting, I think it does provide a better lens, when you think about it. But our residents don't lose the advocacy. I remember sitting in 2017, not on council, sitting through the discussions in the community—and we were in Linden, and these two ladies from Linden said, "I don't want to go hybrid or district. I like seven people I can call to bug about whatever issue it is." And of course we're expanding to nine, and the same will hold true—it doesn't matter where they live. But for some, it is a good place to start. And we also—I, in particular, don't want to get into a horse-trading situation where, "Hey, I live over here, I need your help getting my thing passed, and then down the road I'll scratch your back." That's just not who Columbus is. And hopefully it means that people get greater representation without having to lose anything in the process.

Tim Fulton 10:37Talk me through then—and I realize it is a very separate issue—but the appointment process. Because that's not, I don't imagine, really going to change much, that folks are able to go ahead, and the current city council basically chooses who they'd like to join them. And then yes, folks do have to come up for re-election, but it's pretty difficult to unseat, right? How do you feel about that, especially being somebody who went through that process a couple of times?

Emmanuel Remy 11:11Absolutely. I understand the concerns, I understand why people hate it. We don't like it. It's one of those things where you kind of cringe when you know a colleague's leaving, and then you have to go through that process. So you've seen us create a placeholder system—somebody like Mitch Brown—which, again, that has its own set of criticisms, like, "Well, you should get somebody in there that can really make a difference." But the reality is, it's multibillion-dollar budgets, whether it's operating or capital. There's a lot to learn. It takes a while to really get over some of the newness. And so when you've only got a certain amount of time, sometimes an elder statesman makes sense. I will just say this: in an ideal world, you would hold a special election, you'd fill the role. The reality of it is, to hold a special election in the city of Columbus, it's over a million dollars. And so, is that what taxpayers want? Is that a good use of resources to fill that role? I'm not going to answer that question right now—I think that's for your listeners to decide. But I would say that that is the thing that holds people back from doing it, is the immense amount. Now, the Statehouse forced a special election on us here in August, and really didn't help us out much financially in order to do it. It's kind of on your own. So that's the flip side of it, and why it's not as easy as just, "Let's just have an election."

Tim Fulton 12:38I think that's fair. And I also do think that the appointment of Mitch Brown is actually a reflection of hearing that critique—that's why you chose somebody that wasn't just going to immediately stand for re-election. Final big question, big bucket of a question: what value proposition do you bring to your office? And basically, why should people vote for you?

Emmanuel Remy 13:00Well, I believe that my passion—I've watched people burn out in this role, predecessors—and my passion is still as strong today as it was the first day. And so I think that's something you should look for in any person that's in the role. I believe that we're making substantive changes in this community, where you see a council that—it's a strong-mayor, strong-council system. And so we were saying, "Hey, this isn't just the mayor's show to run," and you see us constantly working to take back some of the budgetary—we're just articulating our vision as well. So we have really progressive ideas that we'd like to continue to push and try to develop. And for me, we have a great new police chief, we have an outstanding fire chief. And the more that I can get them collaborating together and out in the community—because we spent well over a decade with this division of police with a dispatching system and the way that they patrol, that they didn't patrol the same neighborhood twice. When you lose touch with the people that are working the streets, little things become big things really quick. And so our officers know now that they've got to be community-oriented, they've got to spend some time in the community. And as we continue to add staff, you'll see more and more of that. And so I'm excited to help facilitate that, to bring that neighborhood lens every single day into city hall. I think the responsibility of a council member is not only to be one of Columbus's biggest cheerleaders, but also to constantly look for ways to remove the red tape and the barriers that exist in dealing with government. And that's what I like to do—working with the administration, taking some of the—you know, there's people over there that are lifelong bureaucrats, and their main focus is not necessarily on helping the person on the street. So I get to be that advocate. I get to be the person that really says, "No, wait a second, that's not the right thing to do. You need to take care of this." And so I'm proud to be in that role. And so I'd love to continue, voters willing, and look forward to the opportunity to continue to help Columbus grow in a way that's sensible for every resident in the city of Columbus.

Tim Fulton 15:40I end every interview with two pretty straightforward questions. What do you think Columbus is doing well, and what do you think Columbus is not doing so well?

Emmanuel Remy 15:52I think we are constantly working to develop policy relating to housing to be inclusive. We are ahead of the curve compared to some of our peer cities—even at the point where they were at this point, many of them lost the battle and had substantial problems. But we need to accept the fact that we are under-building significantly. And so we just had a meeting this afternoon talking about the fact that we need to get everybody on board. Housing needs to be championed by all, and it doesn't matter—we need champions for housing affordability, all the way up to the greatest market-rate housing that there is. We simply need more units in the city of Columbus, because people are coming, whether we want them to or not. And so if we're creating way more jobs than we are housing units, the battle is going to get harder and harder to fight. And so you see us working on zoning and the redesign of our zoning that hasn't been touched in over 70 years. We're working to make sure that we have transportation options, and that'll be like the LinkUS project next year.

Tim Fulton 15:52Link—LinkUS, yeah.

Emmanuel Remy 15:52The LinkUS, we need that to come through. And so these are things that, when you have a rapidly growing city, if you're not pushing simultaneously, then you really will end up underwater. And that's what we don't want.

Tim Fulton 17:37Got it. Thank you for your time.

Emmanuel Remy 17:39I appreciate it. Thank you.

Tim Fulton 17:51Thanks for listening to the Confluence Cast, presented by Columbus Underground. Again, you can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Please rate, subscribe, share this episode of the Confluence Cast with your friends, family, contacts, enemies, your favorite neighborhood advocate. If you're interested in sponsoring the Confluence Cast, get in touch with us. We can be reached by email at info@theconfluencecast.com. Our theme music was composed by Benji Robinson. Our producer is Philip Cogley. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. Have a great week.