Candidate Luis Gil

Tim Fulton 00:08Ladies 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. In today's interview, Luis Gil, candidate for District 2, discusses his background and why he's running for council. From his early life in Venezuela to his community involvement here in the United States, Luis opens up about what drives him to serve his community, and how he envisions the future. 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 Luis Gil, candidate for Columbus City Council for District 2. Mr. Gil, how are you, sir?

Luis Gil 01:13Great. Thank you very much for the opportunity to be here today.

Tim Fulton 01:16No, absolutely. Can we start off just by walking us through who you are, what your background is, and how that relates to your candidacy for council?

Luis Gil 01:25Well, thank you very much for that. My name is Luis Gil. I was born in Venezuela. I had a tragic family event, which is that my mom died when I was 16. And my mom always had that vision that I should come to the United States someday — even way back when I was five, six, seven years old. And one of the things — that's what she wanted. Unfortunately, she passed very young, at 36 years old, but the seed was already planted in my head. And, well, things do happen that way. It was not an easy thing to do, but the fact of the matter is, that was her vision, and I had to honor it. To give you a little bit of the background on the decision to come to Ohio — I'm talking over 30 years ago — the Latino community was very small. Migrating from Venezuela, when it was at the time one of the richest countries in South America — why leave? You know, that was part of this destination for me to go. So anyway, as I was being asked where I wanted to go, the obvious thing was LA, Miami, New York — things that you saw on TV at a very young age. And then I went to say goodbye to a friend somewhere, and in the elevator in Caracas, Venezuela, a guy comes out and says, "Hey, I heard that you're going overseas. Where are you going?" So I said, "I'm going to Ohio." And that was it. So I came to Athens, Ohio, for the first time. And then I moved to Toledo. And then from Toledo I moved to a small town called Forest. That's when I got married, and five kids in — and that's it. So, going to my background, I studied to be a mechanical engineer at the University of Toledo. And for the first time in the history of Venezuela, the economy went down the tubes, back in the '70s and '80s. And unfortunately, my dad got a phone call — my dad said, "You're on your own. You're going to have to fend for yourself. I can't support you anymore." Even though I came in with some kind of scholarship, it was not enough to do that. So I had to diverge myself and go into business. I went to work for a great company for over 10 years. This company was in charge of parking lots — consistent parking — and they were managers and owners of parking lots and garages throughout Ohio, and basically the whole United States. So that's the background: I married, had five kids, went out on my own, started my own business. I went into the insurance business, and I went into translating. At the time, that was essential — for the Spanish community, somebody that can translate, that can speak both languages, it was very essential. Currently, I translate for three different courts, in Wayne County, Harding County, and in Lima, Allen County. So that's the stuff that keeps me busy, traveling and going there — you know, on Tuesday one county, on Wednesday another county, and another county. They already pre-program the Spanish speakers that have to go into court. They say, "Well, Mr. Gil, we'll be there on Wednesday," so we're scheduled. So it's stuff that pays very well. In law and politics — when I arrived to this country, Ronald Reagan was the president, I was 19 years old, coming in with the background of law and politics from back home, and the things that have happened in Venezuela, with Chávez and all those horrible moments of change in Venezuela — forever growing as a president. So I looked into Republicans and conservatives, because that's all I saw. At 19, 20 years old, you can easily be indoctrinated at the moment. So I consider myself in the middle of the graph, in the middle of the party, where being radical doesn't go with me, either way. And that's a part that I can translate into why I'm conservative.

Tim Fulton 06:00So you've run before. Yes, you ran for Franklin County Commissioner. Talk me through what your passion is to run. Is it simply that you want to serve? Or is it that you want to implement certain policies in the city, in the area? What's your motivation?

Luis Gil 06:21Well, my motivation has been that little guy who gets left behind. There are so many opportunities that I have been blessed with in so many ways. First of all, I have five kids, overachievers. I'm divorced, but — it's amazing, we were together over the weekend, seeing them flourish nicely in this great country. So I see the path that many people can take. There's a lot of ingredients into how your life is going to be, going forward into the future — I'm talking especially about younger generations. But there's a factor which I always consider: is it 1%, is it 10%, or 5% luck? You happen to be in the right place at the right time with the right people. It doesn't stop there — it happened to me. I became actively engaged, even though I was in a small town. I helped the judge, I helped the mayor, I helped, you know, efficiently, the conservative party. And those are the things that motivated me to meet people. I can tell you, with great honor, that I have met, by handshake, every president of the United States except Trump. I met Clinton, Obama — Obama spoke Spanish to me when we —

Tim Fulton 07:47So you've got Reagan, both Bushes, Clinton, and —

Luis Gil 07:51Handshake, okay? Yes. And, I mean, literally — what are the odds for somebody, you know, especially given the background? Not even American people can say that. And then, when they came to me, when they came to Columbus, I assisted. When Bush the son came to Lima, I literally had my son on my shoulders, and we were right behind him, and guess what happens? On the lens on us — my picture, this is the front page of the Lima News, with my son on my shoulders, there we go. And, of course, he walked by, and handshake — I mean, you can't say anything, you've got split seconds. But Obama was very, very amazing, because he called me "amigo," and then finally we took a selfie. Those are the things that made me open my spectrum — that no one party can change everything, we're all together in this. And part of that I want to bring to the city council. Right now it's just — how do we make progress in such a divided time? But my thing is the future: how do we get those kids from early on? You know, we have rampant crime, and of course we can get into that subject.

Tim Fulton 09:12Well, you're right in front of me — the next question is, what are the issues that are facing Columbus?

Luis Gil 09:18I believe — and I'm not running for school board — but education will be the key to many issues that happen in an inner city. If we somehow strengthen those kids to look at the vision — my thing, having a math mind, physics, chemistry — if we start giving those ingredients to those kids early on, it won't scare them. I believe that some of those kids, they're going into middle school and high school, and they're scared to death to take science classes, because what they've been taught, or fed into their mind, is that it's going to be too hard. And those are the things that we should create a path for, for those kids. And granted, again, I'm not going to run for school board, but at the same time, the city and the city council can be instrumental to help those inner cities to look up, to look at what's happening. Every week, every day, crime is getting younger and younger. So that's the passion that I would like to bring for city council. How do we give them the tools so they can make it? I mean, we have great tools coming in right now. I'll give an example: Intel. Intel is going to create — well, it already put Columbus on the international map, right? So we're one of the cities that — I was looking at how it's changing Columbus. Even now, I hear about people that are coming to Columbus. And, granted, we're not going to talk about, you know, buying a house cash, $700,000, $500,000, in the inner cities. But I learned from a local company, a local institution, let's put it that way — they have purchased 21 houses in Linden to renovate them, to create houses attractive to — who? Because they purchased these houses at $90,000, $100,000, and in two, three years, they're already worth $200,000. So is it an investment for themselves? Is it something that they see that we don't see? Real quick, because they're concentrating on the future — I don't know what it is. But all I know, and I can tell you for a fact, because I walk every inner city in Columbus — Linden, South Linden itself, I very rarely — I walk with them. And I'm friends with the commissioners, and they always tell me that they see the changes in the neighborhood, somebody's purchasing a house and they don't know who they are. And they get worried — but the biggest worry is property tax. Those houses that they're purchasing at 80,000, and they get to $200,000 — eventually, they're going to increase the property tax. And it's not going to go up just because of one house; it's every single house. So those people that have been there for a long time, 20, 30 years living there, they're going to be affected by that increment.

Tim Fulton 12:34I mean, do you believe, though, that there's enough of an increase that those folks are being, like, literally pushed out of their home?

Luis Gil 12:41Totally. That's the biggest worry. I have attended meetings where they are really worried about what is going to happen to them in 10, 15 years. So how do we see the council be essential? Unfortunately, things are not getting better. You see that by crime. And the crime is getting younger and younger. Is the city investing in the right issue at the right time? You know, we are in the process, historically, of going from a $1.4 billion budget to $1.76 billion — the largest increment within one year, I believe, in the history of the last 15 years. Columbus has one party in charge of everything. So that's why I want to bring a little bit of balance. The way I talk to people — one guy gave me the idea — I want to be that wheel on the 18-wheeler that starts smoking to make the driver stop. It'll make the driver stop, you know? So I don't want to be controversial, I just want to make sure that we can refocus a little bit on the city. What's happening — we have issues in the police department for the last five years. You have a new chief, a very amazing assistant chief. I know every single one of them, and I know their heart, and the vision is to make Columbus better. But do we have the right ingredients? Do we have the support from the government to make sure that the police are free to do their job and trusted? I don't believe so. I know a lot of police officers, and they're really worried that whatever they do is going to be under the microscope of the public. They're hesitant. Granted, the city is investing quite a bit in Columbus and in minorities — now that we've got Somali police officers, granted, that's a great idea. But do we have what it takes to change Columbus into a safer city? I don't think we have that right now. That's why somebody like me can bring you an ingredient that's going to make this path take a different route. Because it's important.

Tim Fulton 14:58Can I press you there? So, you've talked about education as a key. I don't know that education really addresses anything that's happening with the police force — you could make training arguments, right? What role do you think City Council should play in helping to address that?

Luis Gil 15:16I believe that the people of Columbus, the residents, are hungry for a change. When I say that, in terms of your question — they know the current path is not working. Crime is rampant right now. I mean, you've got cars upside down, because a young kid was driving at high speed into the streets of Columbus. What are the ingredients? Why is that bringing that path? I believe that by changing one thing in the city council, it can have repercussions, it can have a wave in the city, to make sure that we look at things differently. The people are hungry. They tell me in different communities, they say, "Mr. Gil, we are supporting you, because we know that we cannot keep going the same way." We cannot. And one of the phrases I like to use: you can be doing the same thing and get very different results. So those are the things that I want to bring to the table. Right now — this is 12 candidates, there are nine open seats. Guess what, it just got a little bit bigger. But I'm playing — I'm fighting like I'm losing, because of the fact of the matter, I want to make sure that I get there. I'm in the new districting, and I would like to create something that Columbus has never seen before.

Tim Fulton 16:35Okay, let's pivot then to the new districting system, the new structure we have. What thoughts do you have on it? How do you feel about it?

Luis Gil 16:43Well, this is something they came up with — the idea is not too bad. It's not a complete redistricting, because of the fact of the matter that anybody from any part of the city can vote for me. I do have to represent my district — I do have to win my district in order to make it — but anybody can vote for me.

Tim Fulton 17:04How — you don't have to win your district.

Luis Gil 17:07I do have to win my district, currently. I don't know how they're going to monitor that.

Tim Fulton 17:11So — I haven't heard that. And maybe we'll edit this out. My understanding is that you have to live in the district that you are representing, yes, but that the voting is simply citywide. Anyone — everybody's voting for everybody.

Luis Gil 17:28That's my understanding. That's why I call it — I use the phrase "fake districting." Because it doesn't make any sense, you know? But those are the rules right now. They created rules, they have the majority, they're controlling basically everything. Well, I want to bring things differently, because of the fact of the matter that we can't be doing the same thing. The city of Columbus needs us — we're going to be an international city, and, you know, with the crime that we have, and that is escalating, it's just something that we have to cure, that illness, somehow. Curb it. We can't eradicate crime right now, but the fact of the matter is, we can put a little bit of brakes on it. What happens? Why do I go into education? Because education is a factor for those kids. If we can create a different mindset, a different vision, a different dream for those kids, those kids can start thinking differently. Right now, the inner-city kids are basically lost. And these are things that I see — how come Dublin, Westerville, Worthington, New Albany, they are already creating classes for Intel, some of the stuff that they have to do in order to create a better path for their life, and that doesn't happen in the inner city? I am the one who brought Intel a few years back to the inner cities, to the area commissioners. I told them, I said, "Listen, you're missing the ball. This is something that can exponentially gain speed if we create a path." I got calls from different pastors: "Tell us more about what's going on. How come we don't know?" And those pastors said, "Gil, you have the microphone, tell us what's going on." And I brought this subject up, and now they're engaging in it. I can say that I brought this up two years ago, when Intel wasn't even mentioned. You know, when I found out about Intel five years ago — I've got friends with the Columbus One, you know, they're the ones that created that bridge. The budget for Intel was $5 billion, and then it increased the following year, went to seven. Right now — I went to a meeting about Intel, how they're creating all this stuff — and the interesting thing that you hear, that you don't know, is how come they landed near Columbus? Because they're not in Franklin County, they're in another county nearby. One, taxes — you know, that's number one, they just created that little boundary and said, "We're building right here." And another one is seismic — you know, the earth movement. There hasn't been earth movement in that area for, like, over 1,000 years. You know how precise they had to be? The fact of the matter is, they can't have this kind of stuff happening, any ground movement, that's why they go in deep, to make sure they're assured that none of this stuff will happen. Isn't that interesting? So those are the things that — that was one of the ingredients that created that area, appetizers for them, for Intel, among all the things. And those are the things that are real close to our neighbors, close to the inner city. What are we creating? That's the stuff that I want to do — create a little bridge, because most of those kids will have no clue what's happening in the future. We're talking five years from now, they need close to 20,000 jobs. And not only that — not only what Intel created — now we have LG going in, about 40 minutes from here, we've got the EV battery plant. We're in so many — 40 minutes from here — the disruption they're going to create on the highways is going to be amazing. We might have another 270, you know.

Tim Fulton 21:28An outer belt, and an outer-outer belt?

Luis Gil 21:31An outer belt. The one here is going to be with few exits, so they can be moving traffic, very heavy, so it goes faster. And my understanding is Licking County is going to be affected by Intel tremendously. And we are —

Tim Fulton 21:51We're basically the epicenter.

Luis Gil 21:53Right. Linden's right there. What are we going to create? Those kids need science on their mind. And the only way to open their mind, hungry for science, is when they're little, so we can expose them and they're not afraid. Granted, we have to then — as a friend of mine says — let's go to the next phase. What do we do with the kids that already graduated? We need to create a path for those kids to go back and recycle them mentally, educate them, to put them back in there. I do know — I found out from a friend of mine who works for Intel — that Intel might have a program that you can join, and you go through the program for one year, and you've got a 95% guarantee that you get a job at Intel. And it's a one-year program that you have to do. But in order to do that, the requirement is that you take a little science class every year of high school. That's the requirement, so you can fit into it.

Tim Fulton 22:52Got it. Final big question. Basically, why should people vote for you? What's your value proposition that you're bringing to the table here?

Luis Gil 23:03Well, I care. I'm not doing this for me. I told you over the weekend — if I get elected, it's not about the fact that people will like what I have to say. I want to be behind people, pushing them into the right path. This is not going to be something that's for me. I'm not going to be in the front, I'm going to be behind the scenes, because that's where the power is. In Columbus right now, we get behind the scenes and support all those communities. And it's a little spider web — if you move something here, something moves there, a little ugly, a little short distance. Those are the things that we have to get, with the leaders in the inner cities, the area commissioners, because they know what their city needs. They know what their neighborhood needs. They know that families need help. All this money — right now, you know, the largest budget that we've had in Columbus in a long time, $1.76 billion — I mean, we're what, the 13th-largest city in the country. And in crime, we're 149 or 150 — oh, oh, no, I'm sorry, 130 out of the 150 worst cities in the country. Is that the reputation that Columbus wants to have, having one of the largest companies, international, here? I think we can do better. We must do better in the city, and the inner city is hungry for being better.

Tim Fulton 24:36Okay. I end every interview by asking, what do you think Columbus is doing well, and what do you think Columbus is not doing well?

Luis Gil 24:44Well, one of the things that Columbus is doing — we're raising money. We're going, okay, $7.6 billion got approved by everybody in there, which is also patting each other on the back — I've never seen anybody criticizing the mayor, or anybody like that. So, according to them, we have the preferred mayor. I think the mayor is somebody that, you know, needs to go away and bring new minds. And I don't mean to get into the subject, but the fact of the matter is, the City Council is on the same path. Very unfortunately, we don't have that many challengers to run for city council. And you mentioned a few names. We have to change. What is it called, what Columbus is almost doing better — I was at one of the grand openings on the pools. They opened seven amazing pools, and those are the things that are an investment for the community, I get that. But look at what happened over the weekend. We celebrated July 4 in the city, and on Monday, somebody started yelling, whatever, and people already started running, thinking that there was a shooter, and within themselves, people got hurt. I have a friend of mine that literally had people run over them. Those are the things that we have to be careful about. Was there a prank game that the kids were doing? I don't know. But how vicious do you have to be in your mind to create something like this, with — I don't know, 300,000, 400,000 people downtown? Those are worrisome moments that we have to pay attention to. Nothing happened, thank God, but it had the potential. The future is going to be — if we get those kids, and I believe it was kids who were doing this, if we get those kids into different thinking, a different mindset, and create something for them that they can build their future on, we can distract them from doing things that they shouldn't be doing. What do we need to do? Do we need to get more law enforcement involved? The police — granted, I have a great relationship with them — those are the things that we need to create bridges between, within our institutions in the city. A few years back, you knew the mayor was not getting along with the chief, so he had to search for a new chief. We have a great chief right now, that he's looking to create something better than what he got from the beginning. So — I'm sorry, what was the question?

Tim Fulton 27:19Oh, I mean, you sort of went over it — like, what are we doing well, and what are we not doing so well?

Luis Gil 27:24You know, Columbus — a little different light, so people can see. I want to bring the light, so people can see it can be better than what we have right now.

Tim Fulton 27:36Got it. So we still — thank you.

Luis Gil 27:39Thank you very much. And I appreciate the moment here. In all, I want to ask the voters to give me an opportunity. And I'll use that famous phrase: you have nothing to lose.

Tim Fulton 27:50All right. Thank you so much. Thank you 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, and share this episode of the Confluence Cast with your friends, family, contacts, enemies, your favorite volunteer. 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.