Columbus City Council candidates want your vote. Here's what they say they'll do for you.

Who deserves your vote on Nov. 2? That depends on how you feel about Columbus now and the direction it should take in the months and years to come. 

The four candidates running for three Columbus City Council seats recently shared their views with members of The Dispatch Editorial Board. Below are highlights of our conversations with them, which we hope will help you decide who will best represent you.  

Find videos of our conversations with the candidates on Dispatch.com. 

Three seats, including those now held by council members Priscilla Tyson and Mitchell Brown, are up for grabs. Only Council President Shannon Hardin is seeking re-election to another four-year term. 

Hardin is joined on the ballot by fellow Democrats Nick Bankston and Lourdes Barroso de Padilla, as well as former TV reporter Tom Sussi, an independent candidate endorsed by the Franklin County Republican Party.

More:In candidate shift, Democrats choose two newcomers to run with Shannon Hardin for Columbus council

Nick Bankston

Nick Bankston is invested in the city's future. The father of a 3-month-old son said his top concern is building an equitable and sustainable community.

"I've dedicated my entire life to public service because I believe that government can, and it must, work for the people, and that we must lead on the issues that face our community," said the president and CEO at Gladden Community House, which provides social services to families in Franklinton.

"Every single day when I walk into that building, I'm reminded of why I got into this work," said the graduate of East High School and Ohio State University. "The families that we serve come to our doorstep, sometimes with everything that they own because they've been either evicted or they're looking to go into shelter, and we're trying to find them housing. The long and short of it is that for me, this isn't about politics; it's personal, and I want to build a city that's worthy of my son's generation."

Bankston has worked in both county government and under the administrations of both mayors Michael B. Coleman and Andrew J. Ginther, last with the Department of Neighborhoods, where he helped develop the One Linden and Envision Hilltop Community Strategic Plans. 

"I  think the Columbus of the future looks like a city that everyone is able to access. Whether that be through transportation," he said. "Whether that's stable housing. Whether that's  a good paying job. It is creating an environment where we want to empower our residents, but also provide them the tools to help them, not just simply succeed in life, but to thrive."

Bankston says many crime and safety issues can be traced back to the desperation many feel. 

"They feel left out," he said. "They feel that they can see the prosperity of the city, but they can't touch it or reach it. I think that a future in Columbus is one where we could decide what kind of city we want to be.

"We're going to continue to grow," Bankston said. "We're going to continue to prosper. We are an economic engine of this state and of this region. That's a no brainer, but we have to decide how we want to do it. Do we want to just grow for growth sake, or do we really want to grow and bring people along?

Bankston says he will advocate for better transportation and a strategy that provides truly affordable housing that stabilizes residents and offers incentives for small, private landlords to offer safe, quality homes. This would include a risk mitigation fund that would help landlords with unpaid rent and the cost of excessive damage.

"Let's provide a tool that the landlords can tap into so that we're keeping folks stable in their homes and that we're attracting more people to want to be in the affordable housing space," he said.

Lourdes Barroso de Padilla

Lourdes Barroso de Padilla's passion for the people of Columbus is contagious. And if elected, the daughter of Cuban immigrants born and raised on Columbus' East Side would be the body's first Latinx member. 

"My mom lives in the same house where I was raised, and she's still paying for it. The same house that they bought in the '70s for less than $70,000," she said. "That house was their only safety net, and when a kid needed something or there was a new roof, that's what they dipped into. During the pandemic, I saw, you know, my husband, my nephews and nieces have to choose between their health and their livelihood, and these are impossible choices that people shouldn't have to make. The problems that are happening in Columbus today are American systemic problems. But the way that we address them can be unique to Columbus and what we're seeing right now."

A pandemic has affected a "very delicate system," she said. 

"Something had to pop, and that's what we're seeing. We're seeing the loss of hope of people," she said. "Columbus (is) experiencing unprecedented growth, but that's not for everyone. I'm running for council because I want to ensure that all of our policies and our legislation are deeply rooted in our people and their families." 

Immigrants and refugees are a driving force behind Columbus' population growth. Barroso de Padilla said that fact makes it even more important to have representation from the immigrant community on city council. She wants to help the city address how it will welcome new immigrants, including nearly 400 Afghan nationals coming to the city after the United States pulled out of Afghanistan.  

"Who I am in the world as a woman of color, as a Latina, I think brings a different perspective and ensures that we are broadening the conversation and including more people in our decision-making as a city," said Barroso de Padilla, senior vice president of site stakeholder engagement and director of the Latina Mentoring Academy at City Year.

The national organization works extensively with Columbus City Schools students to stem systemic inequities that disproportionately affect students of color and students growing up in low-income households. Barroso de Padilla said prosperity needs to spread to more people in Columbus. 

"We can do lots of things for people, but unless we get more money in their pockets, unless we give them more to provide for their family, it's all for not," she said "We need to think about density. We need to think about land use, and we're rewriting the zoning policies right now as a city. And those are all good things. But we need to ensure that people have good, safe, affordable housing options in all parts of the city." 

Barroso de Padilla said that improving transportation is another key to Columbus' future. She said her mother does not drive a car, and it took her two to three hours to get to work after her job relocated from Downtown to the West Side. 

"That's not OK," she said. 

Engaging young people will be another focus for Barroso de Padilla if she is elected. The city needs a new comprehensive plan to close the opportunity gap, address youth violence, plant seeds of hope and elevate youth voices. A coalition of nonprofits and lawmakers should working in concert with the school board on legislation that affects young people, she said. 

"In our city, the city where the average age is 35, we need to be investing in that next generation," she said. "I think that that's the next frontier for us. That's going to be a game-changer in how we are changing the direction, the course of the life, of our young people, especially in Black and brown communities."

Shannon G. Hardin 

Shannon G. Hardin has built a reputation as a community servant, and the definition of what that means has evolved since he joined the city council at age 27 in 2014.

So has the city. 

"We've been blessed in our community to have several years where things were from the surface level going pretty well. We were creating jobs. Folks were moving here, but on a nice pace. We were getting awards like Smart Cities and folks were starting to focus on Columbus," he said. "It was a good time to be in leadership, and then COVID came and COVID exposed what was always there underlying it, which was that we had two-thirds of our community that was doing very well, and then we had a third that we were just leaving behind."

Hardin said longstanding housing, transportation and access issues were brought to the surface. The harsh reality of racism also rushed to forefront, he said. 

"Folks were dealing with the real issues of race and racism in our workplaces and our schools and our city government and in our policing," he said.

Hardin said that 2020 was a pivotal year for the community, and the city is better for it  because more people became engaged in conversations that have led to a new police chief and the first-ever civilian police review board. 

"It was very painful and it exposed a lot. But I also think it was necessary. As a leader, I can tell you that I have learned. I have grown because of last year," he said. "The conversations forced us to step up in real ways, not to do the things that we usually do around putting together this working group and let it work for six months and bringing us back some solutions. It forced us to move with haste, but also with transparency." 

More:Only one candidate to be disappointed in Columbus City Council race

One of the big conversations for the city is where it go now. Hardin said that addressing transportation in equitable ways and investing in "people development" will be key to securing the future he wants to usher in.

"By people development, I mean credentialing, making sure that folks have the skills that they need to get a job. So, people development is the new economic development. Companies, businesses don't move to towns anymore because we build some infrastructure," he said. "They move because there's a pipeline of people that could take the jobs. We have to focus laser-like in on people development, and we have some exciting things coming."

Hardin says an all-hands-on-deck approach is needed to address the housing crisis the city is experiencing to avoid an affordability nightmare as found in cities like Seattle. 

"They didn't see it coming. By the time they realized what was happening, it was already too big of an issue to deal with," Hardin said. "We have the Goldilocks effect. Our growth is coming. We're gonna add 500,000 to a million people. We are going to to run into real density issues."

Housing in Columbus should be addressed as a crisis now so that solutions are developed before it is too late, he said.

About 15,000 jobs are created a year, but only 5,000 new housing united are added, he said, noting that as more people move in, that drives up the cost of housing. Despite the challenge, Hardin said that Columbus has the capacity to be a city for all. 

More:Murky 'green energy' ballot initiative would take millions from Columbus budget

Tools like land trusts can be used to maintain affordability in neighborhoods that are changing. Programs should be developed to help longtime residents in those neighborhood with upkeep and beautification of their properties.  

"One thing that we can't change is the change itself," he said. "What we can do is make sure that everybody gets to benefit from it."

Tom Sussi 

The events of 2020 left a deep impression on Tom Sussi, but not in anyway that would please any chamber of commerce. To say he was not pleased is an understatement. 

If he is elected, he will be an outlier and he likes it that way.

The former "gotcha-style" local television investigator is running as an independent endorsed by the Republican Party in a blue city. 

"At the end of the day, I think I have a knack for a winning people over and I think I could get on City Council, develop some serious, meaningful relationships and start getting business done. But the problem is, I'm dealing with a party and an administration that's been in control for 20 years, and they have an agenda, and that agenda is to stay in power," he said. "Sure, they bring in the big businesses and you know, they cut some good deals and do some good things for the community, but it's not enough, because they're being blinded by their own personal agendas, which is politics in staying in power. They'll do anything to stay in power. It's a real kind of disheartening nut in shell game. Why hasn't there been anybody else outside that party in 20 years? "

Calling it the building block of any civilization, Sussi said he supports law and order, and he says the current administration is mishandling police reform, as it did with the 2020 riots that followed the murder of George Floyd. The shootings of Andre Hill and Ma'Khia Bryant have been used unfairly to demonize, hold back and undermine the the police division, he said. 

"I moved here 12 years ago. I liked everything about the city. I thought diversity. I thought people got along. I thought there was a sense of community. It seemed to be rolling very well, and then the protests and the riots hit, and I think largely because of the media, especially television, and politicians like Andy Ginther and Shannon Hardin, who constantly divided Black and white. They have done a great disservice (by) segregating us back to the '60s. ."

Raised by a single mother in a low-income family in Flint, Michigan, Sussi says he will bring his bulldog reputation to city hall. 

More:Former 'gotcha' TV reporter seeks Columbus council seat a sharp contrast to Democrats on ballot

"I'm not a politician. I'm not one of them. I'm one of you. I'm just a regular guy who wants to represent the best interests of the people. I don't think that is going on right now. I think this is an administration that is not transparent and unaccountable, and there's a lot of things going on behind the scenes that are not in the best interest of the community," he said. "I want to be the champion, the watchdog. I want to be the eyes and ears, and I want to be the other voice. There needs to be another voice, and we need to bring people together in this community.."

Sussi said that tax abatements should be given to smaller businesses and not "major companies with major dollars."  

He said his mind was blown when he received a 15%, 15-year tax abatement when he and his wife purchased a home in Italian Village, despite the fact that they have good incomes. 

"Am I the kind the guy who needs a tax abatement? No," he said. "These tax abatements should be going out to people in the lower income areas. Let's be giving them all the tax abatements and the incentives, not the rich folks who can buy these townhouses and condos. We we don't need the tax abatement, so let's stop that. Go to the middle, go to the lower class. You drive through these lower-income areas where you see abandoned houses, dope houses. Why not rehab these?"

Columbus should address residential housing issues with a Habitat for Humanity-like approach that would see contractors, suppliers and volunteers help with repairs. 

"There's a lot of caring and giving people out there, and there's a lot of houses that we could be (re)developing," he said.

Early voting is underway, and Election Day is Nov. 2. The Dispatch Voter Guide is available at www.Dispatch.com/VoterGuide2021 for more information about candidates in contested races and issues on local ballots.