When Jason Spears devises a plan to get something done, he does so with such a level of determination, it’s almost biblical.
“I don’t just do the pie in the sky idea to try to get you on board with me. I’m going to have everything rock solid, etched in stone,” Spears told members of the Exchange Club of Columbus Thursday during the club’s meeting at Lion Hills Center. “The only person that’s going to have a little bit more concrete evidence is Moses when he came down from the mountain.”
Spears was joined by fellow city council candidate Mary Beth Jeter, both of whom are running as Republicans for seats in Wards 6 and 5, respectively. Jeter said she is also determined to get the job done.
“I can tell you something about myself – I am a very hard worker, and when I set my head to do something, I’m going to get it done one way or another,” she said.
Both candidates offered club members an overview of their interests and goals if elected to the council. Party primaries are set for April 1. The general election is June 3.
Financial focus from Spears
Spears, who owns and operates JDS Wealth Strategies, has decades of experience working in finance. He served 10 years on the Columbus Municipal School District Board of Trustees and is a member of the Columbus Redevelopment Authority Board.
His key interest in joining the council is improving the city’s economic development by reducing the city’s debt, refinancing debt payments and growing the city’s tax base.
“If we fix the financial aspects of the city, we fix a lot of problems,” Spears said.
Spears emphasized the need for a strategic plan to reduce the city’s current debt of more than $28 million. He pointed out that the city’s annual debt payments total $2.2 million, and he believes cutting that in half could free up funds for essential services like police and fire departments.
He also stressed the importance of fully understanding the city’s debts in order to explore refinancing or paying them off early.
“To tackle the debts, you really have to understand what kind of debts you have,” Spears said. “We could really go through and categorize those debts and see which ones we might be able to be more aggressive in paying off.”
In addition to managing debt, Spears is focused on expanding the city’s tax base. He noted that the city’s property value stands at $240 million, and he believes there is potential to grow this base by adjusting taxes or sales tax rates as needed.
“There are certain things, whether it’s (to) add more on taxes, whether it’s sales tax, that you have to put in a matrix that works for your community,” he said.
He spoke on the importance of not taking on more debt for non-essential projects and suggested focusing on infrastructure and other generational investments.
“The biggest thing is not creating more (debt) for things that aren’t going to be long-term generational aspect investments,” he said.
Instead, Spears advocated for a purposeful budget that allocates funds to critical projects like road repairs and the revitalization of derelict properties.
Spears is running against fellow Republican candidate Kimberly McCarty-Davis in the primaries for Ward 6. The winner will face independent Donald Pope in the general election.
Community growth from Jeter
While Spears’ main focus is on finance, Jeter offered more of a community-focused approach to her campaign, expressing her desire to engage young people in ways that keep them out of trouble.
“We have so many young children here that are just in the streets, and they’re doing no good,” Jeter said. “We need to get them off the streets … and make better citizens of them.”
Jeter suggested one way of doing this would be to expand arts and music programs in the city.
“I don’t know exactly how I’m going to do it, but I was wondering if there’s some way we could get into the schools to try and inject more art and music,” Jeter told The Dispatch after the meeting.
By further involving students with the arts, Jeter believes it may help improve graduation rates of public schools in the city.
“I think it would grow our community and make our community stronger,” Jeter said. “The stronger your people are, the stronger your community is going to be.”
Jeter also said she hopes to see improvements in how city council members work with one another, noting dissension among current council members.
“I’m hoping we see some change in our city council across every ward, and I hope that we can get more people in there that will work better together to move our city forward,” she said. “I have a lot of faith that we can turn it around and do something better with our city.”
Jeter is running unopposed in the primary as the sole Republican candidate in Ward 5. Cequelia Clark, Sedrick Fenster and Gregory “Gary” Jefferson, all Democrats, will challenge each other in the primaries, before the winner faces Jeter in the general election.
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You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
