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In the Dayton City Commission run-off election on May 5 voters will select four finalists from five candidates to move on to the November election for seats on the city commission.
Two seats on the five-person commission will be decided in November.
Long-time Commissioner Dean Lovelace’s decision to not seek reelection means there will be at least one new face on the commission next year.
The other incumbent, Matt Joseph, is seeking re-election for his fourth four-year term.
The challengers are facing several long-standing realities in city elections. Incumbent candidates and those endorsed by the Montgomery County Democratic Party have typically won.
Joseph and local businessman Chris Shaw have received the county Democratic party’s endorsement, and are hoping history holds.
Challengers Hazel Rountree, Darryl Fairchild and Scott Sliver are hoping their platforms and messages will resonate with voters and land them a seat on the commission.
Matt Joseph
Joseph, 43, is a technology program manager at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. He was first elected in 2003.
Joseph said he deserves a fourth term because he helped lead the city through one of the toughest financial periods in its history.
Joseph said the city had to eliminate hundreds of staff positions, but the downsizing was handled mainly through attrition. He said the commission made budget cuts strategically to minimize the impact on services.
Joseph said his experience is his greatest asset.
He said he has strong relationships with regional partners and he sets realistic goals because he understands city’s resources are limited.
He said he is most concerned with providing citizens with the basic services they need, such as paved streets, clean water and emergency response.
But, he said, good things are happening in Dayton, such as people moving downtown because of the city’s strategy to convert empty office buildings into modern living spaces.
At a candidate forum earlier this month, Joseph told the audience that an ugly image of Dayton that surfaced decades ago no longer applies.
“Roll back that perception, because it is not true anymore — it is not true anymore,” he said. “We have a clean, safe city. We have opportunities for everybody. … The population is going up.”
Joseph said consistently providing excellent city services and customer experiences will help change bad opinions of the city.
Joseph is the incumbent, and incumbents rarely lose Dayton City Commission contests.
The last sitting commissioner to lose reelection was Idotha “Bootsie” Neal, who was defeated by Joseph in 2003.
Chris Shaw
Lovelace, the city’s longest-serving commissioner, has endorsed Shaw as his successor, whom he has known for years.
“Chris Shaw is the future,” Lovelace said.
Shaw is a fourth-generation business owner. Shaw Cleaners, 2241 Germantown St., opened in 1910.
Shaw, 48, serves on the board of the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce and is the economic development chair for Dayton Unit NAACP.
Shaw said his business knowledge will make him a good leader. He worked for about 11 years as a human resources consultant.
He said he has experience with executive-level recruitment, organizational development, private-public partnerships, team-building and diversity training.
Shaw said the city needs to be more aggressive to seek out new investment, and he has a talent for developing relationships with the business community.
He said he will reach out to companies to find out what they need, educate them about available resources and make them feel comfortable seeking the city’s help.
“Business will drive the rebirth of Dayton,” he said.
Hazel Rountree
Rountree, 60, said she would not be running if Joseph and Lovelace were both on the ballot. But she said people persuaded her to run because Lovelace is retiring.
Rountree said Shaw may have the party’s endorsement, but he does not have her credentials and proven track record of problem-solving.
She is the ombudsperson in the president’s office at Wright State University and serves on the Dayton Public Schools Board of Education.
Rountree, a Democrat, said her priorities include improving public safety, eradicating poverty and strengthening workforce development.
She said the city needs to spearhead a new approach to help long-time residents acquire the skills they need to find jobs.
As commissioner, Rountree said she would bring social service providers, local businesses, the unemployed and other stakeholders together to develop more effective ways to connect residents with workforce-training opportunities.
“I would bridge the gap between the employer and the agencies that are preparing people,” she said.
Rountree said many neighborhoods are not safe, and community-based policing is the key to reducing crime. But she said that strategy requires easing current tensions between citizens and officers with more relationship-building events and activities.
She also said the city must help build up neighborhood associations by providing resources and organizational guidance.
Scott Sliver
Sliver has a background in advertising and marketing.
He lived in New York City where he was the art director on some major ad accounts, including Merrill Lynch and Holiday Inn. He later started his own ad agency.
Sliver is a big proponent of social media. He runs the Facebook page I Love Dayton, which has 5,100 likes, and he posts frequently on pages he operates.
Sliver said he helped establish the Dayton Vineyard Church in 1990, which has grown from 50 members to about 1,500. Today, he is the church’s associate pastor.
Sliver also is the executive director of the Hope Foundation, which provides meals to about 1,000 households every month in Montgomery County.
Sliver said his background in serving the poor makes him uniquely qualified to tackle hunger, which he says is one of the most pressing problems facing children, families and residents in Dayton.
He said families dealing with malnutrition are a problem beyond just immediate hunger. With 40 percent of Montgomery County households eligible to receive food assistance, and children who are underfed struggle to learn.
He said as commissioner he would work with churches and other groups to create food pantries as well as support groups to address the city’s heroin problem.
“I love partnerships,” he said.
He also said his professional experience in advertising, marketing and social media could be put to use to promote economic development and get Dayton noticed at the national level.
Darryl Fairchild
Fairchild, a life-long Daytonian, is a minister at Bellbrook United Methodist Church and a member of Dayton’s Human Relations Council. He also serves on the board of Greater Dayton Premier Management, the local public housing agency.
Fairchild, 49, said citizens are most concerned about jobs, education and the city’s young people. He said this was the feedback his coalition received from 1,000 people during a listening tour in 2011.
Fairchild said the city can clean up and strengthen its neighborhoods by focused redevelopment that makes schools anchor institutions.
He said neighborhoods right now are disorganized because of the legacy of the busing system. He also said the city’s three recreation centers only serve a fraction of the young people who live within city limits.
He said the city should partner with Dayton Public Schools to offer new recreational programming at neighborhood schools, such as games, sports, computer stations and other activities.
Fairchild, a Democrat, also proposes creating a program that provides funds or other resources to encourage people to start employee-owned businesses and co-ops.
Fairchild said his opponents have strong support in pockets of the city. But he said he’s got connections citywide.
“I’ve got an ability to bring people together from all parts of the community,” he said. “And I’ve got 20-plus years of accomplishments of making our community better.”
Campaign finance reports filed with the Montgomery County Board of Elections on Thursday show that Joseph’s campaign has $22,050 in the bank and has spent about $5,535.
Shaw’s campaign account balance is $4,554, and he’s spent $6,635. Fairchild has spent $2,485 and has $10,625.
Sliver has $2,557, spent $2,160 and received $3,000 in in-kind contributions. Rountree’s campaign has $997 and spent $1,548.
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