MOUNT VERNON – Retirement for Mike Miller from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources didn’t mean Miller stopped working, and now he wants to use some of his spare time to serve Mount Vernon as a City Council member representing the Fourth Ward.
Miller announced his write-in candidacy in the Nov. 2 municipal election and will face fellow Republican and incumbent Mike Hillier.
Miller said he spent most of his career in public service working in the natural resource and law enforcement fields.
He said he’s done everything from cleaning bathrooms to being a naturalist doing wildlife and environmental education before wrapping up his career in senior management as the chief of two divisions of ODNR.
Ethics requirements kept him from qualifying as a candidate in the primary election, as he had to be retired for a full year before running for office.
He said as a county wildlife officer his phone number was public. Fishing guides and the public showed up at his house to check in deer or whatever else they needed to do. He’d regularly talk with people at local stores.
His three main goals on the City Council would be to help bring better paying jobs to Mount Vernon, continue the city’s work on its infrastructure and increase that infrastructure. He believes in getting rid of rules and regulations that aren’t needed and plans to bring that same outlook to the City Council.
Miller said he saw the Republican Party infighting and not working for the people after the last presidential election, and that bothered him.
He thinks government needs to be more responsive to the people and remain civil.
“They need to make sure that if they have disagreements, they work those out and make sure they find good solutions for people. In the end, government works for people, period, no matter what any government official thinks,” Miller said.
He’s been involved in the community, including serving as foster parents with his wife. He worked last school year as a full-time teacher’s aide but this year cut that down to part-time.
“To watch teachers and to see those little light bulbs go off in their heads as they're learning to read and learning to write is actually amazing,” he said.
