Mount Vernon city councilman Mike Hillier is a registered Republican, but party affiliation is not the main motivating force behind his decisions on City Council, he told the Mount Vernon News.
"Anybody who knows me, knows that I represent the people far before the party" he said. "I hate politics."
He has served on the City Council since 2006 continuously except for one 18-month break.
"A lot of things have changed over that time," he said.
The entire council and the mayor are now Republicans as are the three Knox County commissioners.
The most important issue facing the city today is "how to keep moving forward," Hillier said.
Labor shortages, high gas prices and inflation are all serious issues, he said.
"Right now, gas is $5.09 a gallon," he said. "The smaller municipalities, villages, township and cities are going to get hit first. We've already done one adjustment for fuel costs for our city streets. With the price of gas the way it is now, you're going to see less asphalt. Everything we're doing that involves gasoline is going to cost us more. You'll see less of it."
He sees the council's role as providing checks and balances to Mayor Matt Starr's agenda.
"Sometimes that process takes a little longer," he said. "Council wants to be as transparent as possible. Maybe the mayor's agenda isn't moving as fast as he wants. Take the engineer's office. We've hired some people. They want to hire more. We definitely look at funding. Whenever you add a person to anybody's budget, that's a pretty good chunk. Everybody knows that employee wages are a big chunk of any budget."
Mount Vernon will benefit from the new Intel computer chip plant coming to Ohio, Hillier said. Council is reviewing the city code to see how if changes are needed to encourage economic growth but also to accommodate it, said Hillier.
"We have 496 apartments coming to 30-plus acres," he said. "That's going to add a lot of traffic in an already high traffic area. How are we going to address the traffic issues? Are we going to be another Johnstown? That's what we need to work on."
There is also concern about losing the small-town atmosphere of Mount Vernon.
"Right now we have 17,000 people," Hillier said. "Not everyone wants to see it at 27,000."
The small-town flavor of downtown Mount Vernon is something that even out-of-towners appreciate, he said.
"If we are going to have this big explosion of growth, how can we do it and still maintain the small-town atmosphere?" he asked. "There are a lot of people here who have been here all their lives. When we do all this building, when we have all this traffic, we have to think of those people, too."
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