When establishment Democrat Tiara Ross, City Council candidate showed up for the Free Press’s recent candidate forum for the District 7 primary, it came as a mild surprise.

Did she know anti-establishment Democrat Joe Motil is a regular writer for the Free Press? Our blistering criticism of the out-of-control, tax-abated and mostly unaesthetic development establishment Dems have forced into our most popular neighborhoods?

Certainly, the Free Press wanted Ross to be there, and here she was. But also to our surprise was who else unexpectedly showed. A broadcast reporter from Channel 10 (WBNS). And this is what we’ve come to know about Ross. She wasn’t going to let the other two candidates appear on the 11 o’clock news without her.

In some ways Ross reflects a growing cadre of modern-day political office seekers and holders. There’s a distinct and disingenuous difference between her public and not-so public persona.

Ross was friendly and approachable but became edgy towards Joe Motil after he asked her a legitimate question about how she would have voted on recent property tax abatements unanimously approved by City Council. Ross, an assistant city attorney, says she works closely with Columbus police. But her driving record suggests she takes the wheel like someone on the lam. Pulled over for “Driving While Black” is a real problem in Columbus, as is aggressive driving. And with five license suspensionsover 17 years, it makes us wonder if this lead foot is also a serial tailgater, which would be a sure sign Ross is not as friendly as she would like us all to believe.

We asked her, in a roundabout way, whether she supports more “density” for Columbus. Which, as one area commissioner told us, simply means more humans placed in tighter and more expensive storage. Many in Columbus is on board for building more affordable housing in neighborhoods that truly need it. The problem is, Columbus’s establishment Dems – which includes all of City Council – are mostly pushing for greater density in the last cool Columbus neighborhoods, also known as the places their high-end developers demand. For instance, the hospital-looking monstrosity built in Schumacher Place/German Village has not gone over well with longtime residents to say the least.

We asked Ross at our candidate forum whether she is familiar with Studio 35, the iconic movie theatre in Clintonville on Indianola Avenue. And to be clear, the theatre will be around for years to come considering new ownership made major upgrades. Nevertheless, this stretch of Indianola is now under “Zone In,” the City’s zoning code overhaul, which makes it easier for (high-end) developers to build taller without parking requirements.

“What is it?” she asked about Studio 35, and the audience told her.

We get it, and Black residents have told us: Clintonville is almost “all white.” But Clintonville is also almost entirely Democrat, and Studio 35 is one their favorite places. Ross is also a Dem and endorsed by all 9 establishment Dems on City Council. But because City Council’s districts are fake districts, is Ross going to care when Clintonville residents push back against a 16-story tower proposed for North High Street or Indianola? Don’t forget what happened to Olympic Swim Club Pool on Indianola (here’s a painful reminder...replaced with a high-end yet Siberian-gulag looking condominium).  

“I support density, yes,” was Ross’s answer to our question, by the way.

But the most contentious and revealing moment of that night was the tax abatement question offered by former mayoral candidate Joe Motil to all three candidates. City Council of course has always made the claim tax abatements are necessary for businesses to make capital investments locally. On the flipside, the Columbus Education Association, the union representing Columbus public school teachers, says their schools lost $51 million to tax abatements in fiscal year 2021 alone.

Here was Motil’s question (edited for clarity) to all three candidates:

“How would you have voted on the $5.1 million Enterprise Zone tax abatements unanimously approved by City Council [earlier in April for two warehouses to be built]. Tax abatements given for fifteen $20-an-hour jobs and the other company’s twelve $24-an-hour jobs. The jobs would result in $2,550 per month of city income tax revenue or $30,600 annually versus a property tax giveaway of $510,029 annually. One tax abatement recipient, The Jim Pattison Group, whose corporate headquarters is located in Vancouver, British Columbia, has been around for 64 years. They are a diversified holding company that did $16 billion in sales in 2023 and has over 50,000 employees worldwide.”

Candidate Kate Curry-Da-Souza (pictured above with her two sons) responded with a flat out “No.”

“If we want kids to be able to work at Intel,” continued Curry-Da-Souza, “well, then that means they need to have great education right now or they’re not going to be able to get $100,000 jobs, because they’re not going to have the education to support it. And if we’re taking money away from tax abatements because we’re supporting every multi-family housing unit that’s coming through, whether it really truly needed it or not because we didn’t evaluate it on a project-by-project basis, because we just gave it. Then we are taking money away from our school system. And we’re not really supporting the kids that need that, and then we don’t have the workforce here to support those jobs. Why? We’re undercutting ourselves.”

When it was Ross’s turn, she said, “I think it’s irresponsible for me to give you a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on that if I wasn’t part of the process.

“What I do know, is that when we are giving these incentives to corporations and developers, we need to do a better job of auditing what that looks like and understanding what is being given back to the community as a result. How is the community benefiting from them? 

“We want to make sure those tax abatements have specific affordability within them, so we don’t get a bunch of units that cost $3,000 a month a to live in and that we are actually getting affordability.” 

At this point she was told by the audience the tax abatements were for warehouses.

“It seems a little lopsided that billions of dollars are being given to a company and maybe not much is being given back to a community, but I would have to look into that.”

Another question regarding development was offered by the audience, and Ross continued:

“I wish that we had a better, smarter way to incentivize development in our community that gave back to the community more than what we are giving to the developers. 

“There were developers that were getting tax abatements in German Village for residential properties, and maybe that wasn’t even necessary because the market would have handled that in that neighborhood.”

Candidate Jesse Vogel had to leave the forum early, but Motil was able to ask him this same question, who replied it “didn’t sound like a good idea.”

Even though City Council’s districts are fake and representation is at-large, District 7 encompasses Downtown, Short North, Near East Side, Franklinton, Fifth by Northwest, Milo-Grogan, German Village, Italian Village, Fort Hayes, Near East, and the Brewery District.

The top two vote getters for the May 6th primary will move ahead to the November 4th general election.