Hastings says leadership is essential for Hillsboro mayor's office WATCH THE VIDEO
Lead Summary
By
Brandy Chandler-brandychandler@gmail.com
While it would have been easier to wait four years to run for office or stay out of politics altogether, Drew Hastings said he felt the city of Hillsboro needed a strong leader to step up and bring in new ideas for the future, while bringing back the sense of community from the past.
Hastings, an uptown property owner and developer, and comedian, said he felt a responsibility to be that leader.
The 57-year-old Republican will face Hillsboro City Council member Rod Daniels and Hillsboro business owner Terry Mikkelsen in the May 3 primary election. The winner will face Independent candidate John Levo in the November general election.
"We're at a point in Hillsboro where something needs to happen," Hastings said. "My mother, who was against me running for mayor, said this would be a lot a easier - and a number of people told me this - 'Drew, this would be a lot more convenient, it would work out a lot better if you would run four years from now. Not now.' But Hillsboro doesn't have another four years. I felt that the momentum was there. I felt that with what I've done in the private sector, now is the time to move that positive activity into the public sector, and try to keep that same sense of enthusiasm that a lot of people will tell you has been created around town and move it into our city administration. I think it's time for, in a way, a generational change. I think I represent a younger energy than what we currently have. Nothing against retirees, but this town, I believe, needs more than a retiree. I believe to get this town back on track and to make it as great as it was, and what it can be, is going to need a sustained organized effort."
Hastings said that he feels members of the Hillsboro community have a perception that he is younger than he really is and perhaps more inexperienced. However, he said he has nearly 40 years of business and leadership experience. He has started his own businesses in Ohio and managed his entertainment career, which he said some people view in a negative light.
"I was never that enamored with trying to get famous, which a lot of people in my business are," Hastings said, "which is why I've turned down a lot of shows that I felt were either compromising or didn't deal with my sensibility, and ultimately why I left Los Angeles. When you're a talent in entertainment, all you have is your integrity and the power to say no to something. I'm performance-oriented, and I like touring and working the road, and that's what I did. And I'd like to put this whole 'comedian' thing to rest. I think people look a little too much at it, or make too much of it. Here's the bottom line on me being a comedian. Anybody of the thousands and thousands of fans that I have knows that I am known for doing social commentary, social satire and political humor. The theme of a lot of my standup comedy for the last five or 10 yeas was that, comedically, we've lost all common sense in this country. And I decided about a year ago I can continue to write jokes and make humor about the state of our country and where we are, or I can actually do something about it. And that was the segue and the leap I made, and why I'm running for mayor."
Hastings, an owner of the former Fifth Third Bank Building at the corner of High Street and Main Street and the former Hillsboro Safety Building, a co-owner of the Bells Opera House, and former owner of the Hillsboro Armory, said all people need to know about what he can do for Hillsboro is to look at what he has already done.
"The bottom line is, look at what I have done uptown, in this town, in the last five years," Hastings said. "Look, and ask what my opponents have done in the last five years. I think the results speak for themselves. I am very results-oriented. I have a very strong work ethic. That makes up for a lot of things. I tend to be creative and think a little bit outside of the box, so I can look at something from a fresh angle."
Uptown revitalization is key to the future of Hillsboro, Hastings said.
"Part of the reason that uptown revitalization is key to what I want to do here is it's not just 60 buildings being restored or renovated," Hastings said. "It recreates our sense of community. If I get anything from voters, it's that people are lost. There's no community left in Hillsboro. A vibrant uptown with businesses attracts people. But it's not just that. It's a community. It's a central meeting place."
Hastings said that some people have the impression that he is not from the area, but he is actually a Southern Ohio native.
"I'm from Southern Ohio. I've never lived beyond 50 miles of Hillsboro, except for when I was in California. I started working when I was 19 years old," he said. "I've always been self-employed. I've always owned my own business. Some of them were very small businesses. My first business was a janitorial company that started with me and another guy, and I scrubbed toilets for two years. That's how I put myself through (University of Cincinnati). I decided I didn't want to be a janitor for the rest of my life, so I went into the trucking business. That was by the seat of my pants. I learned about trucking and warehousing. I was in downtown Cincinnati down in the west end in the late '70s. I then went from the trucking and warehousing business, and I saw the writing on the wall and there was a new industry emerging in storage and warehousing that was commercial records and file storage."
Though it is an established industry now, Hastings said at the time it was very "cutting edge" to be involved with off-site backup computer data recovery.
When he was in his early 30s, Hastings said, he decided he wanted to do something more creative with his life and went into standup comedy.
"I never graduated from high school. I got a GED at age 22," Hastings said. "I never managed to graduate from college. I was a college drop-out. I couldn't afford to put myself through college. I've worked very hard most of my life, so I guess I tend to be kind of 'up from the boot heels' kind of background."
Hastings said that he does not feel the other candidates who have college degrees, and a post-graduate degree, have better qualifications than he does because he said those degrees do not necessarily translate to qualities that the city needs in a leader.
"Hillsboro doesn't have a lack of academic achievement. Hillsboro has a leadership problem," Hastings said. "And leadership - that's not a degree. Leadership is something that is from experience. I think it tends to be somewhat innate. You tend to be either someone who is leader-oriented or follower-oriented, or just neither."
Hastings said that an area in which he can be most effective is his capacity to get others to take an interest and become involved.
"The great times in this city were when business leaders were actively involved in this community," Hastings said. "Business leaders are not actively involved in this community anymore. I am probably one of the few business leaders that is actively involved in this community. Business leaders, business owners that should be really active in the community live outside the city of Hillsboro now."
When he approaches the "citizens of Hillsboro," he doesn't see its residents as just the people inside the city limits who are registered to vote. Hastings said Hillsboro extends far out into Highland County.
"Hillsboro is bigger than its city limits," he said. "There are a lot of people who live in the county who are most certainly Hillsboroans. They were born here, they were raised here, they own businesses uptown here, and just because they can't vote here does not mean they're not a Hillsboroan, and I think that's a little bit important to point out."
Hastings said he went door to door in the uptown area, speaking to the business owners.
"Nobody uptown, be it worker or business owner, very few of them lived in town," he said. "And that was very telling to me. So a part of what I'm trying to do is get some of the influential people re-involved in this town. That's what we have to have happen. And I think that's what I bring to the table to a degree. That's what a leader does, and you don't need a degree for that."
Hastings, who lives in a townhouse off of East Main Street, said he has been a legal resident of the city since October 2010.
"Suffice to say I am a legal resident of the city of Hillsboro," Hastings said. "I do have a farm out in New Market, obviously, and I still go out there fairly often. I have found that the residency issue isn't as big a deal as it was. I think people really should be more concerned, less with what I do when I'm sleeping, as opposed to what I'm doing in my waking hours. Legally, I am a citizen and a resident of Hillsboro, that is backed up by the law director and the board of elections."
When asked why an Ohio LLC filing with the Ohio Secretary of State's Office listed his place of residence as 4710 Caleb Hill Road, Hastings said he has five LLCs in the state of Ohio, and that his mail goes to various places, including his farm, his in-city residence, and a post office box.
Among those LLCs is the non-profit organization he started to begin revitalization projects in the uptown area, and especially with the Bells Opera House. The Ohio Department of Development awarded a $150,000 Community Development Block Grant in December 2010 to the city of Hillsboro toward rehabilitating the property. Hastings said they have received $250,000. Hastings said that he does not see a conflict, or the appearance of a conflict, if he becomes mayor while his group is receiving funds through the city.
"I don't have to rationalize it, I'd rather just tell the truth," Hastings said. "I was given a choice to accept the money as a private entity or to accept the money straight to the non-profit. There are legal issues giving it directly to the non-profit right now that have to be sorted out because we're in the beginning stages. So it was decided that it made more sense for it to go into the private owners - which is Opera House Enterprises, LLC. It went into a separate account. For transparency's sake, I didn't want any kind of commingling of funds, I didn't want any kind of appearance of impropriety. So we have a separate account at a separate bank, and those funds are specified by the state of Ohio for weatherization, stabilization."
Hastings said he anticipates work to start no later than April 25.
As the election approaches, Hastings said he initially tried to distance himself from his career as a comedian in the minds of voters.
"At the beginning of the campaign, I probably felt I should distance myself from my entertainment background," he said. "I have since come to believe that I don't really need to. What I need to do is clarify its place in my life and in Hillsboro's life. People have very short attention spans. If you go back over the last 150 years of mayors in this town, we have had all kinds of mayors. I mean, as recently as 15 years ago, we had a two- or three-term mayor who was a school bus driver. Now, is a school bus driver any more outlandish or different than an entertainer? Is a cemetery monument owner really any different than an entertainer? Every mayor has had an outside career, 'cause face it, the mayor's job is a part-time job, it doesn't pay a great deal of money."
Hastings said that his work does take him out of state on a regular basis, but that he did not feel that would be a detriment to the city. With a good safety and service director, he said that all emergency situations could be handled, and he can come back if he is needed.
An additional aspect of his career in entertainment, Hastings said, is that he wants to "use what limited celebrity I have in a positive way."
Hastings said a lot of that has to do with the contacts that he has across the country, An example, he said, is that campaign donations have come from multiple states from people who have no stake in what happens in Hillsboro.
"So to say I would use my celebrity in a positive way, yes," he said. "If there is a way I could figure out how to do it, I most certainly would. What is the mayor but really the city's best ambassador or cheerleader, and business leader? I will use my ability to get on television or radio and my talent for writing a humorous line for getting people to come down here in a positive way."
When it comes to voters making a choice on their Republican candidate for Hillsboro mayor, Hastings said he want to bring his private sector success into the Hillsboro administration. The people of Hillsboro, he said, have a great potential as a community.
"The issue we have that you hear from the voters need to be solved, put behind us, and (let's) move on," Hastings said. "We're capable of much bigger things here. And I think I represent the ability to bring this community together as one, and do something larger."
While it would have been easier to wait four years to run for office or stay out of politics altogether, Drew Hastings said he felt the city of Hillsboro needed a strong leader to step up and bring in new ideas for the future, while bringing back the sense of community from the past.
Hastings, an uptown property owner and developer, and comedian, said he felt a responsibility to be that leader.
The 57-year-old Republican will face Hillsboro City Council member Rod Daniels and Hillsboro business owner Terry Mikkelsen in the May 3 primary election. The winner will face Independent candidate John Levo in the November general election.
"We're at a point in Hillsboro where something needs to happen," Hastings said. "My mother, who was against me running for mayor, said this would be a lot a easier - and a number of people told me this - 'Drew, this would be a lot more convenient, it would work out a lot better if you would run four years from now. Not now.' But Hillsboro doesn't have another four years. I felt that the momentum was there. I felt that with what I've done in the private sector, now is the time to move that positive activity into the public sector, and try to keep that same sense of enthusiasm that a lot of people will tell you has been created around town and move it into our city administration. I think it's time for, in a way, a generational change. I think I represent a younger energy than what we currently have. Nothing against retirees, but this town, I believe, needs more than a retiree. I believe to get this town back on track and to make it as great as it was, and what it can be, is going to need a sustained organized effort."
Hastings said that he feels members of the Hillsboro community have a perception that he is younger than he really is and perhaps more inexperienced. However, he said he has nearly 40 years of business and leadership experience. He has started his own businesses in Ohio and managed his entertainment career, which he said some people view in a negative light.
"I was never that enamored with trying to get famous, which a lot of people in my business are," Hastings said, "which is why I've turned down a lot of shows that I felt were either compromising or didn't deal with my sensibility, and ultimately why I left Los Angeles. When you're a talent in entertainment, all you have is your integrity and the power to say no to something. I'm performance-oriented, and I like touring and working the road, and that's what I did. And I'd like to put this whole 'comedian' thing to rest. I think people look a little too much at it, or make too much of it. Here's the bottom line on me being a comedian. Anybody of the thousands and thousands of fans that I have knows that I am known for doing social commentary, social satire and political humor. The theme of a lot of my standup comedy for the last five or 10 yeas was that, comedically, we've lost all common sense in this country. And I decided about a year ago I can continue to write jokes and make humor about the state of our country and where we are, or I can actually do something about it. And that was the segue and the leap I made, and why I'm running for mayor."
Hastings, an owner of the former Fifth Third Bank Building at the corner of High Street and Main Street and the former Hillsboro Safety Building, a co-owner of the Bells Opera House, and former owner of the Hillsboro Armory, said all people need to know about what he can do for Hillsboro is to look at what he has already done.
"The bottom line is, look at what I have done uptown, in this town, in the last five years," Hastings said. "Look, and ask what my opponents have done in the last five years. I think the results speak for themselves. I am very results-oriented. I have a very strong work ethic. That makes up for a lot of things. I tend to be creative and think a little bit outside of the box, so I can look at something from a fresh angle."
Uptown revitalization is key to the future of Hillsboro, Hastings said.
"Part of the reason that uptown revitalization is key to what I want to do here is it's not just 60 buildings being restored or renovated," Hastings said. "It recreates our sense of community. If I get anything from voters, it's that people are lost. There's no community left in Hillsboro. A vibrant uptown with businesses attracts people. But it's not just that. It's a community. It's a central meeting place."
Hastings said that some people have the impression that he is not from the area, but he is actually a Southern Ohio native.
"I'm from Southern Ohio. I've never lived beyond 50 miles of Hillsboro, except for when I was in California. I started working when I was 19 years old," he said. "I've always been self-employed. I've always owned my own business. Some of them were very small businesses. My first business was a janitorial company that started with me and another guy, and I scrubbed toilets for two years. That's how I put myself through (University of Cincinnati). I decided I didn't want to be a janitor for the rest of my life, so I went into the trucking business. That was by the seat of my pants. I learned about trucking and warehousing. I was in downtown Cincinnati down in the west end in the late '70s. I then went from the trucking and warehousing business, and I saw the writing on the wall and there was a new industry emerging in storage and warehousing that was commercial records and file storage."
Though it is an established industry now, Hastings said at the time it was very "cutting edge" to be involved with off-site backup computer data recovery.
When he was in his early 30s, Hastings said, he decided he wanted to do something more creative with his life and went into standup comedy.
"I never graduated from high school. I got a GED at age 22," Hastings said. "I never managed to graduate from college. I was a college drop-out. I couldn't afford to put myself through college. I've worked very hard most of my life, so I guess I tend to be kind of 'up from the boot heels' kind of background."
Hastings said that he does not feel the other candidates who have college degrees, and a post-graduate degree, have better qualifications than he does because he said those degrees do not necessarily translate to qualities that the city needs in a leader.
"Hillsboro doesn't have a lack of academic achievement. Hillsboro has a leadership problem," Hastings said. "And leadership - that's not a degree. Leadership is something that is from experience. I think it tends to be somewhat innate. You tend to be either someone who is leader-oriented or follower-oriented, or just neither."
Hastings said that an area in which he can be most effective is his capacity to get others to take an interest and become involved.
"The great times in this city were when business leaders were actively involved in this community," Hastings said. "Business leaders are not actively involved in this community anymore. I am probably one of the few business leaders that is actively involved in this community. Business leaders, business owners that should be really active in the community live outside the city of Hillsboro now."
When he approaches the "citizens of Hillsboro," he doesn't see its residents as just the people inside the city limits who are registered to vote. Hastings said Hillsboro extends far out into Highland County.
"Hillsboro is bigger than its city limits," he said. "There are a lot of people who live in the county who are most certainly Hillsboroans. They were born here, they were raised here, they own businesses uptown here, and just because they can't vote here does not mean they're not a Hillsboroan, and I think that's a little bit important to point out."
Hastings said he went door to door in the uptown area, speaking to the business owners.
"Nobody uptown, be it worker or business owner, very few of them lived in town," he said. "And that was very telling to me. So a part of what I'm trying to do is get some of the influential people re-involved in this town. That's what we have to have happen. And I think that's what I bring to the table to a degree. That's what a leader does, and you don't need a degree for that."
Hastings, who lives in a townhouse off of East Main Street, said he has been a legal resident of the city since October 2010.
"Suffice to say I am a legal resident of the city of Hillsboro," Hastings said. "I do have a farm out in New Market, obviously, and I still go out there fairly often. I have found that the residency issue isn't as big a deal as it was. I think people really should be more concerned, less with what I do when I'm sleeping, as opposed to what I'm doing in my waking hours. Legally, I am a citizen and a resident of Hillsboro, that is backed up by the law director and the board of elections."
When asked why an Ohio LLC filing with the Ohio Secretary of State's Office listed his place of residence as 4710 Caleb Hill Road, Hastings said he has five LLCs in the state of Ohio, and that his mail goes to various places, including his farm, his in-city residence, and a post office box.
Among those LLCs is the non-profit organization he started to begin revitalization projects in the uptown area, and especially with the Bells Opera House. The Ohio Department of Development awarded a $150,000 Community Development Block Grant in December 2010 to the city of Hillsboro toward rehabilitating the property. Hastings said they have received $250,000. Hastings said that he does not see a conflict, or the appearance of a conflict, if he becomes mayor while his group is receiving funds through the city.
"I don't have to rationalize it, I'd rather just tell the truth," Hastings said. "I was given a choice to accept the money as a private entity or to accept the money straight to the non-profit. There are legal issues giving it directly to the non-profit right now that have to be sorted out because we're in the beginning stages. So it was decided that it made more sense for it to go into the private owners - which is Opera House Enterprises, LLC. It went into a separate account. For transparency's sake, I didn't want any kind of commingling of funds, I didn't want any kind of appearance of impropriety. So we have a separate account at a separate bank, and those funds are specified by the state of Ohio for weatherization, stabilization."
Hastings said he anticipates work to start no later than April 25.
As the election approaches, Hastings said he initially tried to distance himself from his career as a comedian in the minds of voters.
"At the beginning of the campaign, I probably felt I should distance myself from my entertainment background," he said. "I have since come to believe that I don't really need to. What I need to do is clarify its place in my life and in Hillsboro's life. People have very short attention spans. If you go back over the last 150 years of mayors in this town, we have had all kinds of mayors. I mean, as recently as 15 years ago, we had a two- or three-term mayor who was a school bus driver. Now, is a school bus driver any more outlandish or different than an entertainer? Is a cemetery monument owner really any different than an entertainer? Every mayor has had an outside career, 'cause face it, the mayor's job is a part-time job, it doesn't pay a great deal of money."
Hastings said that his work does take him out of state on a regular basis, but that he did not feel that would be a detriment to the city. With a good safety and service director, he said that all emergency situations could be handled, and he can come back if he is needed.
An additional aspect of his career in entertainment, Hastings said, is that he wants to "use what limited celebrity I have in a positive way."
Hastings said a lot of that has to do with the contacts that he has across the country, An example, he said, is that campaign donations have come from multiple states from people who have no stake in what happens in Hillsboro.
"So to say I would use my celebrity in a positive way, yes," he said. "If there is a way I could figure out how to do it, I most certainly would. What is the mayor but really the city's best ambassador or cheerleader, and business leader? I will use my ability to get on television or radio and my talent for writing a humorous line for getting people to come down here in a positive way."
When it comes to voters making a choice on their Republican candidate for Hillsboro mayor, Hastings said he want to bring his private sector success into the Hillsboro administration. The people of Hillsboro, he said, have a great potential as a community.
"The issue we have that you hear from the voters need to be solved, put behind us, and (let's) move on," Hastings said. "We're capable of much bigger things here. And I think I represent the ability to bring this community together as one, and do something larger."