Mayor Zink reflects on three decades of service
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In the more than 30 years he has spent in public service, Hillsboro Mayor Dick Zink said that he has seen the city and Highland County go through times of economic prosperity, and economic hardships, but through it all, he has had one purpose in mind: Being a servant to the people.
“I didn’t come in for a bunch of glory. I did this to serve the people,” Zink said.
After two terms in office, Zink, a Democrat, chose not to run again this year, and on Jan. 1 will be replaced by Republican Drew Hastings. Hastings beat out Independent candidate John Levo in the Nov. 8 general election.
Zink has served as a member of the Highland County Board of Elections, president of the Hillsboro City Council, mayor pro tem, and two terms as mayor. He’s spent nearly half his life serving in a public office.
It has been 30 years of late-night emergency phone calls, and laying awake after council meetings trying to make decisions for the city, Zink said. While he’s ready for retirement, the mayor says that he’s proud of what he’s been able to do for the city, and looking back, there isn’t much he would change.
“When I was first elected, I said that I was stopping overtime unless I approved it,” Zink said. “They told me that sometimes they get calls at 3 a.m. I said, ‘I’ve got a phone by the bed. You can call me.’”
So, Zink said that he started his first term as mayor by taking emergency phone calls along with the street department, approving overtime as emergencies happened, and sometimes going out in the middle of the night himself to lend a hand in directing traffic, or to observe what city employees had to do.
December 2004 sticks out the most in his mind, Zink said, when looking back over his time in office, when Hillsboro was immobilized by an ice storm. The city was without power, many homes without heat, and some residents were running out of food.
“(When the storm hit), I got called at about 3 o’clock in the morning, and I said, ‘Well, I’ll be right up.’ So I go out and I couldn’t open the front door because there was a tree against it. I couldn’t go out the garage because it was against the garage too. So I went out the back and had to have someone come and pick me up.”
After days of helping city employees and area residents deal with the damage, Zink said that he got a call from the emergency shelter at the old Hillsboro High School cafeteria. “Christmas morning, they were starting to run out of food at the shelter,” Zink said.
“I called Ed Bayless out at Great Scot. I said, ‘Ed, they’re running out of food, can you help us?’ This is Christmas morning, now. He said, ‘Meet me at the store, and he and his daughter filled the trunk of my car with food. (The ice storm) was probably one of the worst things that has happened here.”
Hillsboro was able to overcome it, as it does all obstacles, by adhering to its roots, and coming together as a community.
Zink said that he has relied on support from his family to help him get through tough times in office, noting that his children Steve and Andrea were in high school when he first started serving in office. But his wife, Jo, has been the one who has “put up” with him.
“She told me after I got off council that she’d divorce me if I ever ran for office again,” Zink said with a laugh. “But she hasn’t done it yet!”
Zink said that he has never had a problem making a decision, because he has always looked at the facts he has, and goes with what he feels will ultimately be the best path for the taxpayers.
Severe budget cuts, layoffs and struggling to working with aging infrastructure are among the major challenges he’s faced, Zink said. But he gives the credit of keeping the city going to the department heads.
“I don’t care what anybody says, but it’s not the administration, it’s not the auditor, it’s not council. It’s the department heads who make the sacrifices and make it work to get through the tough times,” he said.
Zink has enjoyed immense support from the Hillsboro City Employees through the years, with fire and police unions endorsing him during his last bid for mayor, and employees often speaking on his behalf.
When asked if that makes it difficult to manage and implement cuts, knowing how the employees have supported him, Zink says he tries not to let that enter his thought process.
“I have never demanded respect from anyone. I have tried to earn it. I felt that way when I was in the private sector, and I felt that way in public office. I say that when I was a floor manager, I had one boss.
“In this office, I say I have 6,000 of them,” Zink said, citing Hillsboro’s population. “That’s the way I’ve always felt. I’ve said this before: Council members, mayors, safety and service directors come and go. But the people who really make your city tick are the employees that are here every day, out in the trenches, doing their jobs. Now, for the employees to trust you
is a real compliment. Once they learn that you’re there with them, to try to make their jobs easier, then it’s good for everybody. If you treat people the way you want to be treated, they’ll pay it back.”
Putting the people first, Zink said, can simplify the decision-making. There is no question, he said, that running the city was easier when more funds were available. “You actually had the money to do the things you needed to do,” Zink said. “You could pave the roads, and build the infrastructure. There are so many things we used to be able to do. But you have to live within what you’ve got.”
Zink said that he’s aware that some of his decisions have been unpopular with some people in town. But he sticks by the decision, and lists one of his more controversial moves as one of the proudest accomplishments of his tenure.
In January 2006, Zink ordered the evacuation of the city’s safety building, then located in the 100 block of North High Street which housed the police and fire departments. The decision subsequently led to council approving the installation of a modular home along Gov. Trimble Place. Four years later, after construction difficulties and litigation over property, in 2010 the new headquarters of Hillsboro Fire and Rescue opened on North East Street.
“I know a lot of people don’t agree. But I’d do the same thing again,” Zink said.
The old safety building is now owned by mayor-elect Hastings, but Zink maintains it would not have been cost effective for the city to make the improvements to bring the building up to code.
With less than six weeks left in the Hillsboro Mayor’s Office, Zink said that he has some thoughts for the incoming administration.
“Put the time in that the job requires, to be able to serve the people who put you in office,” Zink said. “Always be straightforward and honest. And if it’s not broke, don’t try to fix it. It has been a privilege to serve the citizens of Hillsboro, and I wish him the best of luck.”[[In-content Ad]]
“I didn’t come in for a bunch of glory. I did this to serve the people,” Zink said.
After two terms in office, Zink, a Democrat, chose not to run again this year, and on Jan. 1 will be replaced by Republican Drew Hastings. Hastings beat out Independent candidate John Levo in the Nov. 8 general election.
Zink has served as a member of the Highland County Board of Elections, president of the Hillsboro City Council, mayor pro tem, and two terms as mayor. He’s spent nearly half his life serving in a public office.
It has been 30 years of late-night emergency phone calls, and laying awake after council meetings trying to make decisions for the city, Zink said. While he’s ready for retirement, the mayor says that he’s proud of what he’s been able to do for the city, and looking back, there isn’t much he would change.
“When I was first elected, I said that I was stopping overtime unless I approved it,” Zink said. “They told me that sometimes they get calls at 3 a.m. I said, ‘I’ve got a phone by the bed. You can call me.’”
So, Zink said that he started his first term as mayor by taking emergency phone calls along with the street department, approving overtime as emergencies happened, and sometimes going out in the middle of the night himself to lend a hand in directing traffic, or to observe what city employees had to do.
December 2004 sticks out the most in his mind, Zink said, when looking back over his time in office, when Hillsboro was immobilized by an ice storm. The city was without power, many homes without heat, and some residents were running out of food.
“(When the storm hit), I got called at about 3 o’clock in the morning, and I said, ‘Well, I’ll be right up.’ So I go out and I couldn’t open the front door because there was a tree against it. I couldn’t go out the garage because it was against the garage too. So I went out the back and had to have someone come and pick me up.”
After days of helping city employees and area residents deal with the damage, Zink said that he got a call from the emergency shelter at the old Hillsboro High School cafeteria. “Christmas morning, they were starting to run out of food at the shelter,” Zink said.
“I called Ed Bayless out at Great Scot. I said, ‘Ed, they’re running out of food, can you help us?’ This is Christmas morning, now. He said, ‘Meet me at the store, and he and his daughter filled the trunk of my car with food. (The ice storm) was probably one of the worst things that has happened here.”
Hillsboro was able to overcome it, as it does all obstacles, by adhering to its roots, and coming together as a community.
Zink said that he has relied on support from his family to help him get through tough times in office, noting that his children Steve and Andrea were in high school when he first started serving in office. But his wife, Jo, has been the one who has “put up” with him.
“She told me after I got off council that she’d divorce me if I ever ran for office again,” Zink said with a laugh. “But she hasn’t done it yet!”
Zink said that he has never had a problem making a decision, because he has always looked at the facts he has, and goes with what he feels will ultimately be the best path for the taxpayers.
Severe budget cuts, layoffs and struggling to working with aging infrastructure are among the major challenges he’s faced, Zink said. But he gives the credit of keeping the city going to the department heads.
“I don’t care what anybody says, but it’s not the administration, it’s not the auditor, it’s not council. It’s the department heads who make the sacrifices and make it work to get through the tough times,” he said.
Zink has enjoyed immense support from the Hillsboro City Employees through the years, with fire and police unions endorsing him during his last bid for mayor, and employees often speaking on his behalf.
When asked if that makes it difficult to manage and implement cuts, knowing how the employees have supported him, Zink says he tries not to let that enter his thought process.
“I have never demanded respect from anyone. I have tried to earn it. I felt that way when I was in the private sector, and I felt that way in public office. I say that when I was a floor manager, I had one boss.
“In this office, I say I have 6,000 of them,” Zink said, citing Hillsboro’s population. “That’s the way I’ve always felt. I’ve said this before: Council members, mayors, safety and service directors come and go. But the people who really make your city tick are the employees that are here every day, out in the trenches, doing their jobs. Now, for the employees to trust you
is a real compliment. Once they learn that you’re there with them, to try to make their jobs easier, then it’s good for everybody. If you treat people the way you want to be treated, they’ll pay it back.”
Putting the people first, Zink said, can simplify the decision-making. There is no question, he said, that running the city was easier when more funds were available. “You actually had the money to do the things you needed to do,” Zink said. “You could pave the roads, and build the infrastructure. There are so many things we used to be able to do. But you have to live within what you’ve got.”
Zink said that he’s aware that some of his decisions have been unpopular with some people in town. But he sticks by the decision, and lists one of his more controversial moves as one of the proudest accomplishments of his tenure.
In January 2006, Zink ordered the evacuation of the city’s safety building, then located in the 100 block of North High Street which housed the police and fire departments. The decision subsequently led to council approving the installation of a modular home along Gov. Trimble Place. Four years later, after construction difficulties and litigation over property, in 2010 the new headquarters of Hillsboro Fire and Rescue opened on North East Street.
“I know a lot of people don’t agree. But I’d do the same thing again,” Zink said.
The old safety building is now owned by mayor-elect Hastings, but Zink maintains it would not have been cost effective for the city to make the improvements to bring the building up to code.
With less than six weeks left in the Hillsboro Mayor’s Office, Zink said that he has some thoughts for the incoming administration.
“Put the time in that the job requires, to be able to serve the people who put you in office,” Zink said. “Always be straightforward and honest. And if it’s not broke, don’t try to fix it. It has been a privilege to serve the citizens of Hillsboro, and I wish him the best of luck.”[[In-content Ad]]