Why I’m Running for the Dayton Mayor Spot

I don’t know about you, but I love Dayton. I was born here and spent my youth coming here from Xenia so often for one thing or another that I figured I might as well move here, especially after the Dayton craft beer boom. I’ve lived in Walnut Hills and Belmont (now), and I’ve always loved my neighbors. I haven’t, however, always loved our local government. 

You may wonder why… and honestly there are far too many reasons to include in just one blog post. But as someone who has worked for Dayton Power & Light (as a meter reader), Dayton Public Schools (as a PBIS Coach) and the City of Dayton’s Mediation Center (as a mediation specialist), I have a lot of experience working in and for the people of Dayton already, and I’ve learned a lot about their resilience, creativity, inventiveness, and what Dayton Strong truly means.

As a meter reader, I learned the city’s geography (intimately) and what public services delivery looked like in other parts of town. At Dayton Public Schools I learned what challenges our students, teachers, and families face as they strive to help their children do better than they did. As a mediator I learned what conflicts Dayton’s many residents face from all walks of life. Now, as someone who bills himself as “The Dayton Conflict Coach,” I continue to help people in Dayton (and across the globe) as a conflict coach, mediator, facilitator, and more. 

Unfortunately, there’s a lot of my own conflicts that I haven’t been able to get the city to help me with. I’ve had my basement flooded by city malfeasance with raw sewage, only to have the city claim that they bear no responsibility for the damages whatsoever. I’ve seen the police perform dangerous and unnecessary no-knock warrants on my neighbors, busting down doors and leaving them to foot the bill to replace the damage. 

Dayton police have also done far worse recently, exposing the recent "reform" efforts for the sham that they ultimately were, and citing each example simply resurfaces past trauma they've caused. Suffice it to say, Mayor Mims was right about one thing, however, when he said, "We are failing our youth." 

And yet, they refuse to do anything of substance. So I figure that if our own commissioners won’t listen to us, I guess we need to make sure our voices get heard one way or another. Running for mayor is the best solution I’ve come up with for me on that front, and there are a lot of changes to the city that I want to help make happen. But the thing I'd like to do most is inspire others to join this race - even against me - because we need more voices right now because our city government isn't listening to us. I think the fact that every single person running for commission or mayor so far (to my knowledge) is also a former employee of the city says a lot about how it takes working there yourself to understand just how truly dysfunctional it is.

One of those changes I'd like to make is is demilitarizing and ultimately defunding/"repealing" our police department, and replacing it with a Public Safety Force that responds not with the blunt instrument that police represent, but with the right people answering each specific emergency. In the ridea-alongs I’ve done with Dayton police, every officer has told me that mental health crises are the number one thing that they respond to. As someone who is bipolar and has been hospitalized against my will, I can promise you that a police officer (with all of the weaponry that they carry and bring with them) is one of the LAST things someone in a mental health crisis needs. What they need is a social worker who can help them get the care they need. Not someone who sees them solely as a threat. 

I have a vision for what is possible with repealing and replacing our police force, but the community will help decide what it finally looks like. As some ideas, in Berkeley, California the police have ambulances and social workers ride along with them to mental health calls, as one of many examples of the types of changes we need that can only happen by eliminating the police force (as it currently stands) and replacing it, because they won't give up their power (or their budget) on their own without a fight.

We already have a Mediation Response Unit for non-violent disputes between neighbors, which was an idea I pitched to the commission when I worked at the Dayton Mediation Center, and I'm glad they've created it. That should be expanded, and social workers should be added as well to the city staff for mental health calls. And some will be armed for certain calls, but there will be far fewer of them and they'll be far better trained for what their specific tasks will be. Most importantly, however, they will be tasked with responding with minimal force and valuing life above all else, not the protection of property, private or otherwise.

Also, as someone who has a lifelong mental illness and who is married to someone with multiple autoimmune diseases, healthcare is a big issue as well. I believe that recent events have proven just how devastating it can be to try and navigate getting the care you need in this country, and the changes we need are clearly not going to come from the federal government, at least not for a while. Dayton residents need relief now. So, I would bring together local healthcare providers and citizens and community stakeholders to have facilitated discussions to generate the creative solutions needed to get everyone the healthcare they deserve, as a human right. And I'll add this: claiming that we are a “human rights city” without ensuring our residents have health coverage is something that I find to be entirely out-of-wack, and I will be working to change that starting on day one. 

Dayton city commissioners have also been biased towards our downtown for many years now, and while the gains that have materialized from that investment have been beneficial to Dayton as a whole, we cannot continue to prioritize just one part of our city. Residents everywhere deserve the same attention, whether they live in St Clair Lofts or Wolf Creek or Huffman. Solidarity means not leaving any neighborhoods behind as Dayton rises. We must rise together.

But I have seen what is possible when people work together collaboratively here as well. While at the City Of Dayton at the mediation center, I helped that organization embark on the first strategic planning process it had undertaken in many years. I also wrote, managed, and carried out a $120K US State Department grant that the city has continued to get at least four times since my departure that brings 18 students and three teachers to Dayton annually now. Through that grant, and through my work on the Dayton Sister City Committee, I got to help students see the good, the bad, and the ugly side of “democracy at work” here in Dayton, and I am grateful to have had the experience of representing the Gem City to our seven sister cities, and even traveling to Bosnia and Herzegovina to do so. In each of these instances, community partners have played a pivotal role in making these experiences ones that students here (and in other countries) will never forget.

Additionally, while I served on the Dayton Sister City Committee, I helped bring transparency to their budgeting process and institute a new accounting system that helps track where every penny goes. We also added two new sister cities during that time for the first time in many years, and I'm very proud to say that I was chair of the committee when we became sister cities with Salfit, Palestine, which my friend Youssef Elzein was instrumental in making possible. I also instituted a policy of ensuring that meeting minutes from the committee were available publicly before and after each meeting, something that had not previously been done. And, in addition to many other changes, I ensured that committee members started abiding by public policies that they had been ignorant of (or ignored) for many years, such as term limits.

And don’t get me wrong, I love my city; but it’s high time that Dayton residents had a commission that works for them, as opposed to working for themselves. Mayor Mims has made clear that he believes he deserves tens of thousands of dollars more for doing his part-time job [check out Payroll Project: Dayton Mayor pay spiked 53% last year], and that is brazenly out-of-touch. Especially given that it is over $20,000 more than the woman who held the job immediately before him. My first resolution will be to lower the future salary that Dayton mayors can make and restoring it to a level at or below what Mayor Whaley made for doing the same job as the man who now holds that office.

I also believe we need housing for the homeless, and I would love for us to do something similar to what other communities have done and build tiny house communities to help people get back on their feet and get them the care and support they need. This has been done in other communities, and I would be the first to be helping build these shelters for people, which can be done very inexpensively... I should know, I've built some prototypes.

And most importantly, what I represent is transparency. For far too long, Dayton’s leaders have been accustomed to making decisions behind closed doors and limiting debate and dissent. This will end as soon as I become mayor. A good friend of mine once told me he would make his inbox public on day one if he became mayor, and I like that idea, so I told them I was going to do it too. I also vow to ensure that every single item that comes before the commission will be handled with respect for Ohio’s Sunshine and Public Record Laws. Dayton leaders are not unique in their disregard for Sunshine Laws, sadly, but they should be. They should be unique for setting the standard on public input and transparency in public decisions, and that’s a promise I can deliver on from day one.

Much like the last time I ran for office and became Xenia’s vice president for the Board of Education, I am running out of anger, but it’s a righteous anger. Because it SHOULD upset us when our politicians don’t listen to us. It SHOULD upset us when they disregard and try to marginalize already-marginalized voices. And it SHOULD anger us when they are working to enrich themselves while their residents struggle to get by. And while I will be just one vote out of five, there is a great deal of work I can do to restore that public trust on my own.

And the reason I am positive of that is that I know so many amazing and hard-working and talented individuals in this city who are sick and tired of not being represented in their local government, and I believe people are eager for an opportunity to share and voice their opinions. As a mediator, I have set at tables across from so many people who did not see eye-to-eye when they came in the mediation room, but left feeling heard and valued and appreciated. That’s how I want my city to be run: collaboratively. To that end, I will push the commission to adopt a charter that would enshrine participatory democracy into our local democracy and make it a direct democracy where you can vote at home, conveniently, on your phone, to weigh in on topics of public import. We life in an age where a direct, participatory democracy is possible, and I want to put the city's power into your hands in whatever way is possible.  

Dayton is known internationally as a city of peace, and yet our own commission can't get along with one another. We're also known as the inventors of the city manager form of government, but maybe we innovate and create a whole new way of doing government that the world has never seen... again. If that interests you, I hope to get your support.

So, I hope you will share your opinions with me now. You can email me (gemcitydudeistpriest@gmail.com) or call me or text me (‪513-400-3538‬) or message me through Facebook, find me on TikTok (while it lasts, I'm also on Lemon8), or maybe stopping by our house sometime while we sit out on our front porch with our friends and neighbors, because I will always want to hear from you. You are who I represent and want to empower so that we can run this city ourselves, without the current, corrupt, ruling, political class.

Also, if you're wondering why I'm running for mayor and not commissioner, it's because there's a 3/2 split right now on the city commission, and the mayor is the one who can end it. I'd rather work with Commissioners Turner-Sloss and Fairchild than Shaw and Joseph, because those two are a part of the problem, not the solution. 

Also, as part of the Democrat establishment, Karen Wick is just going to make the problem worse, so at this point I would prefer to work with those two (unless other more favorable candidates for change enter the race).

And to that end, please be on the lookout on my social media platforms for information about an upcoming dialogue session. I will be facilitating it, so it is not an opportunity to share my views, but rather an opportunity for you to share yours with me and other Daytonians. Follow my socials or this blog to make sure you hear about them.

Thank you to all who have reached out with excitement about my campaign for mayor, and please don’t hesitate to reach out yourself.

But, you know, all that's just like, my opinion, dude.

Abiding in Dayton,

- Archie Magee, the Gem City Dudeist Priest

Paid for by Friends of the Gem City Dudeist Priest Archie Magee.