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Her brash and sometimes
boisterous style has been often criticized by the
uninitiated. Yet, the tone and volume of Toledo City
Councilwoman Yvonne Harper’s political voice is often
necessitated by the complex needs among her District 4
constituents, and reflects the passion of a politician who
is in tune with the spirit of a community desperately
needing to draw attention to its plight.
I finally caught up with
the busy (and hoarse) Harper to talk about her political
experiences as she campaigns for reelection.
Perryman:
You’ve only been on City Council since 2015 but it seems as
though you have been active in the community forever. So,
tell me a little bit about your political formation and
early influences.
Harper: The influence really
came from the late George Davis, who approached me about
becoming involved in the NAACP and the Democratic Party and
he encouraged me to stick with my church which was True Vine
in those early days.
Perryman: What time period
did this take place?
Harper: I’m gonna say in the
70’s and then I ran for my first elected position – people
don’t realize it – and it was a precinct chair and then I
was a ward chair. That was my very first political
position.
Perryman: You’ve also
participated with many civic groups.
Harper: Yes. I was the secretary
of the NAACP and under WilliAnn Moore, I was a program chair
of our Freedom Fund banquet for many years. I got a chance
to meet a lot of people and learned how to do fundraising
through training I got when I was part of the Junior League.
Also, I was a member for almost 30 years with the Perry
Burroughs Democratic Women’s club. That’s the oldest black
women’s club in the city, the oldest in the State of Ohio
and we still follow their doctrine which requires you be a
registered Democrat and you must vote and declare yourself,
so you have to vote in the primaries and we still use their
doctrine and bylaws.
Perryman: What have you
learned since arriving on council in 2015?
Harper: I’ve learned to be up
front and transparent. Since I’ve been on council, I go to
every meeting, even if I’m not on the committee. And, why do
I go? People like you might call me and ask me a question.
I don’t wanna get back with you, I want to tell you that I
was in the meeting and this is what happened.
Perryman: What has
contributed to this drive to be transparent?
Harper: Because when I’m in the
community, even before Yvonne ever did anything, people will
always talk about how council passed stuff and don’t nobody
know about it. So, when I got on council, I said ‘I’m gonna
learn and keep people informed so that they will know the
things that are happening.’
Perryman: You have a new
slogan, which says: “I’m in the community.” Please tell me
what that means.
Harper: I’m in the community
because I visit various churches; I go to every block watch
if somebody invites me; I go over to the Grenadier, which is
“the 1343” (Avondale); I go to The Quality; and I used to go
to The Elks. I have not stopped doing what I was doing
before I became a council person.
I’ve sat with some people,
some gentlemen, that are retired that are over at
McDonald’s. I go in there early in the morning because if
you want to know what’s going on, go to any McDonald’s and
see the retirees and they can tell you everything. I listen
to them.
I’m also involved
in the community. When a person calls me, I go out there and
listen to what they have to say. I take pictures of their
concerns and come back and put it in Engage Toledo and then
I follow up and give them the six-digit number and explain
to them that they can call. But I even take it a step
further.
When I get all that
information and gather it together, I inform the mayor, the
22nd floor. I let him know. When I go to his directors, his
commissioners and his managers, I inform him and I include
him on every e-mail that I send to his employees.
So, I take the time to
tell people that I’m in the community all the time. I go to
press conferences when the mayor or anybody invites me, I
go. I go to the Scott Power Hour every quarter and I’m on
the list that principal Dr. Carnell Smith has. I take all
the Toledo City Council meetings, anything that’s going on.
I also take in voting too, because I work with the voting on
the Board of Elections when I’m not on the ballot. And, as
far as myself running for office, I put out my own signs.
I’ve had people help me, but I can put up my own signs.
It’s important for people
to know that I’m in this to win, but also, that I’m not
asking you to do something that I wouldn’t do. I’ve helped
clean alleys; I’ve gone door-to-door with the code
enforcement to tell people that they need to clean up the
alley cause we’re coming through there and that you’re
responsible to maintain that property from the sidewalk to
the street, you keep it clean. So, all of that has helped me
be familiar. People know me. I’m in the community.
Perryman: What is your
agenda for the community should you be reelected?
Harper: I want to get people
more involved. To explain, like the CDBG funding, for
instance, that there are guidelines. For example, you need
to have a 501c, you need to be in business for 3 years, you
need to keep records of your board meetings, who is on there
and they have to individually sign them. People don’t know
that. It’s my job to educate them.
The other thing that I
want to work on, is I want to follow up with youth
engagement. When a youngster comes to me, a student that
wants to shadow me, I have them sitting right by me on
council with me because they can’t learn anything out there
in the audience. When I say yes, I show them, this is why.
Another thing that I want
to work on is the mobile food trucks. You just can’t buy a
food truck and just park on the street. People don’t
understand that. They think it’s public and I’m constantly
out there explaining. They don’t like it, but I’d rather
tell them up front so you won’t get fined.
Perryman: What about these
high-profile claims of police brutality in Toledo?
Harper: And I’m glad you asked
me about that. I’m like every other person. When you hear
it on the news, you get upset, but I go to policemen that
look like me and they give me a different perspective. So,
I have to work and make sure when I’m out there in the
community, like somebody asks me a question, I say listen, I
know what you’re thinking because I saw the same thing, but
there’s two sides to every story. So, we have to make sure
that our policemen realize that all of us that look like me
are not bad people. We need to educate them, and I think
the best education is people that look like me to train or
have them train the police. Just like any job in the city,
there’s good and bad. All policemen are not bad. Also, I’d
like more transparency with the police and I would like
police on every block, but we don’t have it.
Perryman: Last thing.
Council is pretty old, what do you think about getting more
youth elected?
Harper: I would love to see
more young people elected, but you just can’t wake up in the
morning and think you’re immediately gonna be an elected
official. The first question is how are you going to raise
the money? That’s the problem, people that want to run, I
just can’t put you in there, you’ve got to convince the
community that you’re worthwhile, so I would recommend that
council hopefuls first go through a training and mentorship.
Perryman:
Thanks Councilwoman
Harper!
Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, D.Min, at
drdlperryman@centerofhopebaptist.org |
