3 run for 2nd commissioner seat in Republican primary

MOUNT VERNON — Three candidates are on the Republican primary ballot to fill the Knox County commissioner term that starts Jan. 3, 2025.

Drenda Keesee and Bob Phillips are challenging incumbent Thom Collier. In-person voting begins Feb. 21.

To help Knox Countians learn more about the candidates’ views, Knox Pages asked them to complete a questionnaire. Following are their responses.

Thom Collier

Occupation: County Commissioner/Business Owner/Realtor

Education: MVHS, MVNU classes, & 40 years self-employment

Qualifications for office: I have served in the position for 12 years. I have also served as a State Representative, on Mount Vernon City Council, and numerous community boards and commissions. I have 40+ years as a business owner and am a lifelong resident who loves and serves our community.

Why are you running for office?

I want to continue problem-solving, working with people, making our community a better place, and serving.

What are the three most significant issues facing the county?

1. Planning for growth, development, and housing issues.

2. Continuing to be good stewards of the county’s finances, buildings, grounds, and other assets.

3. Reducing the strain on the budget from justice line items and state-mandated programs and property taxes.

What will you do to address them?

1. We have already started the process of updating our county strategic plan. This is a year-long process covering designed growth, farmland preservation, zoning, economic development, and all aspects of our community. We have already received proposals and selected a specialist to help guide us through the process.

2. We have put the county on solid financial footing, retired debt, and made wise investments. We have made huge strides toward repairing, renovating, improving, updating, and maintaining our buildings and grounds. We have repurposed buildings, acquired property contiguous to our campus, and improved access and security. We have also established a proper rotation of our fleet of vehicles for the various departments. We have planned and prioritized projects moving forward and set aside money for capital improvements as well as “rainy-days.”

3. We continue to work with law enforcement, courts, and all involved with the ever-increasing drug and mental health epidemic to ease the burden on our county’s resources. We work closely with CCAO to petition the state legislature on property tax reform as well as indigent defense and election funding.

Drenda Keesee

Occupation: Vice President, Forward Financial Services; Best-selling Author, Minister, TV Host/ Political Commentator

Education: Master’s, Christian Counseling; Doctorate, Divinity

Qualifications for office:

·         Visionary leader, team builder, communicator

·         Mentored small business leaders and families toward success for 25 years

·         Co-founded and built two multi-million-dollar businesses managing $19 mil. budget

·         Founded and managed large non-profit, including physical structures, business processes, HR, purchases, budgets; grew to $53 million in assets with international impact

·         Knowledgeable educator concerning cultural and political issues facing America

·         Researched and authored ten books, including the best-selling books Fight Like Heaven: A Cultural Guide to Living on Guard, and They’re Coming for Your Children: A Fight We Must Win

·         Endorsed by the Ohio Conservatives PAC and Ohio Advocates for Medical Freedom

·         Founded transitional homes for girls and families, as well as a leadership school for ministers

·         Servant-hearted leader that listens to people

·         Served on numerous boards including The CEO Institute, WCVO Chairman of the Board

Drenda Keesee has been a Knox County resident for 28 years. She’s a hard-working, get-it-done, dedicated wife of 42 years, a constitutional patriotic mother of five, grandmother, minister, author, and businesswoman.

As a visionary leader, team-builder and communicator, Drenda has demonstrated proven business results. She has mentored small business leaders and families toward success for 25 years. Together with her husband Gary, she co-founded and built two multi-million businesses from the ground up, managed a $19 million annual budget, and built a non-profit with international impact.

Drenda has founded and still directs a Christian leadership school, a home for at-risk women, and a transition home for families. She has a heart to serve people and has spent her life leading others toward success in their finances, faith, and families. The Ohio Conservative PAC and Ohio Advocates for Medical Freedom have endorsed Drenda with a 100 percent rating. She has served on the Board of The CEO Institute and as WCVO Radio’s Chairman of the Board.

Why are you running for office?

In these uncertain times, I want to serve my community and give back ensuring our future is better than today, and Knox children and grandchildren have a legacy. After living in Knox County for 28 years, I have enjoyed calling this home—a place of solace and refuge with a rural, small-town lifestyle—and raising our family in the country. Our children attended MVNU and COTC. One day to my shock, I discovered that over one million solar panels or better known as industrial solar “farms” were approved in a Knox County Commissioner’s resolution (August 2022) without any disclosure to residents, without transparency, and with little concern for the impact to our community. [Clarification: The resolution the commissioners approved in August 2022 applies to future solar projects in the county. The Frasier Solar project is grandfathered in and not subject to that resolution.]

I am running for office because I will not trust the future of our beautiful community into the hands of my opponents who are both Realtors and potentially have a conflict of interest, since Realtors stand to profit from transactions without concern or consent of residents. I pledge to run for office to protect Knox County from destructive agendas that want to take our resources of water and farmland to serve Columbus over Knox County residents. I believe we need a solid developmental plan guided by common sense that helps our community develop and grow into a prosperous county without sacrificing our families, farmland, and values.

What are the three most significant issues facing the county?

1. Protect Farms: Help our community (and Ohio) push back against the Biden Administration’s “Green New Deal” and energy initiatives or agendas that harm our farmers and farmland—initiatives like industrial solar farm 40-year contracts that damage farmland, or initiatives that require electric combines and other ludicrous demands on businesses to reach zero carbon emissions. These agendas are destructive to American food, energy, and small business.

2. Grow Our Local Economy: We have seen an increase in small business failures, lack of affordable housing especially for younger families, skyrocketing inflation, and tax hikes. Many young families cannot afford to purchase their first home, and with growth at our doorstep, we need better fiscal management. Protect Knox County from corporate buyers, foreign and domestic, who have nefarious plans of development. This includes groups who are anti-farm, militant, or have undisclosed land-use intentions.

3. Foster Strong Families: Protect our children from both physical and emotional harm,  guaranteeing them a competitive education and future. Knox County’s homeless population is increasing dramatically, poverty and drug usage and accompanying hopelessness. We have no policies or plans to handle illegal immigration and the fiscal drain on counties and cities when the federal government leaves illegal persons at their doorstep.

What will you do to address them?

I have fought alongside my friends at Preserve Knox County Ohio for the past two years to push back against the Ohio Public Siting Board approval of industrial solar farm panels in Knox. We were wrongfully told by Commissioners that it was a “done deal,” but the OPSB told me personally that if Commissioners and Trustees stand against the industrial solar projects and demonstrate the will of the people is NOT to allow solar panels, the OPSB has previously turned down two other projects because leaders opposed the project. The OPSB hearing begins April 4^th and if you have not written them in opposition, please do so with case number 23-0796-EL-BGN. Please give them a five-minute testimony of opposition at the April 4th meeting. Let’s not stop fighting this!

As your Commissioner, I will lead the charge to put a resolution in place to protect our unzoned and zoned townships from ever facing future solar panel invasions, or other so-called “green agendas” that may attack our water supply and other natural resources.

I will support our farmers and fight agendas that take their profits and have caused (for the first time in American history) more imports of food than exports produced in America. I will not allow Knox County to become the “battery” for New Albany and Columbus at our expense, as this would be a parasitic relationship that puts us on the losing end. We are a rural, family-farm community, and we should never be a parasitic host for any other big city.

I will be transparent with our citizens and put together a task force that involves trustees and citizens in developmental decisions, creating a master developmental plan derived by conducting town halls and questionnaires with our citizens. I will work with the best engineers, advisers, and researchers to get their input, concerns, and ideas.

I will help our farmers continue to be heroes and produce American agricultural products, ensuring our farmland is protected from unwanted development or destructive policies.

And at the same time, I will create space for quality housing that serves new families while avoiding apartments and resisting all section-8 housing (which historically invites more crime, drugs and fiscal drain.) Growth is inevitable, but how we grow determines how we will prosper, and it needs to come from a well-designed and managed plan with fiscal responsibility. We need more homes in Knox Co., with designated planning and codes that would require rental agencies to make properties safer for families and renovate dilapidated properties for repurpose. More well-built homes on the market will lower costs for new home buyers.

I applaud the work of P-20 led by Rick Shaffer and other public servants who gather on their own time to help ensure our children’s safety and the safety of the community. I would encourage we hire a knowledgeable person to oversee public safety and help develop policies and procedures to protect our community from threats to our children, schools, and looming illegal immigration issues. We have the know-how and skill in our community if we work together.

In these uncertain times, community is more important than ever. Let’s pull together to make Knox County a haven for safety, prosperity, and security.

Bob Phillips

Occupation: Entrepreneur, Investor, Broker/owner of Re/Max Stars
Education: Bachelor of Arts in Business from Capital University
Qualifications: All the above plus a Knox County Resident

Why are you running for office?
To help Knox County grow responsibly into the future

What are the three most significant issues facing the county?
1. Solar on our farmlands
2. Controlled growth/jobs
3. Transparency in our county to the people

What will you do to address them?
1. Stop future large-scale solar – trading our county’s best resource for a way lesser one
2. Grow with structure
3. Make sure the people know when large changes are trying to come in – not after the fact

Knox Pages previously published bios on the Knox County treasurer, Knox County sheriff, and commissioner term Jan. 2, 2025, candidates.