SEAN ‘KALIN’ STIPE SEEKING LORAIN COUNCIL AT-LARGE SEAT
Lorain resident and community activist Sean “Kalin” Stipe has filed to run as a Libertarian candidate for a Lorain City Council at-large seat in the May 5, 2009, primary and has launched his campaign Web site,
www.seanstipe.com.
Stipe says he is running because “it is time for well-thought-out fresh ideas to be intelligently debated.” Stipe brings a three-pronged approach to helping Lorain: strong principles, thorough research and intelligent debate.
The city of Lorain needs to be willing to look at a whole new way of approaching things, Stipe says. He has spent the past eight years attending Lorain council meetings and committee meetings and studying actions by similar “peer cities” around the country. “I find out what works and I make contact,” Stipe says. “I’ve heard firsthand what works and how it works.” Stipe says his years of observation and research make him ready to serve the community from day one.
Referring to a variety of administrative problems, including Lorain‘s budget problems and lack of an employee manual, he says, “We’re not being business-smart on a basic level. We don’t need to increase taxes, we need to restructure how Lorain does business.”
Stipe demands accountability with city funds. Lorain’s “shell game” with city funds is not only wrong but illegal, he says, and could make the city a target for lawsuits or action from the state. “Stop asking us for money without showing us what it’s going to be used for,” Stipe says.
Stipe proposes rethinking the city’s safety services and the city’s work force in general. Rather than a separate fire department and police department, he suggests “safety officers,” an idea that has been successful in Kalamazoo, Mich. “If there’s a fire, they go to a fire. If there’s not a fire, they can be patrolling the streets,” he says. “You take our largest chunk of payroll and restructure to meet our needs.” He also wants to look at pooling laborers in the general work force through a Public Works Division.
To combat crime, he wants to restore community resource officers and give full support to the Neighborhood Block Watch Program. A proactive approach “helps people take care of their neighborhoods” rather than just relying on a quality but reactionary police force.
There’s way too much red tape for a company to come in and do business in Lorain, Stipe says. “Let businesses do what they do,” he says. “Private enterprise is capable of doing these things if Lorain gets out of the way.” A simple-three part approach of planning, zoning and vision will make Lorain “a city where people will bring work and where people will want to work.”
The Libertarian Party’s motto, “Smaller government, lower taxes, more freedom,” is “a set of principles I already abide by,” Stipe says. “Instead of tending to the basics, government has grown into a bloated conglomerate of political services that gets larger every year with no end in sight.”
Stipe grew up in the Amherst area with a large close-knit family that has been in Lorain for more than a century. He attended Kent State University and Ohio University. He has spent his career in entertainment, working as an independent artist and technician at professional theaters around Cleveland and in teaching positions at Amherst High School and Baldwin-Wallace College. He has excelled at taking bare-bones budgets and finding creative methods to produce a final product for all to enjoy.
In January, the Libertarian Party of Ohio achieved ballot access in Ohio through the 2009 election and is now considered a minor in the state of Ohio. The Libertarian Party reaches out to voters who are tired of the politics as usual and see little difference between the major parties. Its basic philosophy is individual rights and personal responsibility, and its goal is reducing government to the minimum required to protect the rights of its citizens.
