Trending
Editor's Note: The following East Liverpool mayoral candidate response was not included in a pre-election story published in the Oct. 17 edition.
EAST LIVERPOOL -- The 5,455 registered voters in East Liverpool will have to decide between three candidates when they cast their vote in the Nov. 7 General Election.
The candidates are Darlene S. Kinsey (D), 67, 7 Highland Colony; Shawn David McKinnon (I), 27, 637 Fisher Ave., and Bobby Smith (I), 64, 1421 St. Clair Ave.
Darlene Kinsey
Kinsey, a 1974 graduate of East Liverpool High School, furthered her education through multiple seminars in multiple states for multiple sales, marketing, customer service and product knowledge in automotive excellence. She also graduated from an eight-week course at the Columbiana Mahoning County Leadership Academy in Youngstown.
Kinsey, who is currently employed by the City of East Liverpool Health District as a community health specialist has held a variety of other positions through the years including preschool registrar at the East Liverpool Area Pre-School Co-op, a rural relief mail carrier in Calcutta in the early 1980s, the first female automotive salesperson in the tri-state area in 1989 where she would go on to spend 25 years in the automotive industry, and then went on to spend eight years employed by PACYBER and Buckeye Online School for success as an enrollment coordinator and marketing director.
Her involvement in community activities includes past president and current vice president of the Southern Columbiana County Chamber of Commerce (newly renamed River Valley Chamber of Commerce), member of the HHH Foundation Board of Directors of the East Liverpool Community and Learning Center, served on the boards of E.L.C.P.R. and the Edutech Corridor, current member of the East Liverpool Elks #258 and past member of the Lady Moose Lodge and the Kiwanis.
Kinsey is a widow with three children and 12 grandchildren.
She has not previously held an elective office and has lost three elections for public office. In the early 1980s she ran as a write-in for the unexpired term for the Wellsville Board of Education. In the 1990s she ran for the East Liverpool school board, and she lost for East Liverpool mayor to Jim Swogger 20 years ago.
She has never been appointed to a public body.
Kinsey listed her qualifications for the position as having a great ability of reasoning, being a good judge of character, being fair and impartial on matters with opposing sides, not being too proud to ask for a solution or help. She noted that she believes in fairness and openness and does not believe herself to be better or less than anyone else and she can lead with compassion.
"I believe in my city of East Liverpool as a great place to work and raise a family and will settle for no less than making this town better than it has been in the last 30 years," Kinsey said. "There are many good, hardworking individuals with great visions of how to move this town forward and I will enlist each of their talents to achieve a cleaner, better East Liverpool."
Kinsey said she believes her years of working with the public have prepared her to serve the residents proudly.
Kinsey said she is seeking the office of mayor because through her current position with the health department she has seen city hall lacking in many areas of service to residents and believes city employees to be underpaid and underappreciated and wants to find ways of reinvesting in a great workforce.
She also noted the lack of pride throughout the community and said she feels a plan must be established to clean up, fix up and reinvest in the city. She said she also wants to see re-development of family focused sports locations, family recreation and activity facilities and focusing on the housing issues that plague the city.
Kinsey, who has never been convicted of a felony, said she feels that voters should choose her for several different reasons, but listed her perspective as the top one.
"My perspective on many hot topic issues pertaining to the city often varies drastically from those of my opponents. I do not judge people by what they say or how they say it," Kinsey said. "I make judgement of issues and individuals based on need, character, honesty, integrity and work ethic. As a mother, a hardworking single woman with a large family, I feel my judgement is always based on clear and concise details when tasked with decisions large and small. I feel I possess wisdom of age without arrogance and will make wise choices for our city as its caretaker."