Festival of the Forks

The weekend of September 16th was a rousing success for the "Fish For Commish" Campaign. Randy rode in the Albion Festival of the Forks Parade (driven by Rose Mary) and greeted thousands of supporters. Afterwards, he "manned his booth" and shared discussions with many supporters and gave out hundreds of balloons to the children. It was a very inspirational day (with great food and entertainment).

Candidate Fisher receives a warm welcome from local churches

On September 10th, Randy (and wife Rose Mary) were invited to attend service and speak to the congregation at Grace Temple Church of God, in Albion. Pastor Steve Williams gave a "stirring" sermon. Randy's message of leadership was well received by the congregation.

On September 24th, Randy was invited to speak and share in the Word of God, with Bethel Baptist Church of Albion. Reverend Fred Alexander and the congregation made Randy and his wife Rose Mary feel right at home. Afterwards, many parishioners shared their concerns regarding Calhoun County Government and encouraged Randy in his Campaign.

Candidate Fisher provides ethanol update to Government Officials from Ohio & Illinois

On September 11th, Randy (along with other township dignitaries) was invited, by "The Andersons" of Maumee, OH to meet with Officials from several out-of-state communities, to discuss the process that was involved in the development of the new ethanol plant in Sheridan Township. Mr. Fisher led many of the discussions with his insight regarding potential citizen concerns and how they were addressed in the conditional use permitting process. The visiting officials extended their thanks to all participants and were grateful for the "voice of experience" that we provided. They felt that, given the helpful information they received, the trip to Albion was more than worth while.

Over the last year, I have met with many of our citizens and elected officials. They have indicated that the following issues are of the utmost importance to them.

The most important issue to come up over the last few months is the projected budget reductions that will be needed in the future. Other issues are identified below, as part of how I plan to address the budget issue.

The County Commissioners that are elected this November will have to deal with one of the most difficult budget projections that Calhoun County has ever experienced (due to the "flat" tax revenues and "lost" State Revenue Sharing).

To meet this challenge, I believe our County must develop new methods of operations. All Elected Officials and Judges, along with Directors of County Boards, will be forced to seek alternative methods of operation and budget reductions. This will require very "frank and honest" discussions. A great deal of trust will be required. Currently, this would be difficult to accomplish, due to the inherent "territorial" attitudes that exist within the County Government structure. To overcome this, the voters of Calhoun County have indicated to me, that they want County leaders with "non-partisan" attitudes and no conflict of interests.

Regarding the County Budget, I will work to improve the following:

• Budget proposals that include more shared services within the County and increased collaboration with Townships and Cities in an attempt maintain services to Citizens.
• Funding of the Sheriff's Department will be reviewed to see if a new method can be determined that would allow the Sheriff to focus on Public Safety (and not raising funds for County operations).
• Both the funding of our Court System and collection of fees and judgments needs to be reviewed and improved. Again this will require frank discussions with the Judges.
  Note: Because my opponent has been in a conflict of interest law suit (ever since he was elected), I don't believe that the Sheriff or the Judges would feel comfortable sharing information with him.
• Try to maintain personnel and services to our county residents, even if it requires "across the board" wage freezes. I believe in a "team approach" in life. We should all gain together and feel the pain together. I feel it is better to maintain personnel with wage freezes than cut personnel and services to reduce the budget.

Many Citizens of the 7th District have indicated that they are not pleased with the current leadership of the 7th District. They have not witnessed many reports from our current Commissioner at Local Government meetings or other public organization meetings. They feel "out of touch" with our County Government due to this. Furthermore, they question, "how can our current commissioner be effective", if he was involved in "conflict of interest" law suits with some of the County Leaders? I agree with the voters of the 7th District.

I have no conflict of interests. I have personally been part of major improvements in the economic condition in our District. In the Albion area, we have witnessed over $150 million in capital improvements by our businesses, in the last two (2) years alone. For nearly fifty (50) years, my company has provided jobs for many of the citizens in our District. I have been (and will continue to be) involved in my community and my district.

I believe that this is the kind of leadership that the voters of Eastern Calhoun County want to represent them.