Michael's Priorities
Since taking office in 2011, Michael has been known for his Community Hours meetings, which he holds each week. Michael has held more than 600 Community Hours meetings as an elected official and as Auditor, Michael has held over 150 Community Hours in every municipality and township in Franklin county.
Michael believes the best ideas come directly from residents of our community and has worked hard to implement ideas and suggestions that come from his constituents. One such suggestion was his work to remove the fee paid by those who are attempting to change their name on county documents managed by the Auditor’s office. While these fees were nominal, they created an inequity for women and members of the LGBTQIA+ community who are more likely to need this service.
The Franklin County Auditor’s office provides many consumer services such as certifying the accuracy of gas pumps and retail scales, issuing dog licenses, and registering rental properties. Providing these services require the Auditor to be on the front lines to protect consumers from fraud and skimming services. Michael has expanded this work to include a fraud protection hotline where constituents can reach out directly with concerns, which resulted in uncovering an international dog licensing fraud scheme.
Michael has also improved transparency and accessibility throughout the Auditor’s office by providing more information to consumers, updating real estate search functions regularly, and increasing convenience by offering more forms online.
While serving on Columbus City Council, Michael chaired Age Friendly Columbus, the award-winning citywide initiative that ensures that individuals of all ages and abilities can remain in their neighborhoods and live a high quality of life. Since taking office as Franklin County Auditor Michael continues to advocate for affordable housing including championing expanding Ohio’s Homestead Exemption Program which allows low income senior citizens and permanently and totally disabled Ohioans to reduce their property tax bills by shielding some of the market value of their homes from taxation.
Michael is also championing a triennial review process which is transparent and accessible to homeowners and businesses to ensure that the growth of the community does not displace people from their property. In addition, Michael has established a robust education campaign to ensure that property owners understand the role they can play in determining the value of their property.