Mayor Jeffrey J. Mims, Jr. has devoted his life to education and public service in the Dayton region. After retiring from Dayton Public Schools with 38 years of service, he began a new chapter as a public servant, first serving as a Dayton City Commissioner before being elected in 2021 as Dayton’s 57th Mayor. Today, he remains focused on the youth in our community, most recently launching the Peace Campaign, a collaborative community effort to reduce violent crime in the city of Dayton.
Listen to learn more about Mayor Mims’ background and vision for making Dayton the best place for people to live, work, play, raise a family, get an education, and grow old.
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Episode Transcript:
David Bowman:
Welcome to Creating the Future. I’m David Bowman —
Evelyn Ritzi:
And I’m Evelyn Ritzi —
Mayor Mims:
And I am Jeffrey J Mims Jr., [laughs] a little early.
David:
Right on time. The 57th mayor of Dayton, Ohio, Mr. Mayor. Thank you so much for being here with us today.
Mayor Mims:
Oh, my pleasure. Thank you.
David:
It is our honor to have you as our guest on the podcast today, and I wanted to start out by asking you just a little bit about your background. So you’re the mayor now, but tell us about, you know, your career, previous career, and I know there’s, there’s a whole lot to unpack there. And you know, did you always want to be a public servant, or is that a more recent development?
Mayor Mims:
I never thought about being a public servant. I was just involved in the cases in terms of the Boy Scouts, explorers, working with a bunch of friends, having coaches in a variety of different sports, especially baseball, track cross country music, being in the band, several bands, high school band, marching band, et cetera, the thought of having fun. And when I talk to young people, talk to kids, they asked me what was my favorite subject. I said recess. And still, if I go out and see a bunch of young people playing, having fun, laughing, helping each other, holding hands when necessary, playing, treating each other the way they want to be treated. I get excited.
David:
And so what compelled you then to make the jump into public service?
Mayor Mims:
You know, being a teacher and going into that space again in Dayton Public Schools, looking at how I found out I had these talents with young people, if you will, and maybe because I act like I’m 12 a lot. So that probably helped them assure but getting into that space of being a teacher, being good in terms of pulling young people together and helping them understand that the negative things that they did were different from them in terms of their heart and their soul, yeah. And being able to say to a kid who did something crazy that, you know, I like what you did, there was some mess of stuff that you did, but you know, I still love you, okay. And being able to move them, soften them, if you will, from a point of them being aggressive or feeling aggressive or feeling like because most of them know they did something wrong, yeah, okay, so you know, but how you phrase that with them makes a big difference in terms of dealing with them and then working in that space, in the DCA program that Dayton public schools had for three years teaching art in relationship to science, having different kids every day, and having a classroom half full of African American students and half full of white students, and causing them to see the value in themselves. And I stumbled upon a program of teaching conflict resolution skills to those young people, and I did that with all my classes, even when I went to the high school, to help them understand that your favorite color and my favorite color may be different. We can fight and argue all day long. I ain’t gonna change your favorite color, and you’re certainly not going to change mine. Looking at maybe the joint color, if I mix red and blue, we’re going to get purple. And so we want to know, oh, man, purple ain’t bad. Okay, so now we got some value that’s associated that we both can agree on. But anyway, going through those processes of working and developing relationships with other teachers and administration. I got elected as treasurer for the teachers union, and no one ran against me for four years, and then I got elected vice president. No one ran against me for four years, then I got elected president, and no one ran against me for six years, and that working relationship with the administration and the board members of the community, and trying to find the common goal, helping the board establish and communicate what their vision was for the goals and objectives of the organization, and then getting the teachers union To understand and buy into that. And then the next point was trying to get the administration and the board to understand that they need to give us the tools that we needed to accomplish their goals. And then we convinced the teachers that their goals were same as our goals. And so we began to move in that space. Now I didn’t know that was politics. Did not know. And after six years of being in that space, the Higher Education Association and the National Education Association hired me to be a lobbyist. Okay, so again, I’m creeping up the line here, being involved in politics more deeply than I thought. And so being involved in that space, helping to trying to find ways of improving school funding, helping to improve the aspect of how you advocate or apply, I should say, apply things that we know that work in positive spaces for improving the ability to meet those goals became more political and more political each step that you took in terms of that process. So I guess that’s what led me to be in this space and doing that, then running programs for at-risk youth with the NE Casey Foundation and the school system, and then ultimately working as a government relations person for Dayton Public Schools for another 25 years, then upon return, I was elected to be member of the school board, and then ultimately president of school board. So that’s, that’s how I moved into those spaces. Then I left there it was the other state school board, and one day I got a call from Nan Whaley, who was getting ready to run for mayor, and said, why don’t you come back to Dayton and the City Commission, and because we were having these challenges with the some of the state issues, with the members of the State Board of Education, who seemed to have taken a different oath that I had taken, okay, and so, so let me be here with the kids and. And make some things happen, maybe do something with the citizens that we have in Dayton, and we sort of tie these scenes together and make Dayton a better place. So I came back and I was elected for Dayton City Commission. Then four years later, re-elected, and then Nan called me again one morning about seven o’clock and said, I’m not gonna run for mayor next year. And everybody said they went, you for mayor. I said, there goes my golf game. Okay, so then had to put a golf game on hold. Ran for mayor, and I’m blessed to have been elected by the citizens of Dayton.
David:
I was gonna say you’re you’re busier in retirement than most people are busy in their regular, just career, right?
Mayor Mims:
I have these debates with my children a lot about being involved in politics. My son worked on Wall Street for 12 years. My daughter is a principal right now in Dayton Public Schools. And she said, Daddy, retirement, you supposed to be just doing what you want to do. I said, that’s what I’m doing right now.
David:
That’s fantastic, yeah, yeah.
Evelyn:
It feels like your background, your experience, has really led you to this point. I don’t know if you could speak to you know, kind of your leadership style as mayor, and how those previous experiences shaped what you do on a daily basis, and maybe even what a day in the life of the mayor is like?
Mayor Mims:
Well, you know, I was asked, been asked several times in terms of, I’ve been blessed to be a pretty good leader. And one of the things I said, especially working with the union, I was just, how do I get people to follow me? I said, Well, first thing I did was try to figure out where the majority of people want to go, and then I try to herd them, get in front of them. You think, you think that’s, I mean, clearly it sounds comical in terms of that space, but if you are walking around thinking you’re a leader and nobody’s following, ain’t nothing happening.
David:
Yeah, and I think it’s interesting, because you’re really talking about bringing, bringing people together in a common direction, right? So hey, we all are trying to go that way, and maybe just not looking at it the right way. But it’s easier for water to flow downhill.
Mayor Mims:
Oh, right. Much easier, much easier.
David:
So how do you get out in front of it? And I think that’s a great example of creativity, what you’re really describing, and that’s a lot of what on this particular podcast, a lot of what we talk about. So maybe we can unpack that a little more, but just if you think about how you’re using creativity to solve problems, whether it’s. Well, hey, you’re a red person and you’re a blue person. Hey, we could make purple, right? But how do you use creativity to solve problems and to transform this community, and especially like with the city’s latest efforts in the promotion of peace, how does creativity come into play there?
Mayor Mims:
Well, you know, one of the things you have to give individuals who are involved in the decision-making process, an example, if you will, of what what it looks like, the value of that? Yeah, we talk about peace. We talk about the aspect of everyone having the feeling of safety, of the ability to understand that they each have value. Understand that the values that you have and you have in mind combined, it doesn’t give us just three, it gives us multiple that that whole, that whole concept of creating this big environment where, no matter which way you turn, there’s a recognition of the skill set that you bring to that table, yeah, and for them to see and hear and understand some of the challenges that we’ve had as a city that those existing had no part in, yeah. So now you’re taking some of the blame away. You’re easing some of the pressures that individuals have to be in defensive, if you will, for lack of another word. And so now they’re more open. Now they’re not being the character or the problem themselves, or see themselves as a problem. And I think also, as I mentioned that to try to have a better understanding of not just what the symptoms of the problem are, but the problem itself. And the problems that we’re dealing with are problems from yesteryear, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago. Yeah, the aspect of us passing the first tax increase in 32 years, in 2016 and then to do something so magnificently with with those resources of fixing streets, the roads in Dayton, cutting grass and vacant lots and thoroughfares, being able to support our preschool education, being able to support again police, our fire and those spaces, and doing that in a way that the citizens of Dayton were so pleased with our progress that they blessed us with a renewal. So in 2000 and again, in ‘24 we did a renewal, and that renewal passed by 71% now I ain’t got to tell you how happy I am, yeah, because what it said is that, first of all, tax levies don’t pass, even renewals on a regular basis, especially, don’t pass by 71% so looking at that, it says to me and my colleagues that we are moving in the right direction, and the citizens of Dayton recognize that we’re moving in that direction. And they were willing to give us, if you give look at another phrase, maybe some more high test gas, if you will, to put into tank to keep on moving that direction at a faster pace. So I’m just excited beyond beyond belief, but identifying that, and that’s what gives us the type of energy to keep on going, to keep on building and maintaining relationships that cause us to feel like we’re on the right track.
Evelyn:
Yeah, you think about relationships, you think about collaboration and finding common ground in that respect. Can you speak to a little bit about with the vision of peace in the city and making Dayton a peaceful place to live. How are, how is this working with collaborating with business leaders and nonprofit leaders, neighborhood organizations and things like that.
Mayor Mims:
You know, I will parlay help of getting the answer that question. I’ll parlay something that I’ve always answered and talked to talking to individuals. What would you want? I would say, as teachers and former teachers, what would you want if every child in the school system were yours, and so then I take that to the next level, what would you want to create if every citizen in this city of Dayton was a relative, cousin, nephew, uncle, whatever the case may be, and all the kids were your nieces, nephews or again, our little cousins, and the aspect of creating a community or situation where no matter where they were in the city of Dayton, they felt safe. They felt like they can express themselves. They can go at whatever part of the city they want to go into. They can laugh, they can joke, they can talk, as long as they’re not infringing upon the rights of others. And I think that has to be explained. It has to be understood. But I think there’s a learning environment that we have to create for those things to happen. And when we see young people, or those who are older, even those who got. Here, like myself, we see those folks walking around with a smile on their face because the environment around them is such a pleasant environment that they think that this is home. This can be home. This is a good space for me being I’m very comfortable here. I’m feeling comfortable inviting others to be here. And when I think about that and look at those issues about how we want to bring, and continue to bring more and more investors into the city of Dayton, like we had those that help us bring the arcade center, for example, back to life. You had to be in dormant for 30 years. How we have generated enough support in this community to have a free entertainment center like the Levitt center right downtown, one of the largest in the nation. And they’re only 16, 15, or 16 Levitt centers in the whole United States. And we have one of them, and one of the biggest. And so we start looking at those things, and you start looking at the conversation that we have with leaders who are outside the city of Dayton, Springfield, to Springboro, and having those individuals talk about the great things that we have in Dayton, and they’re visiting. They’re bringing their families, bringing their friends. When I think about peace, I think about all those great things continuously happening as far as the city is concerned, and not just downtown. I’m talking about in the neighborhoods as well. Because everyone has to understand that they have the right to be in any parts of this city, and they also have the right, they have the right to be safe. They have the right to be comfortable in those spaces as well. So when we talk about peace, I know I’m talking about for a long period of time. I probably shouldn’t be talking that long. But when we talk about peace, it’s very, very important for the growth of this region.
David:
So, it is important, right? And it’s an ambitious goal, but it’s an attainable goal, yeah, there’s one that takes a little time, right? So as an average Daytonian, someone listening to this podcast, what can they do to help this move this process forward. How can they take part in this movement to make Dayton the most peaceful city in the world?
Mayor Mims:
I had to do a news conference now, probably about five months ago, and to talk about a young man at 16 years old who lost his life, and then thinking on that same day, my 16-year-old granddaughter was having a birthday, so I’m having this news conference earlier in the day with tears in my eye about a young man with all his value, His skill sets that will never be experienced his contributions will never be experienced by the city of Dayton and his parents and family members and those who loved him, and thinking about that lost set of opportunities, and then thinking about how in next four hours, I was going to be Trying to celebrate my granddaughter’s 16th birthday when we start thinking about what we have to lose and then what we have to gain, it causes people to understand the importance of why we’re in this situation and why we’re doing the work that we’re doing. And then if we go through like, like, like I was, for example, looking at the dichotomy of where we were with different individuals, and how we can create the best conditions we can for someone to live, work, play, be educated and raise a family in the city of Dayton. Think about those goals again. Think about all the loved ones that you have that you want to experience that so that, to me, under underscores the whole essence of peace that gives you justification and values associated with that.
David:
Yeah. And it’s interesting, if you think back, like, on the early parts of your career that you were describing to us, right, like you’re reconciling the differences between art and science, right, which we think of as Yeah, like, and a lot of people would put those in very different categories, but it’s, how do we bring those together? You’re talking about, how do I get teachers in a union to work with administration on opposite sides? How do I get red and blue to appreciate purple? How do I like it’s not that you’re sort of, there’s a through line there, right, where it’s you’re getting the people to recognize a common humanity, right? And peace isn’t that. It’s not that we all see the world the same way. It’s that we understand our similarities and appreciate them. We understand there’s more common ground than differences, and the differences is what makes it interesting. Yeah.
Mayor Mims:
Yeah, yeah.
David:
And so it’s to hear, sort of, it’s, it’s one of those where all of those things may be unintentionally, but put you in this place at this time to solve this problem, right?
Mayor Mims:
We all want the same thing for our loved ones, our friends, our family. We all want the same thing. Like I said, emphasize I think repeatedly about how we want the same thing for our kids, and then come together and realize that we have far more in common than we have that separates us. And then how you work on the common things, and pretty soon you forget about the negative things that are roadblocks. Some of the roadblocks are artificial. Some of them are by design, but put those things aside. Get the energy, the strength to hold hands and jump over them, or build some steps to get over them, grab a rope together and get over it. But you have to do that, and that moves you in that in that space. And the more you do those things again, like more we see and talk to members of the community that have new grocery store, for example, members of the community that have a new medical resource center, members of the community that have been able to see growth in terms of more apartments, fewer blighted homes and properties that we have in our space, the more they see progress happening in those spaces, the more hope they have, the more they tend to believe what it is you’re saying that you’re trying to do, because they have the evidence right there in front of you. Then that gives us the energy, the wind beneath our wings, if you will, to move into a better direction at a faster pace.
David:
Yeah, the things we sort of believe in what we see, right? But it helps us to believe in the things that we can’t yet see, right? And see that progress happening.
Mayor Mims:
Yeah, because we tend sometimes — we’ve heard the phrase over and over again that the squeaky wheel gets the oil, yeah, okay, bad news travels faster and more frequently than good news. But we have to find ways of always talking about the good things in a positive way, the negative things in a constructive way. And so yeah, we got this problem. We’re here, man, but here’s what we’re doing about it. Yeah. And so when we start talking about this whole peace initiative, and what we’re doing as we have explained and understand more and more about some of the benefits associated with that. The more we talk about that, the more we do things associated with that. It’s easier for us to understand that the negative things are things that just happen, but what we’re doing in the process is talking about positive ways to get over those hurdles, positive ways of minimizing the loss of life, positive ways of talking about how we can minimize the challenges of anger, hate, rage, if you will, and violence that’s associated with that. It’s all based upon us understanding, again, where we’re trying to go.
Evelyn:
And I think, you know, that idea of collaboration, collaborating and bringing people together from all walks of life, like bringing youth to the table, is a huge part of this. You know, youth are experiencing this issue, but they can also be a part of the solution. So as someone who has worked with youth throughout your whole career as an educator, mentor, coach, can you talk about the value of bringing youth and engaging them in efforts to build a more peaceful Dayton?
Mayor Mims:
You know, a question you know, as mayor, individuals ask me on a regular basis, why are you so focused on youth? Is it just because you were a former teacher and a former coach, mentor. And I say yes, and. The issue is that if as a mayor, if you want to have great citizens, you have to grow them. You gotta grow them. And the day after graduation, after graduation, if you’re not going to. College, if you’re not going to the military, if you’re not going to the workforce, you’re my problem. You’re not working in a space where you’re not generating tax revenue, if you’re draining my social resources, and you’re not making other contributions, as far as our city is concerned, and in many cases, you’re making your family members angry as well because you’re not representing them the way people would like you to represent them. And when I think about why I have the Mayor’s Youth Summit, which I’ve done for the last three years as being mayor, having 300 young people come together at the Sinclair Community College, and having those individuals in at least four different sessions that work with young people on mentoring, jobs and careers, civic engagement and mental health, and then understanding that mental health is the session. There’s the largest session for our young people to talk with and talk to people about some of the kinds of things that are affecting them in their personal lives, either at home or in the neighborhoods, on the way to and from school and going through those spaces. And now I’m excited. You know, I miss had 300 kids, so the first year we playing for 160 kids. Okay, many young people, because I go to games. I go to events with young people. I see them all the time. Many of them have my cell phone. Okay, cell phone number, and so I mean these calls for some of the kids who were not chosen by their staff at school. So they’re calling me. Ask me, can they come? And so, of course, yeah, let me talk to you principal, and you talk to somebody. Tell them, I said, you can come got space. And so I wind up with 300 that first year. So then after that, we just playing with 300 so approximately 25 young people from each high school that we have in the city of Dayton, private, Charter, the whole deal, public. And they all come together. They all get a hug and a handshake from me as they walk in the door and as they walk out the door, again, emphasizing that they have value, and to see them interact with each other, to see them interact with the consultants that we have is just a joy. Brings tears to my eyes as my eyes begin to water now, just by talking about it. So that’s special in terms of, and then we listen. We we have consultants. We take notes about some of the kinds of things that are affecting them. And then we partner with learn to earn in terms of their work, in terms of, again, identifying set of specific goals that young people have and how we can move them into adulthood. It also gives me a chance to talk with them and help them understand the rationale about what quality of life looks like. Okay, what is quality of life? And so we’re talking about the aspect of you having health care, a place to stay, jobs, recreation, and these are some of the just basic things of high-performing communities in terms of what they have that they want for their citizens. And then talking about how you get there. So we start talking about the different job opportunities that we have in the city of Dayton. Talk about how those jobs are created. For example, start talking about the great partnership that we have with some care Sinclair Community College and the aviation classroom that’s right there on the flight line at the airport. And so they can go in, they can take a plane apart, they can put it back together, they fix the engine. They can do all those kinds of things and things that they never knew were possible. They never knew, sometimes they never knew that that place space was there.
David:
Well, yeah, and even in that, it’s one sort of place or ecosystem that has dozens, hundreds of different types of jobs that could be done that are in demand, and it’s just opening their eyes to there’s so much opportunity around you. We just need to connect you to it, and you’ve got to be ready to step up when it comes.
Mayor Mims:
Yeah, and I can’t wait for the factory to be built at the airport where we’re dealing with Joby Aviation. So it’s the company that is coming to us from California, where we have these things that sort of look like helicopters right now, but they have six propellers at the top, and they go vertically up, and then the propellers are repositioning themselves, and then they go forward. They carry three to five people, uh, approximately 300 miles, and they’re all electric. And we’re building that plant right here in Dayton at the airport. And so there’s 2000 jobs and $500 million say that again, 2,000 jobs and $500 million that’s coming to the city of Dayton, that’s going to employ a lot of young people at this stage time for the rest of their lives.
David:
Well, that’s a great segue into our last question. As you sort of say, pay a nod to our past on this podcast, we like to always end with one question we ask every single guest, and that is, what’s the future that you want to create for Dayton?
Mayor Mims:
You know, trying to be visionary, you know, I would like to see a recreational center in all parts of the city, maybe attached to, maybe attached to a high school. Yeah, have aviation, Aviation Center that moves or that moves you emotionally, for every young person to be connected to those spaces. You know, I grew up here in the city of Dayton, and it has so many great recreational opportunities, so many adults who are involved in creating and mentoring me that sort of hard to count all of them. I can get to most of them. Okay? I remember being asked to lead the church choir because I had the voice capacity to, you know, to make a joyful noise. I was making noise. Maybe it wasn’t a Joyful Noise. Okay, you went to drums, yeah, right, being a musician and drummer, but having all these opportunities for our young people is a responsibility, and I think, also a mandate from adults. You know, we create the future that we want to have for our young people, and it’s our job to make those kinds of things happen. It’s our job to give them the training on how they can identify and resolve conflict at its lowest level and moving those spaces, because those are life-saving skills and tools. They’re not just necessary at school, they’re necessary in the workplace. They’re necessary at home. They’re necessary to and from work, because you see adults, unfortunately, who are in the news, who don’t demonstrate the best set of skills associated with resolving conflict. And when I look into the future and I see more and more individuals who feel comfortable about themselves, who feel like they have value, and they feel like the skills and the tools that they have within themselves will make Dayton the best place for someone to live, work, play, raise a family, be educated and grow old.
David:
I love it. I’m all in for that future. Okay, yeah, thank you so much. Yeah, thank you so much for joining us today.
Mayor Mims:
Thank you, I really enjoyed this.
