Five candidates set to compete for four seats on Oxford City Council

The November election is five months away. Five candidates so far have pulled petitions to run for four open seats on Oxford City Council, including two current members, a former member, a previous candidate and a newcomer.

Voters will decide whether to reelect current council members Alex French and Amber Franklin, both of whom are at the end of their first terms. Current council member David Prytherch and vice mayor Chantel Raghu are term-limited, and three candidates — Glenn Ellerbe, Jon Ralinovsky and Jim Vinch — are running to fill the vacancies or unseat the candidates running for reelection. During the election, voters will select their top four candidates rather than picking specific candidates for specific seats.

Candidates have until Aug. 6 to file their petitions to run for office. Here are the five candidates voters in Oxford will have to choose from so far.

Glenn Ellerbe

Former council member Glenn Ellerbe is running for a seat on City Council after his previous term ended in 2023 and he was term-limited.

Ellerbe works in information technology at Miami University and serves as vice chairman on the Oxford Chamber of Commerce Board. He first ran for council in 2015 and said he’s running again to help make Oxford a destination for others and support economic development.

Last year, the city passed a Fire and EMS levy to address a budget shortfall at the Oxford Fire Department. Miami agreed to pay $1.27 million per year for the next decade to support the fire department if the levy passed, but that will leave the city without a key source of revenue in 10 years when the agreement ends. Ellerbe said he’s especially focused on strategies that can help increase revenue by bringing more jobs to Oxford.

“As a city leader, it is my job to set an end goal and allow the city to make its own decision on how it wants to go about doing that,” Ellerbe said. “I don’t want to pigeonhole an entire municipality’s thinking by saying, ‘We should do this thing this way.’ I would like to say, ‘We need to bring awareness; here’s an idea on how to do that.’”

Among his ideas to draw more people to Oxford, Ellerbe said he wants to create more programming and educational entertainment around the city’s history with beekeeping. The city’s Bee Festival drew thousands of attendees this year, and he said placing more plaques and educational resources around town could be a draw for visitors in the future.

Ellerbe also hopes to change the Uptown approach to recycling if elected. He said allowing businesses to maintain recycling compactors could keep alleys cleaner and improve the Uptown experience.

As the city debated how to respond to Covid-19 during Ellerbe’s second term, he was especially prominent as the lone vote against renewing mask mandates in August 2021 and January 2022. He viewed the mandates as unfairly targeting Miami University students who had higher vaccination rates than Oxford residents. If reelected, Ellerbe said he’ll prioritize equity in his votes and treat students as adults.

“If you treat people with respect, they are more open to your ideas and goals than if you tell people what to do from a position of power, regardless of what your station is,” Ellerbe said.

Amber Franklin

First-term city council member Amber Franklin was elected to City Council in 2021, but her journey with local government started five years earlier. Franklin was a founding member of the Police Community Relations and Review Commission (PCRRC) in 2016.

Franklin, an associate professor of speech pathology and audiology at Miami University, moved to Oxford in 2011. Her work on the PCRRC was part of what inspired her to run for council in the first place, particularly given national discussions around law enforcement following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. As Franklin read national and statewide headlines, she decided she wanted to focus more locally, where her actions could have an impact.

Franklin is running again because she says she has a better understanding of how city decisions are made in tandem with city staff now. She also hopes to continue her work on the Housing Advisory Committee to bring more housing for all income levels to Oxford. The city recently started negotiations with a company to build affordable housing for adults with developmental disabilities on Hester Road, and a Habitat for Humanity project is in development on Chestnut Street.

“There’s a lot more work to be done in getting housing,” Franklin said. “Once you have some traction … I think it benefits staff when there’s some institutional knowledge on council.”

Federal funding cuts have already impacted Oxford. Miami’s Service+ program, an AmeriCorps-funded initiative, paired students with local nonprofits like Oxford Seniors, and cuts from the federal government eliminated those positions. Franklin said the city and the university need to communicate on funding impacts and try to fill the gaps in service that may be left by future cuts.

While Franklin is proud of her work on council over the past four years, she’s especially proud of advocating for a social services liaison at the Oxford Police Department through her work on the PCRRC. Franklin said she views law enforcement from a public health and safety perspective, which has impacted how she approaches decisions as a council member.

“Staff are our most valuable asset, and they have a certain capacity,” Franklin said. “We might have a lot of goals that we want to meet, but we have to be mindful of the staff’s time and resources … Working in concert with staff is something that I started learning on PCRRC.”

Alex French

Like Franklin, Alex French is also a first-term city council member seeking reelection. Her first exposure to Oxford was as a student at Miami, and she also has experience working Uptown. Now, she serves as the associate vice president for research and evaluation at Sandy Hook Promise, a nonprofit organization that advocates for legislation to reduce gun violence against children.

French first decided to run for council because she wanted to represent a broad array of voices in the community, including students and Uptown employees.

“I’ve lived the experience of a lot of different groups,” French said. “I’ve been a student. I’ve been an employee Uptown. I’ve been a professor. I’ve lived in town. I just thought I had such a broad array of Oxford experiences that I could be a good voice on council.”

In her four years on council, she’s been especially involved in event planning and coordination, including by serving as a council representative on the city’s recreation board. She helped plan the 5K race for the solar eclipse event last year and was also involved in coordinating the 5K and 10K OATS and Honey Races in tandem with the Oxford Bee Festival this spring. The city also began giving cemetery tours in 2023, an initiative French was involved with.

Beyond planning events, French said she’s especially proud of the decisions City Council made in the past four years to allocate American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding. Oxford received nearly $2.5 million in ARPA funds, allocating most of it to housing and economic development initiatives.

If reelected, French said she plans to use her experience from the past four years to become more proactive in advocating for city initiatives. She hopes to continue helping with placemaking initiatives and focusing on recreational opportunities. As the Oxford Area Trail System continues to grow, French said she’s especially excited about the prospect of planning a half marathon for the city in the coming years.

State and federal policy are increasingly impacting funding opportunities for Oxford. As she runs her campaign, French said she’s looking to balance community feedback with what Oxford can realistically accomplish.

“Seeing a community come together and doing things like organizing a 5K or celebrating our local history or putting flags out for veterans at the cemetery, that stuff matters,” French said. “Being able to do something that’s so tangible is what instills a small nugget of hope amidst the sea of frustration.”

Jon Ralinovsky

Jon Ralinovsky, a piano technician at Miami, first ran for City Council in 2023. Now, he’s looking for a seat once more.

Ralinovsky has served on Oxford’s Environmental Commission since 2017, and he’s also a member of the Parking and Transportation Advisory Board. Sustainability has been an important part of Ralinovsky’s personal life — including his efforts to create a natural lawn in his yard. As a prospective member of council, he hopes to promote environmental initiatives like solarizing the city and finishing the Oxford Area Trail System.

“The city is on a good path to lower its carbon footprint,” Ralinovsky said. “It’s been taking care of some of the easy projects and has got some more challenging ones to do in the future. That goes back to where we get our energy and how much of it gets used.”

Oxford is in the early stages of rewriting its subdivision and zoning code into a unified development code. The city’s draft of an economic development plan also lays out a goal to add 1,000 jobs in town in the next decade. As Ralinovsky considers future developments, he said it’s important to focus on smart, intentional growth.

Ralinovsky said he plans to doorknock this summer and reach out to residents to hear about their priorities. If elected, he plans to prioritize making decisions he thinks will benefit residents, whether that involves street paving or sustainable development.

During his time on the Environmental Commission, Ralinovsky said he’s come to appreciate the decision-making process in government. He’ll draw on that experience with the powers and constraints of local government if elected, he said.

“City projects move slowly, usually,” Ralinovsky said. “Although that might be frustrating sometimes, I think it’s probably for the best in the long run.”

As Oxford navigates a tougher environment for getting federal and state grants for initiatives, Ralinovsky said the city needs to focus on what staff and residents can do with the resources available, not on what it may lose access to.

Jim Vinch

Jim Vinch first experienced Oxford as a student at Miami. In 2000, he left Ohio to work as an environmental attorney with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Washington, D.C.

After serving on Miami’s pre-law advisory board for years, Vinch began teaching classes remotely as an adjunct faculty member. A year and a half ago, he decided to move to Oxford to teach in person and work remotely for the EPA.

Since moving to Oxford, Vinch has gotten involved with the city’s Environmental Commission. From there, he decided to run for City Council on the recommendation of others, though he calls himself a reluctant candidate.

“I really look forward to doing the actual work of council, the policy work,” Vinch said. “Public policy is what I’ve done my whole life, and so I’m really looking forward to that. It’s sort of the elective phase that … I’m not as comfortable with. I’m not a salesman … I’m the kind of person that likes to show that I’m competent by doing.”

Municipalities across the country are navigating the impact of federal funding cuts and program restructuring under President Donald Trump’s administration. Vinch himself accepted a deferred resignation from the EPA, in part due to new in-person work requirements, so he’s personally familiar with how federal policy is impacting people locally.

President Trump’s decisions are often unpredictable and unprecedented, Vinch said. As a council member, he said he would bring a deliberate, thoughtful approach to decision making and evaluate federal impacts on a case-by-case basis.

Vinch said he plans to flesh out his campaign in the coming months by speaking to residents about their top priorities. He’s personally interested in environmental policy and sustainability and also serves on the board for the Three Valley Conservation Trust.

At past public meetings, Vinch has also spoken in support of the Oxford Area Trail System. As an avid cyclist, he said pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure is important to him.

“I see it as sort of a symbol of the City of Oxford,” Vinch said. “If we can complete this trail, look at what we’re able to do. It sort of reinforces our environmental bona fides.”

Election Day is on Tuesday, Nov. 4. While no federal positions are on the ballot, voters will get to decide on Talawanda Board of Education candidates in addition to Oxford City Council members this year.