And now the 419 with Gretchen De Backer.

Matt Killam and Kevin Mullen.

Welcome into the 419, a may or Monday edition of the 419.

I'm Kevin Mullin and Gretchen de Becker and I Matt Killam.

We're traveling to Lima, Ohio today, being joined by Mayor Sarita Smith and then also Rhonda Layman, the president of Mercy Health Lima, going to be on the program today.

I'm excited for that conversation.

Going to be going to, a couple of big jets, for the our little show.

And, it's sort of a dark horse in terms of popularity.

Mirror Monday I think I get stopped and comment on the people really are enjoying it.

So this, I'm sure, will be par for the course.

Yeah.

the time like I just I love kind of the ability to tour the region and hear from you will find no bigger cheerleader for any community than their mayor.

And so it's a chance to, to see Lima through the eyes of somebody who loves it probably more than anybody else in Lima.

That's right.

And so we're excited to have that conversation with Mayor Smith.

We've continued to get feedback on the show.

I actually had a panic, because, social media, I think you may have boosted a post on social.

Gretchen.

And we started getting responses to people saying, stop, please stop.

And I was like, oh God, people don't like the show.

And then I realized they were just responding to the automated messages that we were pushing.

It did them that they wanted those to stop.

So I get it.

We're is taking it that way.

Yeah.

That's right.

But, if people want to, provide feedback positive only only positive feedback, negative feedback will be deleted immediately.

But you can we now have an email.

We do.

We have our own email.

We are that official here in month three of the 419.

It's now, you can email for one 9@wjhl.org.

If you've got an idea for something to be on the show, you've got an event coming up.

You want to promote or you just want to tell us how great we want to suggest new hosts as an option.

Don't do that.

Sure.

Yeah.

Yeah, I, I want to know why you feel it.

Okay.

You looked directly at me when you said that.

Gretchen.

I don't appreciate that.

I can feel the emails coming in now, at Jody Debacker.

My goodness.

All right, well, it's going to be an exciting show.

A chance as we take a tour, down to Lima, Ohio.

Of course.

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Went live on on the show?

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That's right.

Yeah, that's about it.

I got one of the GS.

It's the one with GS.

It's interesting that cell phones don't use dial up internet, is it?

That's a joke.

I think it should be.

I don't that's a good one.

We can edit that.

We can edit in marker.

That's right, Bill.

Worth the magic.

Oh, that's a good one.

Yeah, I love it.

All right, when we come back, we're going to take a trip down I-75 to Lima, Ohio.

We're joined by Lima mayor Sheridan Smith.

We'll be right back on the 419.

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Thank you.

Welcome back into the 419.

It's mayor Monday.

We're taking a trip down I-75 to Lima, Ohio.

We're joined now by the mayor of Lima.

I think we redeems.

It was the queen of.

Of mercy.

Mercy?

Yeah, but the mayor of line, that's all we can give you a we can give you a better title, but yeah.

Yeah, we'll come up with it.

Charity Smith.

Mayor Smith, thank you so much for being here.

It is great to be here today.

I really appreciate you all taking the time to highlight cities, across northwest Ohio.

And particularly talking with us mayors.

Well, we're also this is the first Monday in March, which is Women's History Month.

And you were our first female mayor that we've had on.

So we're very happy to welcome you also on on today's date, tell us how you started.

Yeah.

Well, you doing this to yourself.

So if I had to answer that question, very simply, I would say it is because I love my city.

You know, I was one of those young people growing up in northwest Ohio.

And I'm going to date myself, but it felt like footloose.

I can't wait to get out of here.

Right.

And so if I was your dad.

So you watch the show as well?

Yeah.

So, I and I did just that.

So I ended up, you know, leaving Lima, in my mid 20s, and I worked for a, company that sold wire and, and pipes and cable to Procter and Gamble and other organizations.

Ended up finishing up a law degree that I had started before I moved away, and worked for four years as a public defender, six years as a magistrate judge, in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

A very huge part of my story is that I was a young mom, before I was 21 years old.

I had three children.

Oh my goodness.

Yes.

So it meant I was an empty nester early.

And so I was ready to leave Tennessee and come back to Ohio.

And ended up, you know, yeah.

Three children.

Children.

Oh, my God.

Yeah.

It's risky making you feel uncomfortable.

I have little children.

You look fabulous.

I, I don't know if I'm going to make it through the day, so that is no small feat.

She looks good.

She's an empty nester now that that's hard.

Yeah, that's part of it.

That it's time to take care of her.

Thank you for giving me some hope.

Yes, yes.

That's better.

How did you manage this?

That could not have been easy.

Law school, driving, a career, being a leader.

How did you manage these things?

Well, in doing it, I mean, if you're from Lima, right?

I mean, doing it away from family and sort of that core default support system.

Yes, absolutely.

So when I saw the answer about, you know, how did I keep doing that?

It was really my children were my motivation.

So having grown out of, you know, inner city, you know, like, Lyme is not a lot different from Toledo or some of our urban cities across our state.

As a mom, you understand that if you can't create a certain lifestyle or normalcy or expectations for your children, it doesn't take you far to see kind of what their lives can end up like.

And so they were my motivation to keep going.

And it was actually also, you know, the lived experience of being a mom that made me want to make the transition from being in a into going to work in local government.

And just more specifically as a magistrate, you know, my job was to set bombs on individuals when they came, you know, into the system.

And because we had mandatory sentencing, there were some young people who were facing crimes at the age of 18 that if they were convicted, they would have spent ten years in prison without a probation.

And I began to think, what is happening in our local communities where babies feel like these are the choices that they have to make.

I'm on the wrong end of this, and I need to figure out how I'm going to do something different.

And whether you call it, you know, divine timing or something, I ended up getting the job in my hometown, Ohio, working for the previous mayor as his chief of staff.

Okay.

And he finished a 32 year career as mayor of Lima and had me to run.

Tell me about.

There's got to be a community, a family that put this into your DNA, right?

Or maybe you just did it on your own.

It was it your folks that did this, a grandparent, a church?

What gave you, first of all, the will to do what you just articulated?

Because by no means is that just oh, then know I just know these steps.

No.

But who who created, the young looking individuals that we have on this show to your two.

Now, I will show it was, definitely my parents.

My grandparents.

But it really was the whole community, you know, heavily manufacturing, working class community.

If my family, you worked for one of the auto manufacturers, my mother still works for one of the auto manufacturers today.

For 47 years.

She's still there.

What is wrong with you people?

Why can't you just take a break at all?

Yeah.

Oh, but just, you know, the the ethos that you, you give back, to those communities that instilled in you.

But family is very important.

And really that whole village mentality as well.

Yes, ma'am.

What?

When you were a kid, what did you what was the first dream job?

Because, I mean, was it I imagine it wasn't mayor having a bunch of children moving to Tennessee.

Every little girl's dream.

So when I was a kid, believe it or not, I wanted to be a model.

But then I stopped growing.

So I'm only about five one, so it was not going to work.

But when I was a kid, that's what I wanted to be.

How about that?

And I think five I think five one might be generous.

Yeah.

You're right.

Yeah.

I mean, we have to help you get into this job.

So was it the job as the mayor's chief of staff that brought you back to Lima?

It was talk a little bit about him.

He was there for so long.

And then did you have the inkling at the time you were going back that he was going to be retiring, and maybe you would be the next one running, or was that that came after you would work there?

That came after I had work there.

And the inkling to be mayor, I will say with all caps.

Absolutely not.

Because for me, I learned a lot from him.

And so, number one is the mayor in the city of Lima.

We are a charter city, strong mayor.

So the mayor is the chief executive officer.

So that part of the job, I absolutely love.

And so it is, you know, working, you know, with our, you know, 400 plus employees to deliver our employees.

Yes.

Deliver the best service that we can to our customer, which is our residents first.

Secondarily, businesses and other stakeholders.

But the thing that I really, really learned from my predecessor in his name was Mayor David Berger.

Helped me in making the transition from a public servant to an elected official was the fact that our office is nonpartisan, and watching him govern, in a way, to where there was no particular leaning to what political office you were in, making the best decision for the city.

Understanding is important to have those collaborative relationships and work across the Al to get things done.

I had a front row seat about how to do that.

Did Mayor Berger see something in you that he said, hey, you should think about this, or did you go to him and say, hey, retire so I can take which way was it?

He came to me.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Several times.

Yes.

And then he said, look, my wife really wants you to quit.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's called attrition.

Yeah.

If it's weighing you down.

Yeah.

Several times.

And and it wasn't until I really felt comfortable that I could do the job of the mayor when I said yes and my yes was also about, you know, my, my story is that, you know, my grandparents migrated to northwest Ohio, Lima, you know, back in the 40s during the Great Migration when African-Americans were leaving the South because of Jim Crow and, you know, working in the steel mills, you know, one gram, set of grandparents raised nine children, the others raised ten.

And I felt like, you know, I'm not going to say yes to this job, not being the mayor, but the job.

If I don't think I can do a good job doing it.

And after I felt comfortable, sitting under him to do that part was what made my, yes, easier.

This is a part of talking with Sheridan Smith, the mayor of Lima, Ohio, on a mayor Monday here on the 419.

He introduced us to Lima.

So if people aren't familiar who is Lima, Ohio.

So by location, we are, right at the intersection of I-75 and U.S.

thoroughly between Dayton and Toledo in about an hour and a half northwest of our capital city, Columbus.

We had a very strong manufacturing, logistics and health care industry.

We were also one of the first cities in the country to have a streetcar.

Oil was found in the city of Lima, back in the 1800s.

So John D Rockefeller had a house there.

Standard Oil has some beginnings there.

We are the only manufacturer of the US Army, tank.

So we have a tank plant there.

We have a Procter and Gamble plant there, which is the world's largest manufacturer of the downy brand.

And we have a Ford engine plant there.

They used to sell them wire and, cable.

Yes, man.

Yeah.

But to me it's, just seems like years ago.

Yeah.

So, you know, we are, a very heartfelt.

Yes.

Hometown city.

That has a lot of points to be proud of.

At the same time, we do have some challenges.

About 1 in 4 of our families live in poverty.

More of our households are renters than home owners.

But we are tackling those challenges head on.

And the thing that I'm most excited about is that, you know, growing up in Lima, we were a city to where people say where you're from.

And we say like, no, there was not a lot of pride.

Yes, ma'am.

But now, we are very, very proud of all of the progress that we've been able to make.

And we are talking better about ourselves.

What kind of relationship have you developed with those industries in your town to work on that, to work on the pride, to work on some of those other projects?

Do you have have you built those relationships with them to, to achieve some of the goals in the community?

Yes, we have.

And so one of the stakeholders, our major stakeholders is our hospital, Mercy Health.

And what I love about our partnership with Mercy Health is a really is not just about health care, it's about all of the social determinants of health.

So I'm wearing red today because for the last five years, we've been partnering with them for an event called Lineman Women Have Heart, which is all about heart health.

But it doesn't stop there.

They work with us with, housing initiatives.

Bring it back.

Some of our neighborhoods, they work with us, with helping to raise money for a new aquatic park that we now have in our city.

And so we built an 11 plus million dollar aquatic park over the last five years.

They built this park.

Oh, it is wonderful.

And I can't swim, but it is wonderful.

So it is a, indoor outdoor facility, that has a, a land pool where we are hosting swim meets, some of our regional local colleges are having their practices there.

And then there's the outdoor pool as well for families as well.

But one of the most exciting things about the project is that our local school has committed to teach every second and fourth grader how to swim, so their hand memorizing their.

It is so important.

Yeah.

Amazing.

Absolutely.

I, and this is probably, an unfair question.

Well, let me start with one of them.

How long have you been there?

About four years and 60 days.

So you've got not to retire.

But there is a just means you don't have to run for another few years.

That's great.

Congrats on the recent elected reelection.

Thank you.

Okay, so the, the transition in the role from behind the scenes to some of your administrators to a more a political figure, was there a moment, both positively and negatively and the negatively?

I mean, they're like, can I do this?

Yeah.

Everyone to some degree has a bit of an imposter syndrome.

Was there a particular moment in real life or maybe even do I want to do this?

Because one of the things with the mayor is you are no longer grocery shopping with any anonymity.

You are no longer going to the park, your beloved park.

And just as a bystander, that to me a little bit about the duality of, Mayor Smith and Miss Smith.

Yeah.

So, I will say imposter syndrome is a very real reality.

And I could say I don't have it anymore, but that would not be true.

So I still have imposter syndrome.

And so I'll talk about it both ways.

So from an internal perspective, the day to day of running the city, you go from being a peer where individuals, right, are now reporting to this man.

Right.

So that takes time and transition to have had a hard time, being subservient to me.

Yeah.

I mean, they get they're getting there only because we don't do it.

No.

Well, that is a bit of a hiccup.

Okay.

Yeah.

Please keep going for it.

You know?

So, and the way we, have gotten over that is, a lot of communication, a lot of strategic planning, goal setting, checking in, and also understanding that we do practice grace.

I mean, so that's how I've gotten over that.

Yeah.

It's got to be a piece of this, though.

I mean, it's getting reelected, right?

So, I mean, you could you could make an argument that you had a strong endorsement from a longstanding mayor saying, hey, this is the person I've picked, I think is the right person to lead the city.

But you had four years to prove to the city whether you could do it or not.

And they had a chance to say whether they agreed or not.

And so an opponent either time.

Okay, well, I had an opponent the first time reelection.

I did not have something because you forced them out of their homes.

Yeah, that's a great point.

And I hope I again, I was going to say something as well.

Leadership in that fashion doesn't just happen.

You have to commit to it.

So I hope you are counting your flowers in that way because you planted them.

That's not an easy road.

You have to be strong enough to first of all, be vulnerable in the way you just were.

So I thank you for that.

Because it's an important question, right?

You oversee or work on behalf of 35,000 people, and if they don't see you as a human being too, then it is not the connection that is going to be 30 years.

Now we're talking about Mayor Sheridan Smith from Lima, Ohio.

You guys are doing some incredible work in the areas of of child care, workforce development, health care access, a lot of things.

I want to dive into the details of some of those.

And you talked about, you know, the the housing challenges of having more renters and homeowners.

I'd love to dive in.

What are some of the tactical things that you guys are doing day to day?

Let's take a quick break.

When we come back, we'll continue the conversation on a mayor Monday here on the 419 with Lima mayor Sarita Smith.

We'll be right back.

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Welcome back into the 419.

It's a mayor Monday edition.

And we're talking with the mayor of Lima, Ohio Mayor Sarita Smith.

Mayor, you talked about, in our last segment.

You know, an interesting statistic that he said over, the majority of folks are renting, not owning in Lima.

I guess I'd start with, like, why is that a problem?

Well, the number one reason that it's an issue, is that stability.

Because when you look at, you know, the American way, you know, homeownership is how we build wealth.

That's how you have stability for families and children.

You know, your school, your friends.

That's why it's an issue.

And in Lima, you know, we had been keenly focused on trying to work to increase homeownership, across the full spectrum.

So we did a housing study back in 2019.

I was chief of staff at the time.

And out of that study is stated that we needed and it's going to sound small, compared to the rest of the country.

But we needed about 2200 units, at that was from market rate all the way to supportive housing.

When you look at across the country that unit is about 4 million short, right.

And so we began working diligently with, several partners because one of the other things that came out in this study was that we needed more partners in the housing space to help us achieve that goal.

So we've worked with Mercy Health and you'll hear more about their initiatives.

But we also, created what's called a community improvement corporation.

We've, we while it's been very difficult now, so that it has become.

Yeah, I, I only know enough about this to be dangerous.

That's on my day job word.

But it is smart.

But it is difficult.

Please keep on.

Forgive me.

And now.

And we've been working, diligently to do both rehab, and infill development block by block in our neighborhoods.

Working with our land bank.

And so last year or over the last two years, I think we transferred about 30 plus properties, to our land bank, which is phenomenal.

We were able to put over half $1 million out into the community to assist individuals with home repairs, mainly roofers.

Yeah.

Open windows.

Yeah.

So what is then.

This is not a problem that's unique to llama.

It's in Toledo.

It's in our state in every state.

And the amount of investment that's needed as you mentioned is so it's just huge.

What is the what's the model.

What's the is there a national model.

Is there a national organization that somewhere that this is work?

Fixing this problem is working great that you guys are, looking to follow their lead.

Well, so I don't know if anyone has gotten it, completely right.

But to you point, there's not an organizati that is not working towards, you know, closing this housing again.

And so my work with the U.S.

Conference of Mayors, because Haskew.

Yeah.

And I recently joined another group called, mayors and CEOs for housing as well.

Our work through, working very closely with our state in the Ohio Realtors Association.

So some of the things that we're doing is from a build perspective, we are working with the Ohio Realtors Association to use the pattern free plan book that they put out last April, which really helps developers save time and money because we know we need to build more faster.

And if we can cut some of those permitting processes.

Yes.

That helps.

There's a lot of things happening in the state.

So the state has, welcome home Ohio funding, which we were able to qualify for and received.

And with that funding, we are applying $30,000 per unit, whether that's rehab costs or acquisition costs.

We're working, through a community development block grant with the federal government to help particularly low to moderate income individuals with down payment assistance.

And then locally, we're also working with our local realtors association, where, in about two weeks, we're going to have our third annual home ownership homebuyer seminar with high school kids.

So talking to them early about the importance of homeowners, are you facing, like so many communities in our region are facing the data center debate, we are okay.

Would you like to talk about that?

So I will say, why not?

Thank you, thank you.

Okay.

But I will say that, Lima, we have, a data center coming.

They not made an announcement yet about who they are.

They are not located in the city in so zoning or any of those county.

It was not us yet.

Got it.

But we are the regional water provider.

So we will sell water to the company.

But I will say, it is an issue that we are watching closely.

Yeah.

Same here.

So there are a myriad of things that, from a clinical standpoint, I know that's the way to articulate, but also home ownership does create or fortify community.

Right?

As we build parks, it isn't the only way to register whether a neighborhood, is healthy or not.

Certainly.

But home ownership is one of the data points.

Right.

So I admire, your strategy here it is.

What it has been working.

And as you mentioned, it isn't an easy step one way or the other in there's challenges on both sides, right.

So but moving into child care, you are very aware of child care needs.

It sounds like from as we get a part of your history to a little bit about that and why is important.

Yeah.

So you know, it used to be that we talked about how many people spent more than 30% of their income on housing and how that was burden.

And so now we're having the conversation about how there are some families spending 50% or more of their income on housing.

I mean, I'm on on childcare.

Yeah.

And so what we've been doing with that, we were, happy to partner with, Finley, Mayor Christina Murray, and Groundworks Ohio as part of their statewide roundtable, bringing awareness to the issue, and really making the connection that, you know, childcare and lack of childcare is not just a issue for families.

It's a workforce issue.

Yes, ma'am.

But it's also a education issue, too, because we also know that those early years for young people are the most important when it comes to learning.

And we're not talking necessarily about childcare.

You're talking about high quality preschool education, right?

Yeah.

So this is for three and four year olds to prepare them then for kindergarten to enter into Lima public schools, which makes it even more difficult because of the licensure and the cost of that.

Is it something that would be privately funded in your community?

Is it are you working on a statewide initiative for it?

So we are where we're doing right now is bringing awareness to the issue.

And you know, me personally, I, I see childcare, and early education as one and the same thing, same, and I also think that what we're missing is being able to tap into the nontraditional childcare that's already happening.

I mean, we know there are some grandmas for my aunts.

Yep.

Watching babies who could also use some boost in their income as well.

How can we figure out a way so where we can meet both of those needs, for the childcare, for the families, the education for the children.

But I think where I'm on antsy to bring in additional income.

Is that a goal for your next administration to continue to work on that?

It is, but it's it can't be a primary goal because is not an area where I have any oversight.

That's right.

Yeah.

And so what we've done, is in addition to the advocacy, we've helped fund a prekindergarten camp, in our community as well.

So those are really just kind of two.

Yeah, two things that we've done.

And then, you know, not necessarily childcare, but it could be we've made significant investments in afterschool programing because we know that's an issue for, you know, older children, whose parents are working, you know, so frustrating.

I it is so frustrating to me.

And I by no means I can empathize.

I can now relate with all the things, but for the average person that does not see all of the things, even the two issues that we talked about, they're not holistically involved in all the other challenges or issues we have in the community.

Right?

So as we think about what kids are doing, we think about crime.

We think about who's going to take care of us next.

We think about running a strong workforce.

Well, people have to be able to have their kids be taken care of to go to work and be it present at work.

Right?

So I, I the frustration, I guess, to me, and this is now so I'm a bit of a soapbox.

So forgive me is that you don't think well how well your neighbor is doing or how healthy they are isn't going to immediately impact how you are doing in your household, then you're a fool.

Absolutely right.

Well, and I've, I mean, I've worked in education enough of my career.

Like I've always said, the key and some of this is, you know, a legislative issue, right.

But if if Toledo Public Schools, for example, could spend a quarter of their budget on families, school district would improve, right?

Because part of the challenge is, you know, kids go home and they're going home alone, right?

Because their parents are working hard, right?

Their parents have got to be able to pay for everything.

And so they don't they're not making enough in their job.

And so it's like, well, if you gave parents a stipend to parent that would actually pay off in the education side, would pay off in the community side.

And we'd see that, you know, we'd see that growth in the economy.

But they can't trade.

And so it's like, no, no, you have to spend it here.

And it's like, but, but this isn't working.

But I, we've talked about, some, challenges that a lot of Midwest towns are having and towns probably all over USA.

But let's flip over to the other side of the coin.

Sell me, Lima.

Some of the things that are must stops if you're traveling through or you're spending a weekend.

Tell me, what is your favorite place to eat?

I want you to talk to me about the tour journey through Lima.

All right.

So, I'm going to give you a tour, but I will tell you that you don't talk about wine without talking about cupy.

Yes.

So we are very famous.

A similar reason we had you on, I said rocket.

Yeah, yeah.

What did you didn't bring?

I didn't have, all right, well, we're going to take a break.

When we come back, we'll bring somebody that brought us food.

We don't even have their Monday.

We just glad to have you on your show.

No.

So one of the things about Lima and I kind of opened up talking about it.

It really is our location.

You can, you know, live in a city where you can get anywhere in 15 minutes.

Yes, but still be within an hour or two.

I think this is to say about 60% of the world.

And so, when I'm looking to fly, I can fly to Toledo, Columbus, Detroit, Fort Wayne, I can, you know, get almost anywhere.

Absolutely.

Within a day span.

Also, you know, there is a lot of, hometown pride, like, we are very, resilient, very hopeful.

Very, collaborative.

Yes, ma'am.

And so those things I really, really like about about Lima, and we're also known for basketball.

And so we're, I'm a central Catholic, so we don't need to talk about, you know, they just had, it was like the greatest high school dunk I have ever seen in my life.

From a kid on line of seniors basketball team this season.

It is like it would I don't was.

Are you?

I don't think yeah.

It was on ESPN top ten.

I don't know that I've seen an NBA player dunk like that in a game.

It was unbelievable.

And I want to eat in tour Lima.

So tell me, tell, tell.

For those who may not know you be.

And, another fun stuff touches a little bit about I miss the trash.

So one of the things that I talked about how we feel better about ourselves.

So in the last, five years or so, we've had about $60 million of investments in our downtown saying, yes.

And that is public infrastructure.

That is private dollars.

That is institutional dollars.

Yeah.

And so we had several new restaurants in our downtown now.

And so we had, you know, we've had the met, there's been there, you know, for quite a quite a while.

And actually, you know, I was at the met the night that I was first elected, as mayor of the city of Lima.

But in addition to that, we have old City Prime.

Yo.

Yes.

The number of seats down.

Well, we have a new restaurant called the social House.

We have a, peons duck bowling as well.

We have an Italian restaurant that is in a basement of a renovated building called.

No, no cell cellar.

And so we are we like to eat.

Yes.

And we really, like comfort food as well, too.

And so great.

We're we're known for those things, but our our downtown is really thriving.

And we're very excited to see it coming back.

So you could do some duckpin bowling, go for a swim in the new park, get some Italian food.

Well, not everybody could give you all the all the things.

That's the perfect date for that.

Do we have a, brand new outdoor fitness court as well?

In our city too.

Excellent.

All right, so we got three minutes left, so we're gonna have to go rapid fire here, but it's now time for questions.

Wacky quiz.

All right, I'm going to ask before rapid fire questions.

Gretchen's asking, for your favorite thing in or about.

And we'll use Lima.

Okay.

And then that's going to work with you to describe Lima in exactly nine words.

Okay.

She's ready.

She is ready for rapid fire questions.

Here we go.

What kind of gifts do you like to receive?

Expensive ones.

How may I get home?

Okay.

Nice.

Yeah.

If you were a potato, what way would you like to be cook?

Loaded with all the fixings.

So I just had one this week that has salmon and shrimp come on.

And broccoli and Alfredo sauce.

Oh my God, sounds good.

Whoa.

Again.

And something else you could have brought us.

Yeah.

That's fine.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

What is one thing that you still have from when you were little Cabbage Patch doll?

Nice.

Because you share the clothes.

Oh, I. Oh, my goodness.

What was the last time you cried at a film?

Oh, well, that would have been yesterday.

Bridgerton came out yesterday.

Well, guys, this is a show for children.

Please, just keep moving.

What is your number one most favorite thing about Lima?

The people, the spam.

Perfect.

All right.

That's a good cure for our nine things.

You ready to do together?

I'm.

I do it, okay.

All right.

Now, things that describe Lima or our region.

All right.

Hopeful.

Hopeful.

Love it.

Resilient.

Yes, ma'am.

Innovative.

Innovative.

Welcoming.

Welcoming.

Foodie.

We're going to give you two feedback.

Yeah.

Rifle.

Rifle.

Two more.

I said but we're fighters.

I don't know if we are fighters.

This man, we got close strong.

I know you said you didn't have a favorite kid.

So you want to mention all three of their names?

Ella.

Yes.

Sierra.

Yep.

Shane.

Yeah.

Simon.

Okay.

And I have three grandbabies.

Oh, I do, I do.

All right.

Okay.

Can I tell you their name of course.

Chloe.

Chloe.

Cafe.

Yep.

And Noelle.

Okay.

Beautiful.

And those are actually your favorites.

They are just that I get it.

All right.

That's fair.

That's fair.

Mayor Sarita Smith, thank you so much for being here.

We appreciate you being on here.

When we come back, you've brought an incredible guest for us.

We're going to have, Rhonda Layman, the president of Mercy Health Lima, and we'll talk about some of their investments in Lima and some of the great work that they're doing to build community and address social determinants of health.

That on the other side of this break, on the 419 powered by Wjrt.

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Welcome back into the 419 a mayor Monday edition.

We just wrapped up our conversation with Lima mayor Sarita Smith, and one of the things we love about this is a chance to see a community from the eyes of the people who love and serve that community.

We're joined now by the president and CEO.

I think we said Queen, Queen of Mercy Health.

Lima.

Yeah.

Rhonda Lemon.

Ronda, thank you so much for being here.

Thank you so much for having me.

Tell us about Mercy Health Lima.

What what makes up mercy Health Lima yeah, so Mercy Health in Lima.

And hopefully some of your viewers are familiar with it from the Toledo area as well.

But we are part of the core of Mercy Health, the fifth largest state based health system in the country, predominantly in Ohio, Kentucky, but then also down the east as of the last number of years ago.

So in Lima, we are comprised of Saint Rita's, who most people know by name, their flagship hospital, as well as probably close to 25 physician office practices in the surrounding areas of freestanding emergency department, three urgent cares, a child care center, and a variety of other amazing services.

Just at a ribbon cutting this week on a new women's health center.

So nice.

We're growing, we're expanding, and that is what we're comprised of for that Lima market.

Mercy.

So you said, you know, women's health.

Mayor Sheri Smith said that you guys have a partnership that you guys do in the community, which is Lima.

Women have heart.

That's right.

Talk to me about that.

Absolutely.

So this is an event that is occurring for several years now, where we really have a chance to get together with women throughout the community and talk about the unique, symptoms, the unique attributes of women's health and specifically women's heart health.

We always have some great speakers come in.

It's a time to have camaraderie, learn a lot of information, and hopefully for some people, we have the chance to share their own experiences.

And if we're doing what we want to be doing, it's preventive that people are understanding women's health better and being able to prevent issues in the future.

Are you from Lima originally?

Are you a transplanted man, Morgan?

Born and raised.

I will tell you, though, that, that does, that's that you can't fall in love with the place that you've been transferred to.

But there is something a little different about, your stomping grounds and providing the social determinants of health to it.

Can you educate us a little bit?

Although I don't think that's a totally foreign concept to most.

You walk us through what that is Mercy's way of interacting with that concept because it is slightly different.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

So and Mayor Smith set up really well when she talked about some of these because she's terrifying.

No, no she's not.

She is amazing.

You she is I mean I know everyone knows that now.

So but social determinants of health.

So some of what she was saying really resonated with me about being from because I'm from a rural area surrounding Lima.

And, you know, when people would ask me where I was from, I did the kind of Lima kind of thing.

And it's been a very fulfilling thing throughout my adult life to see and be really proud of the community that I'm from.

And so in being part of that community also means acknowledging some of the challenges that we have.

He quoted some of the information on so many, so many people that live in the poverty level.

And we see that and we know that.

So why does mercy care so much?

Why should health care care so much?

We know, and it sounds so elementary, that social determinants of health are critical to a community thriving, and also to any individual thriving.

If you don't have the funds, the ability, the understanding of how to access health care, it's it's incredibly challenging.

But first and foremost, if you are worried about keeping the lights on at your house, you're worried about where your next meal's coming from.

You're not worried about what time of day you're taking your cholesterol medication right?

So there are so many underlying issues that make up a person's health.

And to be honest, health care is probably only about 20% of a person's total health.

80% of it, some studies show, is really comprised of all of those other factors that go into where you live, what you eat, how accessible it is to get to walking paths, to be able to exercise all of those things that make up a person's health.

But the connection can not mean it's it's not able to be separated.

I mean, those things are just completely, tied together, including how you are able to communicate with individuals, how how have you.

Yeah.

What have you had to innovate to be able to communicate to people these things?

Fantastic.

Gretchen, thank you for asking.

So I'm so glad to be a dentist.

That's not what we do on this show.

Oh, sorry.

So what are the things that we implemented several years back in many, many health systems have done this as well.

Is screening questions every time we interact with our patients about, you know, the different situations in their life and just kind of assess those things.

But it's not enough to just assess them if say, oh, I'm so sorry, you're hungry.

So yeah, your blood pressure was high.

No, that's not okay.

Right.

So what can we do to connect them with community resources?

We can't be everything to everyone in our community.

We can't furnish the housing.

We can't provide all of the meals.

But if we have strong partnerships in the community, then we can be able to guide people, direct people and lift them all up together.

So we have resources within all of those interactions on what to do, where to send someone if they are struggling with their rent, a roof that's leaking, whatever it may be.

I have to smile because.

Because I'm from the area, all of my family goes to Mercy Health and I have a really big family.

And I remember several years ago is the family.

I have three older sisters amongst us.

We have ten children and about 7 or 8 of them, and I give them all their own.

Say your least favorite sister's name, my least favorite sister's name.

Just kidding.

They are built in best friends.

Very good.

I love them dearly and I'm the baby.

So sure, I got four moms growing up is amazing.

Yeah, so where was I?

You were talking about having a family because no, mom in our family has the physician offices, and mom's, like, I can't believe they asked me if I had, like, enough to eat here.

And I mean, they say very, very tactfully, of course.

And I said, you know, and I gave me a chance to explain, though, to some of our patients who maybe don't have some of those same challenges, why that's important and why we are kind of setting the bar and making that a level playing field.

Everybody gets those questions when when you come in to be able to assess these things.

We're talking we run a layman, the president and CEO of Mercy Health Lima, I think it's interesting when you talk about those, you know, those screening questions, I don't know that I've ever, you know, thought about them from a position of privilege or position of responsibility to say, hey, when when somebody they ask you your question and you sort of laugh at it because it's like, well, that question is ridiculous.

It's like, well, that's that comes from a place of privilege, but it also comes from a place of responsibility.

And I know Mercy Health is doing a lot of things in the Lima area to address the responsibility piece of that to say, hey, we want to help with you know, access to food.

We want to act, you know, access to health care.

Also, you know, Mayor Smith talk to you about a $65 million investment, in downtown.

I'm guessing you guys had something to do with a piece of that.

Talk to me about the things you guys are doing in the community.

Oh, gosh, that's that's super exciting because there are a number of things that we've been doing in the community and things that the city has truly helped us with and partnered with us on.

One of my favorites is Mercy Tots that opened last September, and that is our child care facility.

So just down the street from about a block away or so from Saint Rita's closer to the town square, we were able we partially received a gift from a charitable family and then also renovated that to be able to open Mercy Tots, our own child care center.

It is open to the community, though.

It's our employees, children as well as community members kids.

And we were able to get a grant to the city for some assistance with those renovations as well.

And they've just been a tremendous partner.

Now during the pandemic, you know, you can't have a health care person on, let's not say the p word during the pandemic, especially in and health care, we know that it's predominantly our workforce is female and we know females.

You know, when they chose to stay home, when they left the profession, what have you.

There are challenges with childcare when women are the predominant person in that field.

So a lot of childcare centers closed in our community.

We saw struggles with our own staff, even if they went full time to part time.

All of those things truly impact our ability to care for people.

So this is one way it doesn't solve the whole problem.

Rarely does one thing do that, but it's one way to be able to really make a dent in some of the childcare challenges that we saw with people.

And it's going supremely well.

So you don't jump from, I guess let me ask a little bit of a backup question about, when you were a young woman, you aspirations were to do just this.

Talk to us a little bit.

How you got into this.

I have a really fun story.

I think it's a fun way right here.

I started as Saint Rita's almost 31 years ago as an intern in the pharmacy department.

My training, my background is as a pharmacist.

So did you bring us any pharmaceuticals?

I did this all, so there's no question I keep Advil in my purse because everybody at the ballgame says.

Who's got that bill?

The pharmacist doesn't look at me for?

I honestly, I just feel like blame has fallen down on the gifts.

Yeah.

I mean, she was your favorite.

Only I know.

You see, she was I know she is your favorite now the expectation said right.

Well we didn't know you're a pharmacist, but that's okay.

So please proceed.

So I did my undergrad lawyer.

Northern, certainly not too far from Lyme and Ada.

I did my, doctorate in Ohio State, the Ohio State University, Columbus, did an MBA in Tiffin.

So I kind of worked this kind of part of the state, if you will.

And really, the whole time was working weekends, evenings, all the times at Saint Rita's to grow myself in that career.

I had the chance early on.

I'm just going to abbreviate it to do some leadership things.

Thought it was fun.

Never in 1,000,000 trillion years thought I would be the president of that organization.

It's a scary thought when I think back of it.

How little I knew then.

It does help, though, I think, to be able to be a holistic leader, to have done all the things I I'm going to say that till the day I die, you know, delivering meds, working on Christmas, doing those things right gets you a different knowing.

All doctors work what they need, right, right, right makes you a different level.

Other egos trust your words in the workforce.

Talking about the relationship between Mercy Health Lima and Mercy Health Toledo.

Bob Baxter in the team here.

Yeah, absolutely.

He's a great guy.

He is.

So Bob and I actually used to work together in the linemen market when he first moved over to this part of the country.

So I worked with Bob for many years.

He's taught him everything he knows.

And this is not to say that it's.

Yeah.

No, your words be heard.

I would say yin yang.

We complement each other very nicely.

And at the time that Bob was in the Lima market, though, I worked on the medical group side.

So I was specifically on the physician practice side, growing new practices and neighboring communities and different towns around our area.

So yes, we work together well with the Toledo market, with the Springfield market, with the Cincinnati market.

And it's a real benefit to have such a network of experts.

And truly, I mean, we can go back and forth on independent hospital, large system hospital.

I see the value in benefits and being a system because I can pick up the phone and say, hey, Bob, right.

Hey, Adam.

Hey, whomever what's going on with this issue here?

Have you encountered it?

It's an amazing resource.

I have a sort of unique perspective.

I intern with mercy.

When I was in college, two summers in the marketing communications department.

Bob and his leadership team up here has been an integral part of, my day job, which is working for the Metroparks.

Toledo.

And when you think about holistic partners who get it, that has been, a really, really beneficial relationship.

The park is a partner who gets it.

Absolutely.

And you have shared goals.

What's something you're most looking forward to?

I'm sorry.

I thought I thought you were finished with something.

You're most looking forward to a mercy project in 2026 that you're working on now, because it's so easy.

And you didn't even know that I didn't.

We announced yesterday that our gala in June will be fundraising for our Adolescent Behavioral Health Center.

Nice.

Oh, that's going I did no adolescent behavioral health, services of this nature.

We have some outpatient things, but not hardly anything at all.

When patients come to art, we have to typically transfer them to another place at least an hour to two hours away every time.

Interesting.

So we are going to be able to have a partial hospitalization program at Saint Rita's for adolescents.

Thrilled.

Also, a very charitable donor in our community who's passionate about behavioral health is helping us make this happen.

That's amazing.

We are great news.

Thrilled for that because I have a teenager and I have two young 20 year olds, and the the tragedies and the challenges facing that generation is we've got to do something for it.

Good for you.

That's that's incredible news.

We're talking with Rhonda Lehmann, the president and CEO of Mercy Health.

Limb.

You know, one of the you talk about, you know, community hospital, large system hospital, private hospital.

But one of the unique things about Mercy Health is the face, faith based sort of perspective is really what difference does that make?

You know, for you in health care?

It makes an absolute tremendous difference to me.

It's hard for me to imagine working in an environment that it wasn't so encouraged.

Certainly we start our day in prayer.

We start most our meetings with prayers and reflections, and our board meeting is comprised of a good chunk of the beginning of it is rooted in our foundation, rooted in our values.

This is a world that those things can really, easily get drowned out.

Yes, ma'am.

And so we talk a lot about our founders, Catherine McCauley.

We teach that to new associates.

We reinforce it on some of the important days throughout the year.

The most importantly, we believe it's something our patients feel when they come for care with us that we're fixing them mind, body and spirit when they're there, if possible.

You mentioned the pandemic.

You know, obviously health care has been sort of, you know, hit with some employment challenges post-pandemic.

What are you guys doing at Mercy Health Lima to try to buck that trend and, and be able to continue to sort of grow back your workforce?

Yeah.

So certainly it was a challenging, challenging time.

We saw people leaving the workforce for just a host of reasons.

As I as I touched on briefly with even childcare, and we saw the largest complement of agency or traveling staff that we had ever seen in the time that I've been there in the 21, 22 time frames.

So it has been a kind of digging out from that.

We've talked about a nursing shortage for probably at least a decade and it goes in waves does.

So we already kind of were behind the ball.

The pandemic comes and we're even further behind.

So we have been doing you name i overcome that, to partner with that, everything from trying to create an environment that is really, environment people want to stay in, first of all.

So I was call that refer that closing the back door.

Right.

Sure.

Retention and we have the best in our ministry retention rate of nurses and all of our ten markets in Lima.

That's something to brag about because and we believe it's our culture.

We believe what we're doing to support people.

And then we have the front door, which means we just need more people to be interested in health care, more people that choose that as a profession.

And so we had partnered with universities.

We partnered with high schools.

We jokingly say, we'll come to your kindergarten class and we'll talk to you about health care, and we do.

What's your pitch to someone that to get involved in the health care?

Why?

Why would they?

Why should they consider it?

It's so easy.

It's probably why two out of my three children actually probably three out of three, are going towards health care.

Yeah.

First of all, I say it's because I make it look so fun.

That's right.

And I come home so happy every single day.

But they're like, I want some of that.

But I do.

I love what I do, and so it's so easy for me to talk to the next generation about why this?

I can't imagine myself doing anything different, because I get to wake up every single day and say, I get to help take care of people.

Now, am I at the bedside caring for them each day?

No.

But when I help the people that help the people, yeah, that's right.

It lifts our communities.

Man.

It affects my own friends, my own family, my own neighbors.

And the outcomes are so amazing.

What we're able to do in health care is so amazing.

Are there challenges?

Absolutely.

Can it be gut wrenching?

At times, yes, but to journey with someone and some of the highest points of their life and the lowest, I can't really think of any more great, better calling human experience amazing is Rhonda Lehmann, the president, CEO and Queen of Mercy Square.

I'm, thank you so much for the time.

Thank you, thank you.

When we come back, we'll wrap up this Monday edition of the 419.

We'll be right back.

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It's where you belong.

Welcome back into the 419 is where, as we wrap up this Mayor Monday edition, we took a tour of Lima, Ohio, through the eyes of Lima mayor Sarita Smith and also the Queen of Mercy Health Lima, Rhonda Lehmann.

Two very, very impressive leaders in Miami area.

And you brought up the point that, today is the launch of Women's History Month, Women's History Month.

And we kicked it off.

We kicked it off really nicely.

Yeah.

We had three strong women on the show today.

Are you including me?

I am, thank you.

Come see whenever I'm not around.

See it?

Be nice.

Just changes the tone of everything.

Yeah, that does it.

I just I cannot say enough how much I enjoy, you know, seeing a community.

Yeah.

And hearing about it from the people that love it the most.

And you had two incredible champions for Lima here today, with Mayor Smith and Ronda Layman.

It just sounds like there's some great things going on.

More than just cupy.

Although I do more than just Cory, although that's worth the drive, I think, it absolutely is.

I try to like time out when I've got to drive through.

And I'm coming back from, you know, Cincinnati, Dayton, whatever.

I think through how do I map through so that, like, a meal time happens versus going through Lima, so it's perfect.

All right.

If you missed any part of the show, there's a lot of opportunities for you to catch at 7 a.m.

on YouTube, 3 p.m.

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on GT connect, channel 30.4 and 20 473 65 online e.org/the 419 or through the new ZTE app.

You got to download it and check it out.

Of course, if you want to be on the show or have feedback for us, you can now email us 419@zte.org.

Thanks so much to Mayor Sarita Smith and Rhonda Lehmann for joining us.

And thanks to you for watching.

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