From reaping the benefits of her great community to influencing the benefits that others experience, Zanesville City Councilwoman Joey Osborn is ready to take her seat again at the front of the council chambers.

A graduate of Philo High School, Osborn has never known any different than to be involved in her community. From theater and dance as a child to being the Head Advisor for the City Kids 4-H Club and serving through many organizations in the community, Osborn spends her time caring for her family and enriching her community.

“My life was very enriched by our community, and I’m hoping that I can continue that with my children,” Osborn said. “That’s another reason why I wanted to run is that I had a good experience and I want to make sure that continues and that even improves for my kids.”

Growing up in her household as a child, politics were often the topic of dinner-table discussion. Those discussions created a passion for Osborn, a passion for government and all of its intricacies.

Despite any differences in opinion and varying points of view, discussing politics never became taboo for Osborn as it has for many people.

“At the end of the day, we still loved each other and respected each other at the end of the conversation, and I wish the world was more like that today,” she said.

After experiencing her first taste of being involved in politics during her time in the JoAnn Davidson Leadership Institute of Ohio, Osborn fueled her initial need for government with a position on the Republican Club Central Committee.

“It was a whirlwind, and it was awesome. I knew when I graduated from that program that probably I wanted to run for public office,” Osborn said of her time in the leadership institute. “The life was exciting and intriguing, but it could also be really rewarding.”

After getting elected to Zanesville City Council in 2015, Osborn never looked back.

“Local government is where you can truly be connected to the people you’re representing,” Osborn said. “My husband and I are here, we have five children here that will grow up in the schools here and reap the benefits that I got from the community.”

She had a hand in getting online with the Ohio checkbook by sponsoring the legislation to make it happen.

“I know that expenditures are public record and folks can come to City Hall and make that request, but this allows someone, if they have an issue at home and they’re in their jammies and it’s after business hours, they can look it up,” Osborn said. “They have that information at their fingertips at any given time.”

She uses social media to share information about public meetings and City events to help keep people as informed as possible.

Between her city council position and her influence during her 10 years with Rotary, she was able to assist two sides of the bridge lighting project by ensuring the City was helping the project move along and also financially supporting it through Rotary.

Additionally, she was heavily involved in the development of the dog park.

Addressing some criticism from that project, Osborn said she pays close attention to the large problems in the community, but people who live in Zanesville also deserve a good quality of life.

“I feel like quality of life is a big part of my job. Of course we are working on the tough issues of drugs, homelessness, and housing. But we also have to have some good quality of life stuff going on in our community, too. We need good reasons that people want to be here, work here, and raise their families here,” she said.

While a few large projects stick out, Osborn said there are many smaller things that took less time but greatly impact peoples’ lives in the community that she has had a hand in developing.

As a woman that consistently stands up for what she believes in, Osborn said her duties as a councilwoman are not over. She is in the middle of many projects that she would like to see through the end and beyond.

Included in those projects is live streaming council meetings to enhance transparency. She would like to continue work on the Downtown Economic Development Committee and would like to see a group come to fruition to consistently work to revitalize Downtown and make it a more vibrant city with added businesses.

Additionally, a project that Osborn has in the works is working on City legislation to update urban gardening and agriculture within the city limits. As the current legislation is written, city dwellers are bound by code that limits growing foods.

“I think we have a lot of rules in the city that need to be updated. Living in the county affords a lot of opportunities that we don’t have in the city,” Osborn said. “We now have a lot of folks who are interested in raising and growing their own food, they’re interested in what’s in it, they’re interested in controlling what’s in it.”

As a mother of a child with ADHD, Osborn knows first-hand that what a person puts in their body or their child’s body can determine the type of day that person has. Thus, the importance for people to have the opportunity to control the food they’re eating is high on Osborn’s list.

Given the many sectors of the community that Osborn has been a part of from non-profit work to grant writing to owning a business to being a mother and a member of local government, Osborn said her background speaks for itself.

“I still feel like I have the right mix of background to represent the people in the city well,” she said. “ … I feel like I have a really good mix in my background to make me a good representative of not just one sector of the community.”

In an effort to be as connected as possible to the people she represents, Osborn said local government is where her heart lies. She lives in the community, represents the community and works to better the community.

“I am knee deep in this community as much as anyone else,” she said. “I use its services, I shop here, my kids go to school here, I have the same difficulties as everyone else being a parent and a taxpayer, and I have a lot of mouths to feed.”

Osborn serves on six current committees under Zanesville City Council, including Ways and Means, Public Safety, Public Service, Website Redesign, Airport Redesign and Downtown Economic Development.

Outside of council, Osborn serves as a board member on the Zanesville Housing Development Corp. She’s a member of the Muskingum County Women’s Republican Club, as well as the Women of Achievement Committee and a 2003 graduate of Leadership Muskingum. She was a part of the inaugural Zanesville Citizens Police Academy graduating class and serves as the co-chair for the Young Republicans Club.

This is a sponsored story paid for by the Committee to Elect Osborn, Joey Osborn, Treasurer. The nature of a sponsored story allows for subjective content.