Coming up Roses: Former Medina councilman reflects on 16 years of service

What causes a seemingly ordinary citizen to run for public office? Not those born into the political family business, but someone with no governmental experience whatsoever – a husband and dad working in the private sector, coaching his kids’ ball teams on the weekends.

In the case of former Medina City Council representative at-large Paul Rose of the Forest Meadows neighborhood, his spark came from two neighbors – Stu Borden and Bill Cohen – a pair of “regulars” at Medina City Council meetings who kept him apprised of municipal happenings.

“I was active in the Forest Meadows Lake Park Association,” Rose told Medina Weekly Dec. 12, 2025, a couple of weeks before voluntarily leaving office after four terms. “I started to get involved with the city through the stormwater utility commission, way back before they raised the income tax rate (in 2004 to 1.25%).”

Dismayed by a proposed per-month, per-rooftop fee related to city stormwater management, Rose, whose neighborhood surrounds a dammed 3.7-acre lake, felt it was time to throw his hat into the ring.

A chance encounter with then-City Council President Cindy Fuller sealed it, and Rose filed petitions to run in the 2009 election after discussing it with his wife, Joelle, and adult children Jennifer, Paul Jr. and Eric.

“(Fuller) and I talked for a while, and she encouraged me as well,” Rose said. “I found out (former councilwoman) Linda Hoffmann-Joseph was not going to run for re-election. That particular campaign, it was me against a 23-year-old college kid (Jay Smith) so that was good timing.”

Rose won with 61% of the vote. His next two election bids were unopposed before he defeated current City Councilwoman Natalie Harjar-DiSalvo in November 2021. Harjar-DiSalvo later won the body’s other at-large seat in November 2023.

Rose brought decades of systems management experience to council through careers at IBM, from which he retired in 2018, and LTV Steel. He said his first term was “definitely a big learning curve.”

“I have always used the guiding principles of what’s good for the city and what is going to help the city progress into the future,” Rose said. “In any decision, you will find X number of things for it and X number of things against it. You have to look at the overall outcome – from the courthouse to the deer, to the hotel, to the restrooms on the square.”

Rose also was guided by a strong sense of fiscal responsibility, saying he was proud of helping address smaller issues, such as shoring up city spending related to animal control, as well as larger efforts to increase citywide employment and boost income without raising the tax rate.

“The city is pretty much built out,” Rose said, adding that council had to find new ways to increase revenue, including recent legislation he introduced to add a local lodging tax to the forthcoming downtown hotel. “Now that’s money we can take and put elsewhere – more money to use for the square.”

Another area in which Rose felt he made a difference was as a founding chair of the city’s Emerging Technologies Committee, helping establish its personnel framework. Work from that board led to a new municipal website and a unified disaster management and communication system.

“I wanted it to be the city IT person, municipal court IT person and the school IT person, then we get three people from the community,” Rose said. “We always tried to look down the road into the future with what’s happening. What I learned in 18 years at IBM is already in The Smithsonian.”

For the past 16 years, the makeup at Medina City Hall – in terms of council members and administrative heads – remained relatively stable compared to other similarly sized Ohio municipalities, save for what Rose called “a few strategic moves.”

Coming out of a nationwide economic recession when Rose was elected Nov. 3, 2009, the city faced a critical moment with several seats up for election: Ward 1, Ward 3 and an at-large council seat, along with the offices of mayor and finance director.

Medina and its economic engine, Public Square, have since fared well.

“I never looked back that way, but Medina could have gone in a totally different direction – people with different thoughts and influence,” Rose said. “We were very blessed that everyone on council was like-minded. They were looking to the future for the good of the city.”

When disagreements occurred, Rose said, they were handled privately.

“Did we, in executive sessions, have interesting conversations? Yes,” he said. “But when we came out, we shared a view, and that was the way it should be. It took seven of us to make that happen.”

That consistency was matched by a steady administration led for the same 16 years by Mayor Dennis Hanwell – whose distant relatives in 1905 just happened to reside in Moss Creek, Pa. at the same time as some of Rose’s relatives.

“If I brought an issue from a resident to their attention, they would thoroughly follow through,” Rose said, calling department heads “a great buffer” for residents. “With property issues, sometimes someone is just in ill health or can’t afford to get it done. A number of times, we enlisted community help from various church groups, which this community cannot live without.”

As an at-large representative, Rose said he did not have as many direct resident contacts as ward representatives do, making those interactions especially memorable.

“I am happy to say that for just about everybody who reached out to me for some sort of assistance, we were able to come to an agreeable solution,” he said. “Was everybody 100% happy all of the time? No. Wouldn’t that be crazy?”

Rose said he has no regrets about his time in office but expressed concern that too few residents are informed about local government.

“It disturbs me that we get tens of thousands of people in Medina who show up for a presidential election, and those people in Washington don’t have a clue who you are, where you are, why you are,” Rose said. “Less than a third of those people show up to vote for who impacts them the most.”

Still, Rose said he believes Medina remains on solid footing, particularly fiscally.

“We have a budget surplus … we have a good view into five years as to what’s going to happen,” he said. “This should be required of every city.”

Rose then read from a prepared statement, which he had originally planned to deliver in full during his last city council meeting but was overcome with emotion.

“I really believe, when you commit yourself to public service, you should leave the place in a better condition than it was,” Rose said. “I do believe Medina is in a better place. I was part of a group that kept the city moving forward. Every person in the administration and on council contributed in their own way. Without that group, without that mentality, it wasn’t going to happen.”

Reflecting on his time in office, Rose described his service as both educational and collaborative.

“I learned how a city runs,” he said. “In politics, one person can steer the ship, but it takes a whole crew to keep the ship moving in the intended direction. These are people who help make Medina what it is. They’re the people who provide the quality of life people have come to know and love.”

He added, “To council, please avoid the temptation to veer from the fiscal conservative mind – and mess it up.”

Rose said he plans to remain civically involved and is looking forward to upcoming international travel related to genealogy research.