And many of his growing pains as a young professional were played out publicly, which contributed to his embattled start on City Council.
An argument with a restaurant waitress about an unpaid bill led to a police report being filed; he had unpaid city income taxes; and the Ohio Elections Commission said he had missed a deadline in filing a 2009 campaign finance addendum. But Smith has maintained that he has always owned up to his mistakes and lapses in judgment.
In his three-and-a-half years on City Council, Smith said he’s been “a tireless advocate” for working and low-income families. He has taken the lead on several issues, including leading the committee that helped renew the public safety levy in August 2012, challenging City Council and staff in October 2012 with its decision to reduce Section 8 vouchers by 1,008, and in 2010 was a vocal opponent to SB5 that restricted public unions’ collective bargaining rights.
On Tuesday, Smith, 24, is expected to resign his spot on City Council — which would be effective after that day’s scheduled City Council meeting — due to a job opportunity in Columbus. He said he also plans to seek an undergraduate degree in psychology at The Ohio State University. Until today, only Smith’s inner circle of family and friends, and a select few political allies, knew about his intent to resign.
“I’m not here to make excuses for my mistakes, but I am quite the imperfect person,” said Smith. “It’s been a roller coaster. Like anything in life you have your good moments and you have your bad moments, and at the end of the day it’s about putting one foot in front of the other.”
Smith, who owns his own political consulting firm, ASJ & Associates, has taken on a client that he said requires him to relocate to Columbus.
“I didn’t want to pass on this opportunity like I have had to in the past,” said Smith.
Smith, a Democrat and active member in the party, was affected early on in 2005 at the start of the year-long lockout of AK Steel union employees. His father, Andrew Smith Sr., was among the employees locked out. After completing in 2010 a fire academy program at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, he became involved in defeating SB5.
“I decided I needed to be engaged 110 percent in that fight because it was those kinds of antics that caused my father and my mother to lose their home in 2005 … and for my family to no longer have the money to send me to college,” said Smith. “
But it was a failed Middletown school levy in 2007, his senior year in high school, that launched Smith to become politically active. He toured with the Barack Obama campaign in 2008 and defeated Josh Soppanish in the 2009 election for the Second Ward seat on City Council, earning nearly 72 percent of the vote.
“There are very few that have experienced what I’ve experienced in life,” said Smith. “There are not many young elected officials at the age of 20 let alone African-American.”
Smith has set an example for young people getting involved in the political process, said Butler County Democratic Executive Committee Chair Jocelyn Bucaro.
“A.J. ran for office at a young age, as a young activist. We’re always excited as voters, as electors, as people involved in the political and electoral process to see young people to get involved,” she said. “He leaves a legacy behind for other young people to get involved — either to run for office or to get involved in the political process.”
But as Smith leaves the dais for Columbus, he said he wishes to remind his colleagues on council, and future council members, something that Law Director Les Landen said during an executive session involving city employees: “You should be hard on the issues and soft on the people.”
“That stuck with me since the day he said it,” Smith said. “And one thing I would ask some of my colleagues (on council) is to try to have some compassion for those who are less fortunate and perhaps unlike them.
“We’re not West Chester, we’re not Liberty Twp., it’s not the community of Mason. Middletown is a post-industrial community that has its challenges that certainly need to be addressed, but they need to be addressed with compassion in mind.”
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