Ed Isabella outlines priorities in Medina City Council at-large bid, emphasizing deer control, sidewalks and square traffic

Ed Isabella, a candidate for Medina City Council at large, said in a televised interview that his leading priorities if elected are professionalizing the city's deer-control efforts, easing the financial burden of sidewalk repairs on homeowners, and reconfiguring parking and traffic around the downtown square to improve pedestrian safety.

Isabella said those topics matter to everyday life in Medina and that city government can directly affect day-to-day services. "You're trying to take the concerns, take the issues that are facing ... the people that live here," he said, adding that council must work with the mayor and service departments to find solutions.

The candidate described the current deer-management program as "insufficient" and tied recent problems to reliance on a volunteer bow-hunting effort. "I think we either have to work with ODNR, find game control people that can help us with this problem," Isabella said, referring to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, and suggested leaning more on public safety staff and seeking legal tools from state representatives.

On sidewalks, Isabella said Medina's current approach, which he described as placing repair responsibility on homeowners, is inadequate. "Sidewalks are kind of a public utility," he said. "Everybody should be able to use them. So I think that one of the things that we need to do is ... open up more kind of a, in a similar way to how we do road repairs, we should do the same thing with our sidewalks." He said he would push for programs to help defer repair costs for homeowners, though he did not specify funding sources or program details.

Isabella also made traffic and pedestrian safety on the downtown square a priority. He proposed rethinking parking along Court Street and altering traffic signal timing. "I think we can consider either cutting back the number of spaces or removing those sort of turn-in style parking spots entirely," he said, and proposed exploring an all-pedestrian signal phase used in other cities that stops all traffic so pedestrians cross simultaneously. He framed such changes as intended both to improve safety and to increase the time visitors spend on the square, which he said would benefit businesses.

On housing, Isabella said Medina is mostly built out and expressed caution about large, publicly funded housing projects. He said the city should help residents access existing homebuyer programs and consider home-repair grants for aging housing stock. "I'm a little bit ... worried about what are folks, like my age and younger ... going to do," he said, adding he would "at least entertain" public programs and allow voters to weigh in.

Isabella framed his candidacy as bringing engineering and construction-industry experience to council. He said he would be the first civil engineer on the council in about 20 years and that his background in road and transportation projects informs his proposals for sidewalks and traffic improvements. He described his approach to disagreements with other council members as rooted in assuming colleagues are acting in good faith and seeking compromise while holding to his priorities.

The interview included background details Isabella volunteered: he described himself as a lifelong Medina resident who graduated from Medina High School, studied civil engineering at Ohio State University, works as a registered professional engineer and project manager in construction quality control and inspection, and has owned a home in Medina since 2018. He identified council president John Coyne as someone he has spoken with about the role.

Isabella closed by urging voters to contact him and provided a campaign email and phone number during the interview.

Votes and formal actions: none. This interview was a candidate interview and did not record any council motions, votes or formal city actions.