Candidate Interview- John Busse

In this episode, we sit down with Kenton County District 3 candidate John Bussey to discuss his vision for the future of the community. Drawing from his business background, Bussey shares his perspective on local government, emphasizing responsible growth, fiscal discipline, and practical leadership. Tune in to learn how his experience and ideas could shape Kenton County’s path forward and what sets his approach apart.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Blue Dot, Northern Kentucky's premier political podcast, brought to you by the Kent County Democratic Executive Committee. Welcome back to the Blue Dot Podcast, and we've got another great candidate interview lined up for you today. This time is for a District 3 County Commissioner Race. And thanks so much for joining. I'm Natalie McDonald.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

And I'm Brian Cale. Local government is where decisions most directly shape our day-to-day lives, and the role of county commissioner is one of the most impactful. Kenton County has three commissioner districts, and voters countywide get to vote in all three races, regardless of where they live. Today we're joined by District 3 candidate John Bussey. John, thanks so much for being here.

SPEAKER_02 0:45

Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to be on the podcast. And I appreciate the opportunity to talk a little bit about the Kenton County Commissioner's role and what it does in its appropriate function for serving the citizens of Kenton County.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

We are very glad to have you. And you come from a really interesting background, and we'll get into a little bit more of that later. But first, can you mind telling us a little bit about yourself? Introduce yourself and share what inspired you to run for this position.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

A little bit about myself. I graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1972 with a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial design. I immediately went into industry after that and worked in industry for 13 years, at which point in time, uh the people I were working for were doing things which I did not exactly think were very efficient nor very ethical. So I started my own company in 1985. And we are still in business today in 2026. So it's been 41 years, and it has been an interesting roller coaster ride. There have been good years and there have been bad years. And surviving the good years, of course, is very easy, but you also have to realize if you have a good year, you need to prepare for a bad year because you can never tell when those are going to come. And that's what managing a budget and managing a staff is all about. You have to be prepared for any eventuality. And I do believe governments have to be prepared for that eventuality also. It's not as if the states can go borrow money. The federal government can go borrow money, but the states cannot. And as far as I'm concerned, the counties cannot borrow money either to stay in existence. They have to live within their budgets. And that's something that is not always easy to do. And if you're running a very efficient organization, that it makes it a lot easier, but still, it is no guarantee of success. You mentioned a little bit about motivation for running. I went to the last general election and I noted to myself that there was hardly any Democrats on the ballot. And even though I have been an independent for a long period of time, I know from experience that unless you have competition, things can run amok. It becomes too easy to do this, that, or the other thing unless somebody's looking over your shoulder. And from a business standpoint, I have always had competition, which means that we have always had a very efficient ship and we don't go wasting money. If we have the opportunity to put some money away, we do so so that when the next downturn comes, we are prepared to face that downturn. And here again, if there's no competition on the ballot, there's no incentive for people to do well. So I think that if there's competition that shows up on the ballot, there will be an incentive for people to do things better. And better is the word I like to use a lot. I think that Kenton County can be run better. I'm not going to criticize the individuals who are in office right now, but I do believe that looking at the purchasing and looking at the expenditures of a county from someone who has a business background can actually make things better. That's great. That's why I'm running for county commissioner.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Yeah, I mean that the role of county commissioner doesn't really get a lot of attention. I don't, you know, many people don't even really know what the county commissioners do. Um and you talk about the business acumen that you think you could bring to the to the county and how that that might help. Is there something specific or some trends or events or something that, you know, really motivated you to step up and run this time, besides the fact that, you know, we just need more Democrats on the ticket and competition does make everybody better? You're seeing something else going on in the county that you would really like to address immediately.

SPEAKER_02 4:41

Well, actually, the retirement of two of the uh Canton County commissioners was another inspiration. In other words, why did they decide to step down at this point in time? I'm pretty sure after having spoken with one, that uh ages factor and being in office for a prolonged period of time could have just gotten boring for them. For me, actually, I really enjoy doing business. As a matter of fact, my age is something a lot of people say to me, John, why haven't you retired? And my answer to that is I'm still having a lot of fun. And I think actually looking at the business of a county could be a lot more fun, too, in as much as we're gonna purchase things, we're gonna deliver services, and basically there's a lot of people that have to be overseen. I do think that the importance of dealing with the employees of the county is an important matter. And I also think dealing with the citizens of Kenton County is an even more important matter in as much as their interests have to be represented by the county commissioners.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

Yeah, and you talk a lot about your business background, and obviously you have a really keen eye on expenses. Kenton County is growing and evolving, so we're gonna have to be able to balance growth with fiscal responsibility, and we're going to have land use issues come up with data centers and different issues like that. I'm curious how your expertise and using your expertise, how you would approach managing all of these types of developments. And again, relying on we still want to grow, but we also have to be smart about it.

SPEAKER_02 6:21

Well, there's several organizations in Kenton County right now that are working on development. And I think that those people have to be communicated with and make sure that they are doing their job and coming up with a balanced kind of approach to the kind of businesses that Kenton County would like to have. I do respect the new pharmaceutical laboratory that's going to be constructed in Covington. I think that's a great idea. It's also an area in the medical business in which I have some experience. And the drug part of the FDA is a lot different than the actual device business of the FDA. I'm very experienced in the device business and I have some connections in the first pharmaceutical business. So that could be an enormous growth area for Kenton County, in particular with the hospital complexes that are just across the river. So development of the pharmaceutical business is going to be very, very important. As a matter of fact, as time rolls on and treatments get better and better and better, in particular cancer treatments. And as a matter of fact, the kind of research and testing that a drug has to go through is very excruciating. And as a matter of fact, that's why a lot of drugs don't make it to market, is because of the testing that's done and the evaluation of the people who are actually doing it. So this is a very good area to start developing. As a matter of fact, the medical device business is also a very good area to look into, too.

SPEAKER_01 8:03

It's funny you say that, and you may or may not know this, but my day job is doing exactly that, trying to get drugs to market. So I'm very very familiar every every day that I go to work. That's what I'm trying to do.

SPEAKER_03 8:14

Okay. I'm I'm glad there's someone familiar in the uh political system who also knows what's going on.

unknown 8:21

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

Yeah, uh Natalie's very familiar with that. I've heard some stories of exactly what you talked about, John, how difficult and complex bringing a drug to market um and you know, is. And really there's there's a a certain amount of timing and luck that goes into that, just like everything. And what what is your competition doing that you have to be mindful of as well? You know, county government depends heavily on collaboration. You talked a little bit about state and federal financing, you know, like loans, what's you know, what's possible in terms of funding in one area may not be in another. Uh, you have to work with cities and school districts and state leaders and community groups, um, you know, your your constituency or your customers. How do you handle working with uh people who may have different perspectives or priorities than yourself uh and you know continue to make progress?

SPEAKER_02 9:11

Well you have to uh take into consideration the humanity of every individual on the face of this planet. Not everybody is going to look at a situation the same that you are. And it's important that you come to an understanding of why they don't see it this way or that way. If you are trying to convince somebody, of course, you have to have number one, a convincing argument based on facts. And number two, you have to take into consideration their humanity or their feelings. Quite frankly, if you don't take into your clients, as in my case, my client's perspective on things, I wouldn't have any clients. If I'm going to tell a client that you're gonna do it my way, uh well, in some cases you may be right, but you have to deliver that message in such a way that they understand why that you want to do it your way and the logic behind it. So communication is really essential in dealing with any kind of an organization. And of course, you have to take into consideration organizational consent and what the organization is going to think about this. And sometimes the organization is the stumbling block, not the people.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

Yeah, and I've heard you say often, and you said even today you're not going to criticize those who are in the existing positions. And I've heard you say multiple times about, you know, really running a campaign that is respectful. And I think we need more of that in politics for sure. So I'm I'm really glad that you're setting that example. You're also going to be facing a primary opponent. So I know you spoke about your experience, but what sets you apart in from from your opponent in the primary? And why do you think that maybe your vision is all is the right one for Kenton County?

SPEAKER_02 10:55

Well, I have uh respect for my competitor in the primary, so I'm gonna use the word better. I'm going to say that I think I have more experience in business. I think I have more experience in dealing with people. I'm going to use age to my advantage. I've been around for a lot longer. And I think that I have dealt with uh all kinds of people, employees as well as clients. And some of my clients and some of my associates that I work with are extraordinarily well educated. And I have had the kinds of people who basically just want a job. Sometimes people who just want a job can be very, very productive, even though they don't want to get totally involved. I'm one of the kind of people who gets involved in these projects. And uh if I'm not going pedal to the middle, there's something wrong. So I have a tremendous amount of fun, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for my clients as well as the people who work for me. And that's what I'd like to bring to the employees as well as to the general population of Canton County. And that includes all of the school people, people involved in education, people involved in building roads, people involved in engineering, and people who are involved in law enforcement. I've had the opportunity to meet one of the candidates for sheriff, and I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation that he and I have. And I think that in terms of the county employees at this juncture in time, there's a lot of good people there, and they shouldn't be ignored or should they be dealt with in an extreme manner. I think that the employees as well as the citizens of this county need to be respected and have their wishes respected too. As I'm going to pick on one particular situation, I have heard a lot about data centers and people purchasing large tracts of land for data centers. In Butler County in Ohio, there's a data center that's being put up right now. And I have to ask the question, and I've heard of other potential data center projects in this area too. I have to say, how many data centers do we need? And what's going on? And is this a some sort of an economic bubble where if you put up a data center, people will come? I can't answer that question. But I do think that economic development needs to be a little bit more widespread than just talking about data centers at this point in time.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

That's a good point.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

Yeah, I'd go along with that. I'm interested. I mean, you know, running your own business successfully for 40-some years is, you know, commendable. I commend you on that. That's that that that's uh that takes a lot of dedication and hard work. And you talked about uh, you know, before we started the interview that you were already having like a long, a long business day on a Monday. Uh I'm just curious, what are the the time uh for the county commissioner and and do you see any challenges in being able to continue to run your business and also put in the you know the amount of effort that's going to be required for the commissioner position? Uh I don't know if any of your potential uh voters have have asked you about that because uh you know running your own business uh demands a lot of time and attention.

SPEAKER_02 14:15

Actually, one of the most fulfilling things about running your own business, and in particular my situation, is we get to see the results of what we have done. We have worked on numerous projects that have actually hit the consumer shelf. And when you see it sitting there on the shelf, and you say, I was there when we first started talking about this. And that's in some cases that's years, five years plus. In some cases, quickies are six months long. A quick long project, as a matter of fact, we had one project we've been making parts for for the past 20 years. And that particular project has been owned by four different companies. So it was roughly 2000 when we started on that project, and that company changed hands three times in about 15 years, and more recently it just changed hands again, and we're still making parts for that project. So those kinds of relationships are the sort of thing that you really want to dial in on as a business because they can prove they're not what I would say enormously profitable, but they are consistent. And one of the things that you want to offer your employees is consistency, and they really appreciate the fact that you're employing them for a prolonged period of time. That gives them the opportunity to buy a house, buy a car, educate their kids. And that's one of the things that I've always been about is consistency and keeping this organization running. So, from a standpoint of being a county commissioner, I think one of the most valuable things that I can contribute is a perspective of saying this is not going to be a quick job. We would like to do things that are going to last in Kenton County, not for a year, not for two years, but for 20 years. And 20 years is probably ready for a change. And that's essentially one of the things that you when you're looking at a business, where does it stand now with regard to technology? How soon is the technology going to change? And what are you going to do to keep up with technology? And that's one of the more interesting things with my business, is when we started, we started with essentially some pretty elementary pieces of equipment. Now we don't do anything unless there's a computer involved in it. Right.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

And that makes that makes sense. So I'm really hearing a lot of collaboration from you, a lot of business expertise there. Um, and so we got to kind of see that side of you. Uh, we also like to get to know our guests a little more on the fun side. So we we always put our guests through a quick lightning round if you'd be up for that. Uh just five quick questions to get to know you a little better. Sure. Okay. Sounds good. Okay. If you could play any professional sport, what would it be?

SPEAKER_02 17:07

I would drive a 410 race car.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

Wow. You'd be a race car driver.

SPEAKER_02 17:12

If you go to uh any one of the racetracks, it's local to northern Kentucky, Lawrenceburg being one, Florence being another, and there's another one on the east side of Cincinnati. They all hold sprint car races. Sprint car races are really exciting to watch. There's a lot of uh wheel-to-wheel competition, and they're basically pulling Gs, and that's pulling gravity. They're accelerating, they're decelerating, they're sliding, and the degree of competition and that sport is amazing.

SPEAKER_01 17:44

Interesting. Good to know. See, this is why I love to do this, because you get to learn so much about people. Um, all right, John, what is your and this is probably kind of hard. What is your favorite movie of all time?

SPEAKER_02 17:54

Wow. But we're gonna have to go back a while. My favorite movie of all time is it's a mad, mad, mad world. I know that movie. It's where the treasure was buried underneath the W. It was red skeleton, the probably when I was a kid, these were comedians that uh I was like, wow, those guys were old. And they're likely dead by now. But it was a fascinating movie, and as much as it was extraordinarily entertaining.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

All right, you may have already answered this, but I'll ask it again. What is the best part about owning your own business? I know you said what one of the one of the advantages, but what's the best part?

SPEAKER_02 18:35

Fulfillment. Uh, it's been very fulfilling. One of the things that I can probably say is that I'm still doing what I went to college for. And when I say I graduated in 1972, uh this particular business has in fact changed dramatically, and I have changed along with it. We've seen things come along. And actually, in 1989, I was talking to an associate, and I said, Well, computers aren't going to be important until 2015, 2020. Well, it was two years after that that I bought the first computer. Yeah. So the evolution that happened fast happened very rapidly, and it still happens very rapidly. And we're involved in a world where technology is king.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

It's amazing. Well, like they say, when you uh do what you love, you never work a day in your life, right? So that fulfillment's important. All righty. So who do you think is the most inspiring president or which president has inspired you the most?

SPEAKER_02 19:35

That's a good question. And I will say Dwight Eisenhower. Dwight Eisenhower was an extraordinarily well disciplined individual from the point in time when he was working for MacArthur in the Philippines to the point in time when he became president of the United States and actually initiated the interstate system. So he not only had a view of history, he was part of history, and he made a major contribution to this country by actually pushing forward on the interstate system and making it work.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

And that was obviously transformed our country for sure. And then last question what is your favorite landmark in Kenton County?

SPEAKER_02 20:22

There's lots of landmarks in Kenton County, but I have a favorite one.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 20:26

I'm gonna generalize on this because there are certain parts of this that could be called a landmark in and of itself. But I like the strip of land between the Robling Bridge and the Licking River. Walking along that Riverside Drive is just absolutely fascinating. And when you add to it, there have been there's been so much history that has occurred in that section of ground. It's absolutely amazing.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

Yeah, they have the landmarks there, they have some bronze, they have some statues down there. It's a it is a very, very cool area. So thank you. Thanks for playing along.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

Yeah, thanks. And thanks for joining us, uh John, on the podcast for the interview, discussing the opportunity to become Kenton County County Commissioner, District 3. Where can our listeners and viewers learn more about your campaign and get involved? Um you can learn more about me by giving me a call.

SPEAKER_02 21:20

I would be happy to talk to anybody with regard to what my opinions are. And I have a telephone number. It's 513-814-0513.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

It's fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

I would have to say you're the first candidate we had that just said, give me a call. I love that direct approach.

SPEAKER_02 21:40

Well, I I think if somebody actually I've had a quite interesting weekend. Democrats and Dogs was on Saturday. And after that, I went to a soccer game for one of my grandkids, and I wore my Democratic shirt. And I can't believe the number of people who came up to me. And said, Thank you for being a Democrat. Oh my gosh. Okay, that's great. Yes. I was uh really quite astounded by how many people approached me by just me wearing that t-shirt.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

It's all about it visibility. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:13

I think that bears omens of what's to come.

SPEAKER_01 22:15

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 22:16

Yes, I agree. A lot of a lot of Democrats out there that have been somewhat in hiding. And uh, you know, we're we're going to battle right now this year. This is it. The midterms, everything from local all the way up to federal is so important right now. And I think everybody knows it. This this is what this is really gonna matter. So thank you for for running, you know.

SPEAKER_02 22:36

Thank you for taking that on.

SPEAKER_00 22:39

All right. Well, we sure appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 22:40

Thanks a bunch of day. You too. Thanks so much. And that's it for this candidate interview. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel so you don't miss any of our upcoming podcasts or exclusive material. And don't forget you can join the conversation at our Facebook and Instagram pages or at blue dot podcast.com. Until next time, stay curious, keep the facts in focus, and never stop fighting for what matters. Peace out, everybody.