Opinion: City Hall needs servant leaders who embrace teamwork

When I was endorsed by the Cincinnati Democratic Committee for City Council, I immediately knew more than a few folks were Googling my name. Allow me to save you some time.

I was born and raised in Cincinnati, the grateful son of the late Rev. Rousseau A. O’Neal III, pastor of Rockdale Baptist Church and a civil rights leader, and Monica D. O’Neal, who is a retired Cincinnati Public Schools teacher.

I’m a proud graduate of Walnut Hills High School and the University of Cincinnati. After college, I joined the Army, and I still serve as a First Lieutenant Ordnance Officer in the Ohio Army National Guard.

I am the athletic director at Western Hills University High School and Dater Montessori. With Kayla, my beautiful wife of 9 years and our two children, Phillip, 7, and Knox, 1, we reside in Avondale. There I serve as a deacon and board member at Rockdale Baptist Church, where my family extends into the hundreds.

Why am I running for City Council? Public service can create opportunity for everyone, and my personal and lived experience will allow me to serve our city well.

My parents and my faith instilled in me a call to serve others regardless of where they come from, their race, sexual orientation or gender. I am blessed in being able to serve our youth through my work at Cincinnati Public Schools for the last five years. With CPS, I was able to begin a program to teach high schoolers life skills and allow them to aspire to something greater. We bring in professionals to talk about financial literacy, entrepreneurship and career paths for those who wish to pursue higher education.

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in March 2020, for eight months, I was deployed as Officer in Command of an Ohio National Guard operation to safely distribute food to Cincinnatians through the Freestore Foodbank. On weekends, I coordinated the transport and distribution of several tons of food to communities throughout the state. In those frightening times, people were hurting, and we were able to help. I hugged and cried with those I had never met before. We got through it together.

City Hall needs a servant leader who embraces teamwork, a skill I employ both as an Army lieutenant and daily as an athletic director. City Hall desperately needs someone who can bridge gaps between generations and communities, who can leave their ego behind for the greater good.

As your council member, I will work to partner with our public schools, corporate partners, labor unions and professional trades to create more career pathways. I will also heed the call to prioritize affordable housing to meet living wages, as a means to revitalize neighborhoods resulting in more equitable communities. Additionally, I will use my platform to fight back against the plague of violent crime. I was raised to confront hate with love and confront fear with safety.

This month, I met with parents and students for a "stop the violence" brainstorm. As a city council member, I will press the city to create or bring back safe and healthy outlets for youth, outlets that I had as a child but that have been increasingly defunded in recent years.

I love Cincinnati and my fellow Cincinnatians. I look forward to serving my neighbors as a fresh face in a diverse place.

Phillip O’Neal is an Avondale resident, athletic director at Western Hills University High School and Dater Montessori and First Lieutenant Ordnance Officer in the Ohio Army National Guard.