Donald Culliver

Donald Culliver
Mayor of Mansfield, Ohio
Incumbent
Assumed office December 1, 2007
Preceded by	Lydia Reid
Personal details
Born	November 5, 1951 (1951-11-05) (age 60)
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Lillie Culliver
Residence	Mansfield, Ohio
Religion	Baptist

Donald Culliver (born November 1951) was sworn to office on December 1 2007 after being elected to serve by the people of Mansfield, Ohio on November 6 2007. He is the first African-American in history to be elected Mayor of Mansfield.^[1]

Political life

His 2007 run for mayor was his first run for public office. He won the Mansfield mayoral election with 41% of votes with a margin of 4,862, defeating at large city council Doug Versaw (R) who received 32% of votes with a margin of 3,820 and William Anliker (Unindorsed R) who received 27% of votes with a margin of 3,159.^[2]

On February 25, 2008, Culliver endorsed Illinois Senator Barack Obama for president, saying, "If we are going to make a better future for America, we need a leader who isn't invested in the political food fights of the past." ^[3]

Community & Education

Mayor Culliver is well known around the community for his work in education and as a mentor to the youth of Mansfield. While campaigning for office in 2007, Mayor Culliver set a clear goal to get the community involved in our education system to help create a positive and progressive learning environment.^[4]

In 2008, Mayor Culliver helped build bridges between the government, education community and business community by forming several partnerships with local community members to help advance Mansfield to the next level together. Out of those partnerships, education has been a key focus to the Mayor and in November 2008, he created the Mayor's Education Task Force, a volunteer community organization dedicated towards getting the community involved in our local education system. The Mayor's influence in the community has reached incredible numbers with his initiative gaining 57 volunteers in five months by August 25 2009 and community partners nation-wide.^[5]

Economic Management

While the economic recession was officially declared in December 2007, it didn't stop the freshman Mayor from doing whatever it took to gain opportunity for his city.^[6] Mayor Culliver has been committed towards building partnerships throughout the state and nation and already includes the Ohio General Assembly, Governors Office and the United States Congress. Early 2009, Mayor Culliver and members of his administration traveled to Washington to work with several members of the United States House of Representatives, Senate and the Executive Office to work on funding opportunities for the City of Mansfield. Mayor Culliver was able to generate more than 3 million dollars in funding for Mansfield that helped save several safety service positions.However, because of the global economic shift, he was not able to secure positions for everyone who lost employment.

In 2009, Mayor Culliver partnered with local manufacturers,the business community, State Representative and House Majority Whip Jay Goyal, Commissioner Gary Utt, Governor Ted Strickland and Senator Sherrod Brown in the Mansfield Makes Sense for the New GM campaign towards keeping the local General Motors plant open.^[7] However, efforts were unsuccessful as the community received the final plan to close from GM Headquarters on July 31 2009.^[8]

Family and Personal Life

Mayor Culliver is a proud graduate of Malabar High School and a longtime resident and dedicated member of the Mansfield community, where he is also a loving husband, father and grandfather Mayor Culliver has been active in the community of Mansfield for many years with a 20 year public service record as a city councilman and 35 years experience as a licensed journeyman at PPG Industries.^[9]

References

• Smith, Rodger. "Mayor Culliver Visits OSU". Accent (The Ohio State University). http://mansfield.osu.edu/HTML/Accent/archive/July08.pdf. Retrieved 2009-09-17. 

• Caudill, Mark (2009-05-15). "Goyal tours Malabar, learns of education task force". State Representative Jay Goyal (Mansfield News Journal): pp. 1. http://www.jaygoyal.com/news051509.htm. Retrieved 2009-09-15. 

• "Education Task Force Prepares for the School Year". WMFD (North Central Ohio News): pp. 1. 2009-08-14. http://www.northcentralohio.com/newsboard/single.asp?Story=37228. Retrieved 2009-09-15. 
• http://www.tygerpride.com/cf_news/view.cfm?newsid=206 "New School Year Off to a Good Start: Mansfield Public City School Report"

• SHILLING, ERIK (2009-08-26). "New Malabar head: 'Failure is not an option'". Mansfield News Journal (The News Journal): pp. 1. http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20090828/NEWS01/908280312. Retrieved 2009-09-15. ^{[dead link]}

• Isidore, Chris (2008-12-01). "Its official: U.S. in recession since Dec 07". CNN MONEY (CNN). http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/01/news/economy/recession/index.htm?postversion=2008120112. Retrieved 2009-09-17. 

• "Mansfield Makes Sense for the New GM". Mansfield Makes Sense. Mansfield Makes Sense. http://www.mansfieldmakessense.org/newsroom/073109c.html. Retrieved 2009-09-17. 

• Coles, Bridgitte. "The State of the City of Mansfield". WMFD (North Central Ohio). http://media.wmfd.com/focus/Focus09142009.wmv. Retrieved 2009-09-17. 

Notes

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ "November 6, 2007 election results.". WKYC-TV. 2007-11-07. http://www.wkyc.com/news/elections/results/20071106/race1300.aspx. Retrieved 2008-04-26. ^{[dead link]}
3. ^ "Mansfield mayor endorses Obama for president.". Mansfield News Journal. 2008-02-25. http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080225/UPDATES01/80225021. Retrieved 2008-04-13. ^{[dead link]}
4. ^ [2]
5. ^ [3]
6. ^ Isidore, Chris (2008-12-01). "It's official: Recession since Dec. '07". CNN. http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/01/news/economy/recession/index.htm?postversion=2008120112. Retrieved 2010-05-01. 
7. ^ [4]
8. ^ [5]
9. ^ [6]

External links

• Cumberland Mayor official government website

Political offices
Preceded by Lydia Reid	Mayor of Mansfield, Ohio 2007–Present	Succeeded by Incumbent

Persondata
Name	Culliver, Donald
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1951-11-05
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death