By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
St. Joseph native Ron Leatz, 63, moved to Dowagiac, his wife's hometown, in June and set about renovating the Oppenheim home at 402 Main St.
He announced a write-in bid for Dowagiac City Council's First Ward, challenging appointee Donna O'Konski and Robert Mortimore, who narrowly lost to Jack Alexander in 2001.
Leatz lived in Michigan until 1970. Born and raised in Berrien County, his political interest began as the son of a supervisor who helped build the courthouse and ran unsuccessfully for the state Legislature, losing to Harry Gast.
Leatz graduated from Santa Ana Fire College in California in 1974 with a degree in fire science. He was a professional firefighter for 28 years, chief of a 28-man department in Palmdale and sold firetrucks for 17 years.
In semi-retirement he relocated to his wife Ann Schmidt's hometown.
She graduated in Dowagiac in 1959 and worked for a forerunner of The Herald-Palladium.
Leatz's first city government position was on Victorville, Calif.'s, Fire Department Advisory Committee. He was then asked to participate on a 10-member Blue Ribbon Committee established to help balance the city budget. More than $1 million in revenue was identified by the time the panel was done.
In 1985, when he built a home in fast-growing Victorville, its population was 20,000.
Victorville is about 100 miles from Los Angeles, between San Diego and Las Vegas. The council had five at-large members and the highest vote-getter became mayor, so “every two years you have a new mayor.”
In 1988, “With my fire background, I was appointed to the Victorville Fire Advisory Committee of 10 people - two from each council person. It met once a month, observing what was going on with the fire department and reporting back to the council. We had three-man engine companies, nine men per station, and five stations.”
They found that Victorville owned 600 vehicles and even employees' spouses carried city cell phones. Bills ran into the thousands each month, he said.
Speakers addressing council meetings should identify themselves by name and address. “Mayor Lyons knew (Arthur) Jackson and the one running for mayor (Bill Harrington). What about the rest of the audience? Do we know everybody? And no time limit. That room is also terrible acoustically and a lot of people can't hear in back. They need a P.A. system. It also bothers me that none of the department heads are at the council meeting.”
Leatz also thinks the Police Department should have a motorcycle officer instead of officers on bicycles.
Leatz also served five years as president of the Green Tree East Neighborhood Association, a group of 500 single-family homes for which the board obtained street lights, sidewalks, sealcoated streets and got two traffic signals installed.
He served as a national trustee and president (13 years) of the Crown Fire Coach Group and continues to enjoy and sporadically participate in barbershop singing.
Leatz said he started on the St. Joseph Township fire department in 1958 and operated a fire extinguisher company in the Twin Cities during the 1960s. He wanted to pursue a career in the fire service, “But there are only about four fire departments in Berrien County that were paid - St. Joe, Benton Harbor had two stations at that time, Niles and Benton and Niles townships with one guy on duty. Your chances of being a fireman here were like zero to none.”
Leatz also worked with WSJM, broadcasting sports with Tom Taube, who later went to television with WKZO.
“I did the first football game ever out of Eau Claire High School and Cassopolis and South Haven basketball when it opened up a new school and two state championships with Benton Harbor,” Leatz said. “Benton Harbor High School's gym is so big because there was a professional basketball team at the time.”