Re-Elect

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WHY LISA?

Lisa's Accomplishments

Voted NO on high density developments, and worked to ensure responsible development.
Fought to increase transparency and accountability, and to regain fiscal oversight over taxpayer money.
Helped design the new North Road Park and playground.
Implemented new economic development tools to generate additional revenue for Orange Township.
And so much more.

Experience Matters.

Lisa Knapp has been heavily involved in her community since 1998! She has the most township experience of nearly any trustee in the entire county. Her unique strength is 27 years of unparalleled, in-depth township experience with township finances and operations, built over many years.

Lisa has attended over 2,500 township meetings, and has the greatest understanding of township finances of any current trustee. In fact, she used that experience to single-handedly bring shady, decade-long financial situations to public light and to put a stop to them.

Lisa is experienced in all departments. Township finances and operations are very unique and complex, and the learning curve for anybody not experienced in township operations is at least 1-2 years, regardless of one’s background in other unrelated areas.

Campaign Promises Kept

Why Lisa ran for trustee. Over the last few years of her 13 year employment, Lisa realized Orange Township had become dysfunctional, including poor service to residents, employees who were not invested in our community, a complete lack of financial oversight, invoices paid without proper documentation, parks not being maintained properly, infighting between elected officials and between employees, and many more issues. She ran for office in November 2011, and won.

Proven Results. The last four years have been a time of peace and calm at Township Hall. During her first 8 years as a trustee, Lisa worked relentlessly to successfully overcome the dysfunction. She helped put Orange Township on the right track, with officials working together as a team to move forward. Projects are completed, costs are being reviewed, financial forecasts were prepared, legal fees were greatly reduced, and new management was hired to continue this progress. She opened numerous new parks & trails and the connector to Highbanks.

Let's Keep the Positive Momentum Going!

The current elected officials work together well, and they can disagree without being disagreeable. Though the end of 2019, Orange Township was headed in the right direction; township hall was calm, trustee meetings were friendly and cooperative, & employees were dedicated to residents. However, a new trustee was elected after nearly $60,000 was spent on his campaign, including nearly $30,000 by developers.

Unfortunately, within just a few days of the new trustee taking office in 2020, the firinga began. Within just a few months, all departments heads but one & our long-time legal counsel were fired & the township devolved into chaos once again over the past two years.

Read about some of it here in these Dispatch articles (click on links):

Electing too many new trustees within a short period of time is what has led to many of the township's problems. To continue to move forward, it’s imperative that Orange Township continue with their currently elected and experienced trustees who will help continue the civil, balanced dynamic of the Board and staff at township hall.

- Suspension of administrator Andrew King divides Orange Township trustee

- New Orange Township administrator chosen a week after his predecessor is fired

- Orange Township trustees vote to fire administrator Andrew King without explanation

- Orange Township searching for administrator after Westerville official turns down offer

Real Tax Savings You Can See

Lisa has worked hard to protect your money and she can prove it! Just a few examples:

Reduced legal fees an average of 17% each year for 8 years, compared with 2009-2010. In fact, legal fees incurred in 2019 are predicted to be the lowest in at least 14 years!
Implemented EMS billing, bringing in over $220K annually.
Reduced fire levy, saving millions of dollars.
Eliminated $150k per year contractor who submitted over $2 million of invoices with little to no documentation, approved by the former trustees & fiscal officer.

Click here for articles & video.

Lisa Knapp: Unrelenting on her mission to achieve financial transparency.

Financial oversight at Orange Township began to degrade in 2009. Despite legal requirements, management (the trustees) stopped receiving bank and investment statements from the fiscal officer. Account reconciliations took months to complete and were provided sporadically, usually when there were no discrepancies. The trustees in office at the time just didn't care.

In 2012 when Lisa took office, she immediately began asking questions about township finances, including negative balances, "missing" funds, millions of dollars in voids, questionable payments, lack of documentation, etc. She was the only trustee of three who was concerned about this, and as a result was met with continuous resistance from the former fiscal officer and the other two trustees, and she was refused all of her financial requests.

Lisa's concerns were soon proven to be accurate when, among several incidents, the longtime zoning inspector was found to have been stealing cash, and pleaded guilty to theft in office. He was also found to be a cocaine dealer who had spent years in federal prison. He was able to steal because receipts were handwritten and able to be manipulated.

Lisa never gave up and she continued to demand financial oversight, bringing her concerns to the public. Due to her unrelenting desire to obtain fiscal transparency, the township now receives bank and investment statements, and all transactions are required to have documentation. Knapp continues to ask financial questions and carefully reviews every transaction and verifies information with the bank. And she will continue to do so.