A profile on Steve Patterson, Dem. At-Large City Council Rep, who serves as chair of the disabilities’ commission and has worked to provide visibility and accessibility to the disabled community.
Editor’s note: This is the first part in a series profiling each Athens City Council member.
Early on Labor Day, Athens City Councilman Steve Patterson woke up, climbed into his Toyota pickup truck and drove down a winding country road off of State Route 32.
With “Send Me On My Way” by Rusted Root blasting from his radio, the at-large Democrat opened the gate and stepped out onto the cold, damp early morning ground.
“This is my playground,” he said of the operation he calls Hop ‘n’ Pepper Farms LLC. He grows hops at a separate location, which he sells to Jackie O’s Pub & Brewery and other local businesses. He’s grown hops for six years and peppers for five.
Farming runs in the Patterson family. While growing up in Oregon, his family owned a 60-acre farm on Sauvie Island, off the coast of Oregon along the Columbia River.
“There’s farming in my blood,” Patterson said. “My father was the son of a farmer.”
When Patterson began growing hops in 2008, his dad told him that his grandfather used to have a job picking the crop.
“Everything comes full-circle.”
Currently, Patterson has 240 pepper plants, including habanero and Caribbean reds. He started out with 60 habanero plants, which are still his largest yield. Last year, his harvested crops weighed about 500 pounds.
It’s a small operation that barely breaks even, Patterson said. But with other responsibilities on City Council, as an associate psychology professor at Ohio University and as chair of the Athens City Commission on Disabilities, Patterson admits he can’t make it much larger.
“I just don’t have the time,” he said. “You have to pick your own battles.”
Patterson, an Athens resident since 1998, was appointed as the new chair of the commission last winter after serving on the group since his election to council in 2011.
“I just kept getting more deeply involved, and when the opportunity arose to serve as chair, I jumped at it,” he said. “It’s important for people to know that we’re all-inclusive and accepting as a community.”
After growing up with dyslexia, Patterson has addressed that he is aware of the stigma associated with the disability. He did an eight-and-a-half year stint in the U.S. Air Force in North Dakota, where he often served as a volunteer for the Special Olympics.
During his first year as chair of the commission, one of his colleagues said Patterson has already begun to look at ways he can help improve the organization and its visibility.
“If there’s anything I can say he’s really done as a leader, it’s looking at everything we’ve done on the committee in the past and asking ‘Why?’ ” said Carolyn Lewis, a member of the committee since 2010. “And if it’s not effective, he will look for ways to make it more effective.”
During his time on city council, where he earns $7,537 a year, Patterson has not been without detractors. His salary with the university was not immediately available.
In 2012, Patterson lied about his published publications and was “censured” by the university, said spokeswoman Katie Quaranta, in an email.
Patterson said he co-authored two research papers that were never actually published.
Patterson took responsibility for the error, but said his falsehoods were a result of miscommunication between himself and some of his colleagues in 2000 and 2001. They were only brought to light years later by a disgruntled co-worker.
“It taught me to continue to keep my head out, continue to stand tall, continue to move forward and continue to be involved in what you're involved in,” he said.
This summer, Patterson disagreed with fellow Councilman Jeff Risner, D-2nd Ward.
Patterson spearheaded an ordinance that would’ve made it easier for law enforcement officers to respond to complaints of noisy pets, but Risner thought the ordinance was unnecessary.
“We certainly have a disagreement on at least that issue,” Risner said this summer. “I’m of the opinion that our current noise ordinance already covers everything that (Patterson’s ordinance) does. I don’t see the point of having another law in the books.”
Risner also pointed out that the two Democrats have different approaches to their jobs.
“Our approach is a little different,” he said. “He’s looking at city-wide issues and I’m focusing on my ward.”
But for Patterson, council is only a small part of his life in Athens. He said he wants his farm to be a place where his daughters can come and learn the values of hard work and service.
“I plan on staying on council and serving for as long as Athens wants me to serve,” he said. “I want to make sure I can help in whatever way possible to make this city a place that my daughters can love as much as I do when they grow up.”
Patterson’s term ends at the end of 2015.
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