Meet Gina

GINA BURGESS: A DIFFERENT KIND OF CANDIDATE
Practical. Innovative. Fiscally Responsible.

Gina is a one-of-a-kind candidate, savvy entrepreneur and driven community advocate who brings a fresh perspective to the local politics-as-usual humdrum with her strong business experiences, unique small town background, and a proud historical heritage.

As an office manager, small business owner and entrepreneur, Gina has dealt with a variety of financial and legal matters, such as contract negotiations and compliance, budgeting and forecasting, creative capitalism, increasing revenues and return on investment, decreasing liabilities, and developing innovative logistical processes. These practical real-world experiences make Gina a natural choice for Allen County Council At-Large.

A fiscal conservative and social liberal, Gina is a challenger of the status quo whose common sense approach to today’s problems is a fresh departure from politics as usual. She is an outspoken advocate for causes she believes in and on behalf of people who can’t advocate for themselves. In matters of business and finance, she is practical, innovative and fiscally responsible.

BUSINESS EXPERIENCE

In 2000, Gina began her 11-year career at the Whitmore & Associates law firm, wearing many hats, including that of Office Manager and Paralegal. During her tenure as a paralegal, Gina was engaged in a wide variety of litigation experiences, including real estate transactions, small business and corporate set-ups, contracts, civil litigation and more. In 2010, she became an affiliate member of the Indiana State Bar Association (ISBA). In 2011, she worked on several administrative law cases involving the Indiana Department of Revenue (IN-DOR) where Gina’s work contributed significantly to saving clients over $80,000 in fees allegedly due the IN-DOR.

In 2003, Gina became a member of the National Association of Female Executives (NAFE) and started her own business, successfully launching Model T Bicycle Rentals in 2005. That same year, her company debuted in the 2005 “Welcome to Fort Wayne” video presented by the Greater Chamber of Commerce. In 2006, Model T gained nation attention by being featured in INC Magazine’s onine slideshow, “Self-Made American Entrepreneurs.” In 2010, Model T was invited by the Indiana Department of Tourism to participate in the Indiana 500 Tour (www.Indiana500Tour.com), which focuses on Indiana’s motorsports and transportation heritage. Model T was temporarily shut down in 2011 as a result of the Clinton Street/Martin Luther King Bridge renovation and will continue to be shut down through the end of 2012 for the Indiana Department of Transportation (IN-DOT) US27/Clinton Street/Spy Run Creek renovation project.

SMALL TOWN BACKGROUND

Gina is the oldest of five children in a blended family. Her mother is a second-generation Democratic union steward and her father is a second-generation Republican soldier. Kitchen table politics gave Gina a front row seat to real world, practical bread and-butter debates offered by both sides of the political spectrum, influencing her to always question the assumptions presented by both sides. This allowed her to develop her unique political perspective.
Gina was born in Fort Wayne, where she attended Precious Blood Catholic grade school until the second grade. Later, Gina’s family moved to a 20-acre working farm in rural DeKalb County. Life on farm exposed Gina to agriculture and livestock operations. Springs were spent prepping fields for planting. Summer gave way to harvesting a variety of crops during the week to sell on Southside Farmers Market on the weekends. Autumns were frequently spent stockpiling firewood and fuel for the winter months and butchering livestock. During the summers she spent at Southside Farmer’s Market, her family had a booth to sell crops and farm products and she had her own booth selling used books.

Growing up, Gina was involved in the Girl Scouts and 4-H, where she was one of the founding members of the DeGoats of DeKalb 4-H club. Being involved in Girl Scouts and 4-H, Gina began to develop practical life skills that would be needed later, including financial and business skills. As a Girl Scout who sold cookies, she learned the importance of networking (and that Grandmas have big networks), being able to talk to people (especially Grandmas friends), how important location is (setting up shop at places Grandmas go), supply and demand (you can’t sell cookies if you don’t have any to sell….unless you take “advance” orders), the sales process (and how important knowing your product will satisfy a would-be customers sweet tooth) , creative up-selling (Thin Mint “pizzas” anyone), and that there is no substitute for great customer service.

As a 4-H member, Gina really got an education on what it means to develop and take a product to market. Her 4-H projects consisted of animals and she learned about the impact that fixed overhead costs (i.e. housing/storage, feed, water, electricity and vet/health care) had on the bottom line of a farming operation and how important those costs were in setting a market price. It was also here that Gina learned how to maximize the return on investment. For a 4-H project, the initial investment was the cost to purchase the animal and to maximize the ROI. A farmer has to develop multiple streams of income. For a goat, those streams of income could be: selling milk, meat, and mohair; offering breeding services and first right of litter; taking care of other people’s goats; training other people’s goats; and showing and/or judging other people’s goats at local county fairs.

As a teen, while still living in Auburn, Gina attended Bishop Dwenger High School in Fort Wayne, where she graduated with the Class of 1990. Although an underclassman, she was “adopted” by and treated as a member of the Class of 1988, the class of her high school sweetheart and husband of 16 years, David. While at Dwenger, Gina was active in the school newspaper and took on special projects. One such project was the Hurricane Hugo Disaster Relief effort, which allowed Gina to coordinate a variety of fundraising and food drive events and coordinate with other local agencies, such as North American Van Lines, to send food, school supplies and other aid directly to Bishop England High School in Charleston, South Carolina. This project earned her a nomination for the News-Sentinel’s 1990 Sterling Sentinel Business Award.

After high school, Gina pursued a Paralegal Degree from Ivy Tech and a Political Science degree from IPFW. As an Ivy Tech Student, Gina graduated with the first class of paralegals from Ivy Tech and was instrumental in making sure that the paralegal program, under the direction of Department Chair Bob Colestock, was an A.S. degreed program and not an A.A.S. program, which was typical for Ivy Tech in 2005. As an IPFW student, Gina was involved with a variety of student organizations and was named the 1997 Student Leader of the Year.

HISTORICAL HERITAGE

Gina is the great great granddaughter of Charles and Ellen Gerardot, a large well-known farming family who settled in Monroeville during the 1800s. There Gerardots had eleven children, including Gina’s great grandmother, Marcella. Marcella Gerardot married Ferdinand Spieth and they had twelve children, including Gina’s grandfather, Walter. Walter was a proud UAW member who worked for International Harvester, except for the time he spent picketing during the UAW Strike of 1979-1980. After the Strike, he continued working for Harvester where he returned to the line until the last International Harvester Scout was manufactured in Fort Wayne. Gerardot Road is named after the Gerardot family and it traverses through Madison and Jefferson Townships.

Gina’s husband, David, is a third-generation military man, serving in the Navy aboard the U.S.S. Guam during the first Persian Gulf War. His father served in the Marines, his mother served in the Navy and his grandfather served in the Army during WWII, eventually becoming a POW who was later released.

David is an Ivy Tech grad with an automotive degree, has been employed in the automotive industry for the past two decades and is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Business Management from Trine University. He is believed to be a descendent of Henry Burgess the founder of New Haven and business partner of Samuel Hanna, Peter Heller, B.S. Woodworth, and Herman H. Nierman, who founded Stone Brewery & Malt House. Stone Brewery was located at the corner of Water Street and Harrison Streets in Downtown Fort Wayne. Two streets are named after the Burgess family, Burgess Street in Fort Wayne and Eben Street in New Haven. Eben Burgess was Henry Burgess’ father and the owner of the land transferred to Henry that later became New Haven.

Paid for and authorized by VOTE GINA BURGESS, James McCoy, Treasurer.