Shannon helped develop the LinkUS plan for mass transit, which voters approved in November 2024 as a levy for the Central Ohio Transit Authority. This plan will increase COTA frequency and reliability, adding 45% more service hours; build out 5 bus rapid-transit routes across Franklin County; and invest in 500+ miles of greenways, sidewalks, and protected bike lanes. Today, he co-chairs the LinkUS Steering committee, a collaborative effort of the City of Columbus, COTA, the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, and the Franklin County Board of Commissioners, planning for new housing and business growth along high-capacity transit corridors. For his work on LinkUS, Shannon was awarded the American Public Transportation Association’s “Distinguished Service Award” given to one elected official in the U.S. each year.

Shannon developed the groundbreaking public-private partnership that allows Columbus City Schools graduates to attend Columbus State Community College for free, in partnership with I Know I Can, and thanks to the support of two dozen corporate and philanthropic partners. The program has dramatically increased college-going and success and is a cornerstone of his vision of ensuring our residents have the skills and training they need to get the good jobs coming to Columbus.

Shannon has overseen investments in alternative safety response, which provides clinical, social work, and non-uniformed behavioral health services responders to crises that do not require or benefit from an escalating police response. Today, he is scaling these pilots and seeking to add additional nonpolice response programming. This is core of his approach to police reform, which is refocusing police toward addressing violent crime and gun violence that uniquely require their training and away from neighborhood disputes, noise complaints, homelessness issues, substance abuse, mental health events, and other low-acuity incidents. As part of that, he has helped fund the ADAMH Crisis Center which will help coordinate regional crisis response.

Shannon has partnered with Councilmembers to pass a series of historic housing reforms to expand tenants’ rights, preserve affordable housing, and expand housing production, as part of the “Housing for All” legislative package. In particular, he worked to add affordable housing requirements to the city’s property tax incentive policies and to expand the neighborhoods where housing providers can access those incentives. He championed the first phase of the “Zone In” zoning reform initiative to modernize land use regulations across the City and make it much easier to build housing, which passed Council unanimously in July 2024 after years of community engagement. 

Following the murder of George Floyd and public unrest, Shannon helped craft the “Reimagine Safety” legislative package. This included a ballot measure to create independent Inspector General-driven investigations into police uses of force, which voters approved. It also reformed other police practices and advanced demilitarization, like requiring hate-group background checks for officers and  limiting no-knock warrants for raids. It also made critical investments into the root causes of crime; since 2021, the City has invested over $80 M in summer youth programming, youth jobs programs, and more.

Recognizing how past marijuana laws primarily impacted black men, Shannon led Council to pass a two-part marijuana justice package back in 2018: decreasing penalties for low-level marijuana possession and supporting record sealing services to get formerly incarcerated residents back into safe housing and good-paying jobs. As a result of state and city action, the City of Columbus no longer prosecutes low-level marijuana offenses. Voters legalized marijuana across the State of Ohio in 2023 with the passage of Issue Two – five years after Shannon did that in Columbus.

Shannon worked with former Mayor Coleman to create Columbus’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative. My Brother’s Keeper aims to reduce opportunity gaps for young men of color through city-wide goals, service provider coordination, and collective action. Today, he continues to champion a range of efforts to support young men of color, from the Boys and Young Men of Color Collective to countless organizations that provide programming in STEM, academic readiness, community-building, and more

As then-Chair of the Small Business Committee, Shannon led Council to adopt the Columbus Disparity Study, which provides the foundation to increase the City of Columbus’s minority and female-owned business utilization. He has been an outspoken advocate for small and minority-owned businesses across Columbus.

Under Shannon’s leadership, Council advanced a bundle of reforms recommended by a citizen-led commission to expand the size of Council and enhance neighborhood representation. Voters overwhelmingly approved this reform in May of 2018. In January 2024, the first wave of Councilmembers elected under the new at-large district model took office. 

Shannon drove the effort to nearly double public support for arts. The more than $6 million annual increase will improve family access to Columbus’ cultural gems while stabilizing civic treasures such as the Lincoln Theater, the King Arts Complex, and other historic arts establishments.