Lakewood is in a tizzy - Decisions to make

Topic # 1

City Hall

Well, it seems that one of the many golden geese in Lakewood is about to be put aside. What is that you ask?

Why its backyard pickup for all the residents.

Several months ago the City announced that all multi-tenant apartments above five (5) units was going to lose its garbage pickup, the City claiming as a cost cutting measure announced that it was to drop the service. That is one goose that died, it doesn't really save a lot of money, but with the state the city's finances are in anything right now is a help.

Then just a couple of weeks ago, it was floated that the city was going to drop the backyard pickup in favor of a more automated system with all the garbage being picked up at curbside by an articulating armed truck.

Once again, the initial costs may not save a lot, but in the long run I bet it will save the city several hundred thousand dollars each fiscal year.

I believe that a lot of people will be upset by this move, but I thought 4 years ago this was a necessary move as a cost cutting issue.

I applaud Mayor FitzGerald and the City Council for taking a bold move into reducing costs. There is still few more things that could be done, but this is a major move forward for the City.

Topic # 2

Lakewood Library

Ken Warren has announced his retirement from the Library. Ken has done a magnificent job along with the board in creating a fine institution and now a spectacular facility in which to browse the literary world or words.

Personally, I think very highly of Ken, who occasionally stops in at this site and will offer his comments either here or via email.

Ken, Good Luck and I will be curious to hear what books you might be reading and if you are going to write one.

Topic # 3

Lakewood School Board

Chaz Geiger stunned the community by announcing his retirement from the Board, some are angered that he is leaving after only finishing one year of his 4 year term.
Quite frankly, I think he a right to step aside anytime he feels necessary.

Now the School is scrambling to not only to fill the the Superintendent's seat, but now finding someone to fill Mr. Geiger's seat until the November election.

So as I said Lakewood is a tizzy and people are having to make decisions, political ones and financial ones.

The political ones are who is going to step up for the School Board and coming into 2009, who might give a run at City Council.

The financial question - will there be even more cost cutting at City Hall?

There are some interesting time coming up! Stay tuned

IS MAYOR FITZGERALD A REPUBLICAN?

After being at the "Making Cents" session and then being at the Law Enforcement Initiative forum, the impression could be made that Ed FitzGerald is turning into a Fiscal Conservative and a Law and Order Republican, fortunately for the Democrats that may be a bit of a stretch.

Let's face facts, Council and the Mayor have had to act to rein in spending as well as get a handle on the crime situation before it truly affects the housing market and the citizens.

Judging by this chart, its amazing we don't lose track of money coming in more often.


Also, of interest in a quick side conversation with Jennifer Pae, the City Finance Director after the meeting. I asked her if moving from RITA (Regional Income Taxing Authority) to the City's own tax department has brought in more money into the coffers. She responded that it did bring in more dollars about 3% more for FY2006. To early to tell for FY 2007.


Speaking of the Law Enforcement Initiative, it looks like there will be some public/private partnership between the City and the Taverns in the West End, at the meeting it was announced that 9 tavern owners will share in the cost of added patrols in the neighborhoods around the bars in the west end.
Hopefully, this will begin to allay the fears and anger that the residents in the area have been having the last few years.

BUDGET NUMBERS

These are taken from the PDF's provided by Jennifer Pae the City Finance Director:

Click to enlarge each page:














Just to note, this $36MM budget is about $1MM more than the budget in 2005, so as you can see the operating expenses continued to rise at a pretty good clip over the three years since.

Like I said before this won't be the last cut the city will have to face.

Residency Requirement

Saw this Channel 5 website:

LIMA, Ohio -- A state appeals court has ruled that Ohio towns can require police officers, firefighters and other employees to live within the city limits.

It's the first time that an appeals court has ruled against a 2006 state law that blocked cities from imposing residency requirements.

The ruling issued Monday by the 3rd District Court of Appeals affects only the 17 Ohio counties in western and northern Ohio that fall under its jurisdiction.

Those counties are: Allen, Auglaize, Crawford, Defiance, Hancock, Hardin, Henry, Logan, Marion, Mercer, Paulding, Putnam, Seneca, Shelby, Union, Van Wert and Wyandot.

Since the law went into effect, at least eight cities have filed challenges against it. City leaders in Toledo, Akron, Youngstown and Lima argue that home rule powers ensure their right to set residency requirements.

But firefighters and other city employees said they should have the right to live where they want.

This is a huge boost for these municipalities. This may be a huge hammer for the new union contracts that Fitzgerald and the City Council have to negotiate.

The other thing that this could would be to further solidify the position of having the Directors be required to live in the City.

There is another point to view this potential change, with respect to the City's deficit, Mayor FitzGerald and Council will certainly have to make cuts in services, will being a resident provide a city employee with a little bit more cover or protection if they live in the city. I am looking at this as sort of reverse hiring issue. Certain cities give preferential treatment to prospective employees who live in the city. The question remains can the reverse be true?

We are in for some interesting times here in Lakewood.

TOSS IT UP - WARD RACES

The final day of voting for the 2007 Mayor's race is almost here. To most, its time to say THANK GOD!

As for the Ward races, I have not really been looking at the races very closely since the Primary, because I felt none of these races were going to be all that interesting and be overshadowed by the Mayor's race.

However, time and close proximity to election day, things change;

In a very short period of time, it looks like the Ward 2 race between Tom Bullock and Dan Shields as become as heated as the Mayor's race. The other three races are all but decided except for the tabulation of the margin of victory.

Kevin Butler will win in a walk, my guess he will garner 75% or above of the Ward 1 votes over Paul Conroy.

Ward 2 race will be a squeaker for Dan Shields over Tom Bullock, may even go into automatic recount since I believe that the numbers will be less than 3% difference.

In Ward 3, Mike Summers was all but anointed to be councilman as soon as he announced for the race. Joe Dangelo, who happens to be the challenger is slated to have a similar fate as Paul Conroy, but I think Dangelo will put up number near 30%.

Mary Louise Madigan is running opposed, so she has essentially been re-elected by acclimation.

So Here is the Ward Lineup:

WARD 1 - KEVIN BULTER
WARD 2 - DAN SHIELDS
WARD 3 - MIKE SUMMERS
WARD 4 - MARY LOUISE MADIGAN


So there will be 2 newcomers on the Council Bench in January, now that number could increase by one more if Ed Fitzgerald is able to win the Mayor's race.

LOWV Forum

Went to the League of Women Voters Forum last night at City Hall, as usual its well done and somewhat fast paced.

First up was the Ward races: Everybody was there, Butler and Madigan the incumbents and the open race for Ward 2 and 3.

Then it was the Mayoral Candidates

Finally it was the School Board Race; This provided the most interesting soap opera, Dawn Defreeze state that she was recruited to run for the School board, but since has received a letter indicating that she should withdraw from the race due to her "Evangelical position". Therefore she would not answer any questions.

Now I am putting the quotation marks in due to the fact I do not know if she is referring her position as maybe a minister or perhaps she had a staunch position to education based on faith based reasoning.

More on this later.

Crazy Council Chaos Part 2

I went to the Council meeting on Monday, awaiting for any residual fallout from the Friday session.

I wasn't disappointed -- I wish all Council sessions had this much passion not only by the members but also by the public. I can only imagine what it was like during the run-up to Issue 47.

But, before we do that, lets take a step back and review how and why we got to this point.

As I have said in the past and one of the reasons why I ran, is that the City of Lakewood is in a financial mess. The infrastructure is breaking down, tax rates going up and the Mayor sits somewhat passively in his chair doing the bare minimum. The people of Lakewood are starting to get frustrated by the lack of will within the City administration to start making changes.

The City of Lakewood currently has a very small cushion (some say $50,000)in the 2007 Budget.

In various parts of the City the streets are nearing the age of 20 years since they were last re-paved and the sewers are nearing the age of 50-80 years.

Now that is a bit of an oversimplification, of the issues, but it moves us to this point in time.

Woodford is a street in Ward 1 (the ward in which I live and just a few blocks away) it is a small street, approximately 1/10th of mile in distance. The residents on that street are trying to get it replaced. According the residents the street was last repaved in 1967 and has numerous water/sewer line breaks over the years. The residents were told late last year that that street was on the list to be reconstructed in 2007,well budget time came and the street repair list came out and low and behold Woodford was taken off the list and put in the 2008 project list. The residents were angry and began to call on the Council members.

The Gang of 4 finally decided that it was time for a new direction, so that these street swapping items would stop and basically hold the Mayor and his administration accountable.

They called for an Emergency meeting on Friday to replace Bob Seelie as Council President. As I stated in Part One, Seelie is seen as an obstructionist to the Council's agenda to hold the Mayor's feet to fire and begin to solve the City's problems.

So that brings us to the regular Council meeting Monday night.

Seelie was still out of town, so Micheal Dever served as Chair.

Nickie Antonio asked to find out if the Friday session was legal under the Ohio Sunshine laws. I checked the Ohio Attorney General's website and downloaded their Sunshine Law update, it appears that as long as notice was give 24 hours prior to the holding of the hearing, then the meeting was legitimate.

Mary Louise Madigan asked later on in the meeting about public comment during emergency session as a part of the Sunshine laws. More on this topic further down.

During Public comments,one citizen took the Council to task about the Emergency Meeting and the in ability to allow the public to speak.

Councilman Dever responded that this issue had been simmering for the past 18 months, and it was about the Leadership of the Council and how they handle problems that the City has not dealt with in the past 50 years. The four councilmen who called for the meeting felt it was needed to address this issue.
(as side note, according to the Ohio Sunshine Law, it only takes three members to call an emergency meeting)

Another Citizen stood and said that it was "an insult to the Citizens" that they could not be heard in this forum. Perhaps that it was time to "organize to create pressure to defend our constitutional rights"

Kevin Butler responded by stating that it was his belief that the Chair by ordinance has the discretion to withhold public comment. That statement set off the crowd, but in reading the Sunshine Laws, I see no reason to dispute Kevin's statement. I don't have the Lakewood Codified Ordinances to check the Council's duties and responsibilities.

Councilwoman Mary Louise Madigan stated that this was a "bad display of how we work". Also, she wants to change the language in the ordinances to allow for Public comment at all meetings.

Ed Fitzgerald stated that this issue will be debated probably several time during the week, between members.

Ryan Demro indicated to everyone that this issue is really about "how this Council functions" on the problems that face Lakewood. That right now, as deliberative body they are not functioning to the fullest capabilities.

Finally, one more citizen spoke out about the Council works for the Citizens and not the other way around. "Most Chaotic seen" ever on City Council.

Perhaps true, but all in all this is a tempest in a teapot.

What will happen in the end, same thing as before -- NOTHING

Seelie will be ticked off and become even less helpful to the Gang of 4 and Madigan and Antonio will left hanging trying to be the diligent listeners to the Citizens and there will be a new ordinace allowing public comment at all council meetings.
But, the problems facing will continue until we get a new Mayor or we go bankrupt!

Crazy Council Chaos

It has been reported that there was an Emergency Meeting held on Friday in Council Chambers at City Hall. The purpose was to remove Bob Seelie as President of Council.

So the story goes the meeting was called by Kevin Butler (Ward 1), Ryan Demro (Ward 2), Ed Fitzgerald and Mike Dever(At-Large). Seelie was not in town so was unable to make the meeting.

The reason for the removal is because Seelie is not moving fast enough to stem the budgetary woes of the City.

The reasoning about Seelie is nothing new, the timing of this is interesting as well as who called the meeting.

It also does not surprise me that Dever rescinded his support for the removal. The wind was blowing against him so he tacked towards the wind to sail out of harms way.

Not that it looks like a petty political ploy by Fitzgerald and Demro, Butler may get some out gas on this during the upcoming elections, but he should be fairly un-blemished.

Politically, the George supporters are loving this because it paints Demro and Fitzgerald in a bad light.

I am heading to the Council meeting tonight to catch some of the side show that might take place.

Update: Went to Council meeting - Separate post about it.

TO ANSWER A QUESTION

Over the past few weeks and months I have been asked by people about running again this year for City Council, my answer has been usually maybe.

After some considerable thought, I will not run for the Ward 1 Council seat against Kevin Butler.