36 Hours

That is how long after the Primary election day ended with Fitzgerald beating the snot out of George and Demro, before the mud started to be slung!

Surprisingly, I had anticipated that Tom George would begin to sling it, but no, Fitzgerald had to go against conventional wisdom and bring out the personal attack.

Fitzgerald called out the Mayor to return a campaign contribution of $4,500.

I'm sure I am not the only person who was disturbed by the Plain Dealer story this morning about the possible sale of Kauffman Park.

Whatever the merits of the plan are, which have continued to remain hidden, the contribution to Mayor George of $4,500 by the developers has cast a pall over the negotiations.

Mayor George, my request is that you return this $4,500 - the largest contribution you have received this year. As an alternative, I am requesting that you use those funds to help refurbish some of the facilities at Kauffman Park.

Only buy doing this can you remove the pall which has been cast over these pending development negotiations.

George then attacked Fitzgerald about the money for the Lakewood Democratic Club!

Ed,

You and your campaign chair have refused numerous attempts to disclose the fund balance in the Lakewood Democratic Club.

Where is the money from the Club?

Why have you refused numerous requests to provide a treasurer's report to Club members?

As the Endorsed Democrat for Mayor and the endorsed candidate of the Lakewood Democratic Club, I demand answers.

Looking forward to a reply.

Mayor Tom George

Perhaps, Fitzgerald watching the various debates about the possible Kauffman Park redevelopment and saw it was stirring up passion with a small segment of the commenters, he felt he needed to step out in front of it.

To me this is a stupid for Fitzgerald to begin his engagement of the Mayor like this; he should be quiet about it right now or hit him about his record!

Fitzgerald had 30 point victory on Tuesday, but he is acting like he is behind!

Not that Ed Fitzgerald would listen to my opinion, but if I were in his camp, I would tell him to shut up and attack on the record, because this pitch in the dirt wins points with NOBODY

To Mayor George, although the question about the money for the Lakewood Democratic Club is valid one, they are weak questions and it shows that he needs to step up and defend his own record and dig up better negative stuff on Fitzgerald.

As far as the contribution of $4,500 from the Glitz, who cares Ed, you have two opportunities in which to make that contribution futile. One is being engaged in Council when anything even remotely to this plan comes in you knock it down. Second, this one is much easier for you right now, shut up and win the damn election, and then you can control the process and make the contribution seem like a donation to a lost cause.

Sometimes Politician just can't help themselves!

BY GEORGE I THINK HE HAS GOT IT!

In just a few days the citizens of Lakewood will vote for a Mayoral Candidate.

Based on my conversations with various people across the spectrum and across the city, the one thing I have heard on a consistent basis is change will be good for the city. The people are tired of a city that doesn't listen to the residents.

The voters of Lakewood have Three Choices:

THOMAS GEORGE


EDWARD FITZGERALD


RYAN DEMRO




I began to write several days ago and here is what began to say:



It has been an amazing race for the mere fact that the Candidates themselves have not made each other the story.
This Mayoral Race may be know for the lack of real news, but it will the Independent Observers that may be the real story.

What is interesting is that the Incumbent Tom George has taken the strategy of not being apart of the dialogue with the residents!
In some cases that is the strategy of someone who is comfortable with his positions on the issues. Time will only tell if this was correct strategy.

But now that has all changed, the gloves have come off and everyone is attacking each candidate.

The latest blast from Tom George provides a side by side comparison of the record of Fitzgerald.

Earlier in the week Fitzgerald put out a piece on crime and public safety.

Of course both George and Fitzgerald went after Demro's record and vice versa.

I should have known better that the good stuff would come out now, since there is technically no way to combat any damage that might have been done.
But here is the thing, the supporters are on the Lakewood Buzz and the Lakewood Observer bashing the candidates. To make it even more fun a blog has been started to monitor Ryan Demro and the LRO, its called LROWATCH. This site is hoot and half because the individual who writes for essentially parrots her entries from the Observer on the blog or vice versa. No real need to visit the site since it doesn't really add anything to the discussion. But I digress.

Let's face it, this race comes down to Tom George, can he survive the slings and arrows being lobbed in his direction.

My answer is NO

Tom George has failed to lead this city the last four years, he has managed it well, but has not lead.

He still firmly believes that there are no real increase in crime and that the Citizens of Lakewood are content with his Leadership and will provide him with another 4 year term.

I not sure Tom George is living in the same City as I do, people are scared of the direction that the city is going in. I have been talking to people independent of the campaigns and those in the campaign are hearing the same things I have heard.

Ladies and gentlemen, his inability to listen to the people is shown in his comments in this weeks Lakewood Sun Post, to the point that his comments come across either arrogant or cocky.

Mr. George come Wednesday morning, I believe the voters will revoke you building permit.

The City of Lakewood needs a Leader, not a Manager.

I say in November, you the voters will have a choice between

Ryan Demro

Edward Fitzgerald



I think the percentages will pretty close to the the snap poll that had been on this site since earlier this summer.

Fitzgerald 45+%
Demro 40+%
George <20%
Others 5%

Now get out and get to the polls on OCT. 2

Ryan Demro

As far as I am concern this race for Ryan started two years ago. Others may say it started many years ago, what ever time you want to use he is in it and has forced George to really defend his record and it forced Fitzgerald to really hone is message of change. This has been good for the voters!

Let's get to the issues!

Streets - "we need to get back to the old way of paying for our streets using assessments". Now some people will say that he is raising taxes and they would be correct, but the idea of assessments can make that tax a short term payment over ten or 20 years, whereas an across the board income tax or property tax levy may be 30 years or longer.

With respect to crime, Demro would fully implement CitiStat and Real Time data to aid the Police and other safety forces identify problem areas. Ryan believes that the City should adopt a zero tolerance policy on crime.


Housing, Demro is for enforcement of the CMHA and HUD Housing Rules, where a City can provide a list to the CHMA on chronic problems for the Section 8 housing and get the County and Feds to pull the vouchers for that landlord.
Of course he would build up the staffing levels within the building department to be better able to handle the upgrades if the Building codes. Also, another interesting idea is the development of incentives for current homeowners to maintain the historic features.

Taxes - Ryan would love to be able to roll back the property taxes for everyone, however, I don't think that would be feasible unless we develop some great corporate tax base in which to add to the income tax rolls. However, if he can develop new business and get those already here to expand, then the tax burden may be lifted.

The knock on Demro, is several
1) He is too young to lead this city;
2) He is brash or confrontational for anything to get done;
3) He is a Republican;

For Ryan to move on to the general election he needs to capitalize on two factors,
1) Tap into the voter discontent with Tom George, especially in Ward 1;
2) Get the Republican voters and the conservative minded Independents to the polls and to vote his way.


Coming up in the next post, how the Primary on Tuesday will end up.

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.

From the Demro Rally

The scene is set, I arrived a little early to make sure I caught a glimpse of the people who were showing their support.




Suzanne Metelko opened the event talking about the youth movement in politics today, by stating the Younger politicians are more impatient with the system and are willing to upset the apple cart a little to get things moving.

Then she introduced Representative Josh Mandel.



Josh spoke off the cuff for a just a few minutes, he spoke about moving cities forward no matter which one you live in.

Cited the often used phrase so goes Lakewood, so goes the County.

Then it was Demro's turn to announce the secret that everyone in the room heard about several weeks ago. I had anticipated this back when I ran in 2005, so its no real surprise to me.

You can watch the whole speech in the post below. So I won't go into word by word.

The question remains for all three candidates, do they have enough support to run the table.

Is there enough dissatisfaction with the George administration to vote him out?

Is there a real hard record for Ed Fitzgerald to overcome either Demro or George?

Is Demro's youth going be a factor? Is his stance on the various issues he has championed going to be a plus or a minus?

The main question is, are one of these candidates ready to make hard financial choices to stabilize the budget?

Judging by who was at this rally I would say the dissatisfaction for Mayor George is apparent, it certainly was apparent to me in 2005.

As to Fitzgerald's record I believe to be satisfactory, but not an outstanding one, with being one of the more senior Council members you think it would be a longer list.

I guess we will see, this is going to be a long summer.

I also must say I really hate the election schedule again this year. Primary is slated for October 2nd and then the General 35 days later on November 6th.

I have a feeling that because of the compact election schedule, this going to be an expensive race, this will be one area which will separate the candidates.

The last 35 days will be occasional door to door, a lot of public appearances and a lot of mailers. As I said earlier, it will be question of support, can Demro bring out the Republicans and disaffected Independents, can Fitzgerald and George hold there supporters in line and hope to steal other votes.

Will the voters of Lakewood at the end of it all be sick and tired of the backstabbing that could very well take place with these three in the race.

Time will only tell.

Is Ryan Demro Running For Mayor?

All signs point to yes, a poll conducted two weeks ago, a rally scheduled for Saturday, March 31st.

Hum drum Mayor's race now having a little excitement to it.

The thought of Ed Fitzgerald vs. Tom George race, was too mind numbing for me, it would have been like watching paint dry or two accountants talking over the tax code.

Perhaps the voters of Lakewood will actually see a discussion of the issues and perhaps some ideas on how to fix them.

It amazing that Tom George is racking up the Union and County Democratic Endorsements, it just surprises me -- NOT!