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.

NEW MAYOR POLL

Your title WHICH ONE WOULD YOU VOTE FOR IN THE NOVEMBER 2007 MAYORAL ELECTION? EDWARD FITZGERALD THOMAS GEORGE UNDECIDED view results

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.

Edward Fitzgerald

For both Ed Fitzgerald and Ryan Demro I am going to use my notes from the debate to have them explain their ideas for a Better Lakewood, since the Mayor wasn't there and has not graced my door to explain his platform I was forced to use his website.

I would also like to keep to the main themes of this campaign for very reason that we may consider it an apples to apples scenario.

Ed is running a somewhat similar campaign do what George did four years ago, that is I am not the Mayor, but I definitely wanted to be one for a while.

Let's see what Ed has to say or what I found to be interesting little nuggets of information:

Before I go on, I will state that not only was I at the debate, but I also attended one the many coffee get togethers that was very popular amongst the candidates. So the coffee talk and the debate answers for Ed were fairly close.

On the streets, Ed has stated the obvious "that politics have been played with fixing the streets" and that we are competing for own residents.

On crime, Ed clearly states that there is a "perception vs. reality" with the current Mayor, but what is his plan for the crime and safety: Its 15 Points, I am not going to go into all 15 because your time and mine is short.

The Big three are:

1) Shifting resources so that more safety forces can be added;

2) Create a Neighborhood Policing Strategy, (similar to enhanced Block
Watches - I will bet if he moves on to the General Election there may be the
theory of sub stations coming out.)

3) Cracking down on Section 8 Housing, being the tenants or the Landlords.

On Housing, Ed is all about the crack down on the Section 8 housing by having Building Inspectors dedicated to handle just the Section 8 housing problems. Don't forget he is also going to go after the abandoned buildings. Good solid plans there!

The next is Taxes and Fiscal Responsibility, Ed has a 10 point plan solving the city financial woes.

With taxes, Ed has stated fairly clearly that increasing taxes is "not your first line of defense", he believes that implementing CitiStat fully will help in identifying inefficiencies to save the City money, also the city must be able to stimulate economic growth through the use of Economic Development funds to fill the empty storefronts.

If you remember one of my issues two years ago was to turn multi-family properties into Single family usage, well low and behold its back under a different wrapper called "gaining title to foreclosed and dilapidated properties and convert them to single family home, recreation space or parking".

Here is the knock on Ed, he just doesn't instill a lot of confidence in some people as a singular leader, he has been a good councilman and somewhat responsive to a majority of the citizens, but at times he can drop the ball and then it becomes similar to Tom George's issue, lack of communication.

In order for him to win in November he must two things, communicate his message much better with a little more passion and steal all the George votes to him, which may be a tall order to fill.

If you want to see the multi-point plans for turning around Lakewood, just click on the header.

Tom George

Tom George has the slogan of "building a better Lakewood"

His website and his platform are saying the same thing:

• We’ve made safety first.

• There have been more new developments than anyone can remember, much of it focused on the East End.

• We’ve put more into our streets, sewers and water lines than we have in decades.

• We’ve brought the award-winning Main Street Program to downtown Lakewood.

For the first time in a long time, the major institutions in the City are all working together. Being Mayor is a tough job that requires making tough decisions. It’s hard to make everyone happy. I have no agendas, no ulterior motives, other than making the best decisions for Lakewood. I eagerly look forward to the coming campaign, meeting new people, rekindling old friendships, hearing your thoughts and joining together in “Building a Better Lakewood.”

One of the biggest knocks on the George and his administration is the lack of communication. He often found to be making comments or announcements via the Lakewood Observer or Lakewood Buzz, but many residents are dismayed at the lack of communication when they seek help or guidance on myriad of issues with the City.
The other knock on Tom George is the lack of a plan or a perception of a plan.

Granted perhaps the city has so many different issues in which to deal with an immediate basis it may be hard to implement a strategic plan due to lack of proper resources.


For George to win this race, these two issues must be addressed fairly quickly in the next term.
George can be heartened by the fact that Council may be a bit more pliable to his desires since the possible new Ward Council members beginning in January may be quiet supporters of the Mayor.

The major question remains for after the election, Will Thomas George raise taxes to pay for streets, new police and all the other laundry list of things this city needs?

Want to see more of his platform and see who has endorsed him (basically every typical democratic leaning endorsement out there) go here

Mayoral Debates

There is a debate going on over at the discussion baord for the Lakewood Observer regarding what is a better way to handle the Mayoral Debates. Should it be just filling in a questionniare or sitting down for a debate, as is the case with most of Observation Deck discussions it has gotten down to petty bickering.

So I decided to jump in with the following response:

As a former candidate for office here in Lakewood, I would like to offer my opinion on the "white paper" vs open debate question.

To me this is equivalent to the old lite beer commercial about less filling or taste great.

Ladies & Gentleman what we have here is a very large job interview, at least that is how I approached things in 2005.

Now, when we apply for job what is the first thing we do, we submit an application or send a resume, then we hope for interview.

With the questionnaire, I took two approaches to it.

First, if I already knew that there was not going to be an interview (for example the Plain Dealer), I tended to give the boilerplate answers to the questions. For the questionnaire that had a follow up interview, I tended to give some pat answers, but like a resume I tried to get something in or leave something out to be asked at the interview. I felt much more comfortable about defending or advocating a position, because I felt the interviewers were at least paying attention to what I wrote.

As for the debate only situation, tendency is to give the stump speech perhaps with a flourish because you are hearing what the opponent is saying or not saying. Yes, you are getting a test of the Candidate's ability to think on their feet, but in the long run unless someone videotapes the message, very few people will remember everything a Candidate says at a debate when they are standing at the voting machine.

I go back to my message of earlier, it is simplistic one, but we the citizens of Lakewood are trying hire someone for a job, I am not going to hire someone based on just writing samples or just a 30 minute discussion I want both.

How do you want to handle the hiring procedures?

Let's see how badly I get hammered!

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!