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

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.

The Bush Inquisition

Recently, I have read that a Sub committee of the House Judiciary Committee is beginning to prepare subpoenas to the Bush Administration regarding the firing of several U. S. Attorneys.
The Democratic Party seems to want to question the Department of Justice as to the reasoning for the firings. Implied in the Democrats position is that the firings were politically motivated with no real justification.

My first thought when I read this, is this the first cut of a thousand paper cuts that will eventually lead to the full on interrogation of the Bush Administration for the War on Iraq and the War on Terror and the "erosion of rights" that Democrats have campaigned on during last year's elections.

As I further read in subsequent articles and blogs, it appears that some of these U. S. Attorneys were not fully prosecuting the policies of the Government. If that is the case, then they were rightly fired. But, I also think that those positions are appointments are made by the President and as that line goes, "you serve at the pleasure of the President", so the Administration has every right to fire anybody it wants to.

I still go back to my initial thought, I believe that these subpoenas are only the first baby step on a two year long pay back of the Clinton scandal, only instead of harming the administration, this could have a long term effect on the way we deal with policies on the international stage.

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.