Blogging South Euclid City Government

Someone is - I'm not sure who though but my guess is that it's not an elected official, though I could be wrong. 

South Euclid Oversight has archives going back to March of 2007 and I see the use of video and Scribd in its most recent post.  The mayor of South Euclid is Georgine Welo, whom I met very briefly once a couple of months ago.  Its city council members are listed here (you have to go to "Inside City Hall" and then click on "City Council" and then click on the individual members' names).  Anyone with experience or knowledge, feel free to share.

4 comments:

SOUTH EUCLID OVERSIGHT said...

We are the people behind South Euclid Oversight. SEO is dedicated to the need for government transparency. Our goal is public awareness of decisions being made by city officials and how tax money is being spent. Information including financial documents, salaries, and videos of council meetings are posted online as a free public service to illustrate how business is conducted on the taxpayer’s behalf. Often the story coming from city hall and the local newspaper is not representative of the facts.

We did not in the beginning, nor do we now, intend for SEO to be about us, the gatherers of public records. We give readers who make comments the option to remain anonymous to eliminate any possibility of retaliatory repercussions.

I’m not positive, but it may be possible that the elected and appointed folks at city hall aren’t real fond of SEOversight. It seems they don’t recognize the merits of our efforts. Does the presentation of the data reflect our opinion? How could it not?! And besides, you’ve got to have fun along the way. 
However, we would gladly retract any misstatement that was disputed with supporting documents. If anyone knows that SEOversight has knowingly or unknowingly posted false or misleading stories, the only “ethical” action would be to report your full account to as large an audience that you can find. Start now.

A bit of background: I’m Emilie DiFranco. My family came to South Euclid in 1950. I own the family home in a really cool area near the Metropark system. I live in Fairview Park with Dave Furry. He’s the camera and graphics guy. We have always been active in my S.E. community. We seek no accolades or recognition we just want people to know the facts as reflected by documentation versus the other versions.

Three cheers to you for posting legislation and actually making a genuine effort to keep your constituents informed! Don’t know how long you’ve been at this politicking thing, but I guess you never got the memo that you’re supposed to avoid people and make every effort to keep things quiet. Here’s hoping that you never catch a ride on that bus. Best of luck to you.

Cheers!

Here’s how they do it in South Euclid: Take a look at these two candidate profiles and guess which one got elected? Pretty sad state of affairs when public apathy and a political mini-machine can achieve those kinds of results, eh?


http://southeuclidoversight.blogspot.com/2009/10/council-at-large-2-man-race.html

Jill said...

Emilie,

Thank you again for reading and commenting. I'm all about engagement and I particularly appreciate when people use their real names and their real lives. But could you clear up something for me?

You wrote:

"A bit of background: I’m Emilie DiFranco. My family came to South Euclid in 1950. I own the family home in a really cool area near the Metropark system. I live in Fairview Park with Dave Furry. He’s the camera and graphics guy. We have always been active in my S.E. community. We seek no accolades or recognition we just want people to know the facts as reflected by documentation versus the other versions. "

So - you do not currently live in S. Euclid but used to and still have property there? Is that right? I'm curious to know if you have other good government efforts throughout the region.

SOUTH EUCLID OVERSIGHT said...

Yes, I own a home on 2 acres of land in S.E. and also a home in Fairview Park where I reside.

Regarding your question of other “good government efforts” in the region….heavens no! LOL! SEOversight takes up enough time as it is. We'd love to see others start something similar in cities everywhere.

In my opinion, it would be great if cities everywhere recorded all public meetings and broadcast them as do Solon, Westlake, CHUH School Board. Further, with the technology available, there’s NO excuse for not posting all legislation on line. As proposed by a former So. Euclid council candidate, the city should be mandated to post financial spreadsheets online as well. I would think that would go a long way to stamping out corruption. I suppose that’s why it hasn’t been done already.

Jill said...

Thanks again for sharing your perspective. The concept of open meetings, public records and transparency is enormous. There's always room for improvement!