Merger, Mayor Akers & More on Feagler & Friends This Evening

From the teaser:

Newsmaker: Bruce Akers, Mayor of Pepper Pike
After two decades as a civic leader, Bruce Akers is stepping down as mayor of Pepper Pike. During his tenure, Akers has been a prominent advocate of regional cooperation between local governments, arguing that cities should share services, such as trash pick-up and police dispatching. Most recently, he’s been backing the idea of possibly merging his city with three other suburbs.

Then, the roundtable panel (this week's: Ed Esposito, Akron News Now; M.L. Schultze, WKSU; Patrick Shepherd, Stonewall Democrats) ruminates on it, per its teaser:

Merging Interests
A sluggish Northeast Ohio economy has prompted a number of suburbs to find ways to save money by sharing city services, but the actual merging of municipalities has always been an elusive goal. Even the four cities currently talking about the idea have made no commitments to drop their boundaries. With over 60 local governments in Cuyahoga County alone, what’s it going to take to move beyond the “talk” stage?

Conversations are happening all over town and beyond regarding this topic.  Yesterday's Chagrin Valley Times ran this Commentary:

Chagrin Valley Times Commentary 7/7/11: Merger talk is first step

And I've even gotten email on the topic from a supposed former resident stationed overseas! Talk about far and wide.

I'm still hoping for a county government-hosted public forum sooner rather than later.

What are you hearing, hoping and wanting from all this attention?

Ohio House Bill 3 Introduced Today to Eliminate Estate Tax

Lots of news coverage of it from today. First, from WCPN:

Republicans who now control the entire Ohio legislature hope to move quickly on a bill to wipe out the estate tax.

Any amounts ABOVE 338-thousand dollars are taxed at a rate of 6 to 7 per cent.

Pro-business activists and farmers are applauding the move….but officials of Ohio cities are worried because they would lose out on REVENUE from the estate tax.

You can listen to the details in the radio report by Statehouse correspondent Bill Cohen here.

You can also read an article about it in the Newark Advocate and watch video of the Ohio representatives who are sponsoring the bill here.

This past Sunday, the Plain Dealer published Tom Suddes' column, "GOP's first target is Ohio's estate taxes," which argues the pure political nature of a move which Suddes seems to feel will reap little benefit for most Ohioans and great pain for many cities.

Our state representative is now Marlene Anielski and our state senator is still Tom Patton. If you've got something to say to them about this bill, those links will take you to their statehouse websites and emails and phone numbers.

You can read the text and provisions of the bill after the jump or at the legislature's website, here.

From what I can tell, it looks as though it would in fact go into affect starting with the estates of Ohioans otherwise subject to the estate tax whose deaths occur on or after January 1, 2011. As in, this year.

NYT, Front Page/Above Fold: "Surburb Caught in Fiscal Crisis Despite Wealth"

No, this New York Times article is not about Pepper Pike. And be sure that you read the entire - I mean do not only browse - article.  Are we ahead of the curve?

An excerpt:

Under pressure from [a watchdog] authority, [Tea Party/Republican County Executive] Mr. Mangano’s Democratic predecessor, Thomas R. Suozzi, raised property taxes, shrank the county work force and reduced the county’s reliance on borrowing to pay for operating costs.

But as the economy faltered in 2007, Mr. Suozzi, eyeing statewide office, began relying heavily on one-shot revenue generators.

He won short-term concessions from unions, like deferred salary increases, by extending a no-layoff guarantee through 2011. He resorted to borrowing to pay one of the county’s always onerous bills: the refunds given to residents who appeal their property tax assessments. And last year, up for re-election, he sidestepped a property tax increase by imposing a 2.5 percent tax on home heating bills.

That handed Mr. Mangano a campaign issue, which he rode into office. If he had any mandate, it was to scrap the heating bill tax and, as he put it, restore confidence in county government.

As things turned out, though, “Those two promises turned out to be at odds,” said Lawrence Levy, an expert on suburban politics at Hofstra University.

Mr. Mangano got rid of the energy tax. But he never came up with offsetting spending cuts. That sets him apart from Republicans elected in New Jersey and in Westchester County last year, who have warred with unions and made painful cuts in services.

Seriously - read the whole thing.

Plain Dealer Chagrin Solon Sun: "Pepper Pike Mayor Bruce Akers decides not to run for re-election in 2011"

From the Plain Dealer Chagrin Solon Sun:

Mayor Bruce Akers will not run for re-election in 2011.

Akers, who has been mayor of Pepper Pike for 20 years, said there are a number of reasons why he has decided not to run for re-election.

"I think 20 years is long enough," Akers said. "The times have changed. The financial situation and opposition will call for change. I think it's time to move on."

As the article notes, there will be more in next week's paper.

In Orange Village, County Executive Forum, This Sunday, 7:00 PM

From the inbox and on the Orange Village website:

Candidate’s Forum For County Government Elections
Sunday, October 24th at 7:00pm
Temple Emanu El (corner of Brainard & Emery)
This event is free and open to the public

My inbox message indicated that all the candidates for executive are expected to be there and many if not most of the county district representatives for Pepper Pike and the surrounding area also will be there.

Call To Action Speech

I do not like to cross-post many things from my personal blog, Writes Like She Talks, but several Pepper Pike residents have asked about my keynote in New York City this past week. You can read about it, read the speech itself and see photos of the speech here.  Thanks for your interest.

Attn Pepper Pike Residents: PD Endorses Jack Schron for GOP Primary for New County District 6 Seat

I assume the Democratic endorsement for the seat that includes representation for Pepper Pike will come out tomorrow. Here's today's:

ENDORSEMENT

District 6 consists of Bentleyville, Brecksville, Broadview Heights, Brooklyn Heights, Chagrin Falls, Chagrin Falls Township, Cuyahoga Heights, Gates Mills, Glenwillow, Highland Heights, Hunting Valley, Independence, Mayfield, Mayfield Heights, Moreland Hills, Newburgh Heights, Oakwood, Pepper Pike, Solon, Valley View and Walton Hills. The winner of this race will be the Republican nominee for a two-year term. Early voting for the Sept. 7 primary begins Aug. 3.

THE CANDIDATES:

Sam P. Cannata, 47, attorney, business owner.

Jim Crooks, 31, public relations consultant, Independence council member.

Ed Hargate, 52, attorney, Highland Heights council member.

Jack Schron, 62, business owner, former Chagrin Falls school board member.

Don Sopka, 65, retired teacher, former Broadview Heights council member.

OUR VIEW:

The Republicans have a strong group of candidates -- Crooks, for one, is a fount of energy and ideas -- but none is more impressive than Schron. He has successfully helped steer Jergens Inc., the machine parts business that his grandfather and father started in a Collinwood garage, into the world of advanced manufacturing and global competition that they scarcely could have imagined.

He started an online education company to train new factory workers and has worked with Cleveland's Max S. Hayes High School to do the same. He mentors other small firms through Cleveland-based MAGNET, the Manufacturing Advocacy & Growth Network, and WIRE-Net, on whose boards he serves. He worked with local, state and federal officials to clean up the old Collinwood rail yard, then built a new home there for Jergens. If the new county government is to be serious about economic development, Schron's hands-on experience could be invaluable.

I have never disagreed more than I do now with the entire focus many who wanted reform are placing on an alleged need - and the alleged benefits - of having people with business experience enter public service.***** Public finance, in existence to meet resident needs, defies analogy.

Putting Flesh on the Skeletal Idea of Regionalism in Our Neck of the Woods

The Chagrin Solon Sun published this article today, "Chagrin Valley communities to apply for grant for greater collaboration."  At last week's City Council meeting on Wednesday, February 17, Mayor Akers mentioned that he had just met with the mayors of Moreland Hills (Sue Renda) and Orange Village (Kathy Mulcahy) and that they'd decided to go forward with a proposal (preceded by an abstract which is due tomorrow) to EfficientGovNow regarding what the Sun describes this way:

“We’re going to explore consolidation and a new shared identity to increase efficiency while maintaining service levels and high-quality neighborhoods,” Orange Mayor Kathy Mulcahy said.

For me, the big questions are: What do "explore consolidation" and "a new shared identity" mean?  Who will be doing the defining? What will the proposal actually seek to do?

WCPN/Sound of Ideas 1/4/10: Rookie Officeholders Ahoy

And talk about soaking up the socmedia.  Ideastream/WCPN and Sound of Ideas are doing it every which way.

First, the show tomorrow morning at 9:00 am:

Cities deploy new media to fix old problems

Many people don't "get" why anyone would use Twitter or numerous other social media.  And I know that many Pepper Pike residents are not nearly as comfortable around computers as, well, other Pepper Pike residents might be. Among many of the ways in which I use my computer and Twitter is to learn about news that I might not otherwise discover.  With Twitter, you do have to choose who you follow carefully and be sure to monitor the service frequently enough to make it worthwhile.  Here's are two examples of why I like Twitter as a place to learn about what other people are doing to enhance their cities and communication between cities and citizens:

Preparing For The Arena

Because I knew this blog would be the first one ever written and published by a Pepper Pike City Council member, and because of my experiences as a blogger over the last five years, I've already spent time researching how other elected officials manage communications and engagement with citizens via social media and web-based tools such as blogs.

Here are just a few of the resources I've consulted so far:

In The Arena

One of Theodore Roosevelt's most famous quotes inspired the name of this blog:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Roosevelt delivered these words as part of his speech, Citizenship in the Republic, at La Sorbonne on April 23, 1910. The famous "man in the arena" portion needs little updating for the 21st Century, so I've named this blog in honor of the distinction the passage identifies: to analyze and critique elected officials from outside the political arena in which they function is far different from being that elected official who must analyze and make decisions from inside that arena.