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Jun
23
Remains of the Day, 6-23-07
Filed Under Politics | Comments Off
Not much left because I didn’t look at much today. Busy kiddy day.
1. Nothing new on the no news on Netanyahu. I still don’t get it.
2. The NYT Magazine has a few mild interesting items but nothing remarkable (to me anyway).
3. Lovely citizen reporting by Lisa Renee on the Veterans’ Glass City Skyway. Wouldn’t it be nice if ODOT and Cleveland could find something that could result in a similarly inspiring piece of work?
I took time to catch up on some comments but still am behind. And I struggled against parental conflict in the face of having made a promise to one of my kids that I honored but I didn’t feel great about it because while my child met the conditions that I’d set, the overall outcome didn’t reflect desired results and part of me really didn’t want to follow through. But I kept to my promise and we’ll see how my child does with it as an incentive now.
Supposed to be another nice day tomorrow – get rest for it.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 11:04 pm June 23rd, 2007 in Politics | Comments Off
Print This Post
Jun
23
Remains of the Day, 6-23-07
Filed Under Politics | Comments Off
Not much left because I didn’t look at much today. Busy kiddy day.
1. Nothing new on the no news on Netanyahu. I still don’t get it.
2. The NYT Magazine has a few mild interesting items but nothing remarkable (to me anyway).
3. Lovely citizen reporting by Lisa Renee on the Veterans’ Glass City Skyway. Wouldn’t it be nice if ODOT and Cleveland could find something that could result in a similarly inspiring piece of work?
I took time to catch up on some comments but still am behind. And I struggled against parental conflict in the face of having made a promise to one of my kids that I honored but I didn’t feel great about it because while my child met the conditions that I’d set, the overall outcome didn’t reflect desired results and part of me really didn’t want to follow through. But I kept to my promise and we’ll see how my child does with it as an incentive now.
Supposed to be another nice day tomorrow – get rest for it.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 8:04 pm June 23rd, 2007 in Politics | Comments Off
Print This Post
Jun
23
Read about the seminar here and go if you like:
Media are invited to observe ASTAR training sessions, which include a session at 10 a.m. Thursday called “Genes and Human Behavior: Is There a Link between Genetics and Crime?” with Lynn B. Jorde, Ph.D., professor of Genetics at the University of Utah School of Medicine, and “Fingerprints” at 10 a.m. on Friday with Stephen B. Meagher from the FBI Lab in Quantico, Va. For a complete seminar schedule, contact the Office of Public Information at 614.387.9250.
Here’s more about ASTAR, which, according to this info, has its roots in a Congressionally-mandated program:
Mandated by Congress in 2006 to ramp up its proof of concept to a national scale, ASTAR added the entire scope of science, technology and forensics likely to be introduced as evidence or issues in the trial and appeals of complex cases.
In January 2007, ASTAR began operation of a Congressionally mandated project administered by the U. S. Department of Justice to ramp up science and technology training from consortium States to all U. S. Jurisdictions. This program will provide to all electing courts the certified Language of the Sciences programs ASTAR collectively terms “Platform A.”
Look at all the folks affiliated/overseeing the program. Hooya – that’s a long list.
I have to beleive that judges need training. But does anyone know anything else about this Congressionally-mandated and, I assume, federally-funded program? When I read the site, it sounded like only three states are involved. I’d love to know more. For example, in the mission statement, what exactly does this mean:
ASTAR’s leadership oversees the effort to identify, recruit, train and deploy science and technology resource judges.
Huh? They’re talking about judges in courts of law? Check out the link to ASTAR fellows – they are only from three states, including Ohio.
Is this a for-profit or nonprofit?
Sigh. I’m confused, again.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 3:58 pm June 23rd, 2007 in Politics | 4 Comments
Print This Post
Jun
23
2 y.o., youngest of five, IQ: 152
Filed Under Politics | 4 Comments
What I said here. We just know when we’re working with something unique, birth order and 3 point differences not withstanding.
Read the story here, h/t The Cleveland Leader.
Best of luck to the family and the the kids. She looks adorable.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 3:47 pm June 23rd, 2007 in Politics | 4 Comments
Print This Post
Jun
23
How to stop the Cuyahoga County Commissioners
Filed Under Politics | 13 Comments
I don’t actually know how, but I was thinking about it this morning and set my mind on figuring out the answer. Here’s why:
We’re the voters, we’re the public, we’re the taxpayers.
We don’t like something that they’re going to do without our up or down vote? Then we need to find a way to stop the process so that our opinion not only is heard but governs. The commissioners are not our helicopter parents looking out for us. That’s not how it works in a democracy. We will suffer the consequences if our choice – to not build a new convention center – destroys our lives, now and in the future.
But that’s our choice to make. Just like it was your choice to vote for whichever county commissioners you wanted. (I know I did not vote for Jimmy Dimora and I’m pretty sure I didn’t vote for Tim Hagan. I may have voted for Peter Lawson Jones but I don’t remember.)
So – how does one research how to stop the commissioners?
1. I googled “how to take legal action against county commissioners.”
That didn’t turn up anything after about two minutes.
2. Next I googled “rules that govern cuyahoga county commissioners.”
That brought me to this policy and procedures page for people who work for the county commissioners.
It’s at this point that I scour my brain: who do I know, who do I know, who do I know who I could ask, How do you stop the county commissioners?
I know a few people who could probably give me solid direction, and I suspect a few of them even read this blog. So I’m hoping I’ll get some additional input.
But in the meantime, I decided to take another route:
3. I go to the commissioner’s home page.
4. I click on the lefthand sidebar link that reads, “Public Awareness.” Oooo.
5. On the front page of Public Awareness is a link to Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Convention Facilities Authority.
I think I hit the jackpot, until I get there. All the info is old – the most recent news item is a 2/06 Crain’s story about things being on hold. By the way, just for fun, here’s the Calendar of Events. Nice, huh?
When I click on “About Us” and then “Members,” its list of commissioners is 100% wrong (outdated).
When I click on “FAQs” the information also is glow-y but stale PR stuff. You can get to the analysis done by PriceWaterhouse (it’s a pdf) but it too is stale, based on information from November 2004. (I did like this line, though, from the exec summary: “We take no responsibility for any events, economic conditions, supply and demand factors, or other circumstances affecting the findings or estimates provided in this report that take place subsequent to our last day of our fieldwork, January 28, 2005.”)
When I click on “Public Presentation,” nothing happens. The screen stays on the same page. Guess there’s no public presentation.
When you click on Testimonials, Woohoo! But before you let yourself get bowled over, ask:
-are you on the list?
-do you know anyone on the list?
-do those folks still live in the county, if they ever did?
-do you or they still agree with what they said?
(I’m such a skeptic sometimes)
When you click on Industry Info, you get to a page that let’s you get to a pdf of info on convention centers across the US (I haven’t checked it out).
And last and kind of least, when I click on Related Links, I get five links that are totally, totally uninteresting which I could get to myself, almost without thinking.
So, going to the commissioners’ homepage gives me no solid, good info, especially the pro and con I’m looking for, re: the convention center concept, let alone a place that would tell me how to challenge the commissioners. And, in addition, I find an ancient, deadend website set up nearly three years ago for a facilities authority which I’m not sure still exists or did much more than simply set themselves up. I just don’t know and I’ve run out of time this morning to research it more.
There are other primary links on the facilities authority’s home page, but I don’t have time to check them out. You can go to the site’s site map to see that there is some info about why they were looking at a new convention center. No doubt that the numbers in the summaries etc. are very different in 2007.
And, FYI – the Commissioner’s page itself, under Links? Doesn’t link to the facilities authority page. Guess someone hasn’t been aware of the public enough to make the pages internally consistent.
What I’m thinking now is -
1) What’s a citizen to DO? There is absolutely nothing on our county commissioner’s site that tells me what, as a citizen, my recourse is if I disagree with the actions of the commissioners. Nothing. Again, I might be missing something, going in the wrong direction. But I’ve been looking for nearly 90 mins. If a resident of this county cannot find, in THREE minutes, how to challenge the commissioners on their decisions or proposals, and can’t find most other info without opening up pdfs (as with agendas; forget actions – it’s “under construction), then county residents are not being served, let alone well-served.
2) How much did the county spend of our money on that facilities site? Here’s contact info for the company indicated as having done the website, NCCI, which, by the way, did Stephanie Tubbs Jones’ website (but the project is listed as a deallocation of over $83K on this federal spending website for 2005 – but I have no clue as to what that means; in 2002, NCCI received $69K in federal funds for work, but not necessarily for the congresswoman) and includes the facilities site as an example of its work. Hmmm, not sure I’d do that.
Of course, one of the consequences of letting that site get stale is that I didn’t reach the current site for the company, which I’ve now found, until almost 30 minutes later, totally by accident as I’ve been researching more info about NCCI.
Here’s the current site – I think it’s current anyway. [And FYI - I'm now almost an hour into trying to learn about how to stop the commissioners, and look where I am?] It’s nice, and I reached it through a Google result connected to NEOSA, which has NCCI on its list, IT Industry Directory,
It’s a woman/minority-owned business run by Kimberly Sanders. According to Diversity Business, in 2005, NCCI had annual sales of $150 million and was the #10 Top African American Owned Businesses in the USA and #14 Top Women Owned Businesses and #32 in the Top 500 Diversity Owned Businesses in the USA.
I’m impressed by the numbers, I confess, but I’ve been unable, just through Googling, to find much specific information about Ms. Sanders.
3) I’m in the wrong place for finding info about recourse related to commissioners’ actions done without votes – maybe there’s something newer I don’t know about.
4) Nah, I doubt it.
5) I need a primer on this entire topic – raising taxes without votes and the convention center – because I’ve only followed it sporadically. In the interest of Public Awareness – that link on the front page of the commissioners’ website – I urge the commissioners, especially since they want to act without letting us vote, to provide a historical up to now primer on the move to build a new convention center. I would suggest that they get someone from the Center for Community Solutions to write it, if they want readers to trust it.
Short of that, maybe Crain’s would be willing to do this review of the developments and keep it available on its site for free at least through July.
Later today: emailing everyone I can imagine for more info. If you want to save yourself the email, you can just leave me a comment to help me – and I have to believe others – understand and learn, particularly about how to stop the commissioners.
NB: Last thing – I have to go, but last thing: there’s not a single woman in charge at the commissioners’ office, is there?
Ugh.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:01 pm June 23rd, 2007 in Politics | 13 Comments
Print This Post
Jun
23
Read about the seminar here and go if you like:
Media are invited to observe ASTAR training sessions, which include a session at 10 a.m. Thursday called “Genes and Human Behavior: Is There a Link between Genetics and Crime?” with Lynn B. Jorde, Ph.D., professor of Genetics at the University of Utah School of Medicine, and “Fingerprints” at 10 a.m. on Friday with Stephen B. Meagher from the FBI Lab in Quantico, Va. For a complete seminar schedule, contact the Office of Public Information at 614.387.9250.
Here’s more about ASTAR, which, according to this info, has its roots in a Congressionally-mandated program:
Mandated by Congress in 2006 to ramp up its proof of concept to a national scale, ASTAR added the entire scope of science, technology and forensics likely to be introduced as evidence or issues in the trial and appeals of complex cases.
In January 2007, ASTAR began operation of a Congressionally mandated project administered by the U. S. Department of Justice to ramp up science and technology training from consortium States to all U. S. Jurisdictions. This program will provide to all electing courts the certified Language of the Sciences programs ASTAR collectively terms “Platform A.”
Look at all the folks affiliated/overseeing the program. Hooya – that’s a long list.
I have to beleive that judges need training. But does anyone know anything else about this Congressionally-mandated and, I assume, federally-funded program? When I read the site, it sounded like only three states are involved. I’d love to know more. For example, in the mission statement, what exactly does this mean:
ASTAR’s leadership oversees the effort to identify, recruit, train and deploy science and technology resource judges.
Huh? They’re talking about judges in courts of law? Check out the link to ASTAR fellows – they are only from three states, including Ohio.
Is this a for-profit or nonprofit?
Sigh. I’m confused, again.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 11:58 am June 23rd, 2007 in Politics | 4 Comments
Print This Post
Jun
23
2 y.o., youngest of five, IQ: 152
Filed Under Politics | 4 Comments
What I said here. We just know when we’re working with something unique, birth order and 3 point differences not withstanding.
Read the story here, h/t The Cleveland Leader.
Best of luck to the family and the the kids. She looks adorable.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 11:47 am June 23rd, 2007 in Politics | 4 Comments
Print This Post
Jun
23
How to stop the Cuyahoga County Commissioners
Filed Under Politics | 12 Comments
I don’t actually know how, but I was thinking about it this morning and set my mind on figuring out the answer. Here’s why:
We’re the voters, we’re the public, we’re the taxpayers.
We don’t like something that they’re going to do without our up or down vote? Then we need to find a way to stop the process so that our opinion not only is heard but governs. The commissioners are not our helicopter parents looking out for us. That’s not how it works in a democracy. We will suffer the consequences if our choice – to not build a new convention center – destroys our lives, now and in the future.
But that’s our choice to make. Just like it was your choice to vote for whichever county commissioners you wanted. (I know I did not vote for Jimmy Dimora and I’m pretty sure I didn’t vote for Tim Hagan. I may have voted for Peter Lawson Jones but I don’t remember.)
So – how does one research how to stop the commissioners?
1. I googled “how to take legal action against county commissioners.”
That didn’t turn up anything after about two minutes.
2. Next I googled “rules that govern cuyahoga county commissioners.”
That brought me to this policy and procedures page for people who work for the county commissioners.
It’s at this point that I scour my brain: who do I know, who do I know, who do I know who I could ask, How do you stop the county commissioners?
I know a few people who could probably give me solid direction, and I suspect a few of them even read this blog. So I’m hoping I’ll get some additional input.
But in the meantime, I decided to take another route:
3. I go to the commissioner’s home page.
4. I click on the lefthand sidebar link that reads, “Public Awareness.” Oooo.
5. On the front page of Public Awareness is a link to Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Convention Facilities Authority.
I think I hit the jackpot, until I get there. All the info is old – the most recent news item is a 2/06 Crain’s story about things being on hold. By the way, just for fun, here’s the Calendar of Events. Nice, huh?
When I click on “About Us” and then “Members,” its list of commissioners is 100% wrong (outdated).
When I click on “FAQs” the information also is glow-y but stale PR stuff. You can get to the analysis done by PriceWaterhouse (it’s a pdf) but it too is stale, based on information from November 2004. (I did like this line, though, from the exec summary: “We take no responsibility for any events, economic conditions, supply and demand factors, or other circumstances affecting the findings or estimates provided in this report that take place subsequent to our last day of our fieldwork, January 28, 2005.”)
When I click on “Public Presentation,” nothing happens. The screen stays on the same page. Guess there’s no public presentation.
When you click on Testimonials, Woohoo! But before you let yourself get bowled over, ask:
-are you on the list?
-do you know anyone on the list?
-do those folks still live in the county, if they ever did?
-do you or they still agree with what they said?
(I’m such a skeptic sometimes)
When you click on Industry Info, you get to a page that let’s you get to a pdf of info on convention centers across the US (I haven’t checked it out).
And last and kind of least, when I click on Related Links, I get five links that are totally, totally uninteresting which I could get to myself, almost without thinking.
So, going to the commissioners’ homepage gives me no solid, good info, especially the pro and con I’m looking for, re: the convention center concept, let alone a place that would tell me how to challenge the commissioners. And, in addition, I find an ancient, deadend website set up nearly three years ago for a facilities authority which I’m not sure still exists or did much more than simply set themselves up. I just don’t know and I’ve run out of time this morning to research it more.
There are other primary links on the facilities authority’s home page, but I don’t have time to check them out. You can go to the site’s site map to see that there is some info about why they were looking at a new convention center. No doubt that the numbers in the summaries etc. are very different in 2007.
And, FYI – the Commissioner’s page itself, under Links? Doesn’t link to the facilities authority page. Guess someone hasn’t been aware of the public enough to make the pages internally consistent.
What I’m thinking now is -
1) What’s a citizen to DO? There is absolutely nothing on our county commissioner’s site that tells me what, as a citizen, my recourse is if I disagree with the actions of the commissioners. Nothing. Again, I might be missing something, going in the wrong direction. But I’ve been looking for nearly 90 mins. If a resident of this county cannot find, in THREE minutes, how to challenge the commissioners on their decisions or proposals, and can’t find most other info without opening up pdfs (as with agendas; forget actions – it’s “under construction), then county residents are not being served, let alone well-served.
2) How much did the county spend of our money on that facilities site? Here’s contact info for the company indicated as having done the website, NCCI, which, by the way, did Stephanie Tubbs Jones’ website (but the project is listed as a deallocation of over $83K on this federal spending website for 2005 – but I have no clue as to what that means; in 2002, NCCI received $69K in federal funds for work, but not necessarily for the congresswoman) and includes the facilities site as an example of its work. Hmmm, not sure I’d do that.
Of course, one of the consequences of letting that site get stale is that I didn’t reach the current site for the company, which I’ve now found, until almost 30 minutes later, totally by accident as I’ve been researching more info about NCCI.
Here’s the current site – I think it’s current anyway. [And FYI - I'm now almost an hour into trying to learn about how to stop the commissioners, and look where I am?] It’s nice, and I reached it through a Google result connected to NEOSA, which has NCCI on its list, IT Industry Directory,
It’s a woman/minority-owned business run by Kimberly Sanders. According to Diversity Business, in 2005, NCCI had annual sales of $150 million and was the #10 Top African American Owned Businesses in the USA and #14 Top Women Owned Businesses and #32 in the Top 500 Diversity Owned Businesses in the USA.
I’m impressed by the numbers, I confess, but I’ve been unable, just through Googling, to find much specific information about Ms. Sanders.
3) I’m in the wrong place for finding info about recourse related to commissioners’ actions done without votes – maybe there’s something newer I don’t know about.
4) Nah, I doubt it.
5) I need a primer on this entire topic – raising taxes without votes and the convention center – because I’ve only followed it sporadically. In the interest of Public Awareness – that link on the front page of the commissioners’ website – I urge the commissioners, especially since they want to act without letting us vote, to provide a historical up to now primer on the move to build a new convention center. I would suggest that they get someone from the Center for Community Solutions to write it, if they want readers to trust it.
Short of that, maybe Crain’s would be willing to do this review of the developments and keep it available on its site for free at least through July.
Later today: emailing everyone I can imagine for more info. If you want to save yourself the email, you can just leave me a comment to help me – and I have to believe others – understand and learn, particularly about how to stop the commissioners.
NB: Last thing – I have to go, but last thing: there’s not a single woman in charge at the commissioners’ office, is there?
Ugh.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:01 am June 23rd, 2007 in Politics | 12 Comments
Print This Post
Jun
23
Read about the seminar here and go if you like:
Media are invited to observe ASTAR training sessions, which include a session at 10 a.m. Thursday called “Genes and Human Behavior: Is There a Link between Genetics and Crime?” with Lynn B. Jorde, Ph.D., professor of Genetics at the University of Utah School of Medicine, and “Fingerprints” at 10 a.m. on Friday with Stephen B. Meagher from the FBI Lab in Quantico, Va. For a complete seminar schedule, contact the Office of Public Information at 614.387.9250.
Here’s more about ASTAR, which, according to this info, has its roots in a Congressionally-mandated program:
Mandated by Congress in 2006 to ramp up its proof of concept to a national scale, ASTAR added the entire scope of science, technology and forensics likely to be introduced as evidence or issues in the trial and appeals of complex cases.
In January 2007, ASTAR began operation of a Congressionally mandated project administered by the U. S. Department of Justice to ramp up science and technology training from consortium States to all U. S. Jurisdictions. This program will provide to all electing courts the certified Language of the Sciences programs ASTAR collectively terms “Platform A.”
Look at all the folks affiliated/overseeing the program. Hooya – that’s a long list.
I have to beleive that judges need training. But does anyone know anything else about this Congressionally-mandated and, I assume, federally-funded program? When I read the site, it sounded like only three states are involved. I’d love to know more. For example, in the mission statement, what exactly does this mean:
ASTAR’s leadership oversees the effort to identify, recruit, train and deploy science and technology resource judges.
Huh? They’re talking about judges in courts of law? Check out the link to ASTAR fellows – they are only from three states, including Ohio.
Is this a for-profit or nonprofit?
Sigh. I’m confused, again.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 8:58 am June 23rd, 2007 in Politics | 4 Comments
Print This Post
Jun
23
2 y.o., youngest of five, IQ: 152
Filed Under Politics | 4 Comments
What I said here. We just know when we’re working with something unique, birth order and 3 point differences not withstanding.
Read the story here, h/t The Cleveland Leader.
Best of luck to the family and the the kids. She looks adorable.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 8:47 am June 23rd, 2007 in Politics | 4 Comments
Print This Post
Jun
23
How to stop the Cuyahoga County Commissioners
Filed Under Politics | 12 Comments
I don’t actually know how, but I was thinking about it this morning and set my mind on figuring out the answer. Here’s why:
We’re the voters, we’re the public, we’re the taxpayers.
We don’t like something that they’re going to do without our up or down vote? Then we need to find a way to stop the process so that our opinion not only is heard but governs. The commissioners are not our helicopter parents looking out for us. That’s not how it works in a democracy. We will suffer the consequences if our choice – to not build a new convention center – destroys our lives, now and in the future.
But that’s our choice to make. Just like it was your choice to vote for whichever county commissioners you wanted. (I know I did not vote for Jimmy Dimora and I’m pretty sure I didn’t vote for Tim Hagan. I may have voted for Peter Lawson Jones but I don’t remember.)
So – how does one research how to stop the commissioners?
1. I googled “how to take legal action against county commissioners.”
That didn’t turn up anything after about two minutes.
2. Next I googled “rules that govern cuyahoga county commissioners.”
That brought me to this policy and procedures page for people who work for the county commissioners.
It’s at this point that I scour my brain: who do I know, who do I know, who do I know who I could ask, How do you stop the county commissioners?
I know a few people who could probably give me solid direction, and I suspect a few of them even read this blog. So I’m hoping I’ll get some additional input.
But in the meantime, I decided to take another route:
3. I go to the commissioner’s home page.
4. I click on the lefthand sidebar link that reads, “Public Awareness.” Oooo.
5. On the front page of Public Awareness is a link to Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Convention Facilities Authority.
I think I hit the jackpot, until I get there. All the info is old – the most recent news item is a 2/06 Crain’s story about things being on hold. By the way, just for fun, here’s the Calendar of Events. Nice, huh?
When I click on “About Us” and then “Members,” its list of commissioners is 100% wrong (outdated).
When I click on “FAQs” the information also is glow-y but stale PR stuff. You can get to the analysis done by PriceWaterhouse (it’s a pdf) but it too is stale, based on information from November 2004. (I did like this line, though, from the exec summary: “We take no responsibility for any events, economic conditions, supply and demand factors, or other circumstances affecting the findings or estimates provided in this report that take place subsequent to our last day of our fieldwork, January 28, 2005.”)
When I click on “Public Presentation,” nothing happens. The screen stays on the same page. Guess there’s no public presentation.
When you click on Testimonials, Woohoo! But before you let yourself get bowled over, ask:
-are you on the list?
-do you know anyone on the list?
-do those folks still live in the county, if they ever did?
-do you or they still agree with what they said?
(I’m such a skeptic sometimes)
When you click on Industry Info, you get to a page that let’s you get to a pdf of info on convention centers across the US (I haven’t checked it out).
And last and kind of least, when I click on Related Links, I get five links that are totally, totally uninteresting which I could get to myself, almost without thinking.
So, going to the commissioners’ homepage gives me no solid, good info, especially the pro and con I’m looking for, re: the convention center concept, let alone a place that would tell me how to challenge the commissioners. And, in addition, I find an ancient, deadend website set up nearly three years ago for a facilities authority which I’m not sure still exists or did much more than simply set themselves up. I just don’t know and I’ve run out of time this morning to research it more.
There are other primary links on the facilities authority’s home page, but I don’t have time to check them out. You can go to the site’s site map to see that there is some info about why they were looking at a new convention center. No doubt that the numbers in the summaries etc. are very different in 2007.
And, FYI – the Commissioner’s page itself, under Links? Doesn’t link to the facilities authority page. Guess someone hasn’t been aware of the public enough to make the pages internally consistent.
What I’m thinking now is -
1) What’s a citizen to DO? There is absolutely nothing on our county commissioner’s site that tells me what, as a citizen, my recourse is if I disagree with the actions of the commissioners. Nothing. Again, I might be missing something, going in the wrong direction. But I’ve been looking for nearly 90 mins. If a resident of this county cannot find, in THREE minutes, how to challenge the commissioners on their decisions or proposals, and can’t find most other info without opening up pdfs (as with agendas; forget actions – it’s “under construction), then county residents are not being served, let alone well-served.
2) How much did the county spend of our money on that facilities site? Here’s contact info for the company indicated as having done the website, NCCI, which, by the way, did Stephanie Tubbs Jones’ website (but the project is listed as a deallocation of over $83K on this federal spending website for 2005 – but I have no clue as to what that means; in 2002, NCCI received $69K in federal funds for work, but not necessarily for the congresswoman) and includes the facilities site as an example of its work. Hmmm, not sure I’d do that.
Of course, one of the consequences of letting that site get stale is that I didn’t reach the current site for the company, which I’ve now found, until almost 30 minutes later, totally by accident as I’ve been researching more info about NCCI.
Here’s the current site – I think it’s current anyway. [And FYI - I'm now almost an hour into trying to learn about how to stop the commissioners, and look where I am?] It’s nice, and I reached it through a Google result connected to NEOSA, which has NCCI on its list, IT Industry Directory,
It’s a woman/minority-owned business run by Kimberly Sanders. According to Diversity Business, in 2005, NCCI had annual sales of $150 million and was the #10 Top African American Owned Businesses in the USA and #14 Top Women Owned Businesses and #32 in the Top 500 Diversity Owned Businesses in the USA.
I’m impressed by the numbers, I confess, but I’ve been unable, just through Googling, to find much specific information about Ms. Sanders.
3) I’m in the wrong place for finding info about recourse related to commissioners’ actions done without votes – maybe there’s something newer I don’t know about.
4) Nah, I doubt it.
5) I need a primer on this entire topic – raising taxes without votes and the convention center – because I’ve only followed it sporadically. In the interest of Public Awareness – that link on the front page of the commissioners’ website – I urge the commissioners, especially since they want to act without letting us vote, to provide a historical up to now primer on the move to build a new convention center. I would suggest that they get someone from the Center for Community Solutions to write it, if they want readers to trust it.
Short of that, maybe Crain’s would be willing to do this review of the developments and keep it available on its site for free at least through July.
Later today: emailing everyone I can imagine for more info. If you want to save yourself the email, you can just leave me a comment to help me – and I have to believe others – understand and learn, particularly about how to stop the commissioners.
NB: Last thing – I have to go, but last thing: there’s not a single woman in charge at the commissioners’ office, is there?
Ugh.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 6:01 am June 23rd, 2007 in Politics | 12 Comments
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Jun
23
Remains of the Day, 6-22-07
Filed Under Politics | 2 Comments
1. Is Blue Girl in a Red State an Ohio blog? I couldn’t quite figure out, but I do like the way it looks and how she writes. H/t to Dave.
2. This raising the county sales tax without a vote for a convention center cum medical mart is incredibly disturbing. But I have to say, I feel like I’ve been or said that I’m against a convention center for so long, I need to be reminded of the pros and cons of building one. Does anyone know of any good article on that topic?
3. Okay, so, if there are so many things that drive newspaper readers crazy, don’t you think you would, you know – work to neutralize or eliminate those things? How about a list of what readers love? And, just for fun, check and see how many of the problems are solved by having a fully functional online version of the paper?
4. Does this law have an immunity clause? Here’s more about it. For another day, I have a story about how I was flying between LA and NYC, less than a year after I returned from a year in Israel, and I reported a briefcase being left by itself in the seat next to me, by a man of Middle Eastern appearance who didn’t return to his seat for some lengthy period of time. Sigh. I spent the entire ride in the plane’s bathroom. Anyway, such efforts make me nervous.
5. The cost of teacher turnover. Includes a link to this calculator to figure out what it costs your district, but the link is broken (yes, yes – I emailed folks to tell them).
6. With all the hubbub about Lee Fisher and Frankie Coleman, is anyone asking him about how this plan fits into getting Ohio well-positioned, or at least better positioned, for the 21st Century? I only read the article quickly but I didn’t see any quotes from him or his department as to why they feel it necessary to cut the Emergent Services program that focused on high-tech incubators. What’s up with the Third Frontier $$ that this program must be cut? I know Battelle has some association or affiliation or for some reason comes into my mind as a conservative or right-leaning group – but I really don’t know anything specific. Is this all political? What’s being lost – gained?
Shabbat shalom.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 3:17 am June 23rd, 2007 in Politics | 2 Comments
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