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If you live in Cuyahoga County and have followed the incredible woes and throes of corruption, patronage, old boy-old men, same old same old and just in general absence of decision-making and process about which we can be proud, then please listen to, think about and offer up your thoughts on what you want our county’s government to look like and be.
The Sound of Ideas, which starts in about five minutes, will be tackling these questions:
The clock is ticking on efforts to reform Cuyahoga County government. Any plan that will go before voters in November needs 46,000 signatures by July 13th in order to make it on to the ballot. The biggest sticking points right now have to do with minority representation. Hammering out a compromise has gone on for a year behind closed doors. We’ll talk to some county leaders involved in these closed-door sessions to find out what ideas are competing, what obstacles are present and what needs to be done to reach consensus. Join us for the Sound of Ideas at 9 on 90.3.
The panel:
Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, Ohio’s 11th District
Bill Mason, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor
Lillian Greene, Cuyahoga County Recorder
Rob Frost, Cuyahoga County GOP Chair
Kevin O’Brien, Cleveland State University
Additional resources:
Cuyahoga County Government Reform Groups Join Forces by Mark Namik, The Plain Dealer
Cuyahoga County Government Restructuring Plan Still in the Works by Joe Guillen, The Plain Dealer
Read the Commission on Cuyahoga County Government Reform draft report, prepared by The Center for Public Management, Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University
Read the Report of the Commission on Cuyahoga County Government Reform, by the County Reform Commission
By Jill Miller Zimon at 8:09 am June 3rd, 2009 in Announcements, Cleveland+, democracy, Government, leadership, med mart, Ohio, Politics, Statehouse, WCPN/SOI
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10 Responses to “WCPN Now: County reform-do you we want it? In what form?”
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“The biggest sticking points right now have to do with minority representation.”
And among the minorities not represented in Cuyahoga County government are the Republicans. The reform I propose for county government is that voters wake up and realize the Democrat monopoly in county government is corrupt and must be voted out–replaced with GOP candidates, if that’s what it takes to clean house.
That’s kind a rather radical and extreme indictment of all the voters in the county, Daniel. The old boys system that’s been in place has been there for at least 22 years, since I moved here. That’s a generation – GOP folks should take some responsibility for its inability to get where it’s wanted to – you can’t redraw everything just so the GOP can always win – like with the Senate district lines.
I would have expected something a little less partisan from you on this – I for one have repeatedly written about my dislike for Dimora, Hagan and the retreadedness.
Given that the population change to red isn’t going to be happening anytime soon, I would dial back the rhetoric and blame a bit. But that would be my approach.
As I recall, I once asked if Debbie Sutherland were to run against Jimmy Dimora for a commissioner seat, you chose not to give an answer. In the interest of good government and in the interest of the people, there’s only one correct answer to that question, and there should have been no hesitation in expressing it.
So, yes, a scathing indictment of Cuyahoga County voters is in order. You wonder at my uber-partisan take on Cuyahoga County government, but I don’t think it’s uber-partisan at all. I think if Democrats never fear losing a Cuyahoga County election to Republicans, then Democrats will continue to behave like crooks, and they’ll be smarter next time to cover their tracks better so the FBI won’t sniff them out. The Dem officeholders that have an absolute lock on county government might fear having to answer to the FBI and the Federal District Court, but they never have to fear having to answer to the voters, and that’s what’s wrong.
My view is much less partisan than yours on this point. I have voted for Democrats in order to oust corrupt Republicans from office. You keep hoping for ways in which Democrats can iron out the problem internally. The problem in Cuyahoga County is so profoundly entrenched, however, that Democrats, alone, cannot purge the corruption. Like back in the day when George Voinovich replaced Dennis Kucinich as mayor of Cleveland, voters must roar like a lion, and show that their votes are not to be taken for granted. You balk at the prospect of voting for a Republican even given the depth of the corruption of the Democrats in power. That, to me, is uber-partisanship. But you are not alone. The crooked Dems in county office have been enabled by huge masses of uber-partisan Democrats. Time to put one’s foot down and cross party lines in county elections to demonstrate that the Democrats don’t deserve your vote.
Oops, that first sentence was incoherent. It should read thus: “As I recall, I once asked if Debbie Sutherland were to run against Jimmy Dimora for a commissioner seat, who would you vote for? You chose not to give an answer.”
Daniel – I respect your POV but again I feel you totally overstate the case – I didn’t balk at voting for Sutherland – I didn’t want to say what I would do.
If you really want to portray me this way, I can’t stop you. I can only point out that your portrayal doesn’t match up with reality.
For example, where in the world do you find the basis for this judgment, “You keep hoping for ways in which Democrats can iron out the problem internally.”
Huh?
I didn’t live here when Voinovich and Kucinich duked it out – I moved here in 1988.
Furthermore, you are fostering the partisanship but suggesting things like this which I believe has nothing to do with it – at least for me, and I can’t speak for anyone else:
“I think if Democrats never fear losing a Cuyahoga County election to Republicans, then Democrats will continue to behave like crooks, and they’ll be smarter next time to cover their tracks better so the FBI won’t sniff them out.”
I guess however that this was the argument that made the Dems so successful in 2006?
I didn’t see it that way but that’s just me.
I’ll say this: Though I vote for far more Republicans than I do Democrats, Republicans cannot and should not take my vote for granted.
Democrat officeholders in Cuyahoga County’s executive and legislative branches can and do take the votes of their Democrat base for granted.
There’s a PD article today that includes a link to the proposal. This is like the issue of do you elect judges or appoint them? And still, we have very little analysis as to just how great or how bad the proposed version might be while only fingerpointing to the travesty that Hagan and Dimora have made of the three-person commission plus a number of perceivably corrupt other officials.
I’m printing out the charter proposal to review, but I want to hear from some experts on this stuff – I do not consider that to have been fully explored yet and in part I think it’s because both the current system and the proposed are vulnerable to abuse.
Here is the PD article from today (6/9/09):
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/06/eric_brewer_and_other_critics.html
And the pdf of the charter proposal for the reform:
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/06/cuy%20co%20charter.pdf
Hello Jill,
I have to say; the anger management classes have really paid off for me. I now can converse; even on Realneo, without gettin angry…life it is good.
http://realneo.us/content/alternative-statutory-form-county-government
oh…the time stamps on posts is off by an hour