Cuyahoga County Reform Opponents: What About Summit County?

So, the war over reforming Cuyahoga County government is heating up. On her Facebook page yesterday, Rep. Marcia Fudge posted a link to a news story over at WKYC that a county reform plan could be put forth by the end of this week. The PD has a story up about it as well, plus some commentary from Mark Naymik.

The thing I can't figure is this. Having read the plan, it seems almost a carbon copy of the charter government that exists in Summit County, our neighbor to the South. And yet, opponents of the plan, led by East Cleveland Mayor Eric Brewer have been comment-spamming the same nonsense all over every story about the reform plan on Cleveland.com. For an example, follow this link to Mark Naymik's column on the issue and read the comments.

To all these opponents of the reform plan, I just have one question. If all the doom and gloom you are predicting will come to pass, why hasn't it happened in Summit County? They have been operating under a nearly identical county government structure for 30 years! And yet, their sales tax is 1.5% lower, and I don't see any FBI agents raiding their office holder's homes down there.

Please, if you're going to criticize a reform plan that is nearly identical to Summit County's, then tell us something that has happened in Summit that you don't like. Give us examples of how Summit's government structure has caused negative issues that makes you oppose bringing their reform plan to Cuyahoga. They have a 30 year track record down there, so if all the doom and gloom you are predicting will actually happen, it would have happened in Akron already.

If you aren't willing to do that, then please, STFU, and let rational people discuss this.

Political Infighting Stalling Cuyahoga County Reform, There's A Shock!

The Plain Dealer has a story up today about how political infighting is stalling proposals to reform Cuyahoga County government.

Well, there’s a freaking shock.

Apparently, there are two competing proposals for county government reform, but both have the broad outlines of creating a system of government similar to the one in neighboring Summit County. That is, replacement of the county board of commissioners with a county executive elected countywide and a county council, and replacement of many elected county officials into fewer officials with more responsibility plus more appointed officers. The two competing proposals seem to have their largest difference in the number of members the county council would have. In the proposal pushed by Parma Heights Mayor Martin Zanotti, the county council would have between 7 and 9 members, whereas in a competing proposal pushed by Prosecutor Bill Mason, it would be more like 13 members.

One of the things I simply can’t understand about the situation is that apparently, the minority community is opposed to the reform, because fewer elected officials means fewer chances for minorities to get into elected office. Sorry, but first, that’s not a good enough reason to keep superfluous officials around who are paid, and their staffs paid, with taxpayer dollars that could be better spent and second, it seems to me that the best way to create more elected offices is to grow Cuyahoga County’s population, thus creating more state representative, state senate, and congressional offices to run for. Cuyahoga County’s loss of nearly 110,000 residents since the 2000 census means the loss of an entire state representative district, which also, by the way, means sharing a state senate district with another county instead of having it entirely within Cuyahoga.

County government reform is past due. Summit County’s model works. Let’s do it.

There's A New Sheriff In Town

The Plain Dealer is reporting that new interim Cuyahoga County sheriff Frank Bova is cleaning house by immediately banning sheriff's employees from any sort of political activity during business hours, including lunch hours.

Among the more interesting items in the article, Sheriff Bova states that former sheriff Gerald McFaul who resigned last week left behind "30 bottles of liquor" in the Sheriff's office. "It is being returned to him," Bova said. "It is his personal property."

Cuyahoga County Sheriff Resigns

What was it I said yesterday about "Bad Boys"?

Cuyahoga County Sheriff Gerald McFaul resigned Wednesday afternoon, hours after The Plain Dealer asked him about thousands of dollars of cash given to him by employees.

McFaul's last day will be April 1.

McFaul served as sheriff for 32 years and was reelected to a ninth term in November. He ran into trouble months later, when budget cuts forced him to lay off deputies. But McFaul promoted friends and relatives while laying off others.

Since January, The Plain Dealer has published several stories about how McFaul operates his office. The stories documented his hiring and promoting practices, illegal fundraising, favoritism for friends and political allies. Pay records show he only comes to the office about one day a week.

Cuyahoga County Indictments Coming Soon?

Well we now have two blogs reporting imminent indictments stemming from Operation Air Ball, the FBI corruption probe that surrounds Jimmy Dimora and other Cuyahoga County elected officials. Over at Ohio Daily Blog, Anthony encourages us to "not fear the reaper" by posting a video of the Blue Oyster Cult's classic song. 

I personally am not afraid of the reaper at all. Let's let the FBI clear these guys out. Then the citizens of Cuyahoga County need to do the rest and demand county government reform once and for all. Clearly our current system of county government is inadequate to the challenges of the time. We need the accountability that comes from having an elected representative be responsible for a specific district. We need ONE CEO, not three or more, to truly take executive control of the county government. And most of all, we need resource sharing to reduce the cost of governing a declining population. 

Don't fear the reaper? This seems like a more appropriate song to me...

Jimmy Dimora Plans to Run for Re-Election?

Ha ha ha ha. Haaaaa! You're kidding right?

The Professor over at Political Science 216 has the scoop: 

Dimora’s “reasoning” goes like this, say sources – Cuyahoga County will never elect any Republican County wide, no big name Democrat will challenge him in the primary, the FBI won’t be done with its investigation anytime soon, people have short memories, and hell, the Plain Dealer might not even exist by then.

Personally, I can't believe that there isn't a single Demcorat in Cuyahoga County that wouldn't want to challenge the FBI-agent dodging Jimmy Dimora. Under his leadership, Cuyahoga County has lost 110,000 residents since 2000, Metro Cleveland has had the third worst population loss of any city in the country, and there doesn't appear to be an end in sight. And there won't be, until we can see the end of Dimora.