Program for Cuyahoga County

When elected, and with your help, I will lay the foundations for an ecological economics in Cuyahoga County.

Ecological economics is oriented toward the needs of humans and of future generations, toward the preservation of nature, and toward a thrifty stewardship of our natural wealth and resources.

The project to re-structure county government has already been started but its footings are not strong enough to build the Cuyahoga County that we all want.

To strengthen the foundations and create a sustainable, ecological economy we need:

Transparency and Consensus –
• Conducting the business of the county in the open and with an inclusive process

Jobs and Economic Re-development –
• Facilitating outside investment and making compliance with regulations easier

• Respecting the fact that our resources are limited and that we can only afford to invest in projects that have a proportionate benefit in terms of quality of life or community regeneration creating local, diverse, sustainable projects focused on keeping our money here

• Involving businesses, community groups and nonprofits in coordinated, public/private partnership

• Projects targeted for maximum spin-off development

Jobs and County Services –
• Maintaining existing services while creating ways to relieve people from the need for public assistance

• Laying the groundwork for a more self-reliant community of individuals capable of supporting themselves

Jobs and Education -
• Providing youth and adults with the education they need to be productive

• Continuing education of the existing workforce

• Grounding K-12 classes in business planning, entrepreneurship, science and art

• Marketing the Cuyahoga County workforce within and beyond the county

Efficiency and Conservation in Government and Beyond -
• Finding more efficient and conservative ways to provide governmental services, conduct business and live in Cuyahoga County

Transparency and Consensus

My approach will be to bring all the interests of Cuyahoga County to the table. We will return to the basics: Information, Coordination and Cooperation.

Information: Consolidation, Openness, Accessibility, Common Reference, Common Language.

We need accurate and consistent statistical information about how the county departments and all of the municipalities, various boards of education and planning departments function. This information needs to be public and easily accessible. We need common ground for understanding and communicating.

An independent public access County Broadcasting Cooperative and programming will be established to follow, report on and analyze local government issues and decisions. Backroom decision-making, real or perceived, will be over.

Coordination: Common Vision and Objectives, Shared Responsibilities, Synchronized Actions, Mutual Accountability

We need first to realize and accept that, for at least the foreseeable future, Cuyahoga County is going to have a smaller human population. There is currently too much redundancy in governmental services and too much housing stock. We also need to accept that we're going to have large tracts of vacant land within our cities. What we also need to realize is that our impoverishment is a much greater threat to our regional economic viability than population loss.

We need to coalesce as a regional population around a new vision for a smaller, stronger and more ecological future. We have limited resources and can only afford to spend our money on activities that return a proportionate benefit in terms of quality of life and/or community regeneration.

The new County Council, the mayors and councils of the various municipalities, businesses, non-profits, organized labor and residents of Cuyahoga County share the responsibility for the success or failure of our new county government. Together, we can build a stronger, more self-reliant and resilient economy for Cuyahoga County. We owe this to each other.

Cooperation: Interaction Among Stakeholders, Effective Public Participation, Service Delivery, Rewards and Sanctions

In order to have real cooperation, the base needs to be broadened to include all the interests of Cuyahoga County, including the municipalities, the business community, the non-profits, organized labor and most importantly, the people. Means of effective communication and understanding among the various stakeholders need to be developed. Public meetings and hearings on issues of community importance need to be held at convenient times and places. Input and the concerns of the stakeholders, including residents, needs to be taken seriously.

When we reach agreement, we need to follow through with implementation and make sure our goals are met. We need accountability in our elected officials, their appointees and our civil servants. We need to acknowledge and commend high performance while the consequences of failure to fulfill responsibilities should be swift and just.

Jobs and Economic Re-development

We need to make sure that our region's tax structures are fair and competitive and enable investment in the area. We need to make sure that it is possible to comply with our regulations and that the useless red-tape of government bureaucracy is not inhibiting our economic redevelopment. We will respond to all inquiries from outside or within the county with a liaison who can facilitate our government's assistance and help create a welcoming environment for investment and compliance with regulations. At the same time, we will make retaining the businesses already here a much higher priority than it has been.

My approach to economic re-development will be to incorporate the lessons and guidance of:

• Cleveland State University's Center for Housing Research and Policy at the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs,
• The Brookings Institution report, "Restoring Prosperity – Transforming Ohio's Communities for the Next Economy",
• The Center for Community Solutions' report "Thinking the Unthinkable – Finding Common Ground for Resolving Ohio's Fiscal Crisis",
• The Cuyahoga County Planning Commission, other planning commissions and agencies in the county, and
• The internationally influential economic thinker, E. F. Schumacher, among others.

We accept as fact that our resources are limited, and that we can only afford to invest in projects that have a proportionate benefit in terms of quality of life and/or community regeneration.

We will create local, diverse, sustainable economic re-development projects by helping businesses, non-profits, organized labor and municipalities to identify anchor institutions and neighborhoods where our limited governmental resources can be applied for the creation of the maximum number of stable, decent jobs. When evaluating these focal points for economic re-development, the criteria should include the potential for job creation, spin-off development, and the use of renewable energies, environmental
technologies, sustainable mobility (pedestrian, bike and rail transportation), recycling and reuse. An example of this sort of broad-based, community-wide, economic re-development is the Gordon Square Arts District, where I have been involved since 1989.
Large public works will necessarily be a part of ongoing public jobs programs as they are now and have always been. It is important that these public works are ecologically minded, are consistent with a countywide land use and management plan, and constitute good investments in our sustainable future.

While efforts are being made to establish Cleveland as a center for manufacturing large-scale wind power generation equipment, we believe that the best potential for wind power is in smaller scale, off grid applications. The erratic performance of large scale wind farms feeding into the grid, the environmental consequences of construction and operation, noise, aesthetic impacts, and the dependence on high-tech, global corporate turbine patents make large scale wind farms unsustainable and uneconomical. The potential
for the region to become a leader in a sustainable wind-energy future is great and will be supported while unsustainable, problematic industries with heavy ecological footprints will need ultimately to be phased-out.

We will consolidate a countywide Laborer's and Artisan's Corps, a job and workforce training program intended to further develop a sense of hope, self-reliance and unity among city-dweller and suburbanite alike. It will be a labor force and artisan union or guild, reflecting the diversity of the county. It will train participants in common work and in self-reliance. It will provide labor and services to municipalities and non-profits for the modernization and beautification of Cuyahoga County. All projects will be small-scale
bricks and mortar projects that leave a lasting capital legacy. Modeled loosely on the Civilian Conservation Corps of the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Corps will be demographically representative of the county's population and provide a common cause. While primarily a program for otherwise unemployed youth, the program will include people from 16 to 60 years of age. Because it will have a history of working together in groups, the civilian Corps and its alumni may be called upon to provide assistance in times of emergency.

We will help develop these three specific vehicles for the strengthening of the local economy:

• A county-wide Independent Business Alliance, based on independent, locally-owned businesses that play a vital economic, social and cultural role in our community,

• The Bank of Cuyahoga County, as a state-chartered bank such as the Bank of North Dakota, which will provide conventional and micro-financing and a limited number of other retail banking services oriented specifically to Cuyahoga County and serving locally based enterprises and residents but which will not sell its mortgages, trade in derivatives, or commit usury,
• A currency of Cuyahoga County similar to "BerkShares" and designed to keep the money in the region – used by the county for services and accepted by the county for the payment of taxes, but also illustrating the tangible economic connectedness of the community and exchangeable and taxable at a fixed rate of 95 US cents per Cuyahoga Dollar.

Jobs and County Services
It is imperative that social services for the elderly, poor and disabled be maintained at least at the present level as long as necessary. At the same time, it is crucial we find a way for people to become independent of public assistance. Moving people from public assistance to productive private-sector employment will be a central goal of economic development and county services.

Much of the county government actually works and we will seek to retain the highly skilled and dedicated public employees of the county. While voters denied the County Executive the ability to use competitive testing to evaluate and remove current county employees, appropriate Civil Service Examinations will be administered to all current and future county employees so that we may know what level of competency or lack thereof exists and work to remedy any deficiencies. All new county employees will be required to take
and pass the Civil Service Examination prior to being hired.

Employment with the county should be based on merit, but when women and men are doing the same jobs, they should be paid equally. There ought to be gender balance in our workforce and it should reflect the diversity of our community, if possible.

The preservation of the peace is a central element to civil society and any scheme for sustainable economic development. In order for justice to be served, it must be swift and impartial. Every attempt must be made to eliminate the causes of crime and recidivism.

As part of a countywide land-use and management plan, county roads and bridges must be maintained for public safety and emergency preparedness. The "Fix-it-first" principle will be the central principle guiding transportation investment decisions but some infrastructure may need to be dismantled rather than be repaired. The creation of sustainable mobility (pedestrian, bicycle and rail transportation) will inform
all planning. Existing infrastructure assets will be built upon and conserved where appropriate. When new work is built, specifications and construction quality need to be such that shoddy workmanship or materials do not waste our investment and so that we build for posterity. All county buildings will be documented regarding historical energy use and an overall plan for their improvement will be developed. Such a plan will include mechanisms for verifiable quality control and evaluation of the effectiveness of the work.

The concentration of architectural and cultural assets, or environmental attractions such as river valleys and waterfronts serve as focal points for the future of our civilization. Population needs to be encouraged to concentrate around these focal points while protecting and preserving their ecological character and move toward sustainable mobility (pedestrian, bicycle and rail transport) among public and cultural amenities, workplaces and safe, desirable housing. The work of previous generations in this regard should be
understood and built upon.

Jobs and Education
We need to provide the children and many adults of Cuyahoga County the kind of basic education in business, entrepreneurship, science and the arts that will serve them in the ecological economy. We also need to provide specific training for the jobs that exist. We need business planning classes to be a part of curriculum beginning in elementary school and continuing in each grade level until graduation. From trading marbles in kindergarten to financing a small business upon graduation from high school, Cuyahoga County school children need to be steeped in good business planning and conduct from the time they begin school and be sufficiently prepared to fend for themselves within civil society.

Science and the Arts must be a fundamental part of public education to improve the culture and provide a platform for innovation and creativity.

In order to excel, students need to be helped to identify their strengths, interests and aptitudes. A meaningful vocational or college-track program needs to be available to all students. Inter-municipal student exchange programs, magnet and charter school options need to be available so that no child is denied the opportunity to learn when motivated to do so. As much as is possible, operational efficiencies and improvements to the performance of the county's various school systems and districts need to be found. The cost of school district administration needs to be made transparent to the public. Where feasible, and for the sake of Cuyahoga County's children and our collective future, consolidation of districts needs to occur. More of our education dollars must be dedicated to K-12 classrooms and moved out of administrative costs.

As an integrated part of the new government's plan for transparency, job training and building cultural unity, an editorially independent, public access, County Broadcasting Cooperative program will be organized to advance modern broadcast production, journalism and entertainment skills and to promote talent from across the county to the world. It is conceived as a group of production studios and specific programming that would provide training in the fields of television and film production, entertainment and broadcast journalism. Programming would be completely locally based, but always inclusive of the widest range of local talent, interviews with non-profit, civic and governmental leaders, and local news broadcasts, critically focused on issues of importance in the municipal and county governments. A regular variety show would
present Hip Hop and polka bands, high school musicals and church choirs side-by-side, to cultivate the idea of the single cultural community of Cuyahoga County. The cooperation and co-sponsorship of related unions and broadcasting companies would be sought and compensated in order to reach the broadest markets and provide the most meaningful professional experience.

Once in the workforce, opportunities for master trade, craft or artisan apprenticeships need to be made available. Workers who choose to enter long-term career paths need to have access to earning non-degree workforce certificates. Workers whose jobs have disappeared need access to job training options that allow them to reenter the workforce without long-term debt.

A commitment to marketing the region's workforce and unique artisanal and professional abilities will be made. Through direct funding of marketing efforts, Cuyahoga County will help create demand for the extraordinary skills and talents that currently exist and those new ones we will cultivate.

Rehabilitation, educational and job training programs will be made accessible to juvenile offenders, criminals and prisoners with the intention of their successful re-entry to free society and the reduction of recidivism.

Efficiency and Conservation in Government and Beyond
We will better utilize existing mechanisms or create new cooperative vehicles that lower the cost of running local governments, conducting business and living in Cuyahoga County. This may include the creation of new purchasing cooperatives for anything from asphalt to school books, health insurance to natural gas, all at the lowest possible cost, while keeping our money and capital here in Cuyahoga County - thereby becoming less susceptible to fluctuations in global markets.

Where government services are redundant within the county, we will publicly acknowledge and understand the financial consequences and work toward providing those services in a more cost-effective way. These services may include school system administration, emergency services, procurement, infrastructure maintenance, etc.

A countywide land-use and management plan must be developed through an open and agreement-seeking process to guide our reconstruction of a more ecological and future-oriented region. This plan then needs to be codified by the municipalities. We need to protect and conserve our limited natural resources. We can only afford to invest in projects that have a proportionate benefit in terms of quality of life and/or community regeneration. We need to avoid unsustainable economic commitments and the imposition of permanent ecological degradation on future generations.

As an essential part of the plan, The Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corporation, informally known as the Land Bank, is a strategic governmental response to existing land use dilemmas, population loss, and the mortgage crisis. It is intended to reclaim properties, protect the tax base and restore real estate markets. To implement the new county land use plan, tracts may be assembled and made ready for ecological
redevelopment, based upon sustainable principles, no matter whether they are developed into new industrial, commercial, residential, recreational or agricultural uses.

Obsolete housing must be more rapidly removed from the market, thereby increasing demand and the value of that remaining. Buildings of high embodied-energy value, of significant historical or cultural value, or which may provide unique opportunities for economic development at a later date, but for which there is no immediate use, may be given special protection, compensation and be mothballed for future use. The Fiscal Officer will be directed to make the process of determining property tax values and the appeal process more fair and transparent. The criteria used for valuing property must be consistent and just. Residential, commercial and industrial property owners should all enjoy and benefit from the same fair valuation system. The estimation of fair market value will be determined at least partly by actual real estate sales.

Sales tax is the most regressive type of tax. Its elimination will be a long-term goal in the new ecological economy.

The present levies, property taxes and sales taxes are all important revenue streams that support the current budget, therefore whatever is done with any of these taxes must have a corresponding effect on expenditures. Only a balanced budget will be accepted.

Lives are saved or lost by the actions of the County Government.  Profound consequences are related to public policies and the actions of public employees and elected officials.  It is the responsibility and obligation of county government to administer programs and distribute funding for their administration on behalf of the people of Cuyahoga County, the State of Ohio and the United States of America.

The ethical conduct of our government officials in the fulfillment of these responsibilities is foremost in importance.

Another solemn responsibility at this time is to strengthen the economy in Cuyahoga County while not compromising the ability of future generations to live here.