Buckeye RINO

Elyria’s Chronicle-Telegram has a story of dropping property values in Lorain County.  What’s newsworthy about that?  Anyone who knows anything about the real estate market in Lorain County knows that market values have been down for several years.  What makes it newsworthy is that county government is finally acknowledging the falling property values in assessing property taxes.

Of course, Lorain County Commissioner Ted Kalo is desperately trying to urge for support of Issue 4, a sales tax increase, by calling attention to the projected decline in property taxes.  Ahem!  Households have seen falling revenues, particularly through the softening of the labor market, so, like households are in a dither what to do and having to make cuts, county government will have to do the same.

For the record, Buckeye RINO opposes Lorain County’s Issue 4.

Lorain County Auditor Mark Stewart made the announcement of a 6% drop in property values on Friday.  I don’t remember a similar announcement from the auditor’s office in prior years.  In fact, my own experience with Lorain County real estate has been that tax appraisals and market values were going in divergent directions–market values declining while tax appraisals continued to be bumped upward.  My experience with Erie County real estate was the same.  I’ve already blogged about the phenomenon, asserting that challengers need to be recruited to campaign in 2010 against re-election bids by Lorain County Auditor Mark Stewart and Erie County Auditor Tom Paul.

Yet even after I blogged that Stewart needs to be replaced for inflating tax appraisals, I still saw evidence that Stewart was doing his own thing and ignoring what was going on in the markets.

Huron County Commissioners, by contrast, showed some integrity when they reviewed tax appraisals in Huron County.  According to a story in the Norwalk Reflector, they had some pointed questions for Huron County Auditor Roland Tkach about perceived irregularities, and it appears that Tkach is heeding the advice of commissioners.  County auditors are up for election in 2010, so perhaps Tkach knows that perceived irregularities could have negative political ramifications.

I think perhaps Mark Stewart caught wind of the Huron County story and decided he might possibly face a stiff electoral challenge next year if he continued his robber-baron ways.  That’s my hunch about Friday’s announcement.

Nevertheless, I really don’t think a leopard changes its spots.  I’m still fairly convinced that voters need to give Mark Stewart the heave-ho in next year’s elections.

Editor’s Note:  Brandon Rutherford is the Democrat candidate for the 4th Ward seat on Elyria’s city council.  Feel free to visit his campaign website.  Election Day is November 3rd, and the early voting period has already begun.  Buckeye RINO endorses Brandon Rutherford for the Elyria 4th Ward seat.

Hello, I first wanted to offer Dan an apology for not getting this to him faster. I have been busy working on my campaign as well as family life and college classes.

Let me start off by telling you why I felt the need to run for 4^th ward city council in Elyria. It’s of no shock to anyone that times in Ohio are tough. Jobs are leaving the state by the hundreds. Our kids are going to school getting their degrees and high-tailing it out of here on the first plane to South Carolina or Georgia. Home sales, like elsewhere, are horrid. We had in Elyria; one gentleman bought two properties for $9,000. Both had houses that were perfectly fine.

I am a block watch captain here in Elyria where I manage my block watch and have help start other blockwatches in Elyria. I have also created and held events called Take Back Elyria which Dan has commented on here on this blog. Take Back Elyria is modeled off of the Take Back the Night events where residents would come together and learn how to better protect themselves. My events bring many different resources together such as self-defense hand to hand combat, conceal and carry, Child ID and much more.

I consider myself a “out of the box” thinker. And with that being said I am going to layout for you my plan for not just the 4^th ward but the city. The following is what I will be working to get in place and running, if elected to city council. Some of these aspects will cost residents very minimal, if any tax dollars. After each proposal, I will explain how the proposal will be paid for providing accountability on my part.

Small Business Incubator- Small Business in Lorain County let alone Northeast Ohio is fierce and we need to be at the top of our game concerning efforts to get in Elyria. I want to create a Small Business Incubator (Which is part of the Elyria 2015 plan) In terms of resources we have the two greatest resources around in LCCC and the Great Lakes Building where they specialize in entrepreneurship classes. I, metaphorically speaking, envision a box with a big red bow on it that inside would have all of the resources anyone would want that is interested in starting a business in Elyria.

How much and where would it come from? The great thing about this is it would only cost people time and a bit of money putting together copies of laws and useful information that they should have. You might think that business owners should take that responsibility themselves to get that info, and to a point I think you’re right.

Resident Appreciation Day- Resident Appreciation Days (RAD) should either be a ward event or a city wide event. If it was to just be a ward event and others didn’t want to take part in the event then I would gladly hold the first one on Hill Top Park. Block watches of the 4th ward would be on hand to offer advice and allow residents that might not know that they exist to sign up and begin attending meetings. The mayor and at-large city council members would be invited. However, not only will this be an event where residents would get to talk to the mayor and the at-large council members it would get people out and talking with their friends and neighbors. Elyria is a great city and I feel we need to create that sense of pride and desire to want to live in Elyria. Most of us do enjoy living here and plan to stay here for many years to come, however, I feel by having an event geared towards the residents it lets them know that the elected officials appreciate their devotion to our great city. Ward meetings aside from the RAD days would still continue as well.
How much and where would it come from? It wouldn’t cost the residents anything. All items including food and entertainment (DJ, etc.. ) will be donated by either the elected official(s) or area businesses. If donations couldn’t be had anywhere I would just pay for the event myself.

Small Business Appreciation Day– This would be similar to the Residential Appreciation Day where we would reach out the Small Businesses that have chosen to move to Elyria to start their businesses. We would incorporate important key resources that could help grow businesses by either a line of credit from a bank or networking with another area business to learn of a new and possible cost saving measure. This will also be a kick-off to a “Buy Elyria Concept”. Long have we kept beating the drum of people trying to have Elyria companies buy products from other Elyria companies. This campaign will be held by volunteers that of small businesses owners that want to see Elyria revive itself and become stronger.

How much and where would it come from? This event wouldn’t cost the residents anything and would only take time to plan and organize and other items that might be needed could be donated or purchased by non-tax payer dollars. If donations couldn’t be had anywhere I would just pay for the event myself as well. That is how important I feel this issue is.

Community Gardens– These gardens will provide more than just food for the neighbors of the it will provide a real sense of pride and ownership which will help our city grow. The gardens are already popping up all over the city but I’d like to see more pop up on personal property. We are currently working on networking connections and get certain pieces in place to make putting a garden together in town a snap.

How much and where would it come from? Nothing. The gardens would be on personal property thereby avoiding the city mandated liability insurance. That is unless the city would be willing to start the garden themselves much like as they are doing in Lorain that way residents wouldn’t have to carry the liability insurance because it would be covered by the cities insurance.
I would still strongly urge council to allow residents to use city land to do a community gardens because of the positive effects it has in that neighborhood. The liability would be on the city either way even if residents did pay the already required fee for insurance that the city requires residents to have. Cascade/Furnace Street has had their garden up for months and no on has been sick or got hurt while tending to the gardens.

City Wide Recycling program- This program would be looking at ways to save money at the cities bottom line. Lets look at the city buildings whether it is the EPD, EFD City Hall, City Garage or anywhere else. If the city were to recycle all of the paper not only would it be a “green” thing to do it would also cut down on the amount of times that the dumpster has to be dumped thereby cutting costs. We could also instead of putting paper into the big green dumpsters we could compile the paper and shred it and use it in the Community Gardens.

I hope that through these efforts you will see that Elyria will be on the forefront of the battle to get jobs back into Lorain County and Northeast Ohio.

The plan, although still in action, I have been introducing myself to the resident of the 4^th ward for the past several months. I have walked the ward thus far 3 times and had many, many great conversations with voters where we discussed the issues facing our city. I believe in getting out there and meeting your constituents and letting them know who will be representing them. Voters are not naïve and they don’t like being treated like you can just feed them political gorgon and get elected. They want and deserve answers and should get the respect they deserve. We as residents should ask for accountability from all of our elected officials.

Together we will move our cities forward,

Brandon Rutherford

Editor’s Note:  Phil Van Treuren, a former journalist, political consultant and soldier, is a candidate for Amherst City Council at-Large.  You can visit his campaign website at www.PhilVanTreuren.com.

I’m very grateful to Dan for inviting me to write a guest post here on Buckeye RINO about my campaign for Amherst City Council at-Large.  I wish I could dedicate more resources to making this a better post, but spare time is hard to come by during the final weeks of election season (as I’m sure many of you know).

The campaign itself is progressing better than I ever hoped it would.  I’m a big believer in putting together a concrete plan early in the game and sticking to it, and the road map we created late last year has served us well.  My hopes were to hit the whole city three times in 2009; I’m now on my fourth time around.  I’ve knocked on about 4,000 doors, shaken more than 2,000 hands, made more than 1,000 phone calls, and hand-written personal cards to about 3,500 voters.  That last task took me six months to complete and left me with a permanent callous on a finger, but it’s all been worth it.

I’ve spent plenty of time working on dozens of campaigns over the last decade, and here’s the most important thing I learned: nothing substitutes for hard work.  The more difficult something is in a campaign, the better it works.  Going door-to-door for months on end isn’t easy, but there’s no better way to introduce yourself to the voters.

Knocking on the doors of people who you know are members of a different political party might be tough, but it earns you respect.  Don’t worry: the vast majority of people who disagree with you are still going to be polite.  If you get a flier thrown back in your face, thank them for their time and move on to the next door.

In the end, that isn’t just a good philosophy to follow when you’re campaigning; it’s also sound advice for life in general.  You’re going to come across plenty of negative people, but they don’t get to decide whether or not you have a good day.  You’re the only one who determines how you’re going to react.  If you get upset and let it throw you off your game, then it’s no one’s fault but your own.

Want to know another secret I learned in the campaign gutters over the years?  Winners don’t always win.  Some of the most successful politicians in the world had to lose several times before they were ever elected.  Abraham Lincoln was one of them, I think, and there are plenty of local and national examples to find today, too.  If you’ve made the decision to help people through elected office, then you’re almost certainly going to get beat at the polls someday.

Deal with it.  Running for office isn’t always fun; it’s also tiring, stressful and at times heartbreaking.  But if you’re really committed to helping people, you’ll get back on that horse whenever it bucks you to the ground.  There’s only one characteristic that every great person has in common: determination.

As for the Amherst City Council at-Large race, I’m not making any predictions.  I’ve met the other candidates, and they’re all great guys.  Amherst is going to have three at-large councilmen who care about our city regardless of who wins.

Whatever the outcome is, I’m going to be very proud of what we did during this campaign.  And in the end, that should be every candidate’s goal: to be proud of what you’ve done.

When is the Sandusky City Commission finally going to get rid of that hypocritical and sexist city manager, Matt Kline?  The Sandusky City Commission has been trying to cut costs while hoping to maintain services by reducing administrative pay by 5%.  The Sandusky Register now reports that a stubborn Matt Kline wants to reduce services and administrative work hours and not cut administrative pay at all.  He says the administrative pay cuts are not fair to the 26 administrators that work with him.

Fairness?  Fair to whom?

What about fairness to taxpayers?

If the pay cuts for the administrators make the salaries less competitive, by all means, let them move on to other careers (good luck, in this economy, and good riddance).  27 administrators sounds like too many for a city of just 30,000 residents.  Dividing the population by the number of administrators means that the taxes of about 1000 men, women, and children (question: how much of the 1000 would actually be in the work force?)  have to support the salary of an administrator, not to mention the salaries of all the non-administrative staff that also have to be paid with tax dollars.  That seems like a heavy burden on taxpayers, to me.

And if the firing of Kim Nuesse as police chief on the basis of trumped up charges and “good old boy” double standards can yield any clues as to what Matt Kline’s sense of fairness is, then we know for certain that Matt Kline’s sense of fairness is totally warped . . . warped beyond recognition.

Early voting has already begun.  Election Day is November 3rd.  Firelands 411 blog has video snippets of the candidates up for election to the Sandusky City Commission.  I urge voters to choose wisely and elect commission members who will oust Matt Kline.

Editor’s note: Sean Kalin Stipe is a Libertarian candidate for an at-large position on Lorain City Council. Early voting has already begun, with election day set for November 3rd.  Buckeye RINO endorses Stipe for Lorain City Council at-Large.

A quick read of the Morning Journal gives the impression that we are having some financial problems, but it’s only to the tune of $690,000. Our Mayor will quickly pass the blame to funding from the State of Ohio being cut $400,000 from last year. When the budget was presented to council in March, Lorain was in bad shape; heck, the whole country was, so a major cut in state funding should have been anticipated.

This still leaves another $290,000 that is going to the anticipated end of year budget deficit. Blame it on the streets. The have spent $209,000 more than budgeted, and the improvements to our streets shows that it was well spent (sarcasm). The question that hangs out there is who is allowing department to overspend their budget. That falls right in the lap of out chief administrator, the Mayor of Lorain. Remember that council already approved the spending levels for the year, but that doesn’t seem to matter anymore.

There has to be some good guys that are saving money this year. The parks department should truly be commended for their efforts. One the Journal’s list of who has save the most is, of course, the Mayor who is $938 under budget. “Ata boy!” But wait, how did he get the numbers to show this “savings?” These numbers, provided for this week’s council meeting shows that the Mayor’s salary for the last four months of the year are not included. That’s $14,086 per month. Now that department is over by $55,406 dollars at the end of year.

This tricky book-keeping is repeated in most departments. The expense sheets provided to the public has a lot of blacked out sections, but it appears that no one got paid in September or will be getting paid in October. Then there is a lump sum payment in November. For those on city council who actually read their packets, they must figure out how this shell game is being played.

So how do we figure out what the projected deficit of Lorain actually is. It certainly isn’t going to be just $690,000. Here is how fast that number changes:

• -$ 690,000 2009 expenses over revenue as reported
• -$1,500,000 2008 year end deficit
• -$734,000 “Shoe Boxed” bills
• -$500,000 Utility department money that was borrowed (transferred aka “advanced”) in 2008
• -$2,400,000 Debt service payment due at the end of 2009
• -$2,000,000 Borrowed from Water department
• -$2,000,000 Borrowed from Water Pollution Control department
• -$690,000.00

TOTAL 2009 Year End Deficit (simplified version)

• -$9,824,000.00

This leads to what role the Lorain City Council members that are being elected in November is actually going to be. According to state law, it’s not going to be much. In 2002, Lorain was placed on “fiscal watch” and can not be removed until the general fund deficit is eliminated. Lorain will enter “fiscal emergency” if one the following happens; default on a debt, lack of funds for payroll, “shoe boxed” bills exceed 30 days, or the year end deficit is 1/6 of yearly revenues.

Projected general fund revenue for 2009 (as of 9/24/09) is $35,658,000. That makes the danger number just under $6,000,000 and as you can see from above, we exceed that by nearly $4,000,000. There is still a debated legal opinion from ex-Law Director Provenza about the fact that we can “advance” monies from the Utilities department. The significant fee increases to our water and sewer bills earlier this year sure look like a back door tax at this point.

Should we end up in an emergency, the City of Lorain will be run by a financial planning and supervision commission. This includes the treasurer of state, the director of budget and management, the mayor, the council president and finally 3 others that come from a list of five people appointed by the mayor and council president. Those people can not have held public office in the last 5 years. The governor picks the three. All members of this commission are immune from any actions they take.

So unless a rabbit is pulled from a hat, this will be the new government of Lorain. The magic trick being shown right now is hiding this until after the November election.

Editor’s note:  Joyce Early is the Libertarian candidate for Lorain City Council’s 3rd Ward seat.  If you would like to make a donation to her campaign, you may do so at the bottom of this page at the Joyce Early website. The early voting period for the general election has already begun.  Election day is November 3rd.  Buckeye RINO endorses Joyce Early.

I’m running in a city known for Democratic Party majorities but I’m not running as a Democrat or Republican, I’m running as a Libertarian.  I can’t in my right mind identify with either of the big two so I chose the third party option.  It’s strange to be a Libertarian because only four years ago I didn’t even know the party existed, but then 4 years ago I was in a voter coma over politics so I wouldn’t have noticed anyway.  I was always unaffiliated as a voter never declaring a party and then in the same two year span declared both parties for candidates on the ballot.  In America we can switch back and forth every year if we choose.  I explain my actions by saying the two existing parties are not that much different in ideology.  But today I find myself able to identify with the “L” party because of their ideology.

My voter coma was induced by watching the nightly news.  I took their word and chose my candidate on their recommendation not really thinking about the direction that party was going.  Just three years ago I found myself with an insatiable appetite for politics.  I wanted to know history and how our government operated.  I was a victim of a public school education and knew very little about my government.  My self education was intense and enlightening.  For the first time in my life I was able to look at publications from the right, the left and the fringe and objectively hypothesize what really occurred.  Most people only read and listen to information from the side they identify with and so begins the voter coma.

The government we have is a wonderful meld of two sides of every issue.  We see a sprinkling of both sides in the House and Senate.  The check and balance style of government is an important one.  If only one side was represented we would see even more corruption than we do today.  Even a majority sometimes closes the discussion and still hurts America and the political process.

In our original Constitution, the President of the United States was the candidate with the most votes and the Vice President was the person who came in second.  This was a really clever idea because it forced two seemingly different philosophies to watch over each other and work together.  Imagine Obama and McCain having to run the country together?

The check and balance approach keeps communication open and honest.  Both sides have to defend their position and work together.  In Lorain, we have almost every elected position representing one party.  I feel this opens our city up to corruption because nobody at the table is asking questions and keeping the predominant side honest.  I’m not suggesting Libertarians should run our city or Republicans; I’m suggesting voters take an honest logical approach to how they would best be represented.  Even in a labor situation, labor and management have to work together and compromise.

For example, in the recent filing issue at the board of elections, would the voters have known a candidate hadn’t met the requirements if only one party worked at the board?  If we had a mixture of parties on city council, would the illegal borrowing (documentation p1, p2, p3) from the water department have ever taken place?  If we had a Republican law director rather than a Democrat would the CRA debacle ever have happened?  The city in all of these cases was a victim of corruption in a predominate party power structure.

I think voters need to look at the power structure of city government.  Certain positions can provide a check and balance.  A few city council members representing different parties would keep that arm of city government honest.  A law director could and would keep the cities dealings honest if they represented a different party.  And these positions aren’t powerful enough to change things, only influence and expose potential corruption and ultimately protect the citizen’s and save them from embarrassment when the truth comes to light like the CRA disaster.

If voters exercised their power to enforce a check and balance approach there would be less frustration and heartache.  Voters could be assured the two apposing sides were balancing things out so the best solution was arrived at.  Many of the challenges we have faced as a city were a direct result of absolute power. And everyone knows absolute power corrupts absolutely.

So my challenge to the voters of Lorain is to sprinkle in some checks and balances so you finally get the government you can be proud of.  A few players from the opposing team will only strengthen your government and make sure all players are following the rules with your tax dollars.

Joyce Early

Candidate for 3^rd Ward City Council in Lorain, Ohio

Lorain County residents, take inventory amongst yourselves and scrounge up some opposition for Mark Stewart in the race for Lorain County Auditor next year. I’d like to see a Democrat challenge him in the primary as well as see some competition in the general election. In 2006, Mark Stewart waltzed to re-election with no competition.

Lorain’s Morning Journal provides us with yet another example of how Mark Stewart hurts the county.  Past valuations by Stewart’s office for the property that once housed Ford’s Lorain Assembly Plant stand at $28 million.  The current owners say that the property is actually worth $2.3 million.  I’m not suggesting that we automatically believe the assertion of the current owners, but common sense will tell you which number is closer to actual market value.

A silver lining behind the cloud of declining property values amidst Ohio’s broken economy should be that it’s now cheaper for companies to invest in Ohio’s real estate.  Mark Stewart’s outlandish property valuations rob Lorain County of that silver lining,  deterring companies from investing in the county, and thereby derailing economic resurgence that could lead to improved employment numbers.

As I’ve noted in a prior blog article, you may be wondering why your property taxes aren’t decreasing even though the real estate market has been in freefall.  The best way to tackle this is to vote Stewart out of office, and to do that, we need to recruit candidates for the auditor’s race.

It’s not too early to file a Designation of Treasurer form to organize a candidate campaign committee and start raising funds.  Asking voters to donate funds should be easier in this race than for any other race, because supporting a challenge to Stewart could mean the end of being gouged on property taxes.

Lorain City Treasurer Tom Urbanek will have opposition after all, though Karen Shawver’s name will not appear on the ballot.

Wednesday, Sept. 2, was the deadline for filing as a write-in candidate for November’s general election.

If you go to the polls intending to vote for a write-in, and you suffer a momentary loss of memory, not remembering the name, or perhaps unsure of the proper spelling of the name, of the write-in you intended to vote for, you can ask polling place workers for a list of write-in candidates prior to voting.  Upon request, poll workers can also instruct you how to cast a write-in vote if you are unfamiliar with the procedure.

Also filing as a write-in candidate was R.J. Budway for the Lorain City Law Director race.  Budway’s write-in candidacy is the local Democrat Party’s insurance policy.

Interim Law Director Patrick Riley’s name was placed on the November ballot by a vote of the county’s elections board when there were no paper documents establishing Riley’s candidacy.

Budway won’t be campaigning so long as Riley isn’t knocked off the ballot by legal challenges.  Republican candidate Mike Scherach, so far, has asked the elections board for a hearing which seems unlikely to be granted, and hasn’t committed yet to taking the matter to court.

Elyria’s Chronicle-Telegram has the coverage of the write-in candidacies.   Republican elections board member Bob Rousseau had something to say about the latest move by the Democrats:

“If they’re hedging their bets, doesn’t that tell you they’re not confident in their case?”

Indeed, documentation of Riley’s candidacy is entirely missing, and an unusual elections board vote is the only verifiable strand of evidence placing Riley’s name on the ballot.

As for Urbanek, the Lorain City Treasurer, he created a stir this summer when he did not join in the salary belt-tightening that other city employees endured in consequence of Lorain’s faltering finances.  Furthermore, it was revealed that Urbanek, from his work office during office hours, was posting self-serving comments on conversation forums at LorainCounty.com under a pseudonym.