Buckeye RINO

I’ve heard complaints from homeowners in both Erie County and Lorain County that tax appraisal valuations have kept increasing recently even though the bottom has been falling out of the northern Ohio housing market since 2000.

I think it’s worth noting that County Auditors will be up for election in 2010, and it’s not too early for challengers to launch campaigns and start raising money.  Just fill out a Designation of Treasurer form for your campaign committee and submit it to the Board of Elections, as I’ve written about in this blog entry, and you’ll have the greenlight to start raising campaign funds.  You won’t have to worry about circulating petitions until the beginning of next year.  In my opinion, both Erie County Auditor Tom Paul and Lorain County Auditor Mark Stewart are tyrants that ought to be replaced by voters.

I understand that the property valuation should be a rolling average of at least the past three years, so perhaps there might be a little bit of a lag between what the market value drops to and what the tax valuation drops to, but I’m hearing complaints that tax valuations in the two counties keep creeping UP, not down.  I’ve seen tax valuations for properties that are higher than the selling price ever was and higher than the marketplace could ever sustain.  Such practices amount to nothing short of a money grab by county government, specifically, the County Auditors’ offices.  Some politicians don’t respect the citizens enough to put tax increase proposals on the ballot, and some even ignore the citizens after they have voted down tax increases, and they use these ever-upward-creeping assessed property values to artificially inflate tax revenues.  Meanwhile, it’s no secret that REAL market values for homes have been plummeting for eight or nine years now, and assessed values should have been dropping downward to reflect that dynamic.

So what should you do beyond vote out these tax-grabbing county auditors?

That Woman’s Weblog has an excellent article on this very topic.  It is possible for you to request an appeal of your home’s tax appraisal valuation.  Please check it out and follow up.  Don’t let yourself be a victim of artificially inflated tax appraisal valuations.

Politics wouldn’t be so frustrating if more citizens actively participated in the process.  Being an informed citizenry before heading to a ballot box could make the election results, especially in the downticket races, much more bearable because the likelihood of making the best available choices would significantly improve.

But there are so many other fronts where active civic participation can reap huge dividends.  Would there be greater accountability from school districts if the turnout at school board meetings was always huge?  I tend to think so.  And if members of the community volunteered at the schools on a large scale, could educational outcomes improve?  I think it’s possible.  And what about citizens who serve on city committees, like streets and sidewalk committees, that keep city council members updated on pothole conditions . . . is there a use for that?  Of course there is.  How many townships have volunteer fire departments?  There are still quite a few of them.  Civic involvement improves our communities in so many ways.

Here’s an article from the Chronicle-Telegram about the start up of a block watch within an Elyria neighborhood.  The local citizens are pro-actively taking measures to prevent themselves from being targets of crime.  A police spokesperson, Lt. Andy Eichenlaub, told the C-T that there are 14 different neighborhood watch groups within the city of Elyria, and that number may grow.

Brandon Rutherford, a Democrat (I do tend to think in terms of party affiliation, don’t I?) that I’ve corresponded with from time to time, and a person I have a lot of respect for, has been orchestrating this particular block watch.  What amazes me is the amount of information being provided to residents.  Besides building relationships with the neighbors, experts are on tap to advise residents about securing businesses and residences, making use of child ID kits, curbing domestic violence, obtaining concealed carry permits, employing basic martial arts philosophies and techniques, and creating liaisons between the citizens and the police.

Part of the motivation behind this particular push is the concern over the elimination of 12 police officer jobs in Elyria.  If you’ve ever read the Harry Potter series, or seen the movies, this Elyria effort reminds me of part 5, “The Order of The Phoenix,” wherein Hogwarts students organize Dumbledore’s Army because they recognize deficiencies that their classes in Defense Against the Dark Arts won’t remedy.  With the current  bleak economic environment, any number of local governments may be faced with cutting safety services because tax revenues can’t keep up with expenses.  This neighborhood watch approach can send a strong signal to would-be criminals that citizens have no intention of becoming victims, despite the cutbacks.

I commend Brandon Rutherford and the others in his neighborhood who’ll be participating in this effort for taking these steps to look out for the best interests of their community.  I hope to see more such examples of civic participation in upcoming weeks and months.

The city of Lorain has a Law Director, named Mark Provenza, who has repeatedly been charged with DUI’s.  In the most recent DUI episode, he demolished a porch of a residential dwelling in Lakewood.  I’ve frequently called for Provenza’s resignation.  My prior blog entries about Provenza may be found here, here, here, here, and here.

Word of Mouth blog, the Lorain Morning Journal, and the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram each have printed stories about the judge’s ruling in the Provenza case (WoM here, MJ here, C-T here).  Provenza is required to surrender his driver’s license, sit in jail for 90 days, pay fines and restitution, be treated for alcohol dependency, and remain on probation for 5 years.

The problem with the sentencing is that it still leaves a law breaker as Lorain’s top cop (see related posting at Muley’s Cafe).  Residents of the city lament Lorain’s crime rate, and if they are looking to the city to step up to the plate on reform, pity on them.  Lorain can’t even clean up city hall, let alone city streets.  It’s been suggested that Lorain needs an employee handbook, an articulation of the dos and don’ts required of all city employees.  How is implementation of such possible when the Law Director himself would be a violator?  And if the top cop is bending and breaking the laws, you can bet that a few cops out on their city beats are also crossing the line.  Is it coincidental that two such stories (C-T here and here, MJ here and here) surface in the papers on the same day as the Provenza ruling?  The proper tone is set at the top.  Provenza doesn’t set the proper tone.  He still has his law license and his job as Law Director, and there’s the rub.

Provenza chooses to remain a public official, though his actions make a mockery of his position.  I think a heightened Provenza alert is in order, as Provenza is deserving of increased public scrutiny on two counts:  he’s a public official, and he’s a public nuisance.  Will your house be the next one demolished by a drunken Provenza?  Just as we use neighborhood block watches to keep an eye on crime, we should have a Provenza watch, to make sure we’re safe from the next Provenza drunken driving debacle.  As a public figure, Provenza merits his own camera-toting posse of paparazzi, filming him whenever he gets together with friends to drink, filming him whenever he walks into a bar or liquor store, filming him whenever he gets into a motor vehicle (especially if he tries to get in the driver’s seat).  We should know who he hangs out with when he’s drinking, and what bars he likes to frequent.  We should know the name of the designated driver whenever he’s out partying with friends.  It is in the public interest to know such things.  The public has a right to know.  If any of you readers have info on Provenza’s drinking habits, feel free to let the public know in the comments here at my blog.

If Provenza would rather not have paparazzi trailing him, then he should resign.  So far, he’s showing no inclination of doing so.

The person responsible for Provenza being in office is none other than Lorain Dem party boss Anthony Giardini.  Giardini got Provenza in, and Giardini can get Provenza out.  If Provenza is reluctant to step down, then Giardini should publicly, as well as privately, request that Provenza resign.  Continuing to align the party machine behind Provenza as Law Director makes Giardini look more like a mob godfather than head of a political party devoted to democracy (spelled with a little “d”).  If Giardini has any concern whatsoever for his public image, he’d best be finding another candidate for his political machine to back for Lorain Law Director, and let it clearly be indicated that Provenza, should he stubbornly refuse to resign, is on his own, without the help of the machine that brought him into power.

If Giardini refuses to call for Provenza’s resignation, and a recall petition campaign succeeds, there will be egg on the face of Giardini, not just Provenza, and it will mark a crumbling of Giardini’s power.  Does Giardini choose to take that risk, and stick with Provenza?  If so, the time is fast approaching a showdown.  The people will have to assert their sovereignty over the government.

Keep the alert high.  Drastic measures may be needed.

Along the rust belt that hugs Lake Erie’s shores, Democrats have long enjoyed a near monopoly on municipal and county governments.  Incredibly, local Democrat politicians in northern Ohio have always found a Republican somewhere, no matter how distant, to pin the blame on for the area’s misfortunes, all the while turning a blind eye to their own corruptions.  The Democrats have just won the White House, have strengthened their majorities in both houses of Congress, control all but one of the statewide executive branch offices, and have even wrested control over the Ohio House of Representatives.

Eventually, as I mentioned when I endorsed Annette Butler for Cuyahoga County Prosecutor, somebody has to pound the message into voters’ heads that corruption exists among northern Ohio Democrat politicians, it’s taking its toll on the region’s economy, and that re-electing those Democrats won’t solve the problem.

How long will it take before Democrats run out of Republicans to blame, and start having to shoulder the blame they’ve earned, themselves?

Do you know Bill Mason?  Since Bill Mason is the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor, it might be to your advantage to know him, if you know what I mean.

I have noticed that the corruption investigations in Cuyahoga County aren’t being conducted by the law enforcement officials closest to the problems.  Isn’t it interesting that the Ohio Inspector General’s office is the one who finally catches up to some ODOT officials in Cuyahoga County after those officials had been milking the system for their own benefit for years?  I bet some people employed in local law enforcement had at least some knowledge of such behavior for quite some time, but they weren’t saying anything to anybody.  Isn’t it interesting that the FBI is investigating the Cuyahoga County Auditor and one of the Cuyahoga County Commissioners?  I bet some people employed in local law enforcement had a whiff that something was fishy, but they never followed up on it.  Maybe it helps to know Bill Mason.

I see some new Democrat candidates up for election in NEO with the blessing of the Democrat Party political machine.  Some of them claim they got some experience by working for Bill Mason.  Maybe it helps to know Bill Mason.

The friendship goes both ways.  If Bill Mason’s performance is substandard in some way, then, if you know him, you’ll offer excuses for him and keep giving him extra chances to do it right.  For example, if African-American Cleveland residents are busted for non-violent drug crimes, they are getting jail time, while the white suburban residents who are busted for non-violent drug crimes get to dry out at a rehab clinic like Betty Ford.  Now that an outside entity is making note of something that really was obvious to anyone paying attention, there are people like Regina Brett promising that Bill Mason will do a better job.

I’ve got a better idea.  Elect Annette Butler.  I think she’ll make sure to mitigate the racial discrepancies in the penalties the prosecution seeks from her first day on the job.  As she, herself, said, it’s a correction that can be made without extra money.  It’s a correction that can be made with hands-on direction.

Mason has criticized Butler’s experience as a federal prosecutor handling just civil cases.  Yet, with 24 years experience, Butler surely knows courtrooms.  Furthermore, in the corrupt environment of Cuyahoga County government where justice isn’t being served, I think it’s an appropriate time to look for someone from outside the Cuyahoga County criminal (and civil) court system to give it a much needed jolt.  I think I’m more trusting in a federal civil prosecutor these days than I am in any Cuyahoga criminal prosecutors.

Earlier this month, Cleveland Plain Dealer editor Brent Larkin  poo-poohed the county GOP’s reform proposals.  Perhaps the answer does not rest in a nine-member commission with a restructuring of the county’s executive offices.  Perhaps there are better proposals out there.  I’d be surprised if the bi-partisan task force from another part of the state had any better ideas, even if it’s backed by Governor Strickland and Speaker Husted (ha! Cleveland’s supposed to venerate Husted? oh, that’s funny!).  But there is a political dimension to the corruption that grips Cuyahoga County.  It has everything to do with the Democrat Party.  In this election, I can’t think of a better place to get started with reform than the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s office with the election of Annette Butler.

Brent Larkin wrote, “Voters don’t need Republicans to tell them Democratic-run county offices operate with bloated payrolls and obscene levels of patronage.”

Oh yeah?  Well maybe they do!

Maybe it needs to be shouted from every roof top every morning, noon, and night, that responsibility for the county’s corruption rests with the DEMOCRATS!

Larkin, I’m sure, would think that such a message wouldn’t be very well received by county residents, who are overwhelmingly Democrats.  Yeah, it probably shouldn’t be well recieved.  The message should probably stick in everybody’s craw.  It ought to rub them the wrong way and it ought to just keep on bothering them every time the message enters their minds.  They ought to get really irritated with the repetition of the message and want to lash out at the messenger.  They ought to get flat out pissed off, ready to sock somebody right in the jaw.  But it’s the truth, and it ought to be dealt with.

Maybe Cuyahoga County voters need to be told that a non-partisan effort isn’t going to fix the county, because it won’t specifically address Democrats.  Maybe Cuyahoga County voters need to be told that a bipartisan effort isn’t going to fix the county, because the Democrats will have a hand in rigging it.  Maybe Cuyahoga County voters need proposals that have more than just a “partisan taint” in order to get county government reform–in fact, maybe what Cuyahoga County voters is a wholly Republican plan to reform the county, because it will specifically address the corruptions of the Democrats and will not allow the Democrats a hand in sabotaging the reform efforts.

Or maybe, instead of restructuring government to accomplish reform, just maybe, all we need to do is replace Democrats in county office by electing some Republicans in key areas of county government.  Electing Annette Butler for Cuyahoga County Prosecutor might be a good start.  Stop making excuses for Bill Mason.  Vote him out.

Don’t blame me for Ted Kalo.  In 2004, I voted for Rita Canfield.  I voted for Eric Flynn for the other open commissioner spot in 2004, too.

Lorain County Commissioner Ted Kalo is one of Lorain’s good old boys who is joined at the hip to the Democrat party boss of Lorain, Anthony Giardini.  One can look around the deteriorating city of Lorain to see the abundant evidence that the good old boys who wield power in Lorain are definitely not authorities on how to run a town, let alone a county (Kalo can’t even run a business).  I’ve occasionally posted blog entries about the good old boys of Lorain here, here, and here.  I also wrote about Kalo at Word of Mouth, and Kalo responded.  I’ll have more to say about Kalo later in this post.

Nick Brusky is a member of city council in Amherst, a city that is one of the few bright spots in the Lorain County economy.  The jobs picture has been bleak for much of the county, but some new jobs have been created in the Amherst area that Kalo likes to take credit for, but Nick Brusky and his colleagues in Amherst city government ought to receive equal credit, while Kalo shuns taking credit for the job losses elsewhere in the county.

Nick Brusky is running on a platform of good governance.  He has issued a contract with Lorain County that he wishes to be held accountable for if he is elected.  You can listen to Brusky reading his contract with Lorain on an audio podcast of a debate with Kalo hosted by Larry Wright of WEOL radio (930 on the AM dial).  You can also read the contract for yourself at Brusky’s website.  I think it’s important enough, though, to repeat the contract here.

As a citizen seeking to become one of your County Commissioners I propose not just to change policies of the county, but even more important, to restore the bonds of trust between the people and their elected representatives.

I offer a simple agenda for renewal, a written commitment with no fine print.
This year’s election offers voters the chance to transform the way County Government works. That historic change would be the end of government that is too big, and too easy with the public’s money.

On the first day I take office I will immediately propose the following major reforms, aimed at restoring the faith and trust of County Residents in their government:

• First. No general fund tax increases.

• Second. All agencies seeking an additional or renewal countywide property tax levies will be required to undergo an independent performance audit before being placed on the ballot. If the audit finds that we can propose a lower millage than requested, then the lower millage will go before the voters.

• Third. Select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of the County for waste, fraud or abuse.

• Fourth. Increase fiscal prudence by limiting year to year budget increases to a maximum percentage accommodating for the change inflation plus population growth only.

• Fifth. Let the people see how the County Commissioners spend their tax dollars by posting an “Online Checkbook” every month that lists each and every expenditure and its purpose.

• Sixth. The use of Solid Waste money for billboards, handouts, and other advertising is wasteful and will be discontinued. Use Solid Waste money to fully fund recycling programs of Municipalities and Townships first. Any remaining money leftover will be given to the taxpayers in the form of rebates for purchasing items that will help them “go green.”

• Seventh. Increase public participation by having our regular meetings at 7:00 pm, and televised live. Increase co-operation with more municipal and township officials by hosting Lorain County Community Alliance Meetings at night.

Respecting the judgment of my fellow citizens as I seek their mandate for reform, I hereby pledge my name to this Contract with Lorain County.

Sincerely,

Nicholas W. Brusky

When Kalo first took office in 2005 he renovated his commissioner’s office, complete with a large plasma-screen TV.  By 2007, he was spearheading an effort by the county commissioners to raise the county sales tax to raise general fund revenues, when he clearly didn’t show much in the way of careful restraint in the way of general fund expenses at the very start of his term in office.  Perhaps this champaigne taste on a beer budget is what gets Kalo in trouble with his flooring business.  That he would increase a sales tax that he, himself, on behalf of his flooring business, experienced difficulty in remitting prior to his run for office, is incomprehensible.  He ought to have learned his lesson firsthand that sales taxes can add a wrinkle to running a business, let alone an increase in the sales tax.  Kalo is a slow learner, if he learns anything.  Also, while the presidential candidate of his political party goes to great lengths to assure that the targets of his tax increases are only the very rich, Kalo seeks to increase a tax that every individual pays, with no exemptions if one is rich or poor or a senior citizen or a child or a student or whatever the case might be.

When Kalo and the other commissioners voted for a sales tax increase in 2007, Nick Brusky and other county residents decided to circulate petitions so that the voters could have a say on the matter.  Kalo really didn’t want the voters to decide the matter.  In the November 2007 elections, the sales tax increase ballot issue went down to defeat with 80% against the measure and only 20% in support of it.  The will of the people was made known to the county commissioners, yet Kalo and the other commissioners have vowed and are already preparing another attempt at a sales tax hike, overly confident that they’ll be re-elected.  This is why it is so important to elect Nick Brusky.  Only by voting Kalo and Lori Kokoski out of office, and replacing them with Brusky and Martin O’Donnell can the county continue to avoid being railroaded into higher taxes.

Kalo is too used to pulling all the strings as one of the good old boys.  He doesn’t appreciate that voters elect commissioners to impose the will of the people upon county government.  Instead, he seeks to impose the will of the county government upon the people.  That’s exactly backwards of what our Founding Fathers intended for those who hold legislative offices.

Brusky, with his contract with Lorain County, demonstrates that he understands that the commissioner’s job is to do the will of the people and subordinate the government of the county to the will of the people.

Nick Brusky and Martin O’Donnell can restore checks and balances to county government.  County residents can expect that these two, who’ve shown that they can help Amherst and Avon Lake, respectively, prosper and flourish, can bring their expertise to bear on behalf of the county, and help it prosper and flourish.  The best way to raise revenues, after all, is to rein in taxes, promote growth, and grow the tax base.

Finally, the county needs transparency, not back-room deals that Kalo hashes out with the other good old boys.  Nick Brusky has pledged to make county government transparent with the county’s revenues and expenditures posted on the internet so that any county resident can review the records with a few clicks of the mouse.  Citizens can be involved in their government–but only if Kalo and Brusky are elected.

I’ve already endorsed Larry Silcox for Huron County Commissioner.  He’s the correct choice.  He knows that the Huron County budget must be downsized as the economic picture is projected to get gloomier.  His second priority, beyond getting the county’s house in order, is tackling the unemployment problem.  He wants to make sure that county residents have opportunities to earn money.

His opponent, Sharon Ward, was quoted in a story that appeared in the Norwalk Reflector saying:

“Every time we spend money at the mall in Sandusky, that money doesn’t go to our sheriff’s department, it goes to Erie County. We need more opportunities here.”

While I was out and about Erie County today, guess what I saw?

If it’s hard to see the sign on the door of the Mercury Grand Marquis, let me show you a different angle.

Granted, it’s not the Sandusky Mall, but this Sam’s Club is located in Erie County, not in Huron County.  The residents of Erie County, like myself, who see this advertisement on the side of the car, couldn’t cast a ballot for Sharon Ward even if we wanted to, so there’s no point in taking her campaign to the neighboring county.  Nope.  I think this car was parked in the Sam’s Club parking lot for the purpose of shopping.  I should point out that while Huron County doesn’t have a Sam’s Club, it does have a Walmart.  So how is it that the driver of this car with the Huron County license plates didn’t get the memo that a key plank of the Ward platform is to shop in Huron County, not Erie County?

I stand by my earlier statement:

As for residents shopping within the county, it would help if there were more employment opportunities within the county.  If people who live in the county also work in the county, then their daily commutes would likely cause them to shop in the county.  Silcox is correct to put employment among the top priorities for the county.  Ward is putting the cart before the horse, hoping for people to spend without appropriate concern for hoping that people earn.

Ward’s emphasis on the spending of Huron County residents shows that she’s out of touch with the economic condition they are in.  The emphasis on spending is wishful thinking on Ward’s part that sales tax revenues that the county collects will grow, which suggests she’s not come to grips with the need to tighten the county budget.  Again, in light of the failures of Wall Street and the displeasure with which the bailout is being viewed, perhaps Sharon Ward shouldn’t be trying to highlight that her day job is as a financial planner.