The Observation Deck

Summers' glossy campaign propaganda hit mailboxes yesterday.

He makes a naked promise of "Revitalizing Downtown"

What's the PLAN MIKE?

Dead Silence. Not a word on it in the literature

This guy will go down in Lakewood's history as the worst City planner EVER!

Vice Mayor Dru Siley: "we are digging while others are still planning." What a mess.

Lost Taxes and Rent. $2 million in annual Payroll Taxes and Rent will be lost and can NEVER be replaced by Summers vague “BIG DREAM” No number new businesses can supply the jobs of a 24/7 365 day a year fully staffed hospital. Summers/BL/Siley admit they have no market studies, no estimates of jobs, no estimates of officer workers or retail workers, no interested businesses to relocate and build in heavily traffic congested area far from I-90. It is pure fantasy. They have NO PLAN!

Summers: "FIRE, READY AIM. Oops I forgot to load. Dru, when is the "secret" plan going to be baked enough so I can talk about it?"

Brian Essi wrote:Summers' glossy campaign propaganda hit mailboxes yesterday.

He makes a naked promise of "Revitalizing Downtown"

What's the PLAN MIKE?

Dead Silence. Not a word on it in the literature

Brian

This is not a completely true statement.

WHAT MAYOR SUMMERS PROMISED IN PRINT AND AT A NEWS CONFERENCE HE CALLED

The hospital was not closing, and that he had $120 million in new development for Downtown.

As for the front of the paper, it shows a smiling Mike Summers with Honest Leadership, those of use that have done political fliers, and worked with real crisis management teams know...

Take your weaknesses and make them seem like your strengths.

Finally crisis management earning some of their $250,000.

It is sad that he is so eager to get out his political messages, but is so secretive with hidden agendas on running the city.

I hope at some point, Mayor Summers does try honesty, open the books, demand the same from the LHA, and maybe, then, and only then the city can decide and move forward.

Until that happens, I cannot understand how anyone can believe the paid ad, or anything else.

Not surprising that he is pushing for early voting, as the lawsuit turns up more and more information about his culpability in the hospital fiasco.

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"Not surprising that he is pushing for early voting, as the lawsuit turns up more and more information about his culpability in the hospital fiasco."

I got the absentee ballot applications from Mike Skindell several weeks before Mike Summers' smiling face turned up in my mailbox. I happen to like voting by mail and haven't been to a polling place in years - all the better this year because Lincoln School is under construction.

I've been meaning to thank Mike Skindell publicly for sending them, so I'll do it here. Thanks! Thanks to Mike Summers too, but he's kind of late. We mailed them the other day.

The Mayors mailing is one of the strangest pieces of campaign literature I've ever seen.

Gregory (Scotland Yard detective): "Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?

Holmes: "To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."
Gregory: "The dog did nothing in the night-time."
Holmes: "That was the curious incident."

What's missing?

No mention of the Hospital and 1,500 jobs. Normally if a City is going to lose 1,500 jobs the elected officials race to the cameras to demand action.

No mention of the "New Foundation". The New Foundation was to be created with funds from the Clinic and funds from the $33 million in assets from the Lakewood Hospital Foundation. Back in January the Mayor was enthusiastic about the new health and wellness foundation. Now, silence. Is the idea dead? Is the funding gone? Can it be that the whole idea is indefensible so he is not even trying?

No mention of the $125 million in new development. What happened? Back in January the Mayor was telling everyone that there is no need to worry about the loss of the Hospital and 1,500 jobs because he had $125 million for new development. If that were still the case I suspect that that would be the focal point of his literature. So now Lakewood gets nothing?

No mention of the future of healthcare in Lakewood. I suspect that if the Mayor is re-elected healthcare has no future in Lakewood.

No mention of his "Well Lakewood" program. The only thing that remains is the "Well Lakewood" bike rack at Lakewood Park.

The Mayors latest piece of campaign literature is written as if the last 10 months never happened.

Is this denial of reality the manifestation of the first stage of grief? Will he ever reach acceptance?

Jim O'Bryan wrote:
Brian

This is not a completely true statement.

Jim,

We know that Summers changes his stories more than Imelda Marcos changes shoes, but I was referring to his mailing, i.e. his latest story to the voters i.e the story before the next story.

It is entirely true that his literature makes no mention of a PLAN for revitalizing downtown.

None, Nada, Zilch, Zero.

NO PLAN

Build Lakewood stated on their page that local and national developers are interested in that land and were contacting the city with ideas.

So, WHO and WHAT? No one has EVER presented that information. WHO are the developers chomping at the bit to work here? WHAT ideas did they present?

Since NO one ever gives any specifics or facts, I must assume that these BL statements are nothing but wishful thinking, or, dare I say, blatant LIES?