Mayor George Endorsed by Sun Newspapers (aka Plain Dealer)

[Grace O'Malley]

Mayor George has received the endorsement from the Sun News. It is in the Thursday paper that is being delivered now.

The editors aptly note that Councilman Fitzgerald may have overstated his crime statistics claim.

Further, they state "he and some of his colleagues have orchestrated a fair amount of the bickering between City Council and the administration, which made it difficult for the mayor to be effective."


I couldn't agree more with that statement, and that's why I couldn't vote for Fitzgerald. I shudder to think of the confrontations that would be part and parcel of a Fitzgerald administration.

Lastly, the Sun states that Mayor George has "done a commendable job since defeating Madeline Cain in 2003."

[Mary Breiner]

I believe with all the scare tactic campaigning by Mr. Fitzgerald that he has done irreparable damage to reputation and image of the City of Lakewood. How is he going to undo the bad press he has brought upon this city when he is Mayor? He has already scared people away that may have considered making Lakewood their home with his exaggeration and misleading crime stats. Not that I am always in agreement with the Sun Post endorsements, but they do have a point and I agree with them this time.

Mary Breiner

[Ryan Patrick Demro]

Here is an observation:

1) Everybody and their brother endorses Geogre for Mayor, except the voters. The Mayor is nearly defeated by both of his primary opponents.

2) The same rag that endorsed him in the primary tries to save him again. My prediction, George goes down again and the community is better for it.

Vote for change in '07, Lakewood needs it!

[Mary Breiner]

I also witnessed the shameful attempted coup this summer orchestrated by Mr. Fitzgerald and some of his colleagues to unseat council President Bob Seelie. I saw him in action and it was ugly. Definitely not a positive show of his leadership skills. Keep that in mind when you vote in November.

[Ryan Patrick Demro]

Mary,

For those who do not know, you are a longtime friend of Bob Seelie. Bob should have been removed. He has lost his touch and was the lapdog for a failed Mayor. Call it a coup, it was an attempt to save the city before further damage could be done. Its time to put the City before friendships and jobs for our friends.

[Bobbie Hendrick]

Everyone and their brothers endorsed John Kerry, too, and he lost, and see what happened!!!!

[sharon kinsella]

Interesting - Demro comes to the board once again - campaigning for Fitzgerald.

Could there have been a plan all along - why yes -I think there was.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Mary,

For those who do not know, you are a longtime friend of Bob Seelie. Bob should have been removed. He has lost his touch and was the lapdog for a failed Mayor. Call it a coup, it was an attempt to save the city before further damage could be done. Its time to put the City before friendships and jobs for our friends.

Ryan

The coup and it was. Was pure bad politics, and tasteless. For it to be good for the city, it should have been done in the open with Councilman Seelie present. This was a move back to old style politics, and Lakewood needs to keep open doors and the light on.

While I generally think council tries hard, and does a good job. This was a black eye on council, and was a terrible day for Lakewood. Somehow the last ten minutes of that meeting have been lost, but that was a total breakdown in everything from sanity to Robert's Rules. While some comment on how fast, the "male" contingent ran off stage, while Nickie and Mary Louise came down to the residents to hear the outrage. I always thought you guys did not run off fast enough. You should have booked 45 minutes earlier before the meeting started.

To Councilman Dever's credit he finally realized he was in a stolen car, and got out before the police pulled it over, and was guilty by association.

It was a night I could see with out the gloss, just how bad and weak some are. Ryan, you had never had a problem going face to face with anyone. That night you along with others showed true weakness.

Now please, tell me that I am a better friend of Bob as you did Mary. Please try to discredit my love for Lakewood. Please try to explain the mutiny of the weak, was anything but bad, evil, politics.

PLEASE MAKE ME ANSWER EXPLAIN THIS IN DETAIL, PLEASE. I think the city would love to know this and the plans of summer that has all but ruined this city publicly. FOR WHAT?

.

[Bill Call]

To Councilman Dever's credit he finally realized he was in a stolen car, and got out before the police pulled it over, and was guilty by association.

Councilman Dever changed his vote because his job was threatened.

The bureaucracy has a stranglehold on this City and they don't intend to let it go without a fight. We are the milchkow for the government unions and their various hangers on.

Propaganda has a useful purpose in government and in campaigns, Jim, but: You should never believe your own propaganda.

The latest series of murders never happened.

The rapes never happened.

The purse snatchings never happened.

Middle class flight is not happening.

Property values are not declining.

Pension padding is not happening.

The Mayor never wanted an income tax increase.

The 200% increase in Fire Department overtime never happened.

Sick time abuse is not happening.

The budget is balanced.

The City has plenty of cash on hand.

70% of the City workforce lives outside the City because Lakewood is such a fine place to live.

The parks have never looked better.

Workers compensation costs didn't really increase 300% since 2003, its all an illusion.

We can afford four more years of the same management, after all:

Every thing is just fine.

[Mary Breiner]

Ryan,
Whether or not you think Bob Seelie should have been removed is a moot point. The tactics you and your fellow councilmen used were the lowest, sneaky, slimy, and cowardly. You and Ed Fitzgerald showed your true colors. When you don't like the way something is being handled THIS is how you react? IS THIS what we want to see in a mayor's behavior when things get tough in Lakewood? Wah! Wah! Wah!
Maybe what we need is a mature person in office that can deal with the tough issues that Lakewood faces without resorting to sneaky behind the scenes crap when they want their way, and when they want to skirt the rules.
And yes, it is no secret that Bob Seelie is a friend of mine.
I agree with Jim O'Bryan...that was a dark night for all of Lakewood seeing our council embarrass themselves.

Mary Breiner

[Jim O'Bryan]

To Councilman Dever's credit he finally realized he was in a stolen car, and got out before the police pulled it over, and was guilty by association.

Councilman Dever changed his vote because his job was threatend.

Bill

I have spoke with councilman Dever, about that and never heard this. To be honest it appeared to me he changed his mind about 15 minutes into the nightmare. Almost like he heard the words from Grandma, "what are you doing hanging around with this lot."

Mary Louise Madigan also works for the county. Did she get threatened?

Could you provide some more substance?


.

[Rick Uldricks]

deleted

[Shawn Juris]

I just picked up the latest George flyer and couldn't believe my eyes. If, as he alledges, the FBI crime reports are down in every major category, then I must be doing new math. Either that or he doesn't consider Robbery, Agg Assault, Burglary and Motor Vehicle theft to be major categories. Which categories, pray tell are the major categories; larceny-theft (petty theft) or forcible rape? I'm not dismissing the seriousness of forcible rape but the range of incidence has ranged from 4-8. 2006 tied the record low of 4 so well done. Depending on how you evaluate the statistics all of these categories; Robbery, Agg Assault, Burglary and Motor Vehicle are up. You can add Murder to the list as well but honestly, since the totals have been 1 or 2 for the 3 years that the mayor has been in office, I suppose that is not statistically significant, well except to the families affected of which the prior 5 year average was just 0.6 (3 of 5 years with 0 murders) which would yield a 122% increase from the 1999-2003 avg versus the 2004-2006 avg. But I digress.
I implore those that support Mayor George or the Mayor himself to explain what two sets of numbers were compared to enable you to make this statement. Were they averaged together and compared, maybe 1999-2003 vs 2004-2006 or was it 2005 vs 2006 or maybe 2006 versus the record high from some point in the past 7 years. Otherwise, I'll be left to believe that this claim is unsupported and simply campaign propaganda. And Jim, this has nothing to do with Offloading of cases or curfews changes that went into effect in the past 6 months. The Mayor referenced FBI reports, not calls, not clearance data, not conviction rates, but FBI reports. If they are such a bad tool to evaluate crime with then why is the Mayor himself referencing them or rather misrepresenting them in his own literature?
Looks to me like someone is getting desperate. If one of the top responsibilities is to communicate then this issue and the Kaufman Park debacle will be telling for the Mayor's future. It does not make you love Lakewood more or prove that you're more positive to misrepresent statistics. They are just statistics. They do not mean that Lakewood's sky is falling but have the decency to be accurate if you are going to discuss them. If it is 70 degrees yesterday and 50 degrees today then it is clearly colder today. It's undisputable, it is quantitified. It does not effect the qualifiers that make it a good day or a bad day. Have your argument over the effectiveness of the police force and the perception of residents if you can gather data to support your side but do not take a quantified report and botch the analysis so blatantly. It insults us all, or at least it should for those that bothered to look into the details.

[Grace O'Malley]

The Sun News endorsement is followed by today's Plain Dealer endorsement linked here:

http://tinyurl.com/3xbseh

[c. dawson]

The "endorsement" by the PD is hardly ringing. It's about as lukewarm as you could get ... so I don't know if anyone would trumpet it. Not that the PD is influential as it once was (or wishes it could be).