The Observation Deck

This is a critically important topic for Lakewood. We hope you can attend.

LAKEWOODALIVE PRESENTS TWO-PART SPEAKER SERIES:
MAKING “CENTSâ€Â￾ OF LAKEWOOD’S FINANCES

LAKEWOOD, February 12, 2008 - LakewoodAlive, a citizens’ community development and advocacy group committed to helping create informed and engaged residents, has announced a two-part informational series, Making “Centsâ€Â￾ of Lakewood’s Finances.

The first forum will be held Tuesday, February 26 at 7:00 p.m. at Harrison Elementary School, 2080 Quail Ave., Lakewood. A panel of experts will discuss details and current challenges of municipal finance. Speakers will also directly address Lakewood’s current financial position, challenges and opportunities.

The follow up forum, to be held on Tuesday, April 3 at 7:00 p.m. at Hayes Elementary School, 16401 Delaware Ave., Lakewood, will focus specifically on Lakewood’s 2008 city budget.

“The forum series will provide a opportunity for all of us to learn more about the intricacies of municipal finance and connect the dots to Lakewood’s finances,â€Â￾ said Jay Foran, President of LakewoodAlive.

Expert panelists for the February 26 forum include:

-Mayor Edward FitzGerald, City of Lakewood
-Yvette Ittu, Chief Financial Officer and VP Cleveland Development Advisors, Greater Cleveland Partnership
-Kevin O’Brien, Executive Director, The Center for Public Management and the Great Lakes Environmental Finance Center, The Maxine-Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University
-Jennifer Pae, Finance Director, City of Lakewood
-Mike Summers, Lakewood City Council and Leader of the Structural Taskforce Citizens Committee

Joe Gibbons, a LakewoodAlive founding member, will moderate the forum. The forum is free and advanced registration is not necessary.

LakewoodAlive is a non-partisan citizen group that informs and engages our community about issues that impact economic development and our quality of life. For more information, visit www.lakewoodalive.com

Opinion in today's PD

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Jay Foran wrote:Opinion in today's PD

Click Here

The Plain Dealer endorsed Tom George for Mayor. A re-read of the endorsement might be interesting.

Click Here Please

I urge anyone who can to attend this meeting. It's important. Your elected representatives are going to need your help if the City is to dig itself out of this financial hole.

Thanks for posting this. Can this event please be video taped so that those who are unable to attend may watch it? I think this will be good to have as a reference when budget issues are brought up throughout the year. Thank you.

~Annie

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Rick Uldricks wrote:Isn't this the same date as the Obama/Clinton debate at CSU?

Yep, sure is. I just realized that!

The LakewoodAlive program begins at 7 p.m. My understanding of the debate is that the starting time is 9 p.m. The LakewoodAlive program should be completed in time to watch the debate.

Reminder

FYI - we are still on for tonight.

Hope to see you there.

Thank you to all the brave folks that attended tonight's event. The weather was treacherous, yet over 125 people were in attendance.

We appreciate the speakers that contributed to Part I of LakewoodAlive's "Making Cents of Lakewood's Finances". We hope all attendees benefited from the discussion.

The event was taped (Thanks Doug Bunsey and Lakewood City Schools) and once we learn of the schedule for Channel 74 we will advise.

Part II of LakewoodAlive's Forum "Making Cents of Lakewood's Finances" scheduled for April 3 has been CANCELLED and A NEW DATE IS IN THE WORKS.

Very simply, as the budget process comes to a close, the date originally chosen does not guarantee that there will be sufficient detail about the budget choices to share with a Lakewood audience. It is anticipated that the new date will be within two weeks of the originally scheduled date and we will be able to provide a better picture of the budget choices made. We are working to match dates with speakers availability and will let you know of new dates asap. Please be patient. Thanks.

In the meantime, Part I (conducted February 26th) is now being broadcast daily on Cox Channel 74 at 12 p.m and 10 p.m. through the end of March Please tune in.

UPDATE

LakewoodAlive, a citizens’ community development and advocacy group committed to helping create informed and engaged residents, has announced details regarding Part II of their informational series, Making “Centsâ€￾ of Lakewood’s Finances.

The forum will be held Wednesday, April 16th at 7:00 p.m. at Harrison Elementary School, 2080 Quail Ave., Lakewood

MORE DETAILS TO FOLLOW

Friendly reminder!

Hope to see you there.

Broadcast of the forum (Part II) is now occuring daily on Channel 74 at 7 p.m. and 11 p.m