Cuyahoga County, Regionalism and Saving the Dinosaurs

[Bill Call]

Steven Kaufman’s recent article in the Plain Dealer suggested changes in the structure of County government. He touted those changes as the solution to the County’s economic problems
http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/st ... xml&coll=2

The economic decline of the County is blamed (in part) on corruption and the lack of transparency under the current system. As you might expect, Mr. Kaufman names no names, lists no projects and details no dollar amounts. Who is corrupt? What projects spent money in a questionable fashion? Don’t ask. The County’s decline is attributed to some mysterious “theyâ€￾.

They are corrupt, they are incompetent, they are unresponsive, they are “aimlessâ€￾ and “insularâ€￾. Who are “theyâ€￾? Is it Jimmy Dimora? Tim Hagan? Peter Lawson Jones? Some other mysterious cabal of secretive government operatives who conspire against the County? Apparently it is impolite even to ask the question.

Half way through the article Mr. Kaufman reveals his true agenda. The declining economy in Cuyahoga County is blamed on County Government. The solution? Eliminate 57 separate municipal governments and replace them with one larger, more powerful County government. Apparently the incompetence and corruption endemic to County government are caused by all those “otherâ€￾ levels of government.

Who is to lead this New Order? Who are the stakeholders? Who gets a seat at the table? According to Mr. Kaufman they are the “minority groups, business and civic organizations, labor unions, political parties, public officials, the media, civic foundations and (my personal favorite) neighborhood groupsâ€￾.

Wonderful. The new order will be led by groups dependent upon government for their survival, groups with their own vested interests. Groups populated by the kind of people who never want the meeting to end. Apparently the decline of the County is caused by too little power exercised by tax free foundations, tax free civic organizations, tax free labor unions and tax free neighborhood groups.

Who is missing from the leadership list of the New Order? You and me, the people who pay the taxes, support the families, build the businesses and sustain our “57 separateâ€￾ communities. Under the New Order our job will be to surrender sovereignty, surrender tax dollars, surrender development decisions, surrender schools and surrender our communities to the “stakeholdersâ€￾. We provide the money “the stakeholdersâ€￾ decide how to spend it. It is the New Order in action.

Here is a novel idea. If the decline of Cuyahoga County can be laid at the feet of an incompetent and corrupt and bloated County bureaucracy why not first try competence, honesty and efficiency in County government?
First show us that you can run the current County bureaucracy before you ask us to let you run our schools, police departments and communities.