The Observation Deck

HELP LAKEWOOD WIN $100,000!

The City of Cleveland and the First Suburbs Development Council, which includes the City of Lakewood, was selected as one of the ten project finalists in the EfficientGovNow grant contest to win $100,000.

EfficientGovNow is a program presented by the Fund of Our Economic Future to strengthen Northeast Ohio's economic competitiveness by increasing collaboration and efficiency.

You can help Lakewood win this award by voting for:

J. Let the Sun Shine...The Cleveland - First Suburbs Solar Special Improvement District Pilot Program
at http://www.efficientgovnow.org/Vote/

To learn more about this project, visit http://www.efficientgovnow.org/Proposal ... ract8.html

Voting ends May 31, 2010. So please vote today!
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www.onelakewood.com

and I take it you do not...

Jim DeVito wrote:and I take it you do not...

Jim

Shelly has obviously learned and remembered the number 1 thing mom taught us. Never take
candy from strangers.

The entire regionalization op is really something to behold. For over ten years they have
tried to work their magic spin on us. Disregarding the truth, using race, job loss anything
to scare us into regionalization. But common sense and the truth has kept it away.

We have hundreds of groups like CLE+ and Team Neo arise and suck in billions of dollars
for getting the region on the regionalization kick. They have defined an area from south of
Youngstown to west of Sandusky as a region "that could compete financially with half the
countries in the world. So if we stand together..." We could compete with Rwanda?

Getting their asses soundly kicked for almost ten years they now have turned to "owning"
politicians, business owners, and civic groups to deliver their message, but that to has
been too slow, so now they bring it back as a contest "We can win!" "We can win a chance
for them to regionalize our fire departments!" "We can win a chance to regionalize our..."
Hell everyone loves a contest, especially as they say the people in West Cleveland er
Lakewood.

Which reminds me of National Lampoon's Subscription Card...



Which makes me wonder when they will try this...




I think this is where the mayor comes in and says, "Jim you have done many good things
but today..."

(I'll get those Team Neo Civic Leader charts ready, as presented by Team Neo at the Lakewood Civic
Leaders Breakfast hosted by The Chamber of Commerce, LakewoodAlive and The Schools. )


Before Regionalization and After Regionalization.


Clear as day.

.

Can we just call it what it is, like the garbage pick-up - union busting.

Too many republican play books being used by people masquerading as Dems.

So I'm not sure why people are getting so upset over the prospect of getting $100k for solar panels?

Why should the city pass up what essentially amounts to free money for a project that doesn't involve giving up any of our precious sovereignty?

I'm just not understanding the perceived outrage over this.

It gives legs to the regionalization process. If it was just the solar panels great.

It is much more than that. Watch.

If anything I would say you are acting more like a repub by just saying no to everything with the word regionalism in it.

I am against any kind of service sharing, be it fire police garbage, etc. I think the money savings pointed to in those arguments are negligible at best and hard to realise.

To me this seems like a different case. They are offering what appears to be free money (you are welcome to put on your tin foil hat and come up with "strings") to work together on getting some solar development going. Is the money free? no money is ever free but I don't see the strings right off the bat. Is it going to automaticly bust up unions? No clue what Lakewood union is is involved in solar panels.

I am no expert but I think we should see how thing pan out before we just pull a mitch mcconnell.

Jim

Cost cutting and bulk programs are already in place. This is not about that.

When you try to package snake oil, you have to keep trying different ways until you find
the proper way to do it. After going out and finding that the region has very little interest
or stomach for regionalization, they have found out what many groups have found out.

Let's disguise ourselves, and have parties, or games, or contests, or faux committees, and
let them think of anything but what they are actually all about.

Regionalism, works in cities that were designed for it, and grew and annexed other cities
like Columbus. However to retro grade any city that was not is an entirely different issue,
and I am not too familiar with any group that has had success, outside of normal success.

I am also constantly amused by the number of groups telling us we must stop redundancy,
and stop overlapping services. Why would that not apply to those spoon feeding us this
message. Why do we need 30+ groups. Shouldn't one central group be more efficient?
Like coming to me for a diet!

Finally snake oil is a powerful thing. One regionalist our of the Levin College who lives
here in Lakewood was quoted in an article about how Lakewood has come back from the
brink thanks to his idea of turning empty card dealerships into condos. When I read the
pieve and who wrote it all I could think of was...



For four years...

While solar is popular, let's think how does any of this serve Lakewood in the long run.


.

Jim DeVito - I know you aren't referring to me as republican - that's just foolish.

I see many of these initiatives being union busting and that ticks me off, sincerely. I don't trust many of the people who are packaging this clap trap.

There are so many other ways of getting projects going to do sustainable energy and combine it with job training in up-to-date skills. Brownfield reclamation, green spaces.

Have any of you watched the TED talk by Majora Carter? If I was healthy I would be putting something together that is replicable to what she's done. It could be done here by combining all of the above.

(I'll get those Team Neo Civic Leader charts ready, as presented by Team Neo at the Lakewood Civic
Leaders Breakfast hosted by The Chamber of Commerce, LakewoodAlive and The Schools. )


Before Regionalization and After Regionalization.


Clear as day.


Jim--

What IS this?

And you know I have to ask, what does it have to do with the schools?

Thanks.

Betsy Voinovich

"EfficientGovNow grant contest "- Not a "contest" really when winners, as evident from the last "contest", are seemingly predetermined.

"The City of Cleveland and the First Suburbs Development Council, which includes the City of Lakewood, was selected as one of the ten project finalists in the EfficientGovNow grant contest to win $100,000." - We "won" (sic) already, I'll take bets on it. And I am not a gambler.

EfficientGovNow is a program presented by the Fund of Our Economic Future to strengthen Northeast Ohio's economic competitiveness by increasing collaboration and efficiency.

"You can help Lakewood win this award by voting for"....:

Allowing this conglomerate of regionalization leeches to slowly chip away at Lakewood under the guiese of a vote by Lakewood residents is a insult. It should called a fraud, but I digress.

After our last big "EfficientGovNow" grant award, I requested, from EffecientGovNow,

Could you please provide me with a break down of the votes cast for the round one winners?

How many people from each town registered to vote? How many people from each town voted for the award?

In Westlake , how many people registered /voted
In Lakewood how many people registered /voted
In Rocky River how many people registered /voted
In North Ridgeville how many people registered /voted
In Fairview Park How many people registered /voted
In Bay Village how many people registered /voted
In North Olmsted how many people registered /voted

Their response:

We are not public entity and are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. And we do not have the vote results as you’ve requested, nor are we able to produce them. I appreciate your interest in this issue, but your focus should be on the public entities, not our grant program.

Did anyone from the effected area even cast a vote for this "contest" to regionalize our Fire Departments?

The only "winners" in any EfficientGovNow grant contest, is The Fund and her millionair memebers who prey on our region, our communities and our strengths.

Shelley Hurd wrote:"EfficientGovNow grant contest "- Not a "contest" really when winners, as evident from the last "contest", are seemingly predetermined.

In Lakewood we would call that a "citizen's committee."

Shelley Hurd wrote:
leeches to slowly chip away at Lakewood under the guiese of a vote by Lakewood residents is a insult. It should called a fraud

In Lakewood we call that "Lakewood style."


FWIW


.

If you read the proposal, the total budget is for 5,000,000+. 100,000 is 2% of the total budget. Not much but better than nothing. Also, the proposal is only for commercial properties. Residential property does not qualify.

I wonder if the Board of Education would consider installing solar panels under this proposal, assuming schools are eligible. This would reduce utility costs during the school year and maybe even earn money in the summer when excess power can be sent back into the grid.

Lastly if you don't like free money, you can always vote for one of the other projects on the list. Chances are the FSDC will go ahead with the project even if the 100k goes somewhere else.

Charlie Page wrote:If you read the proposal, the total budget is for 5,000,000+. 100,000 is 2% of the total budget. Not much but better than nothing. Also, the proposal is only for commercial properties. Residential property does not qualify.

I wonder if the Board of Education would consider installing solar panels under this proposal, assuming schools are eligible. This would reduce utility costs during the school year and maybe even earn money in the summer when excess power can be sent back into the grid.

Lastly if you don't like free money, you can always vote for one of the other projects on the list. Chances are the FSDC will go ahead with the project even if the 100k goes somewhere else.

Charlie


So let me get this straight. We can win a chance to take on a $5,000,000+ project with a
2% discount? I have to think we can do better on our own, with the city going for the
grant. University Circle got theirs for FREE, the entire deal with a grant. According to
those that are doing it, using the only cells that really are both cost effective and will
work in low sunlight areas like Cleveland, Seattle, London, etc,

The problem with all of this "green" technology is it pays to sit still. Imagine if we had
gone photoelectric cells 10 years ago, or even 5 or two years ago? This technology is going
and growing so fast it pays to hang in there. The first time we spoke of windmills here,
they were a farce. They would create power, but not in any amount that would ever
offset their own carbon footprint. That is starting to be better and no slightly better than
breaking even. 10 years ago cells had one tenth the capability they do now. 2 years ago
they were still cost prohibitive. Recently they developed a way to print them, and they
will work and offset cost even in low light. What might be there 2 years from now? Now
you can say if we wait we never.... I would say this is a legitimate argument with most thing
but with green technology, and a city's limited budget, waiting could be a huge key.

On the flipside, if Lakewood/Cleveland can attract green manufacturers, we should try.
It seems like many others are stumbling over each other to prove how green they are.

Ask all of your elders about "Free Money" and if they have ever heard or seen such a thing.

Contests! What is next to make us sell our souls? A party in a beer tent with cup of food?


.

Where were all these people saying "take the free money" when the schools could have gotten free money from the Feds for filling out an application with a proposal to improve teaching?

If I recall, when I questioned why the Lakewood schools did not bother to even apply for the "Race to the Top" money, which would be "free" money to use to improve teaching outcomes, there were some of these same people saying things like "money is never free, there are always strings attached."

So now why are they now so willing to look at this offer of "free money" as a innocuous gift without any ramifications?