What should we ask our County Executive Candidates?

[Betsy Voinovich]

Hi all,

The six Observers have been doing their best to cover the County Executive election in Observer fashion, which means each candidate has been allowed to speak for him or herself. In each of our papers (in print and/or online) each candidate had to answer the same questions in order to be fair. Those questions were developed by John Sheridan, a former Sun paper political columnist who now writes for the Euclid Observer.

We are looking to do follow-up questions for candidates we've already covered, Ed FitzGerald and Matt Dolan, who have made it to the general election, along with the Independents who will join them: Tim McCormack, Ken Lanci, Don Scipione and Green Party candidate David Ellison.

If possible we'd like to use questions from our readers, which include the participants on all of the Observer Decks. You guys on the founding Lakewood Observer Deck are some of the most informed, articulate citizens in this whole project. Your questions and comments, no matter which side of any political fence you are on, are well-reasoned and respectful, almost always... and when they're not, there are some real experts here who help sort the important things out, and help everyone continue down the road of trying to make our city better.

So now we're talking about our county.

If you could take the time to put some questions out on the Deck that you think would help everyone get a closer look at the candidates, it would be greatly appreciated by the editors of all of the papers and all of our readers, county-wide. We will gather up the questions, sort them out and submit them to the candidates, and print the answers in the print and/or online editions of our papers, and of course here online.

The Lakewood Observer project and this Deck are the models for all the others. I don't know if everyone here knows how impressive this is, and how much all of you set the tone for what active citizen participation looks and feels like.

It would be great if together we could dive into this County stuff in a way that will give Lakewood, and other Observer communities in Cuyahoga County, a chance to get a closer look at the people who want to hold what will be a very important job to all of us.

Thank you very much.

Betsy

[Meg Ostrowski]

What issues have you been avoiding for political reasons that really need some attention?

[Charlie Page]

Here's a few to start:

How do you plan on using the results of the recent performance audit conducted by the Auditor of State, if at all? Be specific.

Corruption, nepotism and cronyism run deep in the culture of all facets of County departments. What is your plan to change the culture and the way things are done in all County departments? Be specific.

If elected, you will basically be the CEO of a 600+ million dollar company. The County residents are the shareholders and customers. What is your plan to maximize value and return to the shareholders/customers? Be specific.

Candidates are running on either a jobs/progress or remove corruption platform. What is your priority and why? Be specific.

What do you expect to accomplish in your first 100 days? Be specific.

[Stan Austin]

What process and criteria would you use to allocate economic development money?

[Charlie Page]

Did you actually read the charter amendment in its entirety?

[stephen davis]

Did you actually read the charter amendment in its entirety?

Charlie,

Funny you mention that. It's a good question. I read the new county charter before it was voted on. It is not the best document ever written. When I read it, I thought that the new government will spend a lot of time figuring it out and re-crafting it just to make it a workable document.

Until then, it will pose some problems for the County Executive, and everyone involved. I've had conversations with county employees that have already spent a lot of time trying to figure out how the new charter affects their departments.

I expect to see lots of county charter amendments on the ballot for the next few years.

Steve

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[Charlie Page]

Did you actually read the charter amendment in its entirety?

Charlie,

Funny you mention that. It's a good question. I read the new county charter before it was voted on. It is not the best document ever written. When I read it, I thought that the new government will spend a lot of time figuring it out and re-crafting it just to make it a workable document.

Until then, it will pose some problems for the County Executive, and everyone involved. I've had conversations with county employees that have already spent a lot of time trying to figure out how the new charter affects their departments.

I expect to see lots of county charter amendments on the ballot for the next few years.

Steve

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It seems like such a silly question to ask but we’re in an era where politicians don’t read the bills they vote on and take a second hand review as fact.

Whoever wins will probably have a transition team in place fairly quickly after the election. I imagine the team will attempt to interpret the charter as best they can by Jan 1. Hopefully, the team includes the elected council so everyone can get on the same page early.

[Betsy Voinovich]

Hi all,

These are great questions.

Meg, do you think you could be more specific?

Stan, I met with one of the County Council candidates the other day who has been attending meetings of the transition committee and he said they are working very hard, and have volunteers who are taking time off of high paying jobs and high level responsibilities to try to do this thing right. He has also been impressed by the fact that the members of the committee come from all parties and all walks of life.

Your question about the process and criteria that will be used to determine the allocation of economic development money is one of the things the transition committee is looking at. There will be pages and pages of recommendations. I told the County Council candidate that it sounded like chaos and he said they are doing their best to meet the situation, issue by issue, department by department. I still think that's a great question just to flat-out ask the candidates.

Steve, Charlie's question about asking whether the candidate has actually read the charter is a great one, but it seems an even better one would be a question that would prove whether he'd read the charter or not, without letting him know that we're trying to determine that. Since you've read the charter, do you think you could come up with a question like that? (In your spare time?)

Thank you very much everyone. We still have a little bit of time. If anyone thinks of something that isn't being addressed, please post it.

I'm partial to questions like, "What's your favorite movie of all time?" but I'm not sure what that determines exactly...

Thanks.

Betsy

[stephen davis]

Steve, Charlie's question about asking whether the candidate has actually read the charter is a great one, but it seems an even better one would be a question that would prove whether he'd read the charter or not, without letting him know that we're trying to determine that. Since you've read the charter, do you think you could come up with a question like that? (In your spare time?)

Betsy,

I haven't read the charter since before it was voted on, so my memory of it is very vague. I'm not a charter expert, but my recollection is that it was less well developed than it was politically expedient (My opinion.).

The new charter would certainly have relevance to anyone running for one of the elected county positions. A serious candidate should have read it by now, because the document defines the duties and responsibilities of the position that he/she is running for. Everything is new. How else would they know?

Rather than sneakily try to determine if a candidate has read the document, perhaps ask a straightforward question about what the candidate sees as hurdles for the new government, relative to the charter, and what issues might/should be addressed in future amendments.

A thoughtful and apolitical response about the mechanics of good government might be too much to hope for, but hey, give it a shot.

The new charter and upcoming elections are just the beginning.

Steve

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[Betsy Voinovich]

Hi Steve,

Actually the County Executive Interviews we have published in the Lakewood and Collinwood Observers have done exactly that: ask a straightforward question about what the candidate sees as hurdles for the new government, relative to the charter, and what issues might/should be addressed in future amendments.

A thoughtful and apolitical response about the mechanics of good government might be too much to hope for, but hey, give it a shot.


That could be directly out of what we've already published-- I'm not sure how I thought we could dig down deeper, but if you're looking for that-- we actually have some pretty thoughtful responses to that already in the back issues of the paper, with a couple more coming up in the next issues.

We (editors for the papers) were discussing the fact that Ed Fitzgerald's and Matt Dolan's interviews were published a long time ago relative to the election, and trying to figure out if we could find one question that would sort them out further than the answers they and their campaigns had already developed-- and have each of the candidates answer this, in addition to the lengthy interviews that already exist.

Sorry wasn't trying to be sneaky-- I was just looking for the perfect question.

Betsy

[Bryan Schwegler]

I'd be interested to know why Matt Dolan all of a sudden found the need to move into Cuyahga County now instead of the last few years where he also represented part of the county?

I'd be interested to know from Mayor Fitzgerald how he feels the new county structure will benefit Lakewood specifically.

[Jim O'Bryan]

I'd be interested to know why Matt Dolan all of a sudden found the need to move into Cuyahga County now instead of the last few years where he also represented part of the county?

I'd be interested to know from Mayor Fitzgerald how he feels the new county structure will benefit Lakewood specifically.

Well we know why Matt felt the need, job opportunities.

As for Ed FitzGerald I am not sure he would be willing to say that or even hint at it. I would
think he would be moving on to do the best job he could, without bringing the bacon to
Lakewood. Which is fine, maybe we do not need a bridge to nowhere, just knowing that a
fellow Lakewoodite in the system would stop any ill winds blowing our way like county
prisons, and dumps.

When I sit and Look at Lakewood I am not sure of what we need though Bill Call has some
great ideas like shutting down the Lake Road/Clifton Bridge. What we really need is the
ability to fix ourselves from within. Still safe and clean is what we need. The seeds of fun
have been sowed by a variety of groups and all seem to be in a mode to ratchet it up
next year. 3 years ago when I registered to run, the motto was "Safe • Clean • Fun" with
the simple thought if the city was safe, clean and fun we would attract like minded
energized people to share the lifestyle. I believe that is still true with immediate attention
needed on housing and safety.

No, when Ed moves on, we will need him to do bigger things if this county thing will work.

How about, "If there is only one thing you could accomplish, what would that be?" or
"If not elected, what would you still work on to get done for the county?"

FWIW


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[sharon kinsella]

What is your vision for the ill-conceived Medical Mart?

What, specifically, would you do to grow jobs for our region?

Would the County Executive or the new representatives have any power to dismantle the Port Authority and restructure it?

What would the checks and balances be in place to assure that the theft of county funds doesn't happen again and will the County Executive's office have a top-down zero tolerance mandate?