Third Amended Charter

[james fitzgibbons]

Steve Davis you must feel vindicated! Most of the voters agreed with you. Congratulations! Lakewood voters are savvy.

[Lori Allen _]

Did they REALLY agree? Hmmmm. Gives one pause.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Steve Davis you must feel vindicated! Most of the voters agreed with you. Congratulations! Lakewood voters are savvy.

James

Speaking as a good acquaintance of Mr. Davis for nearly 25 years. I am not sure vindicated is what he feels or needs.

Maybe Mr. Kindt can climb in as well, for he said it so nicely over coffee this morning, and it touched on what Steve has dedicated 18 years of his life doing. Trying to make the City Charter, better for all, more manageable for future generations, and leaving it better than when he started.

The City Charter is a living document that goes up for review every 6 years. Rarely has there been any changes, so you end up with a document that addressed the needs of the city back in the 20s, 30s, 40s, etc. He has been looking to get rid of the unnecessary, clean up the wording, make it more consistent, which makes it easier to read and use. Steve was not alone, and many had a say and a part in it.

His frustration grew with the "it allows for the city to raise taxes..." Which has always been in their, not just added. Again Mr. Davis was just one of many with hands on this document, and the ability to change or not change.

As Mr. Kindt said this morning, "Well at least it has an ethics platform, and is a good starting place."

Steve, I know how hard you have worked on this. I know how many times you suggested changes to have them turned down, or never even voted on. I know your many frustrations with the documents, and the discussions. Thank you for your effort.

.

[Pam Wetula]

22,000+ people voted
Only 8000+ voted on the Charter issue.
6,000+. voted for
2000+ voted against

We have a disconnect when 14,000 people out of 22,000 voters do not vote on the issue.

Sorry Jim, I don't believe anyone can justify feeling vindicated. I do appreciate the efforts the Charter Commission made. I hope changes can be made in a couple of areas.

There is a general lack of understanding of the importance of this issue and most did not take the time to personally compare the two charters. I wish I could ask the 14,000 why they did not vote on issue 24 so that we could fix this lopsided voting pattern in the future.

On a brighter note, we have 2 new council person's! Congrats to Tristan Rader and Meghan George. I personally voted for Brian Taubman too and thank him for his efforts.

Pam

[stephen davis]

Steve Davis you must feel vindicated! Most of the voters agreed with you. Congratulations! Lakewood voters are savvy.

Thanks. I'm glad it passed. I wasn't really looking for vindication.

I walked into the Tristan Rader party last night. Someone there was asking about the charter. After asking many questions, he started apologizing to me for voting against it. He admitted to me that he was somewhat driven to it by anger and mistrust. I told him that I totally understood and there was no apology needed. I totally get it. When public trust is damaged, everybody looks at things differently.

The charter is a dynamic document. Because of changes in law, practices, and philosophies, it will need to be amended as time goes on. This one is a good platform for the future

.

[Bridget Conant]

He admitted to me that he was somewhat driven to it by anger and mistrust. I told him that I totally understood and there was no apology needed. I totally get it. When public trust is damaged, everybody looks at things differently.

The legacy of Mike Summers and crew. A divided city that doesn't trust its own leaders.

[Lori Allen _]

The third amended charter will give the city the ability to tear anything down and proceed forward with construction before any lawsuits are even settled.

I believe this was put in the charter so that if all of the current lawsuits related to the alleged illegal hospital deal are still pending, they will be able to allow their buddy, Ed FitzGerald, to
ride in on his bulldozer and immediately start tearing down the hospital.

There are ways that the citizens of Lakewood can change sections of the third charter.

Remember, we still have lawsuits and issues still pending,

[james fitzgibbons]

8,000 voted 6,000 for 2,000 against. A whopping majority for the issue.

I picked the wrong word vindicated. I could have said it differently.

Thanks Steve for your service.

Those who do not like the outcome will have to live with it until it comes up again.

[Pam Wetula]

Steve Davis you must feel vindicated! Most of the voters agreed with you. Congratulations! Lakewood voters are savvy.

Thanks. I'm glad it passed. I wasn't really looking for vindication.

I walked into the Tristan Rader party last night. Someone there was asking about the charter. After asking many questions, he started apologizing to me for voting against it. He admitted to me that he was somewhat driven to it by anger and mistrust. I told him that I totally understood and there was no apology needed. I totally get it. When public trust is damaged, everybody looks at things differently.

The charter is a dynamic document. Because of changes in law, practices, and philosophies, it will need to be amended as time goes on. This one is a good platform for the future

.[/quote

Mr Davis,. I actually reviewed the areas I questioned with two attorneys. I really appreciate most of the Third Amended Charter but do feel that transparency has been reduced in a few areas. It is very clear in black on white. I took a quick look at a few other city charters and the State of Ohio revised code. I am not an attorney but the Third Amended Charter comes up short in the area of Appropriation of Property in my understanding. Becoming more nimble or flexible is not a good enough reason to reduce mandatory notificationa to citizens.

I believe the Ethics Article will have an insignificant impact on the ethic behavior our local government displays unless Tristan Rader, Meghan George and whoever else we can vote in next year are impactful. Even then, it is a weak 591 words without the framework for truly identifying ethics violations or dealing with them.

Again, I do thank you for your work. I respectfully disagree on a few points within the Third Amended Charter and I do think that if we truly trusted our elected officials in Lakewood, that I and others would not be as alarmed by the changes.

Regards,

Pam Wetula

[Pam Wetula]

He admitted to me that he was somewhat driven to it by anger and mistrust. I told him that I totally understood and there was no apology needed. I totally get it. When public trust is damaged, everybody looks at things differently.

The legacy of Mike Summers and crew. A divided city that doesn't trust its own leaders.

You are correct Bridget. The legacy of mistrust is what Mike Summers has fostered. That is why a strong Charter that maximizes protection for the citizens is more important than flexibility for this or any future administration. That is why some of us question some of the changes made to our City Charter.

[Mark Kindt]

My primary comment is that the City of Lakewood needs a high-level of continuing citizen activism and vigilance to closely monitor how its elected and appointed officials are governing.

Since January 2015, the Lakewood Observer, the Observation Deck, and citizen-activists have documented (often with actual public documents) a whole series of problems that would take too much time and space to even summarize in this post. --Problems that were so significant that they generated numerous lawsuits and formal written complaints to other government agencies.

Just this week, we've all just witnessed an extraordinarily abusive tactic of personal and political harassment that is both illegal and dangerous to our electoral process. Something is very wrong when one or more individuals can make a strategic decision to produce a false government press release associated with the elections in Lakewood on the brink of a decisive election. This is strange territory for a small city. It is unprecedented in my personal and professional experience. We all need to be worried about this.

Given the problems that I and others have documented and written about, I agree with Ms. Wetula that provisions in the newly-adopted Charter have a serious potential for abuse. Especially, in the current environment where we all witnessed invaluable community assets liquidated for private entity use and gain either in secret or through questionable public deliberations.

(I would hate to lose my home, because half the council sat on a non-profit board that wanted to sell it. Sound familiar? Remember December 21, 2015. Change "home" to "hospital".)

The ethics provisions in the newly-adopted Charter establish minimal and reasonable standards of conduct. They set a standard of expectations that citizens can use to measure performance. They also set a standard by which citizens can address ethical lapses with the Ohio Ethics Commission. This is an improvement and, hopefully, a positive deterrent to other risks of Charter misuse.

To the extent that some local citizens may expect local government to serve their own economic self-interests, other citizens need to continue to advocate for ethical standards, compliance with the law, honesty, openness and accountability.

The hospital debacle had only a single benefit and that was to rouse the best instincts, behavior and actions of its citizenry. We should be proud of that effort.

[stephen davis]

Mr Davis,. I actually reviewed the areas I questioned with two attorneys. I really appreciate most of the Third Amended Charter but do feel that transparency has been reduced in a few areas. It is very clear in black on white. I took a quick look at a few other city charters and the State of Ohio revised code. I am not an attorney but the Third Amended Charter comes up short in the area of Appropriation of Property in my understanding. Becoming more nimble or flexible is not a good enough reason to reduce mandatory notificationa to citizens.

I believe the Ethics Article will have an insignificant impact on the ethic behavior our local government displays unless Tristan Rader, Meghan George and whoever else we can vote in next year are impactful. Even then, it is a weak 591 words without the framework for truly identifying ethics violations or dealing with them.

Again, I do thank you for your work. I respectfully disagree on a few points within the Third Amended Charter and I do think that if we truly trusted our elected officials in Lakewood, that I and others would not be as alarmed by the changes.

Regards,

Pam Wetula

Pam,

Historically, there have been discussions about property appropriations and eminent domain in the charter. What is in the charter relative to that, to my mind, has not been changed during my involvement. Before you point and "Aha!" me, let me explain that the language may have changed for clarity, but I don't believe the intent and meaning has ever changed, at least not by design. I think, upon closer examination, that may be the case with a number of the parts of the new charter that people are taking issue with.

The new charter is not the end. It's more of a new beginning. If you are interested in pursuing special protections for property, or any other amendment to the charter, you can do so. With the process being more clear in this charter, you can more easily do this by a citizen initiated ballot issue. You may even be able to convince Council to bring an amendment to ballot. A majority vote of Council can do that at any time. You don't have to wait until another Charter Commission meets in 2024.

Yes, the new Ethics provision could have more teeth, but I am satisfied that it is even in the charter. Again, that is a beginning.

I'm glad you are interested.


Steve

.

[Pam Wetula]

22,000+ people voted
Only 8000+ voted on the Charter issue.
6,000+. voted for
2000+ voted against

We have a disconnect when 14,000 people out of 22,000 voters do not vote on the issue.

Sorry Jim, I don't believe anyone can justify feeling vindicated. I do appreciate the efforts the Charter Commission made. I hope changes can be made in a couple of areas.

There is a general lack of understanding of the importance of this issue and most did not take the time to personally compare the two charters. I wish I could ask the 14,000 why they did not vote on issue 24 so that we could fix this lopsided voting pattern in the future.

On a brighter note, we have 2 new council person's! Congrats to Tristan Rader and Meghan George. I personally voted for Brian Taubman too and thank him for his efforts.

Pam

Of course I am incorrect on the 22000 votes.. that is the number of votes cast for council. And of course most but not all voted for two or three council candidates. Will fix later when I research. DUH..
Sometimes I good. Will fix probably tomorrow.

Of course those of you with synapse occurring already knew this was an error.

Pam

[Lori Allen _]

We do not have to "live" with the charter. There are ways to change it.

I thought we all needed a break before we delve into that!

[james fitzgibbons]

We do not need no break! This is too much fun! Go for it!