cincijohns

I always thought that a big roundabout at Reading and Broadway would be cool. Maybe you could put a big "bellagio" type fountain inside the roundabout. While we were at it, we could put another big roundabout at Central Parkway and Plum to really frame Central Parkway from Plum to Broadway.

Seems like the streetcar project has all its bases covered - great Cincinnatians for Progress campaign, listed in ODOT's TRAC projects, potential for stimulus $$, etc. Is there a strategy for making sure there are no roadblocks at OKI? It seems like whenever someone wants to get a big transportation project built they serve as an officer on the OKI Executive Committee. It would be great to get someone from the UrbanOhio universe on this committee. OKI is taking nominations now (you can nominate yourself) with a deadline of December 4th.

Merger Of City And County 911 Systems Proposed Jerry Newfarmer, president and chief executive officer of Management Partners, told Hamilton County Commissioners they could save up to $3 million if the city and county consolidated their 911 systems. He reported to the county commission on the Government and Cooperation Efficiency Project. It's an initiative funded by the county, city and city business committee. full article at http://www.wcpo.com/news/local/story/Merger-Of-City-And-County-911-Systems-Proposed/MG90rtP4906lfzk5ppuudg.cspx

Council Candidate Comments on "How to involve citizens in city decision making?" On 8/27/09 Mark Silbersack participated in interviews of Cecil Thomas, Amy Murray, George Zamary, Anitra Brockman, Laketa Cole, and Kevin Flynn. This was followed on 9/1/09 with interviews of: Bernadette Watson, Greg Harris, Jeff Berding, Charlie Winburn, Chris Monzel, and Nicholas Hollan. (Due to a schedule conflict, he was unable to attend other candidates' interviews.) Here is his summary of comments by various candidates to the question above. All the following are paraphrased remarks except where quoted. Brockman: We need to plan ahead and be more proactive in making budget decisions. We must "actually talk to residents about what they want." Combine or share services wherever possible. Cole: I have an "open door policy"; call me or come in to talk. We have to speak to citizens about what they think is in their interests, so Council can make better policy decisions. My recent survey was aimed at helping define what "basic services" are and what budget priorities should be. "We need to listen." Flynn: Council needs to hold committee meetings that are more convenient for citizens and seek input on specific issues in a better way that actually encourages input. Harris: "Restructure government regionally." Monzel: The City should put all its information on the internet, so full transparency enables residents to see what we are doing and share their ideas with us. We should "drive decision-making down closer to citizens." Murray: "We must start with a vision of what's important." The City should increase its communications with businesses and community councils. The City should "regionalize whenever it makes sense." Thomas: We need to have better City communications with our residents. We can be more "transparent public servants, to create public trust of what we are doing." Watson (former president of N. Avondale Community Council): We must look to citizens and groups of citizens for policy ideas. City Hall needs to listen to the 52 neighborhoods. Winburn: We could stop having so many referenda if the City just talked more with its citizens, who now feel that "no one is listening to us." Council needs to "develop a clear, explicit, precise leadership agenda" to help it make policy and budget decisions. It should engage citizens via nominal group process and focus groups. Zamary: Look at how we can implement steps taken in Louisville or Indianapolis.

Facebook Page Vs. Fire Company Closures Posted by JanePrendergast at 7/29/2009 10:31 AM EDT on Cincinnati.com Shana Johnson, VP of Cincinnati's firefighters' union, has started a Facebook page for those in opposition to the closing of four fire companies. Closing the companies - which means shutting down four pieces of equipment, not closing any firehouses - is how Chief Robert Wright proposes to come up with the $1.9 million he was assigned by City Manager Milton Dohoney to cut. The closures were announced last week, but have not yet taken effect. Departments have until Thursday to get back to Dohoney on how they want to cut their budgets by their assigned amounts. Dohoney also said he would be open to changes even after that deadline. He needs to get those plans together soon, as he plans to give City Council information on expected layoffs before their meeting next Wednesday. Marc Monahan, union president, said he was pleased that Wright's plan avoided laying any firefighters off, but he doesn't think closing companies is a good idea. The page, with 614 members, says: "With the current budget crisis going on in Cincinnati, one of the solutions to fix the hole in the budget is to close 4 fire companies. This will lead to a reduction in service, and will cause issues with fire fighter safety. We need to stop these company closures! Balancing the budget on the backs of public safety isn't the best way of doing things." Check it out here Yes, check out the firefighters facebook page. You know I think most of us are all for public safety but doesn’t it have to be balanced with the needs and resources of a community. I think this is where the single minded focus of unions leads to the long term death of a city of company (see Detroit and GM ). We sooo badly need a vision for this city that can unify all our disparate interests but unfortunately long term planning and economic development staffs are often the first to be eliminated. Ultimately it is this planning and development that pays for the long term viability of our police and fire departments! It almost seems that the police and fire unions would rather keep their jobs over everything else even if it meant tending a mostly vacant city ala Detroit. You know my bias here – wouldn’t a more productive effort be looking for ways to help market the City’s highly skilled fire department to adjoining jurisdictions (Golf Manor, Elmwood Place, Delhi, etc) who are having their own budget difficulties? It is my understanding that today the City’s fire department doesn’t even do mutual aid with adjoining jurisdictions.

Ohio Commission on Local Government Reform and Collaboration Public Hearing 7/31/09 The Commission will hold a meeting and public hearing on Friday, July 31, 2009 beginning at 10:30 am. The meeting will be held at the Worthington Board of Education Building located at 200 E. Wilson Bridge Road in Worthington, Ohio. The Ohio Commission on Local Government Reform and Collaboration shall develop recommendations on ways to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of local government operations, to achieve cost savings for taxpayers, and to facilitate economic development in this state. The commission shall issue a report of its findings and recommendations to the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Governor not later than July 1, 2010. The commission ceases to exist upon submitting its report. for more information go here.

July 1, 2009 Loveland considers joining income-tax collection consortium By Jeanne Houck [email protected] Loveland City Council is scheduled to vote July 14 on whether to pay an agency to collect city income taxes - a move city officials say would save Loveland about $85,000 a year beginning in 2011. The city is considering joining the Regional Council of Governments to participate in the organization's Regional Income Tax Agency (RITA), which collects income taxes for 162 cities and 51 counties in Ohio. "Because of its size, RITA is able to enjoy a number of economies of scale and in most cases is able to collect income-tax dollars more efficiently and cost-effectively than cities can do on their own," Loveland City Manager Tom Carroll said. If Loveland decides to participate in the Regional Income Tax Agency, taxpayers will file their city income tax returns and payments directly with the agency, beginning next January. Loveland would retain a local tax clerk to help people with questions. It would cost Loveland between $120,000 and $130,000 annually to contract with the Regional Income Tax Agency. Savings will come not only from reduced costs collecting income taxes, but from associated changes in the city's Finance Department. The changes include the elimination of one job and the conversion of another to a position with lower pay. Because one employee is retiring and others probably will be promoted, no current full-time members of the Finance Department will lose their jobs or be assigned to lower-paying jobs. The Regional Income Tax Agency is the only tax-collection agency in the country other than the Internal Revenue Service with access to IRS filing records, which makes it easier to track down people who owe income taxes. Loveland residents as well as non-residents who work in the city whose employers do not withhold Loveland taxes must pay income taxes to Loveland. The city has a 1 percent income-tax rate, but gives full credit to Loveland residents who pay 1 percent or more in income taxes to other cities where they work.

Agenda 360 Hosts Film Premiere: The New Neighbors To Celebrate and Maintain Greater Cincinnati’s Diverse Neighborhoods University of Cincinnati Kaplan Theater: On Friday, June 5th citizens are invited to celebrate the region’s diverse neighborhoods and discuss ways to maintain and grow them by attending a Cincinnati premiere of the upcoming PBS documentary: The New Neighbors: How One Town Created A Vibrant, Integrated Suburb. The New Neighbors tells the moving story of how a suburban town in New Jersey successfully reversed segregation and built a vibrant, integrated community. The film premiere is part of an Agenda 360 Transformational Dialog hosted by the Greater Cincinnati Commitment Alliance. The award-winning filmmaker Andrea Torrice, a resident of Clifton, will be present at the event. “This film provides a roadmap for communities in the Greater Cincinnati area,” said Torrice, “to help revitalize themselves through a strategy of stable integration programs that have worked.” The film event is being sponsored by Agenda 360, an aligned action plan for Southwest Ohio to drive success as a region over the next decade and beyond. A priority focus of Agenda 360 is to build a more welcoming community to improve the Cincinnati Region’s future economic prosperity and quality of life. “Diverse neighborhoods are the building blocks of an open and welcoming region,” said Myrita Craig, Executive Director of the Office of Agenda 360. “They are also critical to attracting the young professional entrepreneurial class – one of the three core goals of the Agenda 360 Action Plan.” The Plan calls for attracting 150,000 additional 20-34 year-olds to the region's workforce by 2020. Following the screening, participants will be invited to participate in a discussion about the next steps needed to strengthen and promote intentionally-integrated communities in our region. After the discussion, viewers are invited to take the opportunity to in a small way "walk the talk" of integration by having dinner at one of the great ethnic restaurants in the neighborhoods that surround UC. The event begins at 6:00 p.m. at the University of Cincinnati’s DAAP building in room 5401. Sign up by calling (513) 579-3111 or go here. Suggested donation is $10 - Free to all UC students, faculty and staff. Proceeds help fund the Greater Cincinnati Commitment Alliance, a group of organizations promoting "The Greater Cincinnati Commitment" to be part of the change to make our region a welcoming and inclusive model for the nation and the world.

New York Times May 31, 2009 Westchester: Costly Layers By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI There is no shortage of government in Westchester County. So much so that county officials have scheduled a conference on Tuesday to talk about ways to streamline the county’s costly layers of local government. Targets for potential consolidation will not be hard to pick. The Town of Eastchester has three police departments and three fire departments in a five-square-mile area. (The town, population 31,000, also encompasses the villages of Bronxville and Tuckahoe, each of which provides its own police and fire services). In the Town of Greenburgh, which has 6 villages, there are 3 paid fire departments, 6 volunteer fire departments and 7 police departments. In all, Westchester taxpayers help finance 42 police departments, 46 school districts and 54 fire departments in 6 cities, 17 towns and 22 villages. But some local leaders say county officials looking for places to cut should glance in the mirror. One proposal that has been floated would merge Rockland and Westchester Counties. Others are pushing to phase out county government, as Connecticut did decades ago. Paul Feiner, Greenburgh’s town supervisor and a leading proponent of the plan to eliminate county government, said it would significantly reduce the $500 million a year that Westchester taxpayers now pay for county services. “Everything needs to be put on the table,” Mr. Feiner said.

OK - lets shift from the mundane of joint fire districts to daydreaming visions of what an ideal regional government for Greater Cincinnati would look like. Just as a starting point could it look like: Minneapolis' Metro Council? St. Louis' Bi-State Development Authority? Summit County, Ohio's Charter Government? Others?

CCR holds Citizens Connect on Local Governments Collaborating for Savings March 26, 2009 What better place than the Deer Park/Silverton Fire Hall to have a discussion about Shared Local Government Services in Greater Cincinnati. The Fire Hall was the venue for last night’s Citizens for Civic Renewal (CCR) Citizens Connect forum on Shared Local Government Services. The event featured a presentation by Silverton City Manager, Mark Wendling, who answered the question - When the economy gets tough; households go to WalMart to buy in bulk and save money - Where do local governments go to find similar savings? Mr. Wendling discussed how the City of Silverton has been finding the bulk buying bargains for years. “As a small city with a modest tax base, we have to take advantage of almost any opportunity to maintain high quality city services at lower costs,” said Wendling. For Silverton those opportunities include a joint fire district with the City of Deer Park, contracting building inspections with Hamilton County and joining a local government consortium that provides income tax collection service. After Wendling’s presentation, participants identified other benefits of sharing services beyond the more obvious benefits of efficiency and improved quality of service. For example, sharing between jurisdictions can foster new ways of thinking and open new lines of communication. Sharing can also help Greater Cincinnati’s local governments cooperate better on regional issues like transportation and even become more effective at lobbying at the state level. Participants said that in order to develop more sharing, the region needs to continue to tell the story of shared service success stories and broaden the tent to include other interested parties such as unions and other governmental entities like school districts. Thanks go out to the Seasongood Good Government Foundation, Management Partners and the Center for Local Government for sponsoring last night’s event.

Maybe loveland can share their cherry pickers.... LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR FISHER ANNOUNCES LOCAL GOVERNMENT SERVICES AND REGIONAL COLLABORATION PROGRAM GRANTS For Immediate Release October 28, 2008 Columbus—Finding new and exciting ways for our regions and cities to collaborate is part of Ohio’s Economic Development Promise. Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher today announced that 15 communities will receive a total of $1 million through the Local Government Services and Regional Collaboration Grant Program. This new program encourages local governments to explore collaboration on endeavors such as brownfield redevelopment; equipment sharing; and the standardization of building, fire, and zoning codes. The program is administered by the Department’s Office of Housing and Community Partnerships. “Collaboration and cooperation among local governments is essential to provide the best services to Ohio’s citizens and businesses,” said Lt. Governor Fisher, who also serves as Director of the Ohio Department of Development. “This program will help entities plan and invest in strengthening regional economies, lower operating costs, and provide high quality services for a more prosperous Ohio.” The program was established in the current biennium budget through an amendment sponsored by State. Rep Larry Flowers (R-Canal Winchester). “I am pleased that the state, through the Administration and legislature, has established these grants to allow local governments to review the way they provide services,” said Rep. Flowers. “I am optimistic that new efficiencies will come out of these studies.” The program provides grants to local governments such as counties, cities, and villages, interested in working together to provide services to citizens. This new initiative is included in the Ohio Department of Development’s Ohio, Home of Innovation & Opportunity Strategic Plan as part of the Department’s mission to invest in our regional assets. Lt. Governor Fisher acknowledged that all eligible applications submitted were worthy, but noted that the program budget of $1 million limited the number of awards. The 15 communities receiving Local Government Services and Regional Collaboration Grant Program awards include: Ashland County will receive an $80,000 grant to conduct a study to estimate the implementation and maintenance costs of providing a collaborative high-speed Internet service for Ashland County, its municipalities, villages, and townships. The Internet service will increase opportunities for economic development, provide more efficient emergency management, and better access to public services such as county Web sites and Geographic Information Systems. The Village of Carrollton (Carroll County) will receive a $75,000 grant to conduct a feasibility study that will assess the potential for cooperation of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) services. The study will research, identify, evaluate, and make recommendations for end-user needs, GIS software, GPS units, personnel requirements, project costs, and project implementation plans. The City of Cincinnati (Hamilton County) will receive a $63,350 grant to complete a feasibility study to identify opportunities for sharing the operation and maintenance of heavy vehicle equipment among participating jurisdictions within Hamilton County. Mutual aid sharing and the creation of a stand-alone organization that would own and lease the vehicle material will be studied. The City of Cleveland (Cuyahoga County) will receive a $38,751 grant to study regional collaboration on energy efficiency through Smart Metering. Smart Metering uses utility meters that allow users to see and record consumption and cost in real-time. The City of Columbus (Franklin County) will receive a $50,000 grant to study the feasibility of developing an Airport Development Corporation. The Airport Development Corporation would execute the economic development and real estate strategies of the Airport Economic Development District. The Corporation would also leverage and advance the existing aviation industry cluster located in and around Port Columbus International Airport. The Village of Genoa (Ottawa County) will receive a $42,000 grant to perform a feasibility study to examine impacts of the formation of a Joint Law Enforcement District. Currently, multiple smaller districts in the Western Ottawa County area duplicate policing efforts that can be consolidated. Hamilton County will receive a $59,725 grant to complete a feasibility study that will focus on how consolidation can bring uniformity to the substance and process of code enforcement. The study will highlight differences in local law and include building, property maintenance, zoning, and fire codes. Henry County will receive an $80,000 grant to conduct a feasibility study that will provide detailed estimates of cost for the provision of water and sewer services in various communities of Henry County. The study will provide an implementation plan for the recommended alternatives including financial, political, geographic, legal, logistical, and other relevant issues. Huron County will receive an $80,000 grant to conduct an economic impact study that will estimate the value of airport construction and operations. The economic value of startups and technology transfers associated with the NASA Plum Brook Reactor Facility and the proposed industrial park will also be examined. Lorain County will receive an $80,000 grant to conduct a storm water management study that will investigate the options and feasibility of alternatives to the existing fragmented approach by individual governments to address flood control issues. The goal is to implement a storm water management plan that will save local governments money, promote regional collaboration and cooperation, and enhance compliance with Ohio laws and EPA regulations for water quality. The City of Marietta (Washington County) will receive a $70,000 grant to conduct a study to examine the feasibility of implementing a Rural Resource Alliance. The Alliance would consist of a regional circuit rider, technical consultant pool, capacity building assistance, and advanced technology services. The components would allow local governments to share resources and expertise, thus increasing the effectiveness of local government services and leveraging additional resources for communities. Montgomery County will receive an $80,000 grant to conduct a study for the creation of a multi-county collaborative that will invest in state and local resources for projects that advance the Dayton region’s strategic economic advantages, foster expansion of start-up firms, and attract firms interested in the region’s supply chain assets. The City of Parma (Cuyahoga County) will receive a $41,174 grant to perform a feasibility study to consolidate several municipal emergency medical services into one dispatch facility. The study will include an implementation plan that will delineate specific aspects of operating a regional center. Ross County will receive an $80,000 grant to complete an analysis to determine the feasibility of implementing and maintaining an integrated financial management and payroll software package for interested county auditors. The City of Youngstown (Mahoning County) will receive an $80,000 grant to conduct a feasibility study that will establish a regional urban economic development and brownfield revitalization plan. The study will establish a strategy to create a sustainable revenue stream for the eight incorporated communities along the Mahoning River corridor through economic development, enhanced public recreational amenities, and conservation measures. The Ohio Department of Development's Community Development Division administers a variety of state- and federally funded programs that benefit Ohio individuals and families. The Community Development Division coordinates its programs to form a comprehensive strategy to build stronger, healthier communities throughout the state. Working with our partners across business, state and local governments, academia, and the non-profit sector, the Ohio Department of Development works to attract, create, grow, and retain businesses through competitive incentives and targeted investments. Engaged every day in marketing, innovating, investing, and collaborating, the Ohio Department of Development works at the speed of business to accelerate and support the teamwork that is absolutely necessary for success by providing financial, informational, and technical assistance to those making an investment in Ohio’s future. # # # Media contacts: Eileen Turner at 614.728.6674 or the Communications & Marketing Office at 614.466.2609 http://development.ohio.gov/newsroom/releases/press.htm?id=1534

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Economy Bad = More Local Government Collaboration State grants would let communities share costs, effort Some local municipalities consider pooling resources Business Courier of Cincinnati - by Laura Baverman Bob Harrison, city manager of Wyoming, has brought 15 northern Hamilton County municipalities together to study the idea of operating one large fire district. As the cost of running a municipality rises, small communities like Mariemont and Wyoming are looking at ways to share expenses with their neighbors. “The county is struggling. The state is looking at cutting the budget. Municipalities just don’t have the revenue where they are, and people don’t want to be taxed any more,” said Bob Harrison, Wyoming’s city manager. Read full article here: http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2008/10/20/story5.html

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