Letters to the Editor for October 29, 2009

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Citizens of Ledgemont Local School District

I am writing today to urge you to support Issue 26, the earned income tax that will fund operating expenses for the Ledgemont Local School District.

The district has been rated "Effective" for the last four years, and Issue 26 will help ensure the district continues this standard of education for the students of Montville and Thompson townships.

Best of all, because it is an earned income tax it will NOT tax social security, pensions, dividends, welfare, unemployment benefits and child support benefits, and interest will not be taxed.

Ledgemont has been fiscally responsible, making cuts when needed, and currently shares the lowest per pupil expenditure in the county. However, the time has come for us to support our school and vote for Issue 26. Without it, the district will be forced to make cuts that will effect education, including teaching staff, cutting busing, eliminating or charging more for sports and other extra-curriculars.

During these tough times, the most important thing we can invest in is our public education system. Ledgemont Schools has proven that they are fiscally responsible, and have earned our vote. The sad fact, beside my best efforts, the state of Ohio still does not adequately fund our local public schools. While I'll continue to fight for adequate state funding, in the meantime please join me in supporting Issue 26 on Nov. 3.

Timothy J. Grendell

18th Senate District

A glimpse of statesmanship

The recent action by state Rep. Matt Dolan to vote to postpone the scheduled state income tax cut should be considered carefully by his constituents in the 98th House District.

Critics will cite, and correctly so, that there is still a lot of budget cutting that can be done on the state level without impacting needed services at the local level. Other critics will suggest that state and local services -- and the bureaucracies that provide them -- should be cut or eliminated entirely. I find myself firmly agreeing with some of these ideas and firmly disagreeing on others. However, this issue is not as black and white as rhetoric, from either political party, would have you believe.

Seven billion dollars of the revenues of the two-year, $52 billion state budget were one-time federal stimulus funds; revenues that will not be available for the next budget cycle. The legislature will be faced with a huge deficit as they start the next state budget and, fortunately, unlike the federal government, state governments must adopt a balanced budget. There will be ample opportunity to further reduce state spending and that will undoubtedly need to be done.

Faced with this kind of a budget reality, does it make sense to further reduce state revenues and exacerbate the problem by another billion dollars? The reduction in income taxes passed by the Republican legislature and governor five years ago made sense at that time and was good for Ohio. Rep. Dolan was an advocate for these cuts as well as other pro-business improvements in our state tax code. But the choices the legislature face today are framed by a very different economic environment.

I think it took courage and conviction for Rep. Dolan to take this position and I find that refreshing in today's political climate. Partisan politics and political gaming, by both parties, has become too prevalent of a factor in our government. In these very difficult times, all Ohioan's need and deserve sincere statesmanship. Rep. Dolan gave us a glimpse of that statesmanship in voting as he did.

Tim Taylor

South Russell

No apology coming

Let me preface this by telling you I asked the current Munson Township Board of Trustees for a Candidates Night as early as the end of September to be held at Munson Township Hall. The decision by the current board was made after an item in my Munson News column in the Geauga County Maple Leaf Oct. 8 advising the trustees had decided not to hold a Candidates Night for Munson residents. When push came to shove, the board decided Oct. 13 to hold this event Oct. 20, not at the township hall but at NDCL.

My attendance at this event was as a concerned resident of Munson due to what is happening with our township. I did not attend as a representative of the Geauga County Maple Leaf nor did I tell anyone there I was in any manner affiliated with this publication. Since February 2004, the Maple Leaf has been generous in allowing space to my column and columns from other townships and villages in Geauga County. I enjoy writing of events of interest and about Munson residents. I have never been paid by the Maple Leaf or Munson Township, nor have I ever asked for compensation in any form for the work involved in getting a column ready for publication.

When it was announced at Candidates Night that the format was going to be "write your questions for a particular candidate to be read by the moderator" and answered by that candidate, I could not believe what I was hearing. I have attended past Candidates Nights held in the Community Room of the township hall. The moderator had a portable mike in order for each resident to be able to ask a question. Also, every League of Women Voters Candidates Night has the same "open mike" format.

Frank Gliha, now county auditor, offered his services as moderator for this event, but was told "it was too close to home." Two years ago, Trustee Todd Ray was the moderator and four years ago Gliha, then a trustee, was the moderator. At the time of both events, neither one was on the ballot for re-election. Now it's "too close to home?" Give me a break.

Considerable time was spent prior to the event coordinating my facts and figures for the questions I wanted to ask of the current board. I was denied unless I wanted to rewrite everything on one of the little 3x5 cards laid out on each chair. One woman who spoke to me afterward said she has arthritis in her fingers and cannot write. She asked, "Did they expect me to write with my toes?" Did the trustees consider this when they came up with their format? Another woman said she did not come there to write, she wanted to ask openly.

I am shocked that anyone would call the Maple Leaf to complain about my behavior and not have the decency to call me. I am doubly shocked over the fact that after the close of this debacle, that G-TV was asked to delete certain portions of the video in which I attempted to have questions answered. I also received an anonymous call threatening to call G-TV to delete portions of the video. With compliments to G-TV, the requests were denied.

Why not call me? My phone number, 286-1982, is at the end of every column I have ever had published. If anyone calls and leaves a name and phone number, I have never failed to return that call.

A number of attendees thanked me for standing up for them and others told me they had never been to a public meeting of elected officials that denied a spoken question. Some have called and told me they didn't know why they attended. My answer to that was so you could see what we have to stand up to.

I have been attending trustees meetings for over 10 years. My ideas to have a Munson Notables program and replacing the wrought iron fence at Fowler's Mill Cemetery were accepted by the then trustees and initiated as their ideas. My neighbor, Jackie Fienga, and I stopped a resident on Fowlers Mill Road from operating a Roadway Express terminal in his garage. We walked miles to gather signatures on petitions. Furthermore, I spearheaded the drive years ago to save the historic Moccasin Falls Bridge on Fowlers Mill Road and worked long and hard, but the then trustees caved to the orders of county Engineer Robert L. Phillips. I was appointed to the township Board of Zoning Appeals in 2004 and continue to serve as a volunteer on that board.

I do not and will not apologize to anyone for taking a stand Oct. 20 against attempts to prevent open questions from Munson taxpayers who are funding the trustees' incomes.

To deny anyone the right to ask a question at a public function is intolerable. To the best of my knowledge, we are still in the United States of America.

Sofie Horvath

Munson

Consider a name change

I read the half page ad from the "Citizens for Responsible Government" Political Action Committee and I just want to respond as a citizen, in 40 words or more.

1. NO, to modifying zoning to allow for high density housing. Are you crazy? If you want high density housing, move to Mayfield Heights.

2. YES, I want to live in a township. (No income tax.) If Ron Cotman wants to turn Chesterland into a big city, then he can move to New York.

3. There are many ways to determine what the majority of residents want for Chester, a PAC is not one of them.

4. I do not favor commercializing our town center. At a recent meeting, a steering committee person said that, "We could look like Crocker Park." I don't want to look like Crocker Park.

5. DO NOT IMPOSE SEWERS SERVICE EXPANSION. I like my septic system, back off.

I think the Citizens for Responsible Government should consider changing their name to, "Hi, my name is Cathy Cotman, since I could never get elected as a trustee, I will force my governing style on you under the auspice of a Political Action Committee..."

Judy K. Zamlen-Spotts

Chesterland