I'm not sure what to make of this WDTN report about "merging" Cincinnati with Dayton. I guess I'd have to actually hear more about what is actually being proposed; but generally speaking, I'm opposed to mergers of cities of this size.
Government, at all levels, is about the consolidation of power. When concentrated, power of this magnitude can be corrupted much more easily. Accountability becomes a quick victim of bureaucracy. Incompetence and graft becomes commonplace. And the ordinary citizen just becomes a number, a statistic in a game of politics.
In smaller municipalities, mergers like this can be of benefit. If services are improved while cost is maintained or lowered, then a move like this makes sense.
None of that is likely in this scenario.
I'm not sure what Dayton is trying to do. They have also been pushing county-wide regionalism efforts. The message I take from this is that Dayton government is desperate to find a way to divert attention from something. Whatever it is, it's bad.
Put me down in the "Against It" column until we learn more...
I want to pass this message on from en email I got on Facebook:
Nothing gets me more stirred up than people in glass houses throwing stones. The economic geniuses who have killed Dayton and are profiting from its death will be protesting John Kasich's economic plan and tax cuts at a press conference on Monday at 3:30pm at Cooper Park by the Dayton Metro Library downtown.
If you would please alert your friends or leaders in the liberty/tea party movement or fellow Republicans, please do.
This flagrant politicking and economic warfare cannot go unchallenged. Let's protest the press-conference.
Surely all the news will cover the news conference, so what would be better than having a mob of picketing people with homemade signs in the background with slogans like "More liberty, smaller government" or "Lower taxes means more jobs."
The time is short so please organize!
A Dayton Daily News article on this subject is available here.
Having grown up in Dayton, I know that the Democratic rule there has pretty much decimated any chance that city has of recovering. Now that Rhine McLin is out of the mayor's office, there is hope that some real and effective change can happen but leave it to the commissioners to protest something that will actually create jobs, strengthen the economy, and solve a whole lot of problems just because they are too ignorant to learn about Kasich's plan.
As per usual, these clowns are looking for somebody else to blame for the misfortunes of the city and John Kasich hasn't even been elected to the governors mansion yet.
The Huber Heights City Council is conducting a meeting at 6PM at the Huber Heights City building. The purpose of the meeting is to vote Brian Walton off City Council due to the fact that he is currently serving our country in Iraq. Brian is a contractor doing important work while the political elite in Huber Heights are playing their games as usual.
UPDATE: I need to back up here a bit. I first heard about this awhile back and my gut was telling me that something about this whole thing just wasn't right. The real purpose behind this post was to hopefully get some information about the whole thing. This has finally happened...
Here are a few things I have learned...
1. Walton wants, very badly, to be appointed to Husted’s seat…in the Senate.
2. He wanted to be a write-in against Mayor until told that he couldn’t run for two non-Fed seats.
3. My source says that if the Council votes him off, he flips houses so he would just move into one of his flips and run against someone that voted him off.
4. He has portrayed himself on Facebook as a reservist (technically this is accurate). The way he mentions this with the situation is misleading.
5. He contacted Council members prior to leaving asking where they stood and they each explained to him their reasons for not supporting it as an excused absence (all based off the charter and the above legal opinion) –- he portrays council as this despicable group that are out to get him.
6. After he was on council he developed a plan to get into the statehouse and possibly the senate.
7. His campaign treasurer resigned (a constituent of his) due to his not resigning his seat.
Look, I'm still not sure what to make of all of this... But this document might help decide the legal issues involved...
Be sure to check out this hot story in the Dayton Daily News about the tax troubles of former Montgomery County Democratic Party chairman Dennis Lieberman and his wife, county commissioner Debbie Lieberman.
I think the Lieberman's have a real good chance of passing Team Obama's vetting process, don't you?
UPDATE: And let's not forget that Commissioner Debbie Lieberman has already had a run in with the law...
I just heard a wacky one from one of my sources that I thought was just crazy enough that it might actually be true. Apparently, Ohio's Democrats are wanting to reward failure and are actually considering Rhine McLin for Lieutenent Governor. I have been told that Dayton's worst mayor in two decades is on the short list.
My source added:
She is opposed in this falls election and everyone is opposing her: black churches, unions, police, fire. She has lost her base and this could be her sweet exit from the city, back to Columbus, where she started in her dad's shadow.
Leave it to Ohio Democrats to forget that competence matters.
I haven't seen anyone else make this observation (and if anyone has seen it somewhere, send me a link) and this has been rattling around in my head the last few days as I've been watching the disgusting assault on the Palin family and I think I'm just going to put this out there and see what you all think of it...
At the introductory rally in Dayton, which a couple of us WMDers attended, I thought it was very interesting to note who was holding Baby Trig.
Usually when a candidate has an infant, the spouse can be seen carrying the baby along with the family; but in this case, 17 year old Bristol was -- if I am not mistaken -- holding her little brother.
At the time, I was actually thinking that it might send an interesting message if her husband had been carrying the child; but in light of recent revelations, I wonder if maybe the Palins aren't already trying to get young Bristol acclimated to her new life as a mother-to-be. And what message does that send to the youth of America?
Dayton city leaders said the Ohio Auditor's office "grossly mischaracterized" a 2005 audit of the city's finances that was released Tuesday.
City Manager Rashad Young said the audit, prepared by Cincinnati-based Foxx & Co., tells a different story than what was portrayed by Auditor Mary Taylor in a Tuesday press release. The release called the city's handling of various accounts and payroll procedures careless. It did not detail the steps the city has taken to respond to the various issues raised in the audit or the auditor's response to the city's solutions.
"We hope we don't have a repeat of this or that any other city has to go through it," Young said of the way the audit release was handled by the state.
According to the audit, the city was unable to produce accurate documents in a timely manner showing how more than $32 million in federal grant money was spent.
Instead of keeping track of federal grant money expenditures in one place, the city relied on individual department heads to track how $32.3 million was spent.
Did I say rebuttal? Sounds to me like they are confirming everything that Mary Tayor's office said in their press release. So what's the problem? You didn't like the tone of it??? Life's tough in the Big Leagues...
DAYTON — A state audit of the city of Dayton's 2005 financial records released this morning found the city's accounting system was unable to produce accurate documents in a timely manner showing how more than $32 million in federal grant money was spent.
"While the city was not found to have misspent or illegally spent public funds, carelessness in the administration of financial accounting opens the city up to the potential for fraud or misspending of public funds," Steve Faulkner, deputy press secretary for the State Auditor's Office, said.
The audit also found carelessness in the city's handling of various accounts and payroll procedures.
"In order to properly account for every tax dollar collected and spent, the city must implement policies and procedures, commonly referred to as internal controls, to ensure that every tax dollar is spent legally and appropriately," State Auditor Mary Taylor said. "The failure to do so could increase the potential for fraud or theft of public funds."
Apparently, the city (???) was relying on individual department heads to account for this cashola. Does that sound reasonable to you?
Here are some other problems that the audit found:
Several deposits lacked proper documentation that could prove the funds were placed in the proper account.
The failure to transfer municipal court funds to the city on a monthly basis, causing an overstatement of more than $37,000 in the courts' accounts.
Not separating water, sewer, storm water, container and disposal money into separate accounts when residents made their payments and improperly charging residents for storm water bills.
I don't think the IRS would find it all that acceptable if my return looked this way...
Shall I point out that Dayton has been run by Democrats since Mike Turner got out?
It isn't much of a rebuttal, but the