Safety meeting 12/9

I attended the safety meeting on 12/9 and here's what I saw.

I stand by opposition to this piecemeal plan, but I offered up 2 compromises: 1) leash law everywhere all the time if dogs are in fact wild animals underneath as Dennis declared at Council.

2) make all parks open for off leash dogs. This makes it easy for residents to obey the law

These are suboptimal in my opinion but are better than what is being proposed.

Ultimately I was unsuccessful, so I voted no on the plan that will come before council.

As an aside, I have a copy of the audio tape from the meeting.  It's a great character assessment of those in attendance. If you'd like a copy I'm happy to provide.

Cortney

Council 11/25

I attended council on 11/25 and here's what I saw.

Interest bearing accounts.  I'm glad to see energy put into investing here. Our balances are too big to not earn meaningful money on them.

FEMA plan.  I'm supportive of this since it's really only an administrative action. It positions us for help if we ever need it and doesn't require anything of us other than document submission.

Leash law.  I don't understand the fervor over this. Our law is aligned with Ohios, it was tweaked just 10 years ago (vs 50) and of the many people I talked with, no one saw need to change. I don't disagree there are issues from time to time, but when this happens, we ought to simply enforce the law as it stands.  Further, too chunk out the village into a few parks where off leash is ok but not in partial areas and not during ball games.  This is a recipe for confusion and arguably MORE safety problems, not less. Add in more signs and it strikes me as the wrong approach.  As an aside, I sit around a table of unabashed Conservatives, and this action is at a minimum, ironic.

I voted in the affirmative on all votes as they were procedural in nature. Exceptions: mutual aid agreement which is smart and can lead to savings.

Cortney
ICRCtv.com

Comment posted on Mariemont.com re Finances editorial (also printed in EHJ)

I commented in support of the resident's editorial, now published in the Eastern Hills Journal
http://www.mariemont.com/whats-future-mariemont-finances/#comments

Cortney

conversation with Police Chief Rick Hines 11/29

I chatted with Rick re my blog posting talking about OT.  I stand by my comments, but Rick informed me of a more concerning trend:  our police salaries have fallen behind neighboring communities.  This is in part the result of big belt tightening after the Great Recession.  I think to maintain a Village with better than average amenities, we need to pay our staff a competitive wage.    I would recommend the new Council consider a 3 or 5 year glide path to get back to average and then re-evaluate.  Prerequisite would be a Center For Local Government (NGO we belong to) survey of neighboring communities to see how far we truly have to go.  Also needed is a definition of our true "peer group".

While I don't care for non emergency OT, I think total compensation needs to be commensurate with our aspirations as a Village - to be a great community.

Cortney