Useless?

Below is an abbreviated version of Councilman Moe Romeo's web page from the City web site. Many merchants and patrons have been displaced from Cedar Center. Some business owners were not compensated and unable to relocate. The term "useless" is inappropriate on many different levels.

Please click on the image below to view full size.

Please click on the links below to view other related topics at South Euclid Oversight:

• http://southeuclidoversight.blogspot.com/2007/03/quote_25.html
• http://southeuclidoversight.blogspot.com/2008/01/appetite-for-destruction.html

To view the entire page for Moe Romeo on the City website, please click below:

• http://www.cityofsoutheuclid.com/EZ_DynPage_Detail.aspx?ID=65&d=11

Hovering On The Brink

Below is a sampling of crimes reported in the City of South Euclid as printed in the Sun Messenger “police blotter”. Intentionally omitted were crimes relating to shoplifting, domestic disturbance calls, impaired driving/traffic violations or drug offenses.

Please click on image to view full size.

The space devoted to South Euclid each week in the Sun Messenger “police blotter” has grown steadily in column inches. That is the only attention given to local crime statistics concerning the City of South Euclid. The topic of crime is avoided unless the citizens come forward to express their concerns. The unacceptable rise in crime MUST be PROMINENTLY addressed by South Euclid’ City Government and the local media.

The time, energy and money spent on the unproductive “Good Neighbor” survey, to which less than 250 residents responded, could have been allocated towards addressing matters such as these.

City officials are wasting too much money on self satisfying ego boosters to feed their political agenda in a quest for recognition. This has not served the community well. The priorities of this Administration and Council are misguided, and right now the place is a mess. The energy expended on real estate transactions and development schemes should be channeled toward weightier issues.

The $18 million and counting spent on Cedar Center would have bought a significant amount of police presence. The police force needs to be highly trained, community minded and socially skilled. The officers need to interact with the community in an appropriate manner through proper training and resources. The young citizens on the cusp of going either way with their lives need to know that the police are on THEIR side looking out for them. The police need to be RESIDENT FRIENDLY and behave respectfully to people unless someone proves themselves to be undeserving of such treatment. At the same time, make the City a very unwelcoming place for criminals and treat people accordingly. Spend the money to give the police the training they need to do the job right. Instead of spending time, effort and money on a joint city recreation center, how about a regional task force to deter and solve crime?

South Euclid is teetering on the edge. Hopefully the elected officials entrusted as guardians of the community will respond in time. Otherwise South Euclid is destined to inherit the crime woes and coinciding exodus patterns of the inner city neighborhoods.

Please click on map below to view full size.

Failure To Act!

Please see other related posts at South Euclid Oversight:

• Band-Aids vs Reconstructive Surgery

• Tax Increase Necessary For PAY Raises?

• Proposed Mayor's Raise

• Ordinance 12-07: Mayoral Pay Raise

• Ordinance 20-07

Please click on article to view full size.

Planting Seeds Of Suspicion

A resident offers his vision of the Mayfield-Green area at a "public hearing" held by the South Euclid City Council. Do you agree that the City should purchase the shopping center property and homes on adjacent streets to make way for another Crocker Park or Legacy Village? Would you find it appropriate if the City exercised eminent domain or other forceable tactics to obtain the properties? According to the newspaper report, only 14 people attended the "public hearing". South Euclid Oversight is curious as to why the City did not use their newly implemented "reverse 911" program to contact citizens about this meeting. However, they did deem it necessary to utilize "reverse 911", two times, to alert the public of the pep-rallies being sponsored by the South Euclid-Lyndhurst School Board to gain support for the upcoming ballot levy.

• Click on the following link to see the public hearing notice:
• http://www.cityofsoutheuclid.com/images/01-28-08_PlanningZoning-Ords_08-07_09-07_May_Green.pdf

• Access the link below to review some particulars of the "Community Notification System":
• https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwABMf04DP1WXC2IIvCp3CfUmaH1yF00dHA5duexBrs3EqyTSBrWcSlpzjr9FGpPO6G00wo4lSUwMgkfUktJbYNT9fX5G8nVkmjknK98fRtbgF2IV5jqjMK4qIBxo9Rvs3cW9AjAlIi4s/s1600-h/StitchTextF.JPG

Please click on either image to view full size.

Who Owns Mayfield and Green?

The City of South Euclid is eager to see redevelopment at the Mayfield and Green Roads intersection, an area that could be recognized as “downtown” South Euclid. Attention has been focused on the northeast corner, but it seems inevitable that the properties that make up the southwest corner will be next.

• Below is a plat map indicating the ownership of the properties as recorded at the office of the Cuyahoga County Auditor. On the map, each property has a circled number which corresponds to a number provided on the ledger at the right of the map. To obtain additional information regarding each of these properties, click on the link provided below to access the Auditor’s website. The information available online includes: date of transfer, sale price, owner, and tax information. This is map number 703, page 30— to research a particular property, insert the parcel number into the appropriate area shown.
• To obtain the parcel number for each property, simply insert the numbers 703 then 30 and 0, plus the number of the property: Example: If you are looking for further information about property number 19—the parcel number is 703-30-019
• Then simply click on the parcel number when it is displayed to access information.

• http://auditor.cuyahogacounty.us/repi/

Below is a link for: Ohio Board of Tax Appeals - Case No. 2004-T-849

• http://www.bta.ohio.gov/04t849.pdf

Please click on the map below to view full size. Then, scroll side to side to view all. Click on the aerial photograph to enlarge.

The People Will Decide

Ordinance 65-05: “Point-of-Sale” legislation passed by South Euclid City Council will go to a vote of the people on November 4th, 2008. Because of a referendum by the citizens against the ordinance, the final decision on whether the law will be enacted shall be determined by the taxpayers. Below are links to other posts on this site that discuss various concerns with the legislation, including the text of the ordinance itself. Others have expressed some reasons against “point-of-sale” to be:

• It is a violation of property rights.
• It is an “exit tax” imposed by the City.

Below, Ward four Councilwoman Jane Goodman offers her take on why City Council needs to defend their position: Editorial commentary and points of dispute will appear in the color red:

Thursday, February 15, 2007 Point-of-Sale Inspections etc.

Dear Friends,

I’m writing to ask for your input on a few issues before council. I’m also asking that you make your opinion known, preferably by coming to council committee meetings on the issue, or general council meetings, where the public can make comments. A schedule of upcoming meetings is at the end of this post. –Editorial opinion- The opinion of the taxpayer has no bearing on the agenda of this City Council and Administration.-

• The first issue is Point of Sale Inspections. There’s been a lot of incorrect information out there about our proposed legislation, and most of the reactions (including those expressed in the recent Sun Messenger editorial) are based on bad information or misunderstandings. We are proposing that before the sale of a home can be completed the owner would pay (about $175, which would fund the additional personpower and paperwork) for an exterior-only inspection of the house. These inspections would be the same type of exterior inspections we already require, no more and no less. Any objections about inspectors entering homes are baseless, nor is there anything in the legislation about repairs inside the home. -Editorial opinion- But that WILL be the coming attraction to some legislation near you soon.- We will continue to do regular door-to-door inspections, starting the cycle again in 2008 and continuing whether point-of-sale is in place or not, -Editorial opinion- Ok, so why is the City forcing this unnecessary burden on the already overtaxed for what you get in return taxpayer?- and our inspectors will continue to respond to neighbors' complaints and cite high grass and weeds.Our primary reasons for requiring an inspection at point of sale are:
• For homeowners without the funds to make repairs while they live in the house, the time when money is being transferred may be the only time when such funds are available. This addresses the objection that low-income owners or elderly residents can’t afford repairs. -Editorial opinion- Thanks for your concern, but people probably prefer to make their own financial decisions without City intervention.- At sale time, the buyer can assume the responsibility for the repairs, or the seller can use the equity that comes out of the sale to make repairs.
• Too often people sell their home a year or more after the scheduled regular inspection, and in the interim there are new violations that haven’t been addressed. The buyer or seller may hire a private inspector and find out about possible violations, but there is no official city inspection that comes with a requirement to repair them. -Editorial opinion- Again, thanks, but most people are intelligent enough to handle their private negotiations without "big brother".- Other times the buyer pays for a house not knowing that there are violations, then at the next regular inspection he or she learns that repairs are necessary, and the funds may no longer be available. - Editorial opinion- City intervention in personal finances not appreciated.-
• The current trend toward low- or no-money-down sales allows buyers to purchase homes without the funds to fix the house if violations are found later. These homes often get resold quickly, again without repairs being made. What’s left is a rundown property that pulls down the values of the properties around it.
• If violations are found at point of sale, there are various ways that the repairs can be made and paid for:the seller can pay to make the repairs and include the repair cost in the price of the house, or• the buyer or seller, or both, can put funds for repairs in escrow as part of the transfer, and as repairs are made the funds are paid from escrow, or• the buyer can assume responsibility and deduct the cost of repairs from the purchase price.-Editorial opinion- Unwanted governmental interference.-CABOR (Cleveland Area Board of Realtors) has said they have no objection to this exterior-only program, since it’s something we already have in place. -Editorial opinion- Reference $1000.00 campaign contribution recieved by "Friends of Georgine Welo" from the "Realtors Political Action Committee/Ohio."-
• There is no comparison to be made with programs in Cleveland Heights or Shaker, since theirs are both exterior and interior inspections. -Editorial opinion- Interior inspections will be next. -The majority of council, and the mayor, see point-of-sale as an effective tool to raise the level of home maintenance and the quality of life in our neighborhoods. The message it will send is: “You can’t let your property fall into disrepair and lower the property value of your neighbors’ homes.”

Click on the links below to review other posts regarding "Point-of-Sale:

• http://southeuclidoversight.blogspot.com/2008/01/roadblocks-and-barricades.html
• http://southeuclidoversight.blogspot.com/2007/07/blog-post_26.html

Click below to read entire text of Ordinance 65-05:

• http://southeuclidoversight.blogspot.com/2007/09/point-of-sale-ordinance-65-05.html

Click below for a link to Jane Goodman's page on the City website:

• http://www.cityofsoutheuclid.com/janegoodman.htm