"The liberties of a people never were, nor
ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed
from them...To cover with the veil of secrecy the common routine of business,
is an abomination in the eyes of every intelligent man."
-
Patrick Henry
January 2004 – Georgine Welo administration takes office.
July 2005 – Citing the dire need for voters to pass a tax increase the Sun Messenger reported, “If Tuesday’s
try for a .5-percent income tax increase fails, residents will see changes, and
not for the better, Mayor Georgine Welo said.”
They quote Welo, “South Euclid
won’t be recognizable as it is today…We would have to consider stopping
recycling and leaf pickup. We’ll have to
do layoffs. We might go for a four-day
work week. We won’t have (school)
crossing guards.”
August 2005 – Voters approve .5-% tax increase.
March 2007 – The City of South Euclid purchased the
Cedar Center properties for approximately $17
million. Financial analysts have
estimated the actual cost including demolition, remediation and interest
payments at upwards of $20 million. The
same month, city leaders purchased 9 brick duplex homes on Greenvale Drive. $1.8 million was borrowed. $1.6 million was paid to the sole owner of
the 9 homes and the remaining $200,000 was for demolition. All of the 18 dwelling units had been issued
a certificate of occupancy for each previous year during the Welo
administration. That process requires registration
and inspection by the building department and compliance with city code of
ordinances.
December 2007 - The Fire Chief was involved in a serious accident while driving a municipally owned Ford Explorer at 1:50a.m. returning from the firemen’s Christmas party held at a saloon on E. 185th St. It was eventually discovered that Welo
allowed take-home city vehicles with unlimited driving and gasoline privileges
for approximately 7 of her administration members.
January 2008 – The citizens of South Euclid paid $38,254.53 in property taxes to Cuyahoga
County on the Greenvale 9
for the tax year 2007.
February 2008 - City council passes legislation allowing South Euclid to enter into a contract with the firm Burgess and Niple to "oversee the redevelopment" of Cedar Center.
March 2008 - The position of "housing manager" is created. Starting salary is $63,000 plus benefits.
April 2010 – Jane Goodman, Ward 4 Councilperson : “We screwed ourselves, pardon
my French, but it’s time for plain speaking—with some expenditures—some loans
that—some things that we did that put us in iffy financial positions…And I know
that our citizens want to see us spend less if we’re going to ask them to
contribute more.”
March 2010 – City leaders attempt to eliminate the tax credit given to residents
who work outside the city. Strong
opposition from the people results in the reversal of the back-door tax
increase. All city employees took 6
furlough days in 2010.
May 2010 – Voters approve a road levy; Issue 45.
2011
– All city employees took 12 furlough days in 2011.
January 2011 – Gordon Food Service purchased 1.4acres of Cedar Center property for $2.35 million.
September 2012 – It was necessary to refinance a portion of the
city’s debt over the next 30 years. The
amount of $17.6 million includes Cedar
Center and the Greenvale
9.
March 2013 – Ward 1 Councilperson Ruth Gray on the administration’s recent promotion and hiring practices regarding several individuals outside of
the safety forces: “…There were some
significant cuts that should have been made then. Because we knew that we
were losing these funds. We knew that last year….we’re getting ready to
layoff our safety forces. We knew in 2012 that these cuts were
coming. They started in 2012 but yet we continued to hire. We have
to explain and justify that. We continued to hire knowing that this was
going to happen…”
During the 2012 budget hearings it was
revealed that due to a financial shortfall, there must be $750,000 cut from the budget. The cuts were coming exclusively
from the Police and Fire Departments resulting in the threatened layoffs of
personnel in both departments. A safety
committee meeting held on March 18 brought residents out to express their
dismay with possibly losing a portion of the safety forces. The next day at a session of the budget
hearings, Mayor Georgine Welo proclaimed a change of plan due to the
willingness of people to pay more to maintain the same level of safety
services. She proposed the following:
v
The
elimination of the tax credit given to residents who are employed outside of
the city of South Euclid. It was explained that this elimination of the
tax credit could run in conjunction with –
v
A proposed
income tax increase.
v
A possible
safety levy.
