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Minutes of the Regular Meeting of Council <br />Monday, March 21, 2011 <br />Page 2 <br />experienced what happens when the business models change, companies merge or are bought up, <br />home offices move, sections move out, divisions are cancelled, and so on. Lubrizol and NCB are <br />recent examples. We thuik our tests should be on anything that we do in the community first of all, is <br />it just nice to have or do we need to do it? I see freeway signs going up telling me that it's going to <br />take me 8 minutes to Chagrin Boulevard and I wonder when I see these things, does the Federal <br />government have a11 this money to spend on such a project? I know that it's necessary in many <br />cases. I was in California and we definitely know there that it might take a half hour to get <br />someplace one time and two hours another time, so I understand that. But I still wonder about these <br />things. <br />In today's news maybe you saw that the City of Costa. Mesa, California has just passed out lay-off <br />notices for one-half of the city employees. It can no longer afFord to maintain the kind of services <br />that they have been used to and who is going to suffer? The employees. We defuutely don't want to <br />get to this point here in this city. <br />In sununary, I would like to refer you to Tom Friedman's column in The New York Times this <br />Sunday. Maybe some of you saw it. But the column told us to be concerned about facing up to <br />problems today rather than pushing them off into the future. The essence was, face them today and <br />they will be less painfiil than if we let the market force us to make changes in the future. If Dr. Parker <br />was here, he would appreciate his analogy. His analogy was to dentistry. He said you can use <br />preventative care, he said it doesri't cost that much and it doesn't hurt that much, he said, but if you <br />let go, and you have to have gum surgery, it could be very painful and very costly. <br />Council President Buckholtz thanked Mr. Koren. Is there anyone else who would like to address <br />Council? David Hunter <br />853 Hardwood Court <br />I have been a resident of Mayfield Village for 20 years and I will tell you I have enjoyed the 20 <br />years. The Village is well run. I appreciate the services that we get. <br />I may repeat a little bit what Ray just said. Obviously you have seen what's happened over the years <br />by bringing in Progressive. It has been very successful and we understand that the Village went into <br />debt to pay for some of the infrastructure that was required for that and understand that if everything <br />stays the way it is, then those debts will be paid down. <br />My question is, what do we have in the way of a Plan B in the event that Progressive for whatever <br />reason would leave this area? It hasn't seemed too possible until the recent time when I watched <br />MBNA disappear and be replaced with the Cleveland Clinic renting the space or watched a company <br />like Lubrizol get bought out by an outsider. My real question is, is there a Plan B in the event that <br />you would lose Progressive? It would have a pretty dramatic impact on your income tax and <br />obviously on the property. <br />Council President Buckholtz thanked Mr. Hunter. Do we have further comments?