01/16/2007 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Council Minutes of 1/16/2007 of the city and agreed that the citizens of North Olmsted are friendly and have good hearts. 2) One of the focuses for his administration has been to increase the profile of North Olmsted. As a part of that effort, he has associated himself with worthy causes that have significant impact upon our residents. Among these issues is his participation as a member of the Mayors' Education Roundtable led by Akron Mayor Plusquellic. It is the intention of the Mayors' Education Roundtable to re-design school funding in the State of Ohio to remove the burden from property owners and place it elsewhere. It is the intent of the Mayors' Education Roundtable to, for the first time in the State of Ohio, give all students equitable and equal funding so that they are provided with an equal opportunity to learn. A press conference was to be held in Columbus tomorrow where they were prepared to unveil their proposal. But a decision made in the 11th hour to not identify the source of funding was not agreeable to them. We have all endured the impacts both within our schools and within our city government of unfunded mandates. He chooses not to be part of this proposal at this time. He, Mayor Plusquellic and others are withholding support of this proposal until they see where this current issues goes. 3) This past weekend, he attended inaugural ceremonies in Columbus for Treasurer of State Richard Cordray, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, Attorney General of Ohio Mark Dann and Governor Ted Strickland. Gov. Strickland used powerful words to describe his vision of where Ohio should go and his plan to see that we get there. One of his comments was particularly striking to him that government must become more efficient. Gov. Strickland took it to the next step and said we must also begin doing more for people who have less-we must remember those in need. It is a good reminder for all of us that we all must be in the business of charity. 4) Next week he will attend the U. S. Conference of Mayors, Congressional Conference, in Washington, D.C. If any elected officials or members of the community have issues they would like him to raise in that forum, please contact his office for an appointment. 5) To quote Dr. Martin Luther King: "The war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of the poor at home. It was sending their sons, their brothers, their husbands to fight and to die in the extraordinarily high proportion relative to the rest of society." This quote is saying it is the poor primarily who bear the burden of service in our military and that they were disproportionately bearing the burden of that conflict. Those words authored by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. are as pertinent today as 40 years ago. Dr. King is one of his political heroes due to the importance of his message and to the great courage he displayed in delivering that message. He was the leader of the civil rights movement, but he did so much more. He came out strongly against issues of poverty and the disenfranchised and came out against the Viet Nam War as this quote relates to. It is amazing the words he spoke 40 years ago are so pertinent today. 6) Departments: • This past holiday season, the Dept. of Community Life Services assisted in the adoption of 34 less fortunate families in North Olmsted with the assistance of 15 different sponsor groups. • The city recently received a $1,000 donation from our local Wal-Mart store. He is pleased to have both the manager and assistant manager from Wal-Mart with us today to get more involved in our city government by observing a Council 2 _. ,_