Way to go, Joe!

Republican Brunswick City Ward 3 Councilman Joe Delsanter has proposed that two of the three Brunswick City Council-at-Large be eliminated. His rationale is that this would save about $22,000 to $24.000 per year. This, of course, is a mere drop in the bucket for a city that has been operating with a deficit since 2001.

This proposal would involve amending the charter of the city of Brunswick. If this proposal were to come to fruition, it would necessitate a charter amendment on the ballot. The deadline set by the Secretary of State for the upcoming May 5th election is February 19th. This would give council sixteen days to complete this action in order to effectuate change this year.

Currently, the city of Brunswick has four ward councilmen and three at-large councilmen. The At-Large Council members represent the entire city, not just a ward. They provide a sort of checks and balance system within the council.

Some cities of similar size, i.e. Westerville, Oh, have a city council comprised of seven at-large members. A council of all at-large members ( perhaps five?) would be a more logical alternative than to eliminate two of the three at-large positions and keep the ward council members. The people of Brunswick would continue to be fully represented. Presently, if your ward councilman is not responsive, you still have the at-large council members. Of course, this would also necessitate a charter amendment.

Is Republican Mr. Delsanter’s stance a knee-jerk reaction to the city’s budget problems? Why hasn’t council done more cost cutting in the past? Is this a myopic glance at the overall budget deficit picture?

Or is his proposal an attempt to eliminate some people who just aren’t “on the same page” as Republican Mr. Delsanter? His proposed change would make life a lot easier for a city council that seems to be constantly embroiled in battles. Is he afraid of the outcome of the 2009 election? It appears that there is more to this proposal than he wants us to believe.

Filing Deadlines for Wadsworth and Brunswick City Elections

Because Wadsworth doesn't have a city charter,and because of a provision in Brunswick's city charter, candidates wanting to run for local office in both cities have to file by February 19, 2009. In Wadsworth, the city elections are partisan and, if there were two or more candidates running for their party's nomination for a particular position, there would be a primary in May. In Brunswick, although its elections are non-partisan, there could be a May primary if more than six candidates file petitions to run for the three council-at-large positions.

According to a sheet kept by the Medina County Board of Elections, Republicans have already picked up petitions for both Brunswick and Wadsworth city elections. Democrats have picked up petitions for Brunswick, but not yet for Wadsworth. Interestingly, the petitions for Wadsworth Republicans were picked up by Sharon Ray, one of the three Republican members of the Board of County Commissioners. This is not too surprising, however, since she is from Wadsworth and her first elected position was on Wadsworth City Council.

Although Brunswick is non-partisan, Republicans make up a majority of the City Council. There are currently two Republicans and one Democrat who are councilmen-at-large. With a little effort, Democrats could take all three positions in Brunswick.

Municipal elections in Wadsworth are always spirited. Wadsworth is interesting because it is the only political subdivision in Medina County that has partisan elections every year, either for city offices, for state and county offices, or for federal and county offices.

More Info on Medina County Cities and Poverty

Earlier today we posted an entry on a report from the United States Census Bureau that consists of estimates of certain data for cities over 20,000. In that entry we noted that the Cleveland.com reported that according to this data the percentage of residents of Medina City living in poverty sometime during the last 12 months doubled from the 2000 census to this mid-decade estimate.

We got curious about the other two cities in Medina County, Brunswick and Wadsworth. We went to the Cleveland.com website and used this tool it has to compare cities in Northeast Ohio. According to this tool, the Census Bureau data for Brunswick shows that 5.2% of its population was estimated to have been living in poverty during the last 12 months. The figure for Wadsworth was 5.4%. The figure for Medina, as reported earlier, was 10.4%.

The tool, by the way, can be used for any city in the United States. You can access the tool here.