Mayor 101

• Remind yourself often it takes a village.
• Discuss public issues in a public forum.
• Remember the citizens pay your salary. Speak to them and listen to them with the same respect you would any employer.
• When your opinion or agenda is opposed, this is an opportunity to discuss and learn and counsel, not a reason to suspend or fire.
• When attending council meetings, give the speakers and audience your full attention.  Put the ipad, laptop or other electronic gadgets away.  Not everyone is interested in sports, if they were they would be attending or home watching the game.
• You can’t have an open door policy with a closed mind. Open door policy is moot when decisions are already made.
• If you see a van in front of your house in the wee hours, or any hours, get a plate number, call the police.   If you do not do that you put yourself, your family, and your neighborhood at risk.  If no one is identified, captured, arrested, and charged, you are not in a position to name individuals you thought might have been involved.                                                                 http://www.cleveland.com/bayvillage/index.ssf/2013/09/bay_village_mayor_deborah_suth_12.html

Bay Village Issues

My answer to the question: What do you think is the most pressing issue facing Bay Village these days? Finances. Bay Village is not alone when it comes to pressing issues of finances.    It is easy to make cuts. The difficulty is to maintain, increase and generate revenue.   This is most pressing and therefore cannot be separated from other issues.

Lack of vision for our citizen base of all income levels.  Lack of nurturing the sustainable middle class neighborhoods.  Elitism when organizing committees. We aren't flush with commercial revenues so we are more vulnerable and need to be more entrepreneurial and less political.

Has the city explored creative options to generate income? 

Adopt a road, City sidewalk sale, better utilization of community gym.

Focus groups to lure and fill business gaps.  Focus groups to brainstorm anything.  Our students would be excellent resources for ideas because they think outside of the box.

What about forming a small cooperative movie theater in the empty lot on Wolf since we can’t go to the pool on Sundays, rainy days or year round.  Or if the underground work is there, attracting another small gas station?

Make Bay Days better.  It gets thinner and pricier every year.  How can the city make more money from this event?

Stop with the large cost studies. Do your own homework.  Go after more grants, more volunteerism.

Attract new businesses with minimizing risk to existing businesses.  Generate more support  and awareness for existing businesses and local groups. Why isn't the Village Foundation better supported?   How many residents know it exists and its mission?  I took an impromptu survey of only 10 people I knew in Bay.  8 had no idea – why is that? 

Can the town have a fundraiser for itself?

Is the city paperless for employee time sheets and pay stubs?  How about offering interested employees unpaid days off?  3 to 5 a year?

Can the Mayor pass on a raise?

Have service vendors been approached for discounts?

For many reasons our residents are not involved or concerned. 

A derisive attitude from the Mayor.  Disregard for public opinion and the voting process.  Of which I find highly insulting.

http://www.cleveland.com/bayvillage/index.ssf/2012/11/bay_village_mayor_deborah_suth_3.html
In November 2012 the city voted against regionalization.  Sutherland stated she would go forward anyway and added: “ Sutherland said she did not interpret the defeat of the ballot issues as a rejection by voters of the concept of regionalizing city services. Instead, she expressed her belief that voters were confused by the ballot language.” “Unless the voters actually took the time to thoroughly read the material that was provided to them via the city publications, I think it was very confusing.” When voters are confused by an issue, normally they vote against it, she said.