Citizens Agenda for Cleveland Heights

I recently received the following forwarded email from a community colleague of a call to action in Cleveland Heights. Its worthwhile here in the Heights as well as in communities elsewhere.

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

In anticipation of the upcoming Cleveland Heights City Council election, a group of concerned citizens, including me, came together to discuss how to promote strong leadership and citizen involvement. There are four seats up for election. Three incumbents are seeking reelection and approximately 7 others have indicated possible interest in running.

Over a period of weeks we developed a position statement we call the Citizen’s Agenda that reflects the need for fresh leadership to address the pressing issues facing our community. We hope this effort will attract a wide range of candidates—young and old, new and long-term residents, and people from across the rich ethnic and racial diversity of our community.

We see three purposes to this statement and hope you will pursue them with us:

1. Create a dialogue across Cleveland Heights about our future and the type of leadership we need at City Hall,
2. Identify strong candidates who reflect this statement and are willing to run for election,
3. Organize support for such candidates and ultimately get them elected.


We have named the group Step It Up with the tag line, Leadership for a great Cleveland Heights to express our intent. As a starter, would you please take the time to review the attached “Citizen’s Agenda” and consider adding your name as a supporter? If you're willing to have your name used publicly as a supporter, please indicate in a response to this email. Include your address and phone number, as well.

We need to complete our list of names by JUNE 25th in order to go public with the document and use it to generate even greater citizen interest and involvement in the upcoming election. As a first step, there will be an article introducing Step It Up in the next edition of the Heights Observer. The article will include the Agenda and the names of all signers to date, thus our June 25th deadline. We will also host a public forum, Thursday, July 16th to present the Agenda to the community and to invite discussion and broad participation. Details of location and time will follow. Other initiatives are planned. Stay tuned.

Finally, feel free to forward the Agenda to any other CH residents you feel would be interested. They can respond to you (for you to forward to me) or to me directly at mazie.adams at gmail.com or by mail to 1285 Inglewood Drive, 44121, to indicate their wish to be listed as a supporter.

Thanks.

Mazie

HERE IS THE STATEMENT:

Step It Up

Leadership for a great Cleveland Heights

A Citizen’s Agenda for Elected Leadership in Cleveland Heights – Join Us!


As proud residents of Cleveland Heights we value our city government and the substantial contribution it makes to the quality of life in our community. The November 2009 city council election is an important opportunity for us, the citizens of Cleveland Heights, to shape our city’s future. We are looking for city council candidates who will seek out and embrace new ideas and carry out the changes necessary to ensure that Cleveland Heights is the best suburb in the nation.


Cleveland Heights needs leaders who will approach issues in ways that will:

* Capitalize on the ideas and expertise of our talented and diverse citizens, businesses and nonprofits to develop creative solutions to demanding issues.

* Work across city boundaries and regionally to confront shared challenges.

* Work in partnership with our public schools and neighborhoods to strengthen our city and guide it into the future.


Cleveland Heights needs leaders who will take on the tough issues and promote the big ideas that will lead to an exciting future. They must be willing to:

1. Establish a vision for our city as a 21st century suburb that includes financial and environmental sustainability.

2. Advocate for and actively promote the City's support of the CH-UH Schools as a major community asset and means to attract families to move to Cleveland Heights.

3. Set social and economic development goals for the next decade and formulate a strategic plan to achieve them.

4. Work collaboratively with all sectors of the community to create effective responses to the housing crisis that will convert vacant and deteriorating property into positive resources for our city.

5. Actively engage all residents and promote policies that continue and strengthen the rich diversity that we value in our community.


In summary, we are seeking city leaders who will genuinely engage our citizens to create new solutions and ignite our confidence in the possibilities that lie ahead for Cleveland Heights. We are looking for candidates to inspire, unite and mobilize our residents to shape an exceptional future.


Call to Action to the Citizens of Cleveland Heights:


If this citizen’s agenda resonates with you, we ask that you sign on as a supporter of our statement. The goal is to solicit broad citizen participation, then use this agenda to search for, support and elect candidates who will best meet the expectations set forth. Your involvement will help do that!


Signed: Mazie Adams, Russell Berusch, Lindy Burt, Gina Cheverine, Mark Chupp, Rev. Tricia Dykers Koenig, Sheldon Glave, Susie Kaeser, Jeff Smith, Diana Woodbridge

Moving Forward

All too much our civic leaders are commissioning studies to determine what we have done wrong or what should we do. When are we going to commission ourselves to move in the direction of our conversations? Knowing what did not work is helpful in guiding us not to make the same mistakes again (and again); but do we need to keep paying for it?

Our civic leaders keep paying out our money and our charitable gifts for new plans but never implementing them. Again and again. Is it because the plans require too much of our assets? Are the players who should be involved, not involved? Is it because the plans are not workable? Is it because the world around us is changing more quickly than our plans have accounted for?

We need to work within our civic community to grow into strategic thinking rather than to develop strategic plans that are out of date by the time they hit the papers. Part of that strategic thinking includes accountability. Every time we announce a new initiative we need to also determine and voice our next steps. Each time we gather we need to follow up on where we are with those steps, refining our thinking as we go to allow for changes in the world around us.

We (all of us) need to have civic leaders who display accountability and the ability to guide our conversations and use of our assets. We need to continue civic conversations identifying and growing new ideas and leaders. Next step: start or participate in an open forum in your community.

Universal Service

I received an email today from Barbara Crafton of The Geranium Farm regarding universal service for all young adults. She referenced work of Professor Larry Sabato of The University of Virginia's Center for Politics. We need to think about how we train our youth for leadership and for participation in the civic space. She suggests we think about having service as a requirement for any leadership position as well as for everyone else.

"Politics works better when citizens are informed and active participants." (from http://www.amoreperfectconstitution.com/ )

Old Behavior: Command and Control

Cleveland is running far behind the pack in innovative behavior and its foundations are no exception. When around the country foundations and economic development organizations are working with small communities and entrepreneurs, the foundations in Cleveland are turning to the industrial approach. From Crain’s Cleveland Business Sep 3 2007: Sandra Kiely Kolb board chairman St Luke’s Foundation: “Foundations have taken a more business-model approach looking at collaborations... Maybe we’re asking the harder questions of nonprofits, but it’s for their own good.”

Business models are changing and here is Cleveland embracing old models and telling the nonprofits that it’s for their own good. Also the foundations have given up on the power of small group and individual behavior in economic development. From the same Crain’s article: “Mr. Abbott said the Gund Foundation during the last four years has partnered with other foundations to focus on Economic development because no entity is powerful enough to go it alone. And local foundations expect nonprofits to follow their lead.” Perhaps the foundations should be doing less leading and more supporting of innovative behavior. Perhaps the foundations should be doing less telling people and organizations what to do than partner with others in identifying and encouraging new ways of sustainability.

More than ever in Cleveland it seems to be “command and control” instead of “link and leverage.”

Accountability

For years Clevelanders have had the same development leaders. In the last decade their leadership has been less than effective as evidenced by the state of the region, especially in comparison to most other Midwest regions. At what point do we, as the community hold them accountable and either encourage them to severely change their behavior or move aside for people who embrace new effective practices?


Economic development leaders are community leaders only because the community says they are and treats them as such. It appears that these leaders are too much into invest, command, and control rather than invest and advise. As a region we need to refrain from viewing the behavior as a top down process but to turn everything on its side so that we are all on an even plane. We need to stop allowing hierarchies to be the driving force in Cleveland.


Let's return to the old Golden Rule; moving from "He who has the gold, rules." to "Do unto others that which you would have them do unto you."

The Perfect Wave

Friday we were talking about economic development in Cleveland and an analogy was made to sitting on the beach watching the ocean. Those who are lake centric in Cleveland do like watching Lake Erie but I think this was more a thought of sitting on a wide sandy beach watching breakers roll ashore.

Clevelanders and its leaders in particular have too much of a tendency to sit on the beach watching the waves rather than catching the waves.

The thought conversations seem to go:

“Wow! Look at that wave. Well, we weren’t ready yet.

No, that one is not big enough.

Oooh! Look how that surfer is working that board. We can do that.

I wonder if our board is waxed enough.

We stayed up all night planning all the moves and I practiced them in the mirror. We might try them sometime.

That shop owner I talked with sold me a new board and said with it I can do all the new stuff.

I bet I look good in this suit. Red is my color.

Oh, there’s a good wave. Aw, somebody else is already on it.

Are there any cameras on me. They need to shoot from my right.

I wonder if the water is too cold. Am I wearing the right wet suit?

I wonder if I should ask the beach patrol if it’s okay to ride the waves here.

There’s a good wave, but I have sand in my suit.

We have the best boards, the best wet suits, and we know we are the best surfers. We just don’t have all our friends with us.

I really don’t want to look bad surfing.

Oooh! There’s another good wave. Ooops, too late.

Maybe tomorrow.”

Get in the water already!

Sustainable Activity

For years our leaders have been telling us “If you want something done, give us more money public or private. We know what to do and will do it for you.” And for years they put together a strategic plan which gets packaged nicely and put on the shelf next to all of the other strategic plans. Occasionally we listen to someone who tells us that he can think out of the box and will do the right things for us. He ends up making the decisions for us and we gain no capability for sustainability because we have not increased our own abilities.

Occasionally someone comes in and listens to us and our ideas and then goes off and picks what he feels are the best ideas, decides what to do, and tells us to do it. There is a tremendous value placed upon both the people and organizations with money and the money itself. We need to enlarge our thinking to place a greater value on brain power of each of us. We need to value more the individual efforts of smaller organizations working together. We have non-profit organizations that are jockeying for control, growing or sustaining their own fiefdoms. They are spending their energies and monies on protecting themselves rather than furthering their missions.

We need to listen to the wonderful ideas that are being put forward. Then we need to align the ideas in focused initiatives. Empowering all to work together behind these initiatives creates the ability to move forward with lower cost and greater speed. Building trust in getting initiatives done builds sustainability. Sustainability builds a stronger economy.