The 140th COP!

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The 140th COP is now out.
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COP: Carnival of Ohio Politics #140

Toledo City Council Should Stick to City Business

Yes, the header says it all. Toledo City Council should stick to city business, meaning the legitimate affairs of the city. Toledo City Council is elected to represent the citizens of the City of Toledo in the operations of city government.
School levies, social service levies, other organizations' levies, and the like such as are written about in this Blade article are not city business. Did you catch that period at the end of the previous sentence? Need I repeat myself? Okay, I will. School levies, social service levies, other organizations' levies, and the like are not city business.

With matters such as described in this other Blade article, the City of Toledo, and by that I mean both the Mayor and the Toledo City Council, should stick to the business at hand of addressing only legitimate municipal business operations.

Just as I believe those other governmental and semi-governmental agencies and organizations should not be sticking their noses into the operations of Toledo City government, so do I believe that the business of those other organizations need to be left to those other organizations and the City of Toledo should not be sticking its nose into their business.

The Toledo Mayor, Toledo City Councilmen, and Toledo City Administration need to spend their time doing those things that we the taxpayers pay them to do. Now then, to them I say: GET TO THE BUSINESS AT HAND!!!

Lindsay Webb: Toledo City Council District 6 Newsletter

Lindsay Webb, Toledo City Council member from the sixth district, has an electronic newsletter available.

The electronic newsletter is an "opted in" service delivered to your e-mail account. If you wish to opt in, you may do so by following this link.

I wish to express my appreciation for having received an e-mail invitation from Lindsay Webb to sign up for the electronic newsletter

Penta Career Center Gives Shaft To Lucas County

Penta Board to Possibly Make Changes is a portion of the title of the June 10, 2008 entry of Lucas County Educational Services Center Updates by Angela Zimmann. Through the title of that blog entry and its contents, readers were informed by Angela Zimmann that there might be action taken at June 11 meeting of the Penta Career Center Board of Education to make changes in the composition and size of the Penta Board. Dr. Zimmann also mentioned that the goings-on would "be reported in the traditional news media." However, regardless of that prediction, there has been extremely little coverage of what transpired and what is underway as a result of what transpired.

Read that entire blog entry over here. And, oh, to the best of my knowledge, nothing of any kind about this specific issue has ever appeared in the local area daily newspaper, The Blade.

The bottom line of the action taken by the Board of Education of Penta Career Center by a split vote of 8 - 2 is that the Penta Board has decided to give the shaft to Lucas County! The Penta Board took action to decrease the representation of Lucas County Educational Service Center by fifty per cent effective January 2009. Consequently, Wood County Educational Service Center with its less than Lucas County local member school districts student enrollment and at about half of the financial tax contribution as that of Lucas County ESC local member school districts will have double the representation and vote as does Lucas County ESC.

The June 11, 2008 Board Meeting Minutes has an item entitled Board Organizational Structure that provides the text of the resolution and the vote outcome, but contains none of the discussion that took place. The minutes do not reflect that a request was made for more information before the vote, but was denied. The minutes do not reflect that an amendment to the main motion was tendered, but was not allowed. Actually, in all matters, the minutes do not reflect very much of any substance.

The traditional media appear not to have covered that meeting action at all. The closest thing to any coverage appeared in the September 16, 2008 Holland-Springfield Journal in which it was reported by Jane Maiolo: "At the September 10 meeting, Judy Hansen of the Lucas County Educational Service Center (LCESC) expressed her belief that the motion may have been voted on improperly. She requested the board seek a legal opinion."

If you read the September 10, 2008 Board Meeting minutes, you will notice that there is absolutely no mention of any kind regarding the concerns expressed by Judy Hansen or of any of the discussion related to those concerns having taken place during that meeting of the Penta Career Center Board of Education. What is the Penta Career Center Board of Education trying to hide? Why are the minutes of the Board meeting vague and less than complete? Why is there no record of discussions that have taken place during official meetings of the Penta Career Center Board of Education? Where is the transparency? Where is the accountability?

A couple of other portions of that Holland-Springfield Journal article in reporting about the June 11, 2008 meeting state: "Joe Rutherford of the LCESC had requested to amend the motion" and "However, Treasurer Carrie Herringshaw said that under parliamentary procedure, only the person who made the motion could amend it. Mr. Meyers declined to amend his motion, which subsequently passed." I am sorry that I cannot provide a link to the full story; it appears that the Holland-Springfield Journal does not have its articles online.

But, that is still not the end of what's been going on. At the October 8, 2008 meeting of the Penta Career Center Board of Education, Joe Rutherford distributed a written letter to the members of the Penta Board. In that letter, which I understand is a matter of public record, Mr. Rutherford wrote that the total student 2007 - 2008 enrollment of Penta Career Center Wood County ESC local member school districts was 8,220 while that of Lucas County ESC local member school districts was 8,420, which means there are more students in the Lucas County ESC local member school districts than the Wood County ESC local member school districts. Joe Rutherford's letter also pointed out that the total property value within the Penta Career Center Wood County ESC local member school districts stands at $991,941,722.00 while that from Lucas County ESC local member school districts is $1,748,103,814 meaning the tax wealth of Lucas County local member school districts is 75 percent greater than that of Wood County ESC local member school districts. (Now, you tell me which County has local school districts that are contributing more taxes to the operations of the Penta Career Center.) It is my understanding that neither the letter nor its contents were acknowledged or discussed during or after the meeting. Nor can I discern whether the letter or any reference to the letter have been made a part of the official public record or minutes of the October 8, 2008 meeting of the Board of Education of Penta Career Center.

I put forth that the procedures followed by the Penta Board are highly questionable. I question the honesty and integrity of those within the Penta Career Center establishment who imposed their questionable processes, procedures, and will upon the elected Lucas County Educational Service Center Governing Board representatives to the Penta Board and upon the taxpaying citizens of Lucas County local member school districts.

I smell a cover-up of monumental proportions by the Penta Career Center administration and by the Penta Career Center Board of Education. I see the taxpayers of Lucas County ESC local member school districts being shut out by an elitist group on the Penta Career Center Board of Education. I assert that Lucas County ESC and its local member school districts have gotten the shaft from the Board of Education of the Penta Career Center.

Angela Zimmann and Barack Obama

I remind you all that sometime back, I wrote Lucas County Educational Service Center: Angela Zimmann, Governing Board Member.

Well, it seems as though Dr. Angela Zimmann has made the national and even international news and her picture is all over the map and web. And, she is not alone. It seems the media is carrying on quite a bit about Angela Zimmann and Barack Obama, the Democratic Party candidate for President of the United States of America.

Proof of what I write is in the following:
Canada's cnews.canoe.ca
DemocraticUnderground.com
USA Today
Yahoo! News
Sympatico News msn
Boston Herald
VenturaCountyStar.com

That's just a few. Angela Zimmann, you go girl!!!
You along with Barack Obama have really put Lucas County, Holland and Toledo, and Ohio into the political news all over the place.

Glass City Jungle and the Trolling Flamer Cyberbully Factor

I have never made a secret that I don't much care for persons who write on the internet in an anonymous fashion. As time has passed, I have modified that perspective, however, as it relates to anonymous posters who carry on an intelligent dialogue and who generally write comments that are factually based and/or base their opinions on factual information as they perceive it. Several of these anonymous persons have earned and gained my respect and even my admiration as they have proven their credibility.

However, I don't have any use for internet trolls, internet flamers, and cyberbullys of whom I have made my displeasure abundantly clear on many electronic bulletin boards, forums, and blogs as most people who are familiar with my online presence are aware.

It is because of these internet pests that I ceased my participation in Toledo Talk and SwampBubbles. It got to the point that personal attacks by anonymous cowards just ran rampant; and, in my own personal opinion, there was very little constructive dialogue.

I have seen the same type of thing occurring with ever-increasing frequency over at Glass City Jungle and am near the point (and have been for quite some time) of discontinuing any further participation in that blog. The only thing that has kept me going there is the hard work of Lisa Renee Ward with her dedication to provide information in an open format with honesty and fairness, along with the great admiration and respect I have for Lisa Renee.

Let me provide the latest example of what has been posted by what I consider a flaming troll cyberbully over at Glass City Jungle that as me troubled.

On October 8th, 2008, in a message thread on Glass City Jungle, I wrote the following comment:
"Not Again asserts No one usually reads what freidman has to say.

I’m wondering how Not Again has reached that conclusion. Did “Not Again” conduct a poll? Where is the data to substantiate the allegation?

Incidentally, Mike Friedman uses his real name. Mike Friedman has been active in politics and the community for 40 years. Mike Friedman lets readers know who he is and therefore is “an open book” which may be judged based on knowing who he is and where he is coming from. Whether one agrees with him or not, at least Mike Friedman has the courage to speak his convictions without hiding behind the cloak of anonymity as many of the gutless trolls and flamers that comment on blogs and elsewhere on the internet."

To that comment, Not Again responded:
"Who cares roland, in my opinion friedman is an irrelevant old man. And, in my opinion, no reasonable person should care about his rants. Or even read them, unless they want to chuckle! :-)
Your silly rants about using one’s real name is also a joke. You are also an old man, with nowhere to go, except retirement and a pension though your years of mediocre public service. And no one can take that away from you.

I realize you want more, to be a big player, and as you have said; you have begged the king pins in toledo to let you help run this place, into the ground. And there has been no answer. So you continue to stand on your mount and rant about nothingness."

Now, I admit that is a mild example. I have read much, much worse that have been written attacking a number of people besides me. None-the-less, it is this type of thing that makes me wish the Confrontation Clause could be applied to civil matters of the internet world rather than just in criminal proceedings of the United States jurisprudence system.

Unfortunately, those of us who have been personally attacked have no recourse; and, we are not afforded the opportunity to personally confront our attacker face to face. Hell, we do not even know the identity of the attacker because their identity is kept confidential even by those who allow them to write fighting words on their websites and blogs. Hey, "shouting fire in a crowded theater" is not allowed, but a flaming anonymous idiot is allowed to make mean-spirited, hateful, instigating comments personally attacking another under the misguided banner of free speech.

I believe that the owners, administrators, managers, and operators, of internet websites, bulletin boards, forums, and blogs should be responsible and accountable for what appears on the web sites that they control. Furthermore, I am of the opinion that they perpetuate and even encourage the presence of internet trolls, internet flamers, and internet bullies just by allowing such trash to be published.

John McCain: Retirement, Social Security, AFL-CIO COPE

I sure am glad that the George W. Bush initiative supported by John McCain to privatize Social Security was never adopted. Wonder why? Just click and read the following:

Retirement accounts have lost $2 trillion - so far
Social Security debate (United States)
John McCain Revealed > Retirement Security

I think those three references say it all!

Keith Wilkowski and Toledo Wind

Potential candidate for Toledo Mayor Keith Wilkowski is proposing that the City of Toledo spend $50,000 to establish a wind-testing program in which "testing towers" would be erected in order to monitor wind speeds in various locations that then could be used to determine future potential wind-power turbine locations. You may read The Blade news story about that proposal over here.

I find this to be a very interesting idea. For the life of me, I cannot figure why it has taken over twenty years for this concept to receive some attention in Toledo. It was over two decades ago in 1985 that I first proposed the possibility of using wind energy in Toledo. That was when I proposed exploring the possibility of using a windmill (aka wind turbine) to generate electricity in a city-owned free-standing and somewhat small building. I did so while serving in my volunteer capacity as the President of the Citizens League Of West Toledo, a nonprofit community corporation better known through its acronym C.L.O.W.T. Back then, C.L.O.W.T. was instrumental in advocating and renovating the Ottawa Park Shelter House and putting it back into public use. Furthermore, C.L.O.W.T. had signed a five-year lease with an option for another five-year period to manage and operate the facility that then became known as the Ottawa Park Community Building. At the end of the initial five-year period the City of Toledo decided not to renew the five-year option, and instead turned the facility into a Nature Center operated by City of Toledo Parks and Recreation.

I digress. Back to topic. Back in 1985, I was told by the architects, engineers, and other "professionals" that Toledo and northwestern Ohio was not a good location for wind power; and therefore, the idea of wind-power generated electricity that I had suggested was not feasible. As the years have passed, I have seen wind turbine fields constructed in the Bowling Green area of Ohio; and now, I read that Keith Wilkowski is suggesting at least looking into the feasibility of wind power for Toledo.

Who would have thunk it? Oh wait, I guess that's Hooda Thunkit.

Well, blow me over! I'm not blowing wind when I say more power to Keith Wilkowski and to Toledo wind. And no, I am not just blowing smoke; that is Tim Higgins.

Now, if only I can get the golf cart industry to build an entire fleet of solar-powered golf carts with the solar cells on the flat roof of the golf cart.

Maumee Lorraine

Just a quick short note to say hello to Lorraine who has traveled 2000 miles and is visiting in Maumee while having attended the homecoming festivities of the University of Toledo this past weekend.

Hello.

Would you believe? Another COP OUT!

Hey, don't take my word for it! Read about it for yourself.
Go on over to Carnival of Ohio Politics: Carnival #136