Steven Bennett candidate for University Heights Mayor

Biographical Information

I am a 25 year resident of University Heights.

What are the qualities of University Heights and what would you do to sustain them?

University Heights is both small town Americana and college town within a large city environment.  Small town Americana is evident through the Memorial Day Parade or a quiet evening walk around the block. College town is evident by JCU campus architecture, the flurry of student activity within the interior campus green space and classrooms, the excitement on athletic fields. As mayor, I will strive to sustain this quality environment through frugal management of city operations to include seeking collaboration with other cities when and where it makes sense to do so. I will also strive to maintain an open ongoing relationship between residents and the University by establishing a citizen’s advisory committee to work with the Council’s University Affairs Committee. As president of the Northeast Ohio City Council Association and a long time executive board member, I have the experience working with elected officials from all over Cuyahoga County and beyond.  As a councilman I supported collaborations with other cities from a consolidated fire and squad dispatch to expansion of City recreation program offerings through payment of the difference between non-resident fees and resident. I also actively worked on solutions to neighborhood stability and University expansion needs successfully.

Do you support the proposed changes to the University Heights Charter as approved by University Heights City Council?  Please explain your position.

I do not support the proposed changes in the University Heights Charter. University Heights residents want a strong mayor responsible for the operation of the city who is directly accountable to them. On the campaign trail, without any prompting, residents have made it known that they want a strong full time mayor. The proposed Charter change removes responsibility for operation of the city from the mayor and gives it to a City Administrator. The City Administrator is not responsible to residents but to a majority on Council who collectively have the power to remove him/her from office. In essence then, he/she works for council, not the mayor. This blurs the separation of executive and legislative responsibility and accountability and weakens the checks and balances between the two branches of city government. The proposed change also requires that the mayor handle resident questions and complaints but removes his/her power to act on them. The mayor must go the City Administrator for an answer or solution and then pass it on to residents. The City Administrator, who makes operational decisions, is effectively insulated from direct accountability to residents and is thereby a contradiction to what residents want.

For more information about this candidate visit http://bennettleads.com/ 

Read More on University Heights
Volume 2, Issue 10, Posted 9:55 AM, 09.30.2009