Council Member Seren's comments intentionally taken out of context

To the Editor:

To those residents who are “shocked and inflamed” by CH Council Member Kahlil Seren’s comment at The Wine Spot’s candidate forum, you are entitled to your opinion, but don’t distort what he actually said.

When asked how he would attract non-residents who choose not to live in Cleveland Heights because of our current tax levels, he replied that he isn’t sure that it is worth it to him to attract people who don’t think our city’s assets and quality services are worth contributing to. Blindly offering tax incentives to business doesn’t help a city remain strong; offering whatever it would take to attract people who choose their home based on tax levels is also unsustainable for our city.

If you actually look at minute 42:00 of the video (https://youtu.be/wFNTELBkstA?t=41m1s), the question had nothing to do with the proposed income tax increase, and wasn’t related to current residents either. At no point did he tell anyone to leave the city if they don’t want to vote for the income tax increase. In fact, at that same forum, he said that he personally feels and completely understands the financial difficulty involved (he was the only council member to propose a sunset on the tax increase). He has been very willing to have real conversations about his position; feel free to talk to him yourself.