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Chris Thompson · Cost of Government in Northeast Ohio
July 14th, 2008
Today several partners, including the Fund for Our Economic Future (my employer), issued research done by the Center for Governmental Research in Rochester, NY, that details what governments in Northeast Ohio spend on various services.
The research examines local government revenues and expenditures for hundreds of governmental entities in Northeast Ohio’s 16 counties. You can access the reports, raw data and summary charts at the CGR web site, live.cgr.org/NEO/.
The research is not prescriptive — it doesn’t tell governments what to do. But it will be used in a wide variety of efforts under way that are examining what changes are needed to make government more efficient and effective. Such efforts include a new 9-member commission that will recommend changes in Cuyahoga County government by early November to the state, and the 21st Century Government Initiative that is taking off in Stark County. The Canton Repository’s take on the research can be found here. And hopefully it’ll be used by the broader public to help them evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of their local governments.
This research is an important step, but by no means the final step, in a very important conversation that the region must have about the structure and effectiveness of our governments. I look forward to seeing the change it helps prompt.
George Nemeth · Callahan’s Cleveland Charter Change Proposal
July 12th, 2008
From Bill:
Finally, Commission member Bill Callahan (that’s me) distributed a request for consideration of two proposals as part of any plan to reduce Council ward representatives. The first (“Collaborative Government”) is specific language for my 1988 proposal for Neighborhood Service Districts. The second (“Transparent Government”) would require the Mayor to make all public records of departments and bodies within his jurisdiction available to the public on line by a Charter-specified deadline.
It’d be a good idea to see what the GCP is proposing in this post too.
