Gary Benjamin candidate for Cleveland Heights City Council
Biographical information
What neighborhood or area of the city do you live in? I live in Cedar-Fairmount.
How long have you lived in Cleveland Heights? What brought you here?
I have lived here 4 years and came because my fiancée, now my wife, took a job in Akron. We had a lot of friends in Cleveland and Shaker Heights so moving here was a natural for us.
Tell us about yourself. HS – Piqua Central in Piqua, Ohio; College at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio; Law School at Wayne State University in Detroit. I practiced civil rights law in Detroit for almost 30 years; got married there and had 2 kids – one of whom still lives in the family house in Detroit and the other got her Equity card as an actress earlier this year and is trying to make it in NYC. I got married to Melody Hart and we live on Delamere and love bicycling, gardening, and politics [ Democrat style]. We are members of Trinity Cathedral and were married by Dean Lind on August 29, 2009. Some of my work in Detroit was with the Gamaliel affiliate there and was a direct political and social response to sprawl. I have been through training on leadership and on urban sprawl as a result of my work with Gamaliel Foundation. I still work with them as a part-time staff attorney for Michigan Legal Services on health care issues. I am employed full time here by UHCAN Ohio, working for quality, affordable health care for everyone. This August has been very busy! If elected, how would you encourage citizens to participate in decision making?I think Step It Up CH shows that our citizens don’t need to be encouraged. They just need to be asked! We need transparency so we know where our tax money comes from and where it goes and can then make our own judgments about priorities in a strategic planning process.
Describe one innovative idea that would transform the city.See www.garyabenjamin.net for several. My favorite is the Kalamazoo Promise. I believe it would revitalize Cleveland Heights, University Heights and the CH-UH School system. It would also force these entities to work together. The basic idea is to provide funding so that every student who graduates from CH-UH HS has college tuition for all 4 years guaranteed. The cost in Kalamazoo is borne by private donors. Similar plans are in existence in Pittsburgh and Denver and this coming summer there will be a conference regarding the “Promise” in Kalamazoo. For about $100 to $200 a person we could fund it here. When tuition is guaranteed people with children want to move in and have their kids attend our schools. When their kids attend our schools those parents will work hard to insure that their child gets a good education in a safe environment. With people moving in property values should stabilize and rise. This year, for the first time in decades, Kalamazoo enjoyed a population gain because of the “Promise.” No other city in Michigan, which is in worse economic shape than NE Ohio, gained population. In fact – all the other cities lost population.
Who are the community stakeholders in Cleveland Heights? What ideas do you have for how these stakeholders can work together toward common goals?See above. Adding health care and University Circle stakeholders to the mix would strengthen the “Promise.” For example, in normal economic times our health systems are looking for nurses and therapists of many kinds. So maybe we can provide job training for those laid off in CH to fill those slots. The main thing we need to start is a strategic planning process involving the major institutions that are here and that surround us; City governments; the school board; Severance; small businesses; homeowners; tenants; people who work from home; faith organizations; colleges and other institutions of higher education; the museums of U Circle; and others. We need to plan proactively for the future instead of just reacting by laying off employees or asking for a tax increase.
What is your plan to develop the local economy?I am not a fan of large employers for Cleveland Heights as I doubt that they would ‘fit’ our style. We need to provide some incentives for small, home based businesses – attorneys, accountants, architects, etc – to move in. To do that we must provide a reliable source of electrical power and perhaps some tax breaks – a discount off of income tax for example. I also see the “Promise” as a development tool. Other goals are
Goal 1: Fix all potholes right now and commit to repairing any pothole within 1 week of its being reported.
Rationale: Potholes make our city look bad and drive potential investors and home buyers away. Potholes make it appear that we don’t care about our city. It shouldn’t be hard to fill them.
Goal 2: Do an energy audit for every City owned structure and have each of them LEED certified.
Rationale: Cleveland Heights has fallen behind other suburbs in ‘green certification’ and energy efficiency. We need to set an example for the next goal to work.
Goal 3: Establish a program of energy audits and support for energy conservation for housing in Cleveland Heights.
Rationale: Save money for all of us! Make our lives a little easier. Follow the example set by our City in Goal 2. This would encourage the development of a ‘greening of CH’ industry.
Goal 4: Start to seriously consider, and build, the bike trails proposed by EcoCity 6 years ago!
Rationale: These trails would allow residents to travel around Cleveland Heights, University Heights, Shaker Heights and Shaker Square without using a car. That would distinguish us as a green city that cares about its residents.
Goal 5: Do a strategic plan regarding city income sources and services to reorganize City government and put it on a long term sustainable basis.
Rationale: Without a plan we will be reactive and simply laying staff off, when we may not need to, or trying to raise taxes, which is another disincentive to people to live here.
What are the best qualities of Cleveland Heights and what would you do to sustain them?The best qualities in Cleveland Heights are the small strip business districts. You can walk or ride a bike and buy most anything you need. We are close to the museums and to downtown. Our people are active and friendly and this is a good place to live. We are close to colleges for those who want to attend and learn and Severance is a handy place. I would build on all of these as part of a strategic plan. More people with disposable income would help all of the businesses and institutions. We have wonderful housing stock that needs to be maintained. The City government needs to help with that. See also answer to #8.
How do you view recent residential and commercial developments in terms of overall planning, architecture, functionality and sense of place? What types of new development do you think are appropriate and realistic for Cleveland Heights?I am not sure we need any new development. We have vacant houses – that is we have too many housing units – now. The developments in the recent past - $300 million worth – have not stopped the population loss nor the drop in median income. These developments generally are not fully occupied and are as expensive [or more expensive] than many of the beautiful old homes that give us a unique character and that are a major asset of this city. We gave them tax breaks to build here and they really don’t appear to have had the effect we had hoped.
Describe one way that you think the city could realistically work cooperatively with other local governments to reduce costs and/or improve services.I like the idea the Mayor is supporting about combining Fire Depts. with University and Shaker Heights. We need to look at doing more of that, maybe even consolidating cities, to create a more effective government structure. The balkanized suburban structure coupled with the 150 year old fragmented and costly County government all needs to be changed. I thought Councilman Tumeo’s idea of combining Cleveland and University Heights had merit.
What would you tell a current resident of the City of Cleveland Heights who was thinking of leaving town?I encourage people to stay but since we moved in more than one friend has moved out. In fact, my fiancé at the time (who is now my wife) had decided to move out of the city after the she saw the city council pushing a tax increase and not trying to address expenses strategically. (She is a CPA and works in finance for Goodyear). From her standpoint, as an executive, she compares the areas in which she can live weighing the ‘lifestyle’ benefits of living in Cleveland Heights against the rising costs. From a financial standpoint it is clear that living in a newer suburb would be wiser. It is this huge disincentive that we need to offset with lifestyle advantages and tax or other incentives to residents to move in and to stay here. Tax increases would chase wage earners out of the city to destinations that are more conducive to people with good incomes. Hence you continue to see our average wages declining as higher wage earners move to places like Solon and our average population and income drops, increasing the tax burden for those who remain. It is a vicious cycle and I have seen this happen in other cities, which is why I feel my experiences in inner ring suburbs and urban areas can help to reverse this trend. The ideas I present are a menu – I’m sure there are other ideas out there as well. We need to try everything we can to reverse the negative trends. I intend to be on Council to enact the programs that will attempt to reverse our population and income loss.
How would you market the City of Cleveland Heights to a prospective resident?Seemy answer to the question about my plan to develop the local economy.
Please give one concrete example of how you propose to address one of the following real or perceived quality of life issues: crime, litter, vacant storefronts, disengaged youth, foreclosures/vacant houses, population decline, public school performance, high taxes.See my answer to the question about "one innovative idea."
To learn more about this candidate, visit www.garyabenjamin.net