Candidate for UH Council - Kevin Patrick Murphy

Kevin Patrick Murphy

KEVIN PATRICK MURPHY

2304 Loyola Road   44118      Age: 33

kevinpatrickmurphy33@yahoo.com

 

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION:

Education:  B.A. – Miami University, 2000.  J.D. – CWRU School of Law, 2000

Occupation:  Partner – Walter & Haverfield

Qualifications:  5 years on City Council

Community:  St. Ignatius High School Alumni Association.  Cleveland Bar Association, 3R's Volunteer

QUESTIONS and RESPONSES:

 1.  The most important thing:. City leaders in University Heights must ask two important questions: 1.  Does University Heights need to provide all of the services it currently offers? The answer is, in most (but not all) cases, YES. 2.  Does University Heights need to perform all of the services it currently offers? The answer is, in many cases, NO. Cuyahoga County is making $100 million available to local municipalities to foster municipal collaboration.  University Heights must utilize the county’s vast resources and begin work on collaborative efforts immediately.

2. Regionalism: University Heights is 1.9 square miles and provides the same core city functions as the City of Cleveland, which, by way of comparison, is 82.4 square miles - over 40 times its size. University Heights is looking at very limited operating budgets in 2012 and beyond. Inter-jurisdictional collaboration is not a trend, it is an economic reality that must be implemented immediately in order for our City to afford necessary upgrades to buildings, infrastructure, facilities and equipment.

3. Housing market: Nothing is more important than a city's housing stock to attract new residents and keep existing residents within its borders. To this end, local building codes in University must be strictly enforced. However, rather than taking residents who are unable to afford the required improvements to their residences to housing court (where they will be subject to significant fines and court costs), the City should allocate funds to provide low-interest loans into order to allow those residents to bring their homes into compliance. In this instance, assistance is a far better use of community resources than enforcement.

4. CH-UH levy: In the CH-UH school district, after just 5 years on the job, teachers receive tenure, making them practically impossible to fire - regardless of job performance. I don't support the levy because the root of the problem is systemic and cannot be solved by throwing more money at it. Despite spending the third-most money per student in the State of Ohio, CH-UH's graduation rate and test scores remain shamefully low. We will not see any real improvement in the school district until administrators are given the ability to fire ineffective teachers -and pay the ones who actually are effective more money.

 5. Development: As a relatively small municipality of just 1.9 square miles with little or no developable land, the City should focus its efforts on economic and business redevelopment at its primary commercial gateways: Fairmount Circle, Cedar-Taylor, Cedar-Center and Cedar-Green.

6. John Carroll: The City and the University need to recognize that their futures are inextricably linked. The lines of communication must be truly opened to allow the entities to work together to formulate and execute a shared master plan that is mutually beneficial to both institutions.

League of Women Voters

League of Women Voters (CH-UH) Voters Guide Editor.

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Volume 4, Issue 10, Posted 10:22 PM, 10.02.2011