What does that mean for you and me? It means that the time of politicians’ pandering and making promises to Highland Heights voters has begun.
For fun, let’s keep track of some of those promises--and let's see how many of them are really kept.
Since he’s already a declared candidate, let’s start with two recent promises/pledges made by Mayor Coleman. Are you ready? Here we go....
Promises Made/Promises Kept?
Promise One:
Mayor Scott Coleman promised residents at the Feb 15th Committee of the Whole meeting that he would speak to the city’s landscape architect “by the end of the week” about developing plans, proposals and drawings for the city’s new green space.
Promise Kept?
At the Feb. 22nd Council meeting, Mayor Scott Coleman reported that he hadn't spoken with the architect yet.
Promise Two:
The city’s online calendar was discussed at the Feb. 22nd Council meeting. Like the rest of the city's website, the online calendar is frequently incomplete and is rarely updated.
To give you an example: A listing for the Feb. 16th Charter Review Commission meeting was not added to the online calendar until after that meeting took place.
Mayor Scott Coleman pledged during the council meeting that he would make sure that the calendar is “as up to date as it can be.”
Promise Kept?
I checked the online calendar today. While it seems pretty complete as far as the month of February goes, there is currently only one meeting listed for the entire month of March (which starts Tuesday). Can you guess which one? Why it's the March 8th Charter Review Commission meeting. No other council or city meeting was listed for March.
Updates:
- Topics for this Tuesday’s (March 1st) Committee of the Whole meeting include the new FEMA floodplain maps and the city’s new green space.
- Brian Mader from the city engineer’s office reported at the Feb. 22nd council meeting that he had received the water flow data that FEMA used to determine flood boundary areas and that he had contacted ODNR regarding previous map revisions that the city received for the Williamsburg and Hawthorne Drive neighborhoods. Those flood maps were revised in 1988 and 1995 respectively, based on flood control infrastructure (water detention basins, swales, etc.) installed in those neighborhoods.
- Giant Eagle is apparently proceeding with a traffic study of the Catalano’s area---the first step in putting together a concrete development proposal for that parcel. Law Director Tim Paluf indicated that Giant Eagle was no longer in a rush, having finally accepted that they would not see a zoning issue put on the May ballot as they originally hoped.
Recreation Director Dave Ianiro apparently showed during the last P&R meeting that he prefers to keep his head in the sand, thank you very much.
Council’s P&R representative, Councilwoman Cathy Murphy, reported on Tuesday night that Ianiro asked that the issue of the petition---signed by some 30 pool workers (along with some parents) last September---be “put to bed” without any further investigation, discussion or action.
Councilman Bob Mastrangelo wasn’t happy to hear that. “That’s a significant number of employees,” he commented, “to say that the issue is closed with no action.”
Councilwoman Murphy also dropped a new P&R bombshell. Instead of renovating the Old Pool House, P&R is now exploring the idea of demolishing the building and putting a new P&R facility in its place.
As always, it comes down to money...and priorities.
To be continued....
