Thu, Nov 26 2009
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Published September 28, 2009 07:40 pm - The latest Ashtabula City Council debacle, involving the city handling dispatch services for three villages, should lay to rest the question: Can this legislative body ever accomplish anything? Legislators can’t make easy decisions AN EDITORIAL The latest Ashtabula City Council debacle, involving the city handling dispatch services for three villages, should lay to rest the question: Can this legislative body ever accomplish anything? The answer is a resounding and unequivocal NO. Jefferson, Andover and Geneva-on-the-Lake each contracted at least some dispatching services through the Sheriff's Department at a cost of $25,000 annually. Sheriff William Johnson, apparently looking for ways to save some personnel after cuts by the commissioners, decided to double that fee starting Oct. 1 to $50,000. At the same time, these villages are having economic problems and couldn't come up with such a boost. So they went to the largest city in the county and talked to City Manager Anthony Cantagallo and Police Chief Robert Stell. The four political entities worked out a plan that would be advantageous to everyone. Stell agreed his department could do the work by recalling laid-off dispatchers. People would return to work, the safety of the three villages would be ensured and at no more of a fee than they were paying the sheriff. It might not have been the best answer for the sheriff, but he ran that risk when he doubled the fees to financially strapped communities. But despite two meetings and the approval of the manager and chief, council could not make a decision on a plan that would bring $75,000 back to the city treasury. Members came up with weak, irrelevant arguments not to approve the dispatching. As a result, the three communities wisely found an alternative they could live with, contracting with Middlefield in Geauga County for a slightly smaller fee. Ashtabula loses out again, just like when council failed to approve annexation of Wade Avenue property where new schools will be built. The city would have reaped the benefits of income tax money from construction workers and retain money from all of the educators and others who will work at the new elementary schools. The question comes to mind, if council can't act on no-brainer legislation that financially benefits the community, how can it take action on hard decisions? Ashtabula isn't the only case in point. Conneaut City Manager Robert Schaumleffel Jr. has worked out a plan in which a single trash hauler in that city would be hired at great savings to residents, just as has been done in Geneva at a big benefit to its citizens. But council there can't seem to make decisions that obviously benefit its residents, either. November is coming and these two communities desperately need to evaluate candidates, ask questions and elect people who can make decisions, who will work for what is best for its communities, who will be willing to make the easy as well as difficult decisions. 
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