I’ve been told that Columbus City Hall is where good ideas go to die.
One part of the Monday, March 2 “Our City Our Say” meeting was the opportunity to communicate with other people who 1. Love Columbus, and 2. Aren’t afraid of doing something different. It was your standard small group brainstorm activity that provided a well-fertilized garden of ideas from just your average citizens.
- A City Council “Scorecard.” There is no job description or evaluation for the part-time job of City Council (no attendance policy either). Why not create a simple “Scorecard” to rate the effectiveness of each council member? More accountability and responsibility to the people?
Last Nov. only about 11 percent of Columbus residents even took the time to vote. What if 50 percent of residents voted? A simple “Scorecard” might give the kind of feedback that voters and non-voters have been desperate for.
- Rolling back tax abatements. Columbus gives out over a hundred million dollars in tax abatements to wealthy developers and real estate investors (who also generously donate to the campaign funds of your Mayor and City Council). This reduces money for our public schools and basic services.
What could be accomplished just by rolling back all tax abatements by 50 percent? A permanent homeless shelter? More than affordable housing for those living in poverty? Almost every tax abatement is approved and many of those developers give generous campaign donations to the Mayor and City Council. Keep the tax abatements, just cut everything by 50 percent.
- Eliminate the “Surveillance State.” Not only does Columbus have police drones who observe from above (without any citizen advisory committee), but your city has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to install the “Flock” camera systems. These solar-powered cameras not only record license plates, but also the type of car and even nearby pedestrians. All of the camera information is available to ICE by request. It’s trading privacy for security.
Other ideas that appeared to have common ground also included:
- Redrawn district maps that represent communities without diluting the votes of African-Americans. Some of the district maps were also drawn so that members of City Council wouldn’t be required to move. Designed around the member instead of the community.
- More affordable housing and “deeply affordable” housing for the working poor. Developers hate the poor because they don’t make as much profit from them.
- Make the job of City Council fulltime with a job description and attendance policy written by citizens instead of City Hall.
- More communication and easier to understand information on the city budget and how it’s created. The process is difficult to understand and changes appear to happen in secret behind closed doors.
- Out of control development everywhere with a lack of long-term priorities. No master plan for city growth unlike most other cities in Ohio. No effort or urgency to plan for climate change.
- Requiring City Council to attend Area Commission meetings to better learn what is going on in their community (they don’t).
- Columbus homelessness. More homeless die in Columbus every year than any other city in Ohio. It’s a choice to ignore the homeless.
- Cutting down mature trees and a lack of tree canopy across the city.
- Difficult to communicate with members of City Council. It appears that being on City Council is a “special club” and once you are given the job you don’t have to do anything other than record Facebook videos. Some members of City Council don’t respond to the questions of citizens.
One small group made the statement that what they were asking for “wasn’t innovative” – in other words, these were obvious expectations.
Other cities respond to the needs of their citizens. Having transparency inside City Hall isn’t “rocket science.” Columbus just chooses to not have any since the gerrymandered “Hybrid At-Large” voting system requires no accountability. There isn’t any competition because the system is designed that way.
Everyone at the “Our City Our Say” March 2 meeting seemed to believe that city government should work for the people instead of just the rich and powerful. Maybe they will take the first step with the ballot initiative to establish an honest voting system for Columbus.
Will you be a part of that change or have you given up on the future of the city? I challenge you to make an effort. Don’t give up on Columbus yet.
