Of us. Over us. Local elected leaders in times past thought of themselves of the former. Today, most seem to think of themselves as the latter. The latest manifestation of that unfortunate transformation is about to cost you significant dollars. My frame of reference on this is nearly 45 years of journalism, dealing with countless elected officials in multiple states, but let’s start before that, in the South Jersey suburb where I grew up. The mayor during my teen years lived down the street from me, not close enough to be considered a neighbor but near enough for a wave when he drove past. His last name happened to be Quinn, but we weren’t related. He was best known for opening the first McDonald’s in our town, which back then was a significant event. Everyone talked about it and visited. He worked there each day, often alongside his daughter, greeting and serving patrons. He gave free burgers to school kids with straight-A report cards. He regularly handed out free fries. Everyone knew him. Everyone liked him. He was one of us, and he never forgot that when he served as mayor. He and the council members understood their community and their duty to it. Step forward a few years, and I’m covering another South Jersey town in my first newspaper job. A wealthy town it wasn’t, filled with rundown houses and weedy yards. Residents scraped to get by. The town council members I covered worked blue collar jobs, sometimes arriving at meetings in their uniforms. And just about every conversation involved working within a limited budget to provide basic services while avoiding more tax burdens on their neighbors. They understood the struggles of those they represented, because they were of them and had the same struggles. They had no political aspirations. They saw their roles as duty -- public service to keep their town running. I saw the beginning of the evolution from “of us” to “over us” not quite a decade later, during a year covering a tiny central Florida community on the cusp of affluence. Florida, like today, was rapidly growing The council there was a mix of old-timers, who knew the town as the backwater it had always been, and new residents with visions of a rich future. The old-timers were tight-fisted, guarding the budget against extravagance. The new folks wanted to spend away, investing in infrastructure they said would pay off with growth. One of the biggest battles I covered was over a road widening. The old timers wanted the basics -- just pavement, sidewalks and overhead wires. The grand vision of the newcomers was a tree-lined boulevard with automatic watering and underground wiring -- a grand entrance befitting their expectations of prosperity. The old timers worried about the long-term residents, who could afford to live in a backwater but not a wealthy Orlando suburb. The newcomers wanted change, even if it left some people behind. I moved on before the debate ended, but I think the old-timers won the day. At least one of the newcomers moved on to higher office not long after. Step forward to today. How many in local government would you say are “of us?” Many politicians get elected and almost immediately consider themselves regal -- above us and deserving of our adoration. One manifestation of this came last year, when Cleveland City Council President Blaine Griffin cut off the microphone at a council meeting because a visitor had the audacity to criticize a council member by name. Ridiculous. Griffin’s action said clearly that City Hall was his house, where he and his colleagues are lords and masters, and you better show proper respect. The city was sued as a result and soon caved, but the incident made clear: City Council is above us, not of us. We see another example in Cleveland Heights, where I’ve lived for 28 years. Residents here voted overwhelmingly two years ago to end a government where council ran things and elect a strong mayor. But now a council cabal works to amass power, partly through secret meetings that likely break the law. These council members are not of us, obviously, because we voted to take their power away. They are working against us. They want to be over us. We’ll likely need another charter amendment to end their nonsense. I said at the start that this of-us-over-us evolution is about to cost you money. How? Unvoted tax hikes. Cuyahoga County has just completed the rigorous reassessment of home values that’s required every six years, and the unprecedented increases average 32 percent. In Ohio, our property taxes are not supposed to go up with reassessments. Part of our tax bills are exempt from that protection, though, and we will see big increases in our 2025 tax bills. Cuyahoga County and its cities had no reason to expect the windfalls they will receive in these unvoted tax hikes. They were not relying on them to balance budgets. Suddenly, on the backs of unsuspecting taxpayers, the cities and counties have extra millions to spend. The county and city leaders tell us they need it, but they don’t. They’re like hogs wallowing in slops, feeding at the trough of taxpayer dollars. They can’t resist devouring our cash. Our Editorial Board published a piece strongly advocating that every government give the money back to taxpayers, who are strapped. But they aren’t. Not one that we know of. The councils that run the county and the cities are not of us. If they were, they would understand the hardship these increases place on their neighbors. If they were like Mayor Quinn of my hometown or those guys in that blue collar suburb I covered, they would, without hesitation, give that money back. You can do something about it, though. You can remember that these folks work for you and then forcefully remind them. You can send them emails or show up at their meetings to demand the money back. Small-town politicians fear vocal groups of residents. Be fearsome. And, if you fail to get action, you can use democracy to get change. You can rally your neighbors to adopt a practice of voting against incumbents every time they appear on ballots, until we get public servants who understand that their duty is to their neighbors. Their duty is to us. Let’s find leaders who are of us. I'm at cquinn@cleveland.com Thanks for reading |