Recall of mayor ill-advised and waste of money

Just because we don't agree with a politician's policy decisions is not a good reason to go through the time and expense of a ballot recall. Local gadfly attorney, Warner Mendenhall has started a web page and drive to recall the mayor. The ABJ reports a list of his reasons, none of which involve criminal behavior, which to my mind would be a driving reason to recall a politician.

The mayor angered many people when he attempted to sell then lease our city sewers to create a college scholarship fund to keep Akron students in our city. The voters were not convinced that this was a viable plan, and that includes me. The plan was defeated soundly and another measure that gives citizens the right to vote on any future plans to lease or sell public utilities was passed.

Instead of spending some $160k to recall the mayor who was reelected in 2007 for another four year term, we would do better to face our city's problems straight on and come up with better solutions to the problem of a dwindling city. Much has been done to improve Akron over the past twenty years, but we have a long way to go to make its population go up instead of down.

Frankly, I want to see some fresher, younger faces on the political scene with ideas that match up to the challenges of the 21st century. I'd especially like to see more women involved in local decision-making. Holding a recall election is not going to make new highly qualified candidates suddenly appear.

One of the mayor's plans that was announced in his last campaign has yet to see the light of day. The long talked about Greenprint for Akron was supposed to be launched this fall, but it looks like the Sewers for Scholarships plan got in the way of its appearance. I am waiting very impatiently for news of what is happening with the Greenprint. If Akron is to be attractive to outside businesses and people looking to relocate, then we have massive greening to accomplish here. Allowing ourselves to get distracted by an unnecessary recall vote will undoubtedly put it on the back burner once again.