Summit County Issues

My self-assigned homework is taking awhile to finish. Good thing I didn't give myself a deadline other than next Tuesday, November 7th.

Taking a look at the county-wide issues, I see that I'm going to vote to increase my taxes to support Metro Parks, while maintaining the current tax level in support of the Akron Zoo. I'm a sucker for public spaces and taking care of animals.

So that's a Yes on Issue 18
And a Yes on Issue 20

Issue 21 is a proposed charter amendment "to facilitate the fair and effective administration of elections by establishing deadlines for County Council to apportion the County into Council legislative districts." I'm shocked! They don't have deadlines in place already? What can they be thinking?

Issue 22 provides for the election of a nine member non-partisan Charter Review Commission, commending with the November 2007 election." I had some homework help on this one. Vote NO, because it is poorly written and will end up in a law suit if passed. It was also proposed by the county Republicans which makes it a bit suspect in this election. Essentially, it is ammendment to elect nine people who meet to review proposed charter ammendments. It leaves me scratching my head and wondering what is charter government and why do we have it? More homework, sigh. Meanwhile, I'll go with my inside sources and Vote NO on issue 22.

Issue 23 will "prohibit any person who is related to an elected County official, unclassified County employee, Country employee at a level of Director, or Country employee whose County salary exceeds $80,000 per year to be eligible for country employment." This is the "nepotism" issue that is in response to the hiring of Chrissie Congrove as Animal Shelter Director by James McCarthy, County Executive. Chrissie is the daughter of country councilman Dan Congrove.

I find it interesting that there is a monetary limit to this law. If you make less than 80K, then it is ok to hire your relatives. What if the relative is perfectly capable and in fact, is someone who would do a great deal of good? Is it fair to automatically deny employment to someone because they are related to someone? I'm not sure about this law at all and so I make no recommendation.

Tomorrow, I hope to find out who my county council representative is and whether I should vote for them to stay in office. There are also two city of Akron issues that I need to consider, as well as all the local candidates who want to represent me and who want to be judges.