Say Yes On Issue 2

I read a full page Letter to the Editor in last week's Lakewood Observer in favor of voting no on Issue 2.  Really?  Let’s get out the violins and yank on your heart strings, or, if you are gullible enough, please believe all those TV ads which tell you that your police and fire departments, your schools, your hospitals, will all be empty of staff if you don’t vote no on Issue 2.  

Here is the reality: they are telling you that the city council man/woman you elected are criminals who want to steal your safety.  Mayor Michael Summers wants to have your granddaughter burn up in a fire. Right?  So instead of giving your elected officials the right to represent you, you prefer some unnamed, unelected, and unchecked union boss?  God help us.  Every time I see some city council voting to condemn SB5, I see a bunch of people who are saying I can’t be trusted, give my job to the union boss, because they are the ones really paying me.

Why not talk about the real problem?  We have lied to those police and firemen and teachers and nurses.  We can’t afford their retirements.  We can’t afford them, period.  And when we run out of money, the Mayor doesn’t lay off his/her secretary, they lay off police and firemen and teachers.  The ugly truth is that we are not looking at HOW our tax dollars get spent inside those departments, where we are top-heavy with senior people making the most while laying off the ones that would and could run into burning buildings.  Instead of having this war demonizing the people who are in the center – the tax payer and the safety forces – why not vote to give your school boards and your city council the right to run your cities and give you the services you elected them to give you?  Here is something the unions are not telling you: SB5 takes away Binding Arbitration but gives you, the voter, the ultimate right to decide if you want to pay for more, more, more time off with pay, vacations, early retirement, etc. because if an issue becomes totally unresolved, it goes to the ballot box.  Yes.  That isn’t being shown on those TV ads where they want to give you the con job and prey on your fears and emotions.

 If you vote YES on Issue 2, you are voting to give back control to your local elected official (even if they don’t want it).  So ask yourself, is Ed Fitzgerald untrustworthy of deciding how to allocate tax dollars?  If that is not true, then why did you vote for him to run Cuyahoga County?  Voting Yes on Issue 2 says that you don’t want to be laying off valuable safety forces so some can get unsustainable retirement packages and increasing benefits we can’t afford.  Saying Yes on Issue 2 says you want to make things sane and put the adults back in charge.  Twenty six years ago, Governor Celeste altered the bargaining table and gave the union bosses power over our communities they have since abused. Maybe that was the right thing to do at the time but after all those years, we have racked up $8 billion of debt in Ohio.  That kind of behavior can’t continue!  Now we can fix that. 

We still have the power to decide locally if Issue 2 is a YES, except now it will be more transparent and more honest because our city officials won’t have their power taken from them.  If you believe the rich and powerful are going to step up and hand over their money – because I have been to a Democratic meeting where they believe some rich guys are going to give up 96% of their money and smile while doing it - then vote NO on Issue 2.  But the truth is, we are the ones who pay RITA.  And ultimately, we are the ones who should have the right to say what we want and what we can afford, not some union boss.  And we will still have that power if we vote YES.  So ask yourself if you are going to say YES to sanity, YES  to economic reality, YES to understanding that the City of Lakewood and State of Ohio are in economic chaos and we must take back control. Or are you going to be fooled by tears and emotional blackmail?  

Mrs. Cynthea Sabolich