Report: Westshore Council Of Governments (WCOG) Meeting, Wednesday September 10, 2014
Highlights of this month's WCOG meeting are presented here. For the full LWV observer report, see the Observer's website or LWVGreaterCleveland.org. Official minutes are prepared by Mayor Patton's office and are available on Fairview Park's website.
Guest Cuyahoga County Director of Regional Collaboration Jennifer Scofield:
In June, Ms. Scofield replaced Ed Jerse, who retired in December. She does not manage the county’s various shared services, but rather is charged with facilitating utilization of shared services.
Ms. Scofield provided a handout listing shared services currently offered by Cuyahoga County. Most of the services are in public safety and justice services, such as the MARCS radios that WCOG communities obtained through the county, joint training opportunities, facilitating jail and fire service regionalization, and the REDSS (Regional Enterprise Data Sharing System). Other shared services include public works such as sewer, road, and bridge maintenance; operations training and some service provisions for human resources; IT training and maintenance; grant writing assistance; and regional geographical information services (GIS). Mr. Greenspan presented a summary of the services used by each of the WCOG municipalities.
County Council Update:
Mr. Greenspan said that the county is considering demolition grants for blighted property that would be independent of the Land Bank but contain incentives to use the Land Bank. As envisioned, the grants would be in the form of interest-free loans to the municipalities. These loans would be repaid by dedicating half of the increase in property taxes on the demolished properties for the term of the loan. Any balance remaining at the end of the term would be forgiven. Only a small number of properties in the WCOG municipalities would be eligible for the grants.
NOACA:
Lakewood has a permanent seat on NOACA, and Mayor Summers reported that the reorganization presents a challenge for Cuyahoga County. All the other counties routinely send all eligible voting members and vote in a block, but Cuyahoga County has been very fragmented and has done a poor job of defending its interests. For example, Cuyahoga County rated 87 out of 88 counties in license fees that are returned to the county. Mayor Summers expressed the conviction that the most important initiative of the next county executive would be to spearhead a cohesive caucus in NOACA to defend Cuyahoga County’s interests.
New Business:
The mayors began a discussion about exploring utilization of alternative fuels. Mayor Clough reported that RTA had announced that the next fleet would use alternative fuels. Mayor Summers reported that Clean Fuels Ohio could provide grant funding for a shared alternative fuel depot. Possibly a shared alternative fuel depot could also be opened to the public as an additional source of financial support.
The Westshore Council of Governments was founded in 1971 "to foster cooperation between municipalities in all areas of municipal service." All meetings are open to the public. The next meeting will be October 8, 9:30-11:30 a.m., in the Fairview Park Gemini Center's Birch Room.