My good friend and helpmate Madame Gloria has had an innovative and noble idea about letting attrition work to prune the ward structure here, or anywhere for that matter, anywhere that needs to become more efficient in its governmental structures to accommodate declining population and efficiencies and economies available due to technology and regional networking arrangements. "Taking one for the team" is something we should expect regularly from those in public service.
Here are a few things to consider, for the future, assuming increasing density as suburban living becomes untenable and my generation, The Boomers, gets sensible and downsizes into a very affordable pied a terre close to town and to the airports, Hopkins and Burke:
22,500 people X 19 wards = 427,500
25,000 people X 17 wards = 425,000
27,500 people X 15 wards = 412,500
The present situation, in which the population figures are inflated to 427,500 and completely unverified and unfounded, shows we should be at 17 wards right now, according to the dictates of the legislation, if the true number of people actually residing in Cleveland is in the 360,000 to 380,000 range today, as political insiders believe is the case.
22,500 people X 19 wards = 427,500
22,500 people X 17 wards = 382,500
22,500 people X 15 wards = 337,500
Here are the councilpeople by seniority, taking 21 wards down to 15 by attrition of senior members of council:
- Jay Westbrook, 1980
- Ken Johnson, 1980
- Mike Polensek, 1982
- Roosevelt Coates, 1987
- Martin Sweeney, 1992?
- Joe Cimperman, 1997
I'd say Madame give us something to think about, as we verify the population figures. If we're going to do it at all, let's get a big cut out of the way now, using the real numbers. Otherwise, wait to take any action at all until after the census is official. We can't afford to be imprecise any longer. Council must be accountable now, in what they say and what they use to calculate our present and future service.
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