So far, my little grassroots effort to get restaurants to deliver a little bit of democracy- a non-partisan postcard with the candidates names, pictures and websites, along with voting info Delivering democracy small pdf has been supported by these restaurants:

• Dayton’s Original Pizza Factory: 224-4477
• Dragon China 293-3888
• Pie Pizzeria 228-4PIE
• Submarine House Brown Street 222-7939
• West Carrollton Marathon drive thru by CarMax
• Sushi cafe
• Marcos Pizza West Carrolton
• Papa Johns West Carrollton
• Donatos West Carrollton
• Orchid Garden West Carrollton 866-2254
• Halal International Grocers – both locations
• Gyro Palace Centerville
• 3 Dips Ice Cream Shop Miamisburg 247-5914
• Milano’s Brown Street 222-7072
• Ron’s Pizza House Miamisburg 866-4321
• Pappa’s Pizza Palace Miamisburg 866-3392

1. FoodCity is delivering democracy to the Bass http://twitpic.com/24h7wh 37 minutes ago via TweetDeck
2. Carryout has democracy inside http://twitpic.com/24h4fs about 1 hour ago via TweetDeck
3. Bingo Drive Thru is delivering democracy! http://twitpic.com/24h28d about 1 hour ago via TweetDeck
4. JJ’s fish & Chicken has democracy available for pickup http://twitpic.com/24h12d about 1 hour ago via TweetDeck
5. Superior Drive Thru is delivering democracy! http://twitpic.com/24gyxn about 1 hour ago via TweetDeck
6. The Quick Stop is delivering democracy! about 1 hour ago via TweetDeck
7. Casano’sin Drexel is making democracy available for pickup http://twitpic.com/24gt5o about 1 hour ago via TweetDeck
8. Drexel Gas Mart is delivering democracy! http://twitpic.com/24gqf7 about 2 hours ago via TweetDeck
9. Drexel drive thru is delivering democracy! http://twitpic.com/24gotn about 2 hours ago via TweetDeck
10. Domino’s is making democracy available for pickup! http://twitpic.com/24gl7d about 2 hours ago via TweetDeck
11. Fortune Drive Thru is delivering democracy! http://twitpic.com/24gjg8 about 2 hours ago via TweetDeck
12. Delphos carryout is delivering democracy http://twitpic.com/24ggly about 2 hours ago via TweetDeck
13. Christy’s drive thruis delivering democracy! http://twitpic.com/24gepz about 2 hours ago via TweetDeck
14. Rut’s is delivering democracy! http://twitpic.com/24gdjj about 2 hours ago via TweetDeck

1. Ray’s drive thru is delivering democracy! http://twitpic.com/24j807 30 minutes ago via TweetDeck
2. Red House is delivering democracy! http://twitpic.com/24j5pg 32 minutes ago via TweetDeck
3. Main drive thru is delivering democracy! http://twitpic.com/24j4ia 42 minutes ago via TweetDeck
4. Northtoen drive thru is delivering democracy! http://twitpic.com/24j3a9 about 1 hour ago via TweetDeck
5. China Cottage is serving up democracy! about 1 hour ago via TweetDeck
6. Cork n brew is delivering democracy! http://twitpic.com/24iiei about 2 hours ago via TweetDeck
7. Szechuan Taste is delivering democracy! http://twitpic.com/24iftn about 2 hours ago via TweetDeck
8. Ray’s drive thru is delivering democracy! http://twitpic.com/24i8cv about 3 hours ago via TweetDeck
9. UDF at Brown St is helping delive democracy http://twitpic.com/24i5jt about 3 hours ago via TweetDeck
10. Germantown plaza is delivering democracy! http://twitpic.com/24h97y about 5 hours ago via TweetDeck

Please support these restaurants this weekend- and if you know a restaurant who would want to participate- leave a comment and we’ll deliver Democracy flyers to you.

This may be an unorthodox way to spread the word- but this is an unorthodox election- and I’m not your typical candidate.

Thanks- and remember- only 4 polling locations in Montgomery County this Tuesday!

If you do patronize these businesses- tell them Esrati sent you- and thanks for delivering Democracy.

After a writing a blog for long enough, some things just start to write themselves for you. This post is based on comments on the site and a discussion I had with a senior city staff person- and both come back to a recurring theme of my trials and tribulations with Dayton City Hall going back to Inspector Gotcha and vinyl clad garage doors in a historic district.

First from comments on the site:

Bruce Kettelle May 15, 2010 at 9:18 am

There are customized performance based measurement plans in effect in many cities across the country. For example in Pittsburgh they have developed a model that allows the Mayor (and public) to monitor the city by department by setting specific goals (such as the number of graffiti abatements) which are reported monthly. What I find lacking in most of these systems are ways to monitor longer range broad ROI monitoring. Let’s say for instance Austin Road costs x to build, add y for additional studies, marketing, and incentives then compare that total to the amount of new property, payroll and sales taxes (et al) generated by the businesses attracted. Is it beneficial for the project? Is it beneficial for the County? Is it beneficial for the region or state? Those would be great questions to answer.

Pittsburgh’s Pitt Maps reports are here

http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/mayor/html/pittmaps.html

Dayton has also done budget goal setting, here is one recent online report.

www.cityofdayton.org/cco/Documents/Focus2010book.pdf

What I do not see on line is any regular reporting on how they are doing, or how they are measuring their success. Does anyone else know where to find those reports?

via Before raising taxes, Dayton needs a plan.

What Bruce is talking about is the metrics of managing a city. What are our goals. When you asked Rhine McLin or Nan Whaley or Civil Servants are People Too- you hear about our bond rating (as if the bond rating agencies got it right on Main Street any better than they got it on Wall Street)- our “balanced budget” (which is required by law), and maybe even “satisfaction scores” from surveys on the Fire Department (as if we have any comparison- you don’t typically have your house burn down twice- and compare departments). What has been missing is metrics on vision.

For all the smoke and mirrors Mike Turner used- the one thing he did better than the other mayors since Paul Leonard- is talk about accomplishments. It used to make me sick listening to him on the campaign trail talking about his “300 hours of community service”- as if he were using a lawyer’s time sheet to tally his value- but, the reality is- he had a metric and Dixon didn’t. He was a master at taking credit for things like Riverscape- or the Dragons’ stadium- which gave him an air of confidence that’s been sorely missing since. But the reality is that the only metrics that are measured in Dayton are those that we seemingly have no control over: DPS test scores, foreclosures, job losses, population losses, crime.

Whoa. Did I just say we don’t have control over crime? Yep. And here’s why- because we don’t measure anything internally at all. We have no metrics of our own- except a balanced budget and what we spent our money on- like Nan yapping about the 7 bridges- without any metric on how they add value to our population. This is something that reader Jesse has mentioned as well- what’s the value of what we’re buying with our taxes? To whom? Austin Road has been grand for some developers- but, to say it’s “adding value” for a majority of Montgomery County taxpayers would be a stretch- as it just has added more infrastructure for us to support- and more unneeded office space to make the existing space even more worthless.

Which brings me to the City Staffer- with whom I began the conversation by asking if they were in the running to replace Tim Riordan once he’s ready to go. Unfortunately, our current commission is so obsessed with its current predicament little has been done to plan for the future. They hadn’t been asked it- and that’s sending a message to start sending out resumes. This is the last thing an organization needs in a time of crisis. They did weigh in on our lack of a department of customer/citizen service – and pointed out that City Hall still exists as if they have no competition- and no need to “out-perform” and razzle-dazzle the citizenry. It’s been my major complaint since the first time I stepped into city hall- and received blank stares from an elected commission when asking help on my garage doors.

I don’t agree with a “department of customer service” – or a director of it- I believe in TQM- total quality management- where everyone in an organization is committed to delivering maximum value with EVERY transaction. That said, I’d say a majority of government employees don’t have a clue what their job really is- and they just go about it without a single thought about delivering quality.

If you search this site on just the word “Metric” you’ll find I’ve used the term a few times- for various posts. The most important is in the “Esrati plan”- which is there every time you look at the site (unless you are reading it all through RSS). In it is a short part about customer service metrics:

Customer service- Metrics

I’ve advocated this for a long time- before it was an ombudsman who would take complaints, and track resolutions- and report to the Commission. Now, I’d like to install a “Help Desk” to track cases through city hall. The City Manager would be evaluated based on the resolution ratio and qualitative scores generated by the software. We’ll also adopt technology to do some of the reporting, see the post: Data, Dayton and developing our City 2.0

It’s time to put checks and balances on our bureaucrats who are perceived as inflexible and unresponsive. Every city employee must feel as if they are responsible for the perception of our city.

The City Manager would have targets for increased income tax revenues, increased population, higher average home sales, lower commercial property vacancy rates- etc. By placing real metrics in place we can track performance. Currently, we do not seem to have goals and objectives in place.

via Esrati Plan.

In talking with Mayor Leitzell last night as we walked from 3rd and Main to Wright Dunbar (more frequent shuttle trolleys next time DDP) he told me there was talk of a five-year plan- but, that the current commission was worried about getting over the current crisis- before setting goals and objectives. I said I was entirely in favor of a plan- and doing it now- because what we have now is lacking all indications of doing anything except balancing a budget. We don’t know what our objectives are- and we have no way of telling if what we are doing is moving us in the right direction.

I often use the example of American football- the game is so complex- with so many rules- that unless you’ve played or watched the game for years- you’d have no idea what’s going on. In order to win- to score points- there are very important rules to follow- and understanding the objectives- even down to what player is supposed to do what- on EVERY single play- is key to winning. It’s the same with government- although we have no idea in Dayton what the rules are, or what we’re supposed to be doing every day- nor, do we know how we’ll be able to tell if we’re winning or losing.

And, that my friends- is why we’ve been floundering about for the last 20 years as the world has seemingly dealt us bad cards. We don’t know if we’re playing poker or blackjack- and we keep yelling 21 at the roulette wheel thinking that wins.

It’s time to define our metrics and start measuring the things we can control, and learn to live with those we don’t- and have the wisdom to know the difference.

Oh yeah- it’s time to start figuring out who the next City Manager will be- just in case something happens to Mr. Riordan- because that’s the way good leadership ensures continuous delivery of quality service.

Jason Liff is someone I’ve known for a long time. He’s been in real estate as long as I’ve known him, and has done some decent sized deals. He was the one who introduced me to the owner of the Salem Mall- which I tried to save. He also was one of the investors on the Sears deal downtown that netted the investors quite a bit (one of the investors was County Administrator Deborah Feldman’s father-in-law who is her husband’s partner). [update] Jason also put together the Walgreens deal at Wayne and Wyoming- the one that went in ahead of Rite Aid- even though it got the later start (thanks to historic overlay- the forced move of a worthless house and other delays).

I suggested that Jason open a scooter store over 4 years ago. Last year he did. My firm did his identity and some initial ads. He posted this on the free bus ride editorial on the DDN site- I’m not changing spelling or punctuation.

I voted with my money and opened a scooter store on Wayne Avenue. It took over a year to get through the zoning and permitting process . From experience I can report that, but for a few people, the entire system is riddled with a mentality of no , no, no . -“You cannot do this or that & One cannot change the use of a derelict building on Brown Street . No you cannot put your scooter store in The Oregon “, even though a 5000 sf space exists that no one wants to buy or rent. Why do people avoid Dayton ? Demographics of course. In the main there is a systemic business unfriendly all pervasive atmosphere coupled with a perception of potential violence . We need to encourage small business by discouraging and truncating governments strangle hold on new business ! The city government has rooms full of employees who read chapter and verse from the , THE BOOK OF NO . As an early visitor to the NYC SOHO & Tribeca districts in 1970 ,I can tell you these now model districts did not get started by a pervasive and draconian implementing of every minute policy practice and procedure . Like all such areas in the world they start by a few young , artistic, counterculture oriented people looking for cheaper spaces to work and play with some character. Why don’t we finish up tenanting the Oregon district and loosening the regs that stand in the way ? A few community activist in Oregon that were urban pioneers now block changes to completing 5th Street . How about enforcing the speed limit on Wayne avenue ? How about enforcing anti-littering laws . My sidewalk and lot are littered by 100’s of cigarette butts and candy pop cans . How about an ombudsman process that guarantees answers to all zoning and permitting issues in seven days ? National retail tenants are not coming back so go after the small entrepreneurs, the new Americans that are not afraid of hard work and tough clientele and the arts and crafts communities . The RTA has wasted a lot of money on their edifice complex, even so we do not need free busing of more thugs and scary types. What Dayton does have is cheap rent , cheap buildings ,a vibrant artistic community and historic housing stock that people would cry for in most cities. Artists , and musicians especially can find cheap rent at Front Street —We need more ! Finish something already- Try to fill every building on Wayne and Fifth and Brown and Warren. Oh yes bicycle lanes would be great for scooters mopeds and bicycles and any separation from SUV speeders that crowd others while talking on their phones. Untangle the choke holds of the 3 or 4 structures that throttle all but what they want ! Government is the problem—the entrenched versus the new —Until resolved the buildings will stay boarded up and the retail community will stay away . Call me ! Jason Liff Moto Scooto 1400 Wayne

via Editorial: Free bus rides not the city’s best strategy | A Matter of Opinion.

Jason looked hard and long for a location in the city. Almost everything he found – there was a reason he couldn’t go in. The building he’s in on Wayne Avenue- was on “death row.” There were options from the city to buy it that ended in December- so they could tear it down for a Kroger that wasn’t coming. He had to invest in the building, since the owner wouldn’t- to repair the roof which was leaking. Even his paint job- which some may love and some may hate- is technically in violation of the zoning code. The colors aren’t “historic.” Since the building was condemned the city seemed to look the other way.

The location he really wanted- on 5th Street in the Oregon district- a former pawn shop, between a porn shop and Goodwill- is still sitting empty. It was bigger, had the walking traffic he was interested in reaching- and even has a garage door in back. No deal. Wrong use, too intensive, not enough parking- etc. etc. So it still sits empty.

This isn’t the only business person I’ve heard horror stories from, and it’s not hard to hear them. Another businessman who has successfully rehabbed many downtown buildings over the last 20 years and knows his way around city hall at first ran into a roadblock trying to get a demolition permit on a nasty concrete block garage next to his new project. Apparently it had a $7,000 water bill still attached to it. How anyone can buy a building and NOT find out about a water bill for more than the property sold for is another big FAIL at business friendly.

We also have a bed and breakfast fighting for a permit to sell wine in the Oregon District. It took the 5th Street Wine and Deli almost a year to get their permit. This isn’t new, Pacchia and What You Eat both had to fight to get their permits, too. Some “entertainment” district.

I still believe in Dayton- even though I just had my office broken into. But, I remember back to the hassles I went through over 20 years ago to reclaim a derelict building, including a nine-month delay in an occupancy permit and the realization that my zoning is still considered a “conditional use” even though the building was built as a commercial retail structure. To add insult to injury, the building inspector required that my front door (which has a huge window in it) had to have a single key deadbolt with a thumb key- which gave the thieves the ability to break in and get out easier.

Yep, the city of Dayton needs a new attitude, and quick. Mr. Liff spells it out pretty clearly. The question is can an old dog learn new tricks? Mayor Leitzell is only one vote.

In my congressional run, I made a video featuring Woodland Cemetery, one of my favorite places in Dayton. That it’s just four blocks away helps too.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Besides being the tallest point in Dayton, it’s absolutely breathtaking at the crack of dawn when I like to either run or walk through the final resting places of every major name in Dayton- from Dunbar and Deeds to Bombeck, Patterson and Wright.

Founded in 1841, Woodland Cemetery is one of the nation’s five oldest rural/garden cemeteries and a unique cultural, botanical and educational resource in the heart of Dayton, Ohio.

via Woodland Cemetery & Arboretum.

However, a few weeks ago, my secret entrance, a hole in the fence off an alley off Wyoming was repaired. That hole had been there for more than 23 years- and was the South Parkians secret short cut since the big gates by the pump house on Wyoming have been locked at least that long.

I called Dave FitzSimmons, the CEO of Woodland to ask if there might be a way to open the gates to the regular walkers, half expecting a big no. Instead, a week later, he sent me a note saying they’ve put a new lock on the gate and have keys for neighborhood walkers.

Note to most business owners, this is the kind of customer service (and I’m not dead yet) that makes people believe that your brand is better than others. So, if you’re a South Park walker- who misses our old hole in the fence, get in touch with me- I have a key to the pearly wrought iron gates for you.

If you’re going to die anytime soon, and are looking for a cemetery that is more than a cemetery to the community- I can’t recommend any better cemetery than Woodland. However, let’s hope a casket isn’t on your holiday wish list- although he has creches for sale in the new lookout point construction.

I’m going to leave out names, because they really don’t matter. This is an issue of culture in City Hall, and it’s one that needed to be shown the door long ago.

Talking to another local small businessman, I heard yet another story of a small business opening being delayed by Inspector Gotcha. After turning in plans, building to plan, following inspections, when it was time for the final inspection and time to open, Inspector Gotcha jumped out and said “you can’t open, you didn’t enclose xxx.”

One week later, small businessman can open because he has now paid homage to the supreme power of Inspector Gotcha who smugly thinks this type of harassment is what he’s paid to do. And the stupid thing is, 99.9% of the time, if an existing business was doing the exact same thing- not only would Inspector Gotcha not be able to do a damn thing, but the business would be just fine.

Don’t think Inspector Gotcha is only in the Building inspection or permits, he also works for the health department, the fire department (sprinkler inspections), the auditor’s office, the list goes on. He’s more like a disease instead of a doctor- causing illness instead of curing it- no matter what he thinks his perfunctory role in society is.

If we want to see 1,000 new small businesses thrive and flourish in Dayton, we need to take the Inspector Gotchas out into a field and hold a ceremonial bonfire- burning up all their “stop work orders” and “temporary occupancy permits” and “conditional use” rulings. True professionals work to make sure that businesses open on time, to code, and provide safe places to do business. Hacks play Inspector Gotcha.

In fact, we should start fining inspectors for finding things after they’ve signed off on plans, or for delaying the opening of new businesses. It’s time to hold people accountable for adding the PITA (pain in the @$$) factor that they bring to doing business in Dayton.

If you have a PITA story from dealing with “Inspector Gotcha”- feel free to share it in comments- maybe if we have a central repository of stories- we can bring an end to the harassment and additional cost of doing business in Dayton.

At the South East Priority Board candidates’ forum on Thursday night I got asked about my position on changing the priority board system. Simply stated, I believe we need to draw our own boundaries- by neighborhood, instead of letting State lawmakers gerrymander voting precincts so that Mike Turner could win OH-3 and John Boehner could win OH-8, in an area that used to vote Democrat for years (Tony Hall). Makes sense if you think about it, even a little bit.

There is also the issue of having seven priority boards- that are unequal, since 40% of the population is now in South East. Commissioner Whaley and Commissioner Williams and the Mayor have had years in office to address this fundamental flaw in our “citizen participation” system, but have done nothing- except cut staff and funding. My proposal is to make the neighborhood organization leader the representative to the city- and to have them meet directly with the City Manager at least four times a year.

Compare this with the current Priority Boards situation- where not only did the Priority Boards set the number one priority last year as “enforce the laws on the books” especially housing and safety laws, they briefed the City Commission and none of the three incumbents could tell the people at the meeting what that “number 1 priority” was. FAIL. Yes Gary Leitzell, a Priority Board chairperson, knew the answer, and I did not.

When you also consider that many priority board seats are unfilled, that some neighborhoods end up with more reps than others (South Park has 3 by voting precinct plus one neighborhood rep) the whole system seems flawed. In addition, when the system was well funded they not only had at least 3 full-time staff per Board and a pool of money to use on the priorities- and now that’s practically all gone.

We could have spent a few hundred thousand and instead implemented a 311 system to handle and track citizen complaints- and actually have a reporting system that provides data on how many cases opened and closed. San Antonio implemented their 311 system for $200,000 which is less than what we spend on salaries of Priority Board staff in a year.

The ability to identify and track citizen complaints and rate the solutions and close rates gives us real data to evaluate the City Manager’s performance- and a citizen can evaluate the way our Commission holds the City Manager accountable. Not only do we get a near real time system- we also put City employees in charge of customer service (what they are paid for) instead of asking citizens to do it on a volunteer basis. It shouldn’t be so much work to have the city we pay taxes for.

A lot of Priority Board people have stated they won’t vote for me because I’m going to kill their already dead system, but the reality is, the other commissioners have now gone on record saying there need to be changes, they just refuse to specify what they would do. Judging from their inability to introduce new ideas, new systems, or even have a discussion in public about them- you should be able to reach a logical conclusion: it’s time for a change on the Commission.

It’s nowhere as cool as the window stickers in Kentucky- with a numeric grades- but, you can now look up restaurant inspections in Montgomery County online: http://phdmc.controlpanel2.donet.com/index.php?/site/inspections/

Makes it easier for all the amateur food critics to take a peek into the kitchens. Nice job Montgomery County!

I might never have stepped foot inside City Hall if the city had done a better job of establishing a relationship with me, Joe Citizen. Instead, we started off on the wrong foot when a housing inspector told me I was screwing up by putting new garage doors on my $14,500 dump (it seems I had bought a “historic” dump, even though there were no covenants in the deed, or signs in the neighborhood).

Throughout the process of persecution, prosecution and proselytization by numerous city officials who filled jobs that no longer exist, not one actually seemed to care that I was just trying to build my part of the American dream. And sadly, we still don’t have a city hall that listens well, and follows through with any kind of systematic processes designed to make citizens feel respected and valued.

Recently, I’ve watched a friend try to open a small business, and had to listen to the numerous obstacles placed in his way. Another friend told me that her company is working on a $6 million dollar building/investment in Dayton- but, fears the company is about to throw in the towel and go elsewhere where business is easier to conduct.

I’ve often thought we needed a centralized ombudsman to collect and track complaints, which would be presented to the City Commission weekly- with status reports, so the commission could hold the City Manager accountable.

In doing some research for my business, I’ve been fascinated with the collaborative online Customer Relationship Management programs that help organizations collectively track and deliver service to prospects and current customers. Oracle, SAP, Salesforce.com are major players. Small businesses can use ACT! or Goldmine, but there is an emerging collection of Open Source systems like SugarCRM and vTiger.

It seems, there are already some companies targeting municipalities with this type of software- Mountain View CA has implemented a closed source solution- Comcate eFeedback Manager. And there apparently is a whole market segment of CRM for government:

Public Sector CRM Software and Strategy

CRM strategies and CRM software have become a powerful combination in helping not for profit, public sector and government agencies meet their organizational missions. Public sector CRM comes in many forms and may include Constituent Relationship Management, Customer Relationship Management, economic development, outreach programs, trade promotion, case management, help desk, call center, 3-1-1 and citizens self service to name only a few.

The purpose of CRM varies by governmental agency or entity, however, there is always a common focus on the customer relationship – whether your customer is an internal civil servant, a citizen or anybody else.

via Public Sector CRM Software.

I don’t think that software alone is the answer to our problems- I believe we need to re-task the City Commission as a board of directors who must keep the City Manager (our CEO) focused and on mission, with clear goals and objectives. However, that which you don’t measure, you can’t improve (at least that’s what Dr. Mike Cleary taught in QBA 301 at Wright State)- and without some kind of tracking system for complaints and requests, we can’t even start making the kind of changes we need to see if we want to make Dayton great again.

I don’t care how tight the budget is, there are some things you don’t cut, or add charges to. Charging volunteer youth leagues for use of ball fields on a daily basis is one:

Beginning this season, the city is charging all non-city leagues a flat rate of $50 per ball field, per day to use its baseball diamonds.

It would cost Pinewood an estimated $2,500 to play games at Belmont Park and double that to also practice there, said James M. Walker, president of the Pinewood association.

via Local youth baseball leagues feel economic pinch.

That said, I do think the association should be asked to hold fundraisers each year to help upgrade and maintain their home parks. From selling ads on the fences to local business,  to car washes and the like. Some contribution is fair- per day, per field just makes me wonder if I go down to the field at the end of my street- am I going to get a ticket for playing?

But, it seems that we do have money to buy our part-time Mayor lunch and send her on junkets:

Dayton’s and Akron’s mayors have city charge cards; the Columbus mayor does not.

Dayton and Akron pay for their mayor’s travel. Columbus uses a combination of public and private funds.

In these three large Ohio cities, the policies on travel and expenses differ.

Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin is reimbursed for meals in the city that concern economic development or other official city business, said Kery Gray, a spokesman for the city commission, which is like a city council.

McLin, who is a part-time mayor — Dayton also has a city manager — has a city charge card but primarily pays for her expenses and is reimbursed, Gray said.

via Ohio.com – How mayors elsewhere pay their expenses.

Three trips overseas in the name of “economic development” while we’re holding up 3rd graders for user fees?

We have to focus on livability before we try to hustle people to relocate here. Would it make sense for the Mayor of Riverside to make those trips? Why do we have the Dayton Development Coalition? Isn’t that their job?

The Pinewood Athletic League has figured a way to work an end-run around the city policy by playing at the fields at Kemp School.

The only way I know to stop Mayor McLin from being the queen of Dayton on the taxpayers’ dime is to vote for Gary Leitzel.

If times are that tight that we have to squeeze the kids, it’s time to stop giving the Mayor a free lunch.

Two years ago, the City of Dayton finally heard the message: it’s not that easy to do business in Dayton.  So they recently opened the Dayton Business Resource Center.

From their website:

The DBRC is the City’s latest initiative to support the growth and expansion of businesses in Dayton. By housing various economic development agencies under one roof, business customers now have access to a comprehensive set of resources, including:

• One-on-One Business Visits
• Zoning and Plan Review
• Construction & Expansion Permits
• Financing Referrals
• Business Incentive Education
• And much more!

The staff at the DBRC is here to help you find the resources you need by putting you in contact with the people and organizations best qualified to answer your questions.

Unfortunately, the website is flawed in a fundamental way:  most of the information is about the Dayton Business Resource Center, instead of information that instructs or informs the customer.  And housing these agencies under one roof isn’t that helpful if getting through all the City’s requirements is still unnecessarily difficult.  A much more useful resource would be a checklist of requirements for starting a business in Dayton Ohio- or key information for keeping your business running smoothly in the city. And in classic form, they now have a separate URL for this new center- building yet another site for the city to maintain which costs even more money.

But a few days ago, I got a “One-on-One Business Visit” from the absolutely lovely and personable Patricia Russell, a “Business Development Specialist” whom I met on Saturday at the “Vacant to vibrant” conference.

Pat did her best to ask what the city could do for my business and gather data so someone can have a report to look at. I truly believe that she wanted to help, but, many things are beyond her control.  I shared stories of frustrations with the City- from issues on conditional use permits to lack of restrictive covenants in historic property deeds to overly complex tax filing schedules.  But, when pushed to what I thought we really needed I focused on my concerns that we need a single leader- either a strong Mayor or a City Manager, to move us toward clearly definable goals like higher average income, increased population, higher employment, more efficient tax collection, and better customer service as defined through a single customer satisfaction CRM system.

Although I’m not realistically expecting the City to do anything substantial for small businesses like mine, at least an effort was made, and I do feel that Pat was a breath of fresh air compared to other experiences with City Hall.

Customer service is great- but pointless if you don’t deliver basic service first.  The final test of the DBRC should be:  Is it effectively helping businesses and moving our city toward our goals or not?

There are six-sigma consultants in Dayton. There are customer service trainers in Dayton, we have a city full of very capable business people. Clay Matile runs a center, Aileron, that trains organizations to be competitive right here in Dayton. So why does the City Commission hire people from California to “review” the process- instead of hiring someone from Dayton to improve it?

The Dayton City Commission today, March 11, authorized a review of the city’s building permit and inspection process to provide better customer service.

The analysis by the Matrix Consulting Group will cost $60,000.

The company will spend four months reviewing the process used at Dayton’s One Stop Center to issue building and inspection permits.

The goal is to identify ways to accelerate the process and make it more user-friendly.

City commissioners Joey Williams and Nan Whaley will co-chair a committee of public and private sector partners to review the final recommendations.

“We are constantly trying to improve the way we interact with our business partners,” Williams said. “Based upon the feedback we have received, this review is warranted.”

Matrix is headquartered in Palo Alto, California and has branch offices in the St. Louis, Dallas, Washington, D.C, Fort Lauderdale and Boston areas.

via Dayton to review permit, inspection service.

Of course, Commissioners Williams and Whaley are now going to be at the forefront of all kinds of initiatives since they are facing an election in the fall. Anyone who has dealt with the permit and inspection process in the City of Dayton in the last 25 years will tell you it’s not user friendly.

If the City had a single Citizen/Customer Relationship Management system in place, the flaws in our processes would have been identified long ago.

While it’s laudable that the Commissioners want to get involved, this kind of meddling in the day-to-day operations of the City are the responsibility of the City Manager and his staff. If the Commission was working properly, as a board of directors, the objectives would be set for the City Manager and his process for solving the problems would be reviewed.

Unfortunately, our current Commissioners have decided to spend $60,000 of our Dayton tax dollars on high priced consultants from out of town to tell us that too.

Memo to employees of the City of Dayton: When a citizen, a taxpayer, a potential citizen or potential taxpayer calls it’s not optional to return the call.(btw- that should cover everyone).

Ignoring 5 messages left for you is inexcusable- and should be grounds for termination.

Unfortunately, John Gower, head of the department of planning doesn’t understand this. I’ve been calling him ever since I wrote the post:How many pounds of flesh to invest in Dayton

I saw John walking on E. Third street just East of the Cannery today and stopped to talk to him. I asked if he’d gotten my messages. He said he had, and he “didn’t feel like talking to me after my hateful and incorrect post.”

I pointed out to him that the beauty of this site is that you can correct and respond to the post. He doesn’t believe in that- or even reading blogs, but he had read this post. He said I was uniformed, had facts wrong, and didn’t listen.

So, I’d say we’re even.

He doesn’t seem to understand that his primary job is customer service, and by not returning calls- he’s not providing it. His second job is to keep the citizens informed of issues that affect them. Considering I’d been to two of the meetings on the issue and was still “uninformed” says that he wasn’t keeping people who were interested in the issue informed very well. And, as to not listening- well, not answering your phone or returning calls, that’s great listening technique as well.

I think John Gower is one of the most visionary thinkers in City Hall. It’s too bad he doesn’t understand how modern web technology can help make sure that issues are not only well documented and open to all, but the discussion is as well.

That’s what I do here, as best I can- and I’m not paid $80K plus a year to do it. You are John.

Returning phone calls isn’t optional. Sorry, to make an example out of you, but I think it’s time that City Hall had a lesson in customer service. If you lead a department by example, it’s no wonder people think developing projects in Dayton is painful.

It seems like a recurring theme: If you want to do business, you have to jump through hoops like a circus dog, while balancing a spinning basketball, on a yardstick, perched on your nose. (A nod to an old friend who died recently and probably could have done it).

Last night I sat through a two-and-a-half-hour spectacle of stupidity as the Board of Zoning Appeals held court on the Key Ad gateway sign on US 35. In the end, the vote was unanimous for it (thankfully) but- the process was painful to watch, even without a dog in the show.

This process has been in the works for over a year. The people from Key Ads have bent over backwards, forwards and made giant strides in trying to meet the City half way in a balancing act that makes putting a new billboard up more complex than brain surgery. From offering multiple options of non-conforming billboards traded in for one new one, to hiring an architect to reinvent the common billboard, Key Ads went above and beyond to placate the powers that be.

By the time they got to the BZA they were “appealing” for three variances- two of which were widely acknowledged as givens:

• The height of the board had to be higher because US 35 is elevated
• The distance from the “residential district” was measured to the zoning map line- which falls in the middle of the Eastbound lane of US 35- yet the closest house isn’t within 300 feet, which would comply with the code.

The only remaining issue was the setback requirements. And here is where the butchers of city hall started thinking “How much more flesh can we take?”

Jeffery Paine sits on the BZA. I’m calling him out, because, frankly- he deserves to be tortured in the same way he tried to twist the knife in this process not just one more turn, but several. A city staffer, whose name I didn’t get also deserves a spanking for throwing into the mix of options for the vote- a line about “reducing the size of the board by 25%” which threw even more confusion into the process. This was an appeal- and a hearing- where the facts and the negotiations should be done- and only the questions of the three variances should be discussed.

Really- 25%? Where does this number come from? Did the staffer all of a sudden have some expert understanding of the billboard industry that none of us had? This is like telling a restaurant how to cook its food as a condition of an occupancy permit.

Mr. Paine started down the path of insanity with suggestions that the negotiated swaps for non-conforming billboards to be traded for the new board use his equation- based on number of cars per day, instead of using the rules that were set before in the zoning code based on square footage. I didn’t know the BZA was able to make rules up at will, did you? It’s this kind of kangaroo court atmosphere that makes developing anything in Dayton, almost impossible.

To showcase the unprofessional nature of the process, one had to look no further than the self-appointed Southeast Priority Board Land Use Committee head, Mike Weitzel, who got up and spoke for well over double the alloted 5 minutes, repeating himself at least twice in his effort to defend his “tie-breaking” vote to deny this process and bump it up to the BZA. That extra five minutes cost me an additional $1 in the City Hall garage. I find it sad that citizens who have to come to meetings like this to get the government they want- have to pay for parking, while the pedantic pundit, Weitzel, gets his parking paid for. If you care enough about your government to attend one of these sessions- the city should pay for your parking.

In the end, the new board got approved. Nick Keyes Jr. probably feels like an overworked circus dog at this point- and may think long and hard about doing any more business in the city, but, maybe he likes the pain? They certainly did everything they could to extract every last pound of flesh before allowing him to invest in Dayton.

Dayton isn’t salting or plowing until the streets are really bad.

Well, tonight–people were spinning their wheels on Wayne heading up to Wilmington. Literally–not moving. I drive well in the snow and I was having a hard time getting traction.

So I called 333-cops, the non-emergency number, to let them know that they had a sheet of ice on a bad intersection. It’s a public safety issue. What did the curt dispatcher tell me? “It’s bad all over the city” and “we aren’t the people who salt the streets.”

And they call themselves “public servants.”

A friend recently got “upgraded” to a new “Freedom choice” option on her Liberty Savings Bank checking account. However, this was done without an opt-in. It was supposed to provide up to $500 in overdraft protection, stopping those embarrassing moments when a debit card gets declined, or a check bounces. What they failed to mention is that now you get a $35 fee every time you overdraw.

So, the $5 sandwich becomes a $40 sandwich, and the $15 fill-up becomes $50. Sounds good for Liberty Savings Bank and bad for the customer. Before this “New and improved service” her card would be declined if it would cause an overdraft, now, she was looking at $350 in overdraft fees from 10 debit card transactions that totaled $85.

After discovering the massive sucking sound out of her account, and talking with a Liberty Savings Bank manager, Tina Marie Brown, the fees were to be cut in half if the money was paid today. Extortion- nice.

If anyone is wondering why our financial system is in shambles, we don’t have to look just to the big banks, we can have our own local losers ready to screw over the average American.

If you’ve had a similar experience with Liberty Savings Bank and their “Freedom choice” plan- and been in overdraft fee hell, leave a comment. We’ll make it easy for the class action lawyers to get an action started.

Yep, the ads are almost right: “Liberty Savings Bank, our interest is in (screwing) you.”