Lying city commissioners up for re-election: Matt Joseph and Dean Lovelace

An under-publicized candidates’ night was apparently held last night at the Wesley Center. The Dayton Daily News reported about 40 in attendance.

Take out the entourages, and you probably have 25 voters.

Of course, we only have 4 candidates, no primary, and no real choices. If “none of the above” were on the ballot, it would win by a landslide.

And, thanks to the Board of (S)elections- and our antiquated City Charter- I’m not on the ballot- and neither will anyone else be (the current system has historically rejected almost 65% of people who take out petitions who aren’t incumbents). Note, Mark Manovich wouldn’t have been on the ballot, had it not been for me getting him almost 150 good signatures (he got me 50- and I was “short 50” on turn-in according to the BOE).

From the DDN:

The candidates addressed switching from the current city manager form of government to a “strong mayor.” Only Pace actively supported the idea, saying city managers sometimes have no roots in the community. Lovelace and Manovich were generally opposed, saying the current system works. Joseph raised pros and cons, praised current City Manager Tim Riordan and said if residents want a strong mayor system, they can put the issue on the ballot.

Manovich joined Lovelace’s call for police diversity, and asked for increased community-based policing, touting an ongoing, privately funded effort on that front in his neighborhood of South Park. Lovelace said this would be his last run for City Commission and called for young Daytonians to step up and serve their city.

via Challengers push ideas on housing, entrepreneurship ^[1].

First lie is a whopper- with Matt Joseph saying that citizens can put something on the ballot. Can’t be done. To put something on the ballot would require “good signatures” from 10% of the voters on the Board of (S)Elections’ rolls. Currently at around 100,000 registered voters, that means you need 10,000 good signatures from voters in Dayton. With more than 40% of signatures  being rejected, that would require 14,000 signatures- which is really close to a quarter of all registered voters who really live in the city (according to the U.S. Census we only have 108,000 people 18 and over, and with only about half registered to vote, that would be 54,000 voters- and of the registered voters, only half actively vote). The logistics of this is almost impossible- as seen by the constant failure of candidates not endorsed  by a party to make it though the petition process.

Lie number two is that Dean Lovelace has displayed any interest in helping anyone but himself get elected over the years. His only goal in running for this term is to have enough years in office to qualify for a bigger pension. Considering his health, age and the destruction of our public safety forces with his inept “solution” to making our departments more diverse, he should have been recalled long ago (requires 25% of the “registered” voters’ signatures).

To run for Congress you need 50 signatures. To turn in any petition to change the Ohio Constitution or put something on the ballot, you are granted a 10-day grace period to gather more signatures (something I did after the rejections- and those signatures were rejected as well).

The voters have no real say in our process- only hoping to pick from the lame candidates who are presented. Among the four candidates, there isn’t a creative thinker in the bunch- or a serious contender. I can already tell you I will reluctantly vote for Pace and Manovich- however, I’d like their assurances that the first thing they do is call a charter review committee open to the citizens- (not party hacks and elected officials) to update and fix our sorry a$$ charter. Note, just three commissioners need to vote to put an issue or charter amendment on the ballot.

Bringing our charter in line with the Ohio Revised Code will solve many of the problems that have plagued real change in our city- mostly, the choices that are made by the unelected political party puppets of the Board of (S)Elections. These self-appointed guardians of the ballot, have made more decisions for the voters than a Fascist dictator.