Real leaders lead from the front. Jackasses, work from the rear.
At least that’s what I learned in the Army.
When I ran for office the first time, a major theme was to get rid of the “Billionaire Boys Club” who liked to run our city from behind closed doors. Some things don’t change:
Dayton Regional Network Thwarted by Secrecy | grassroots greater dayton [1]
The Dayton Regional Network (DRN) was established about two years ago to attempt to push regional cooperation through service consolidation and other cooperative efforts.An effort sorely needed in the Dayton region.
The DRN has been chaired by Dayton Daily News Publisher Doug Franklin and Miamisburg Mayor Dick Church. The DRN is staffed by Ron Budzik of the Dayton Business Committee (DBC) and Mike Ratcliff of the Mayors and Manager Association.
The first initiative of the DRN is the recent effort at 911 consolidation in Montgomery County which at the time was considered “low hanging fruit.”
If this is the way things are done in Dayton, why don’t we just cancel the elections, fire all the politicians- and let Doug and Dick, Ron and Mike run everything?
Better yet, lets crown one of them King.
This is America people- where we used to have people who weren’t afraid to get on a soapbox and say their piece.
Normally your site irratates me. Having said that at least your circulating ideas and thought.
On this issue however, I think the system is working. I am on the professional periphery of these discussions. The reason no one wants to consolidate 911 is two fold:
1. Dayton is a cess pool. No one in the suburbs wants to share call taking and dispatch with Dayton. There is a bigoted but well founded fear of the performance of Dayton dispatchers vs. small departments.
2. Fear of the ham-handed sheriff. The fact is that once the Buckeye State Sheriff’s Association got a law through Columbus three years ago that allows the Sheriff to take over all consolidated dispatch operation efforts. Nobody trusts Vore. If Gary Haines were alive and Sheriff, a solution would have a much better chance of occuring.
There is a little more detail, but too complicated to mention in a blog post.
What, the 8th page of the DDN paper is a better place to put the ‘details?’ That’s what the web is for, details, now spill ’em!
You should confront Dick Church with a camera crew, and put his answers on youtube. He eats breakfast at either the Coffee Cup or Happy Days Cafe in Miamisburg almost every morning.
Sounds like a job for Drexel Dave and his video camera…
You post it on YouTube-I’ll link to it.
I ain’t got time to be chasing around these old coots trying in vein to amass power and bucks before they hit the grave.
Doug, Dick, Ron and Mike?
These are THE MONKIES or the Old NWA/WCW 4 Horsemen?
No, that was Rick Flair, Olle and Arn Anderson, and Tully Blanchard, but many came and went after that, so David, maybe you should Replace one of these fellas……Replace Dick……… Lord Knows She Did (a great book by the late great Erik Roberts)….. Miamisburg(tucky) has nice food options, so a happy Dick will ruin any YouTube fireworks….
I just figured you would have already linked to my newest treatise on politics in Dayton, Ohio and culture in Southwestern, Ohio.
But since you haven’t, I will for you ;-)
It can be found at:
http://www.myspace.com/drexelohio
It’s the second song on the list, and you can download it as an .mp3 file to your computer or i-pod. It’s a little rough on the recording side (we captured it with a dinky little boom box microphone).
It is essential listening for those who love Dayton politics or
Southwestern Ohio weirdness, and its weird and sordid history. Brian
Pelfrey believes it to be my greatest improvisational work to date.
Who’s the real gem city MC….drexel dave be….for real ya’ll