I forgot to ask about the city employees who are NOT firefighters or LEOs (Law Enforcement Officers) or other emergency personnel employed by the city. Those three groups seem to be the focus and main justification for residency laws.
What is the justification for keeping the 8,000 city employees (about 1 for every 50 citizens) who are NOT emergency workers? Aside from Police, Fire and Emergency Services we have 22 other departments, almost none of which need to be available on 5minutes notice 24/7 beyond the regularly scheduled shift workers:
Aging
Building & Housing
City Planning
Civil Service
Three kinds of development:
Community Development
Workforce Development
Economic Development
Community Relations
Finance
Health
Law
Equal Opportunity
Recreation & Properties
Personnel and Human Resources
Port Control
Public Safety
Public Utilities
Public Service
Employee Services
Prosecutor
Press
TV20
What is the real reason that the administration was so adamant about this subject? Why couldn't these good folks have the same right to choose where to live as the teachers and staff employed by the city within the Cleveland Metropolitan School District? Maybe CMSD's union is powerful enough to dictate the status quo. Maybe in the transfer of CMSD to city control there weren't enough qualified city residents to replace all the teachers who would have been fired for not moving to Cleveland.
Along that train of thought, isn't it now possible to hire highly qualified people to work for us who don't live in Cleveland? Or will the city continue to covertly enforce city residency requirements by not considering qualified people outside of Cleveland? I'm predicting the latter rather than the former. We'll see.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Residency Requirements. FAIL
1. City officials expect a long-term emigration trend of city employees now that they don't have to live in the City of Cleveland in order to keep their jobs. Why would they want to leave? After all, Mayor Jackson is quoted "the people have always been against the elimination of residency." All the people, that is, except those who were tyrannized by the majority.
2. City employees don't particularly want to send their kids to City schools (ironically, whose City-employed teachers are exempt from the residency rules) for the obvious reasons: 90% of the schools where our own City employees were forced to live are ranked less than "Effective". In a group of 100 students entering 9th grade, only four will finish their second year of college. Would you send your children to those schools?
3. I don't know the exact rates of the various kinds of crimes in Cleveland or Shaker Heights. If someone can show that lower crime might be a reason for City employees to stay, I'd definitely like to see it.
Conclusion: while the City residents (most of whom aren't and never were City employees) voted 27 years ago to mandate residency, it appears that the City did not hold up its end of the implied contract.
It seems to me that that by requiring residency, the City in turn owed its employees an educational system that was at least as good as the surrounding suburbs, and a level of crime that was no worse than its surrounding communities. FAIL.
Of course, almost everyone who bought a house in the past 10 years are upside down on their mortgage and can't afford to move anyway. What is happening in the City to change that? Is anyone immigrating to Cleveland? Why or why not? FAIL.
2. City employees don't particularly want to send their kids to City schools (ironically, whose City-employed teachers are exempt from the residency rules) for the obvious reasons: 90% of the schools where our own City employees were forced to live are ranked less than "Effective". In a group of 100 students entering 9th grade, only four will finish their second year of college. Would you send your children to those schools?
3. I don't know the exact rates of the various kinds of crimes in Cleveland or Shaker Heights. If someone can show that lower crime might be a reason for City employees to stay, I'd definitely like to see it.
Conclusion: while the City residents (most of whom aren't and never were City employees) voted 27 years ago to mandate residency, it appears that the City did not hold up its end of the implied contract.
It seems to me that that by requiring residency, the City in turn owed its employees an educational system that was at least as good as the surrounding suburbs, and a level of crime that was no worse than its surrounding communities. FAIL.
Of course, almost everyone who bought a house in the past 10 years are upside down on their mortgage and can't afford to move anyway. What is happening in the City to change that? Is anyone immigrating to Cleveland? Why or why not? FAIL.
Rave: E-Prep School
Attended a presentation at the E-Prep School on E. 36th at Superior today. Learned how the school transforms the students' attitude, academic performance, and self discipline. The outcome is that students are accepted to prestigious high schools and are on the right path to go on to college. Exceedingly impressive and important for the kids and the city.
Out of 143 public schools in Cleveland, only 15 get an "Excellent" rating. Six of those 15 Excellent schools are charter schools, including E-Prep.
The bad news is that Governor Strickland is getting ready to cut charter school funding, effectively shutting them down. The outcome: almost half of the top 15 schools in the City of Cleveland will close. How can politicians twist something so good into something that should be eliminated? Just not rational...
You can help: write to Gov. Strickland and ask him to keep the funding for those 6 Excellent schools including E-Prep.
Out of 143 public schools in Cleveland, only 15 get an "Excellent" rating. Six of those 15 Excellent schools are charter schools, including E-Prep.
The bad news is that Governor Strickland is getting ready to cut charter school funding, effectively shutting them down. The outcome: almost half of the top 15 schools in the City of Cleveland will close. How can politicians twist something so good into something that should be eliminated? Just not rational...
You can help: write to Gov. Strickland and ask him to keep the funding for those 6 Excellent schools including E-Prep.
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