Submitted by Henry Senyak on Sat, 05/23/2009 - 17:43.
Brian Cummins to run in Cleveland's Ward 14
by hgomez [at] plaind [dot] com
Saturday May 23, 2009, 2:18 PM
I posted this in the comments of an earlier entry but wanted to elevate it:
Spoke briefly this afternoon with Councilman Brian Cummins. He confirmed that the poll circulating in the Ward 14 area was, indeed, his poll. And he confirmed that, based on the results of the poll, he plans to seek re-election in the new Ward 14.
That would set up a showdown with fellow incumbent Joe Santiago, former Councilman Nelson Cintron and others. Check back with the blog Tuesday for more.
Have a great Memorial Day weekend.
Compliments of Cleveland.com
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See the PD story on the Building and Housing inspectors with La Copa.
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The below flyer was being distributed at a recent Tremont Art Walk.
![](http://realneo.us/system/files/001_0.jpg)
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This picture say's it all Joe Santiago the party animal. Picture attained via public webistes for La Copa Sports Nightclub's Grand opening.
![](http://realneo.us/system/files/La+Copa_0.jpg)
Johanna in South Hills
I personally would love to see Brian Cummin's aide Johanna Hamm run against Brancatelli --she is well-respected for her community response and, like so many residents, I am exhausted by the CDCs and the Sweeney-run machine and Brancatelli is a part of it. Follow the chain of command, as Dan Harkins at Scene Magazine pointed out--Sweeney is just one of Dimora's elves, so the whole workshop has to go.
Meanwhile, Brian Cummins will need to get out from under the environmental disaster he is colluding on in Brooklyn Centre. Brian has not proven himself to be a better alternative to Joe Santiago, yet.
(Although, who are we fooling? Any one with a pulse is a better alternative to Santiago)
BTW, am I the only person meant to be confused by this presentation of information to the public?
How hard is it to present an interactive map, instead of static pdf pages that need to be downloaded?
20 great questions
For the Candidates:
1) Where do you intend on using the $400,000.00 per year in funding?
2) What new projects do you intend to bring into our community?
3) Will those projects (development) create labor jobs during A) Development, B) Construction and C) Long term sustainability Phases for actual residents of Ward 14?
4) Do you know who all the precinct leaders both republican and democratic are? Have you communicated with them?
5) How will you inspire, empower, and sustain a sense of community via the block clubs?
6) How often will you hold community forums?
7) What plans do you have to help our seniors get the direct assistance that they need without steering them into assisted living and in order to support their desires to remain independent?
(Help with housing needs like repairs...please, no referrals to SHAP...but how will you inspire a sense of community that helps the elders?)
8) How will you work to provide accountability to our community? (Newsletter, Community Forums, and/or Website with not less than monthly updates?)
9) How will you develop a relationship and collaboration with the local Community Development organization, Clark Metro?
10) Will you support sending ANY of Ward 14 CDBG funds to any organization outside of Ward 14? (If you answered yes...then please quit while you are ahead!)
11) How will tackle FAIR HOUSING VIOLATIONS at City Council? Have you read Chapter 665 of the City of Cleveland Codified Ordinances yet? If not, please quit now!!!
12) Do you know how to effectuate and pass resolutions within the City Council?
13) Do you appreciate the folks in our community the way that they deserve to be respected or are they tools in your political career?
14) Are you prepared to delegate, empower, and motivate your residents to rally together for the greater good? Are you prepared to engage them with opportunities, proactive assistance and give them direction as needed? (Not just for the election, but for the duration???)
15) Are you ready to fight on for their best interests; the weak, feable, disabled, challenged, homeless, and hungry?
16) What are your motives for running, other than the outstanding paycheck and political power?
17) How can you collaborate to bring empowerment into our community on a consistent basis??? (Empowerment towards self sufficiency for the low income, for the single parents, for those seeking direction, for the deadbeat dads?)
18) How will you work to empower our community to overcome and deter crime? (Teens selling drugs, robbing houses, and addicted persons engaging in criminal activity?)
19) Oh my...so many social service needs in Ward 14...how will you be able to work with everyone calling you for their little needs at these BASIC levels?
20) How will you bring change to our community and restore it's vitality?
Angel in Ward14 asks some basic questions. I have been waiting for the answers for a long time, too.
Thank you...
Dear LMcShane,
Thank you for sharing my words...thank you for posting my questions. I notice that Mr. Cummins is a poster on this website...perhaps he could take some time to answer these TOUCHY questions, publicly and in writing....appears he's pretty good at writing.
I'd personally like to hear his positions on these questions... and all the other contenders...but figure that all of our energy may just get lost in Internet Space....
I am absolutely at a point of wanting to grab a hold of these politicians for Ward 14 and sit them single file next to each other and interrogate them until we ALL feel that we've gotten our answers.....
Yet, I can invariably predict Joe Santiago redirecting and possibly running out the door first because he's either too emotional or hostile and rude. But, that only excites me more.
Brian...well, I'll have to see what he brings to the table... I still have not met him.
Nagin...never met my expectations...even almost 20 years ago when he was running against Helen Smith and losing. He's good people...but never been too good at impacting the vote...He's a highly educated, well read man. However, his socialist views concern me. He hesitates. He's got good intentions, but is a pacifist to those of us with outspoken perspectives. I don't need some politician chuckling at the truth.
Cintron...history or not...I see him as a strong contender against Brian. He's got strong passion and desire to take all of his experiences back to that city council with a new attitude. His sincerity with the people has always been true and humbling. He may have been youthful in his first rounds, but he's got a world of wisdom behind him now that may just be the power needed to revitalize our community. Despite his challenges of personal issues, I believe his absolute dedication to Ward 14 makes a huge difference compared to all of the candidates. I believe that people can learn from their shortcomings to embrace productive changes for the future. Nelson Cintron is a candidate for Ward 14 that deserves positive attention. Nelson Cintron is dedicated to our Ward. He knows the politics. He understands what went wrong and he has a desire to recover from those issues. It's up to the people to give him a second chance to make a difference. It takes some kind of human being to stand up against all of the stuff that has been used against them and walk door to door speaking to people who have become disenchanted and trying to overcome that negative drama.
Did anyone ever stop to think that maybe Nelson Cintron was working at ruffling the wrong feathers down at City Hall in too many areas that were padding the wrong pockets? Did anyone ever stop to think that perhaps his motivations were absolutely humbling and in the best interests of the people, but he was faced with challenging all of those old school politicians who don't want change to come???
I often wonder about that....I wonder about who the politicians were that supported the Santiago campaign and his recall? They have motives....They knew they were more empowered by Joe Santiago's weaknesses and ignorances than if Cintron was challenging them, so they chose the weak person to support... It was easier to support the idiot ninny who was easily swayed into spending his CDBG funds in their wards....(SANTIAGO) The politics of Ward 14 go way deep....
There's a small list of other candidates who are trying to make a difference and I am grateful that they want to make a difference.....but I want someone who can fight in the legislative areas downtown for our residents. ( I want someone who'll stand up and stop voting to support redundant services that overlap the City Code which should be providing direct services, not contracted out...Fair Housing Board). I don't want to see those funds ($86,000 voted yesterday) go to subletted agencies.... All of those not for profit agencies are overwhelmed trying to address the direct housing complaints...Mostly because the laws are being violated sooooo bad...and nobody downtown is able to react effectively...noone wants that job...because it means they'll have to watchdog their buddies...the CDC's, the developers, the real estate investors...and that would really start putting a kink into their business...and if the ethics commission was really functioning....most of the sitting folks would be put into question at uncountable levels.
But...how long these politics as usual last are up to all of us pulling together and boycotting them...So, let's put our petitions together (as needed) and make a huge difference at the levels we can.
I thank all of the candidates for stepping up...Now, it's up to our watchdog citizens to step up and make our voices be heard at every corner.... Let's invoke these candidates to have a summer of public forums...all of the Ward 14 candidates. Let's force their hand to show us what they are made of... Let's challenge them. Let's give them a piece of our mind...and when they fall one by one...let's take the final one and hold him undeniably accountable and force consistent transparency.
Heck...we could ask to use the McDonald's playland (Clark) as a forum site and pick a nite of the week that is feasible for them all...we could call it the "Ward 14 Town Hall Meetings..." and then all of our citizens could come there to question these politicians... How about Sunday's at like 3pm? Do you think that they would actually show up??? Do you think that they'd put up or shut up???
I want someone who's capable of leading this community...someone who can handle being in the hot seat....someone who is not afraid to challenge the old school politicians....someone who can be available to the community and take responsibility for his actions.... and someone who knows how to treat the citizens like their positions and voices are important....not someone who acts better than us all, treats us indifferently, and cannot maintain their self control when faced with adversity...
There's no "I" in TEAM!
Have a blessed day!
Volumes, The PD site does
Volumes,
The PD site does not index, comments should be all indexed this site does and so does JMZ’s site, for instance if you Google Oengus Cleveland, you can find my ramblings across sites. I may have asked Susan Goldberg to consider that, indexing comments, perhaps rating them and then only indexing those that are considered good content. I cannot remember? I whisper in so many ears these days. If you strive for quality in content, then you could be ranked high. But it’s more than that it’s about relevance and composition, am I getting better? Am I making sense, making a point am I being an effective communicator or not?
I sometimes find myself wondering off when reading comments, and I am sure other do, it being too long winded sometimes. A beginning a middle and an end. I asked my eight year old niece, Sklylar Mairead, if she new the parts of story and low and behold she did. I thought wow, I am impressed. If Skylar someday goggles her name she may find this, and feel my pride in her. Then again as bright as she is now, she may even sense her uncle's disappointments in others as well? I am going to her party today, for her and her sisters, Aubree Maeuve, birthday which is a penguin theme, I have been informed, I wish I had a tux!
I am biased, little Celtic angels, time for some hugs…..
writing and ramblings
Oengus,
Since you asked, "Am I making sense, making a point am I being an effective communicator or not?"
Just for me, could you please work on a bit more punctuation? Please use a standard method for acronyms such as "Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC)" so we know to what you refer. I do find myself digging through your sentences a bit. Short is good. I have to tell myself this over and over. I like the conversational tone and structure, but sometimes it is difficult to follow until I enter punctuation for you. You have a lot of good content, but sometimes I, too, wander off (not find myself wondering off) or click away because I have become entangled in a brambly thicket of language that I cannot begin to decipher.
I am not above reproach. I make plenty of typos and I am the queen of the run on sentence. I just wish I could "get" your posts and comments a bit more readily.
PS I was careful to spell your name correctly so I would not receive the snarky reprimand you gave to Max. Let's be nice and let's be as clear as we can, OK? It is important stuff you're contributing. I'm sure it is. Come to a realNEO meetup the next time one is posted please.
Thanks you Susan, I do not
Thanks you Susan, I do not know the rules of punctuation. I will try to break it up and keep it conversational. I daydreamed through English classes.
If I do meet the group...should I wear a cup?
Nonsense
I wish I could make sense out of the news and reality in NEO. I will not even try to understand a comment about PD indexing on a post about Santiago versus Cummins in Ward 14.
I suppose the media counts on a short attention span and an even shorter memory. But, despite a complaint on PD indexing, I had very little trouble finding this article:
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/08/county_worker_sues_former_admi.html
Ironically, the new county administrator James McCafferty, who replaced Madden*, today crys foul over the PD's investigation of Cuyahoga County's bloated administrative offices.
Call me crazy, but I will just have to consider the sources and make up my own mind. Sorry, Mr. McCafferty, I don't believe you (even/especially, if you are Irish/Celtic).
*Madden now works for the Merchandise Mart Properties!
If a person posts under one
If a person posts under one screen name, and all that they post and wherever they post it was indexed with a meta tag. Then you could see what they have written on a subject anywhere that it was posted. What I post on realneo is indexed with a meta tag and what I post on the PD is not, so you can find the articles but not the articles I commented on. You may not think what I have written matters, but others may.
I would say that posting under different names and then cross commenting on them is an interesting approach, not my style though.
was it something that you said