Editorial: 2nd regs on strippers were unneeded

By the Dayton Daily News | Saturday, November 7, 2009, 08:43 AM

Last week’s election, as it applied to Harrison Twp., brought back into the headlines a sexy statewide flap from 2007 — the one that saw strippers going to Columbus to lobby elected officials.

To refresh memories: A Cincinnati-based group of morality police called Citizens for Community Values was pushing a bill to regulate strip clubs. This despite the fact that in the previous year the legislature had already acted on the problem at hand.

That problem was that the clubs had located in townships because townships didn’t have the power that cities had to restrict them.

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Editorial: Pay raises sent all the wrong signals

By the Dayton Daily News | Friday, November 6, 2009, 05:45 PM

The dust-up in Dayton about managers getting a pay raise — even as the city faces a stunning $15 million to $20 million deficit next year — is much ado about something.

Labor contracts — at the city and in the public sector generally — requiring regular and sometimes hefty “step” pay increases on top of negotiated cost-of-living raises create a culture wherein employees think the sky’s the limit with respect to their pay.

That’s a problem if governments ever hope to control personnel costs.

Meanwhile, unionized workers who, for long stretches of their careers, get two raises a year quickly end up making more than their supervisors or, more likely, their supervisors get nice raises, too. The vicious cycle is a good deal for everybody except taxpayers.

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Kevin Riley: A Browns fan finally gives up — maybe

By Kevin Riley | Friday, November 6, 2009, 02:26 PM

When the time comes to end a long-term relationship, maybe it’s best to think about how it started.

I became a loyal Cleveland Browns fan when I was 9, on Christmas Day of 1971.

The Browns were playing the Baltimore Colts in my hometown of Cleveland the next day. My cousin had an extra ticket to the playoff game, and my brothers and I drew numbers to see who would go.

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Martin Gottlieb: Political lightning strikes; how did THAT happen?

By Martin Gottlieb | Thursday, November 5, 2009, 12:40 PM

What were the odds Dayton would elect as mayor a British-raised, home-schooling, earring-wearing, figurine-painting, political novice, stay-at-home dad as mayor?

That list is not meant to suggest that those characteristics make Gary Leitzell unfit to be mayor. Most of them don’t matter to me. I’m just saying, what were the odds? Let’s deconstruct.

On Oct. 9, this column reported, “Leitzell — though he surely started with a hard-core anybody-but-McLin base — had an uphill battle to gain credibility and generate enthusiasm. It’s not clear, however, that he has even generated curiosity.”

That view doesn’t look so great now.

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Editorial: Voters offer lessons for office-seekers

By the Dayton Daily News | Thursday, November 5, 2009, 12:19 AM

Kettering City Council candidate Ashley Webb had loads of signs around the city, his supporters gave out leaflets at polling places, and he had backing from Republican Party activists. He was the second-highest vote-getter in his race, defeating an incumbent.

In Trotwood, City Council candidates Mattie Clay and Janice Chinn have been behind on their property taxes for more than a decade. Both lost their races to represent the first and second wards, respectively.

These results — one hopes — are not a coincidence.

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Editorial: Leitzell’s first moves matter

By the Dayton Daily News | Wednesday, November 4, 2009, 05:31 PM

Gary Leitzell’s education about the work ahead — and efforts to reach out to him — can’t start too soon.

His request to start sitting in on the city’s budget discussions is a good sign. Of course, he’ll be welcomed. If he hadn’t asked, he would have gotten an embossed invitation from Mayor Rhine McLin and City Manager Tim Riordan.

They understand how transitions occur. They know they are only temporary custodians of their offices.

Being a good winner is harder even than being a good loser. How Mr. Leitzell starts off with people — his fellow commissioners, the city administration and the many people in the community who don’t know him — will set the stage for the next four years and the relationships he’ll need to be successful.

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Editorial: McLin couldn’t beat the times, and Leitzell

By the Dayton Daily News | Tuesday, November 3, 2009, 11:39 PM

The mayoral election in Dayton looks like one of those that comes along once a decade or so to put the so-called experts in their place and show just how unpredictable democracy can be.

From the beginning, even the experts could see that it was a bad year for any mayor to be seeking re-election. With the local economy doing even worse than the national economy, with a Democratic president falling in the polls and disappointment with him rising, and with the incumbent having her own weaknesses as a candidate, it was the kind of year that could upset all patterns.

And yet the city is overwhelmingly Democratic. The Democrats had all the money. The challenger was a low-profile, first-time candidate with no polish in the business of politics and no identifiable issue, except what everybody knew: the city is hurting.

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