Q&A: Lakewood Mayor Michael Summers Discusses Ohio Mayors Alliance

LAKEWOOD, OH - The Ohio Mayors Alliance is a new, bipartisan coalition brought together to help strengthen Ohio’s cities through collaboration, improved advocacy, and stronger partnerships with state and federal policymakers. It is composed of 30 mayors from Ohio's largest cities.

Patch recently spoke with Lakewood Mayor Michael Summers about the OMA and why it's important for this alliance to succeed.

What prompted the formation of the OMA?

This was an initiative that was created primarily by Dayton Mayor Nan Whayley who had been working on a variety of fronts to create more urban policy awareness. She did a nice a job bringing the 30 mayors of Ohio's largest cities together. Within that 30 there are a variety of different experiences and backgrounds, Democrats and Republicans. This is a way to create a bipartisan approach and coalition.

In the last six years Ohio has been experiencing an anti-urban policy focus courtesy of the governor and Ohio congress. That has manifested in how they approach certain things, including home rule and different funding methods for municipalities.

What changes have been made to home rule that impact Lakewood?

There have been state laws passed, including income tax strategies. They have foisted changes upon us that we both did and did not agree with. They basically passed laws that are creating statewide policies rather than municipal polices. They do it under the guise of economic development but it’s not really what’s best for our cities. They restrict cities that want to have residency requirements [for employees]. Lakewood doesn’t have that but it is a home rule question. Cleveland had the right to (have a residency requirement), and that option was removed by the state. We’ve seen consolidation of state power at the expense of home rule. We want to be partners in that conversation more than we have been.

The Ohio General Assembly is dominated by township related representation. We don’t have a significant urban representation and part of that problem is the way the districts are drawn in Ohio. My concern is metropolitan versus rural. There’s not enough conversation about what will impact us, as metro areas.

What is the OMA's initial goal?

This is a statewide coalition. When you can bring 30 mayors together to cobble together a coherent view about what’s wrong and what’s right, that's a powerful initiative. The initial goal is to prevent further harm to our areas. The second objective is to create further investment in our cities.

For instance, Lakewood is a 100-year-old city. An awful lot of our underground investment is 100-years-old. It needs to be maintained or replaced and we can chip away at needed work. The Ohio EPA is saying we need to do it now but we can only do that with assistance in funding.

We can comply with these objectives steadily but to do it now, willy nilly, with no funding aid, could be devastating.

Was there a moment when you realized Lakewood should join the OMA?

It was a realization that if we continue to do nothing, we’ll find ourselves in a more adverse place. These ideas and pressures take awhile to percolate. It’s taken a couple of years to formulate the OMA. These things take time and leadership. I think you work through a crisis and realize we need to continue on with our advocacy.

Ohio cities have been affected differently than other areas. The Big Three C’s (Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Columbus) have been hit particularly hard. They’re realizing these policies are impacting the next 27 cities as well. The key is: it took awhile to understand that we all had shared pain and we needed to work together.

Photo from Rick Uldricks, Patch