Berding on Core Services

Q. With looming budget deficits, how and will you focus on core services such as safety and building and inspections issues? Joni Mataitis, College Hill

A. Building safe, clean neighborhoods is my top priority. We must get back to the basics; we will never be able to substantially improve our City and increase our population base until we begin to make progress in improving neighborhood quality of life.

My legislative record this term demonstrates my commitment to this issue. Here are a few examples of legislation I have already sponsored: targeting landlords whose buildings have excessive calls for police service; restructuring the City demolition process for nuisance properties (cutting processing time from thirty days down to two); allocating $250,000 of unused property tax appraisal funds to be spent to reduce the backlog of public nuisance buildings ready for demolition; directing the Administration to examine the International Code Council’s Existing Building Code, Property Maintenance Code, and Residential Code to provide recommendations on sections to adopt in order to strengthen the City of Cincinnati’s existing building code; directing the Administration to assess the feasibility of implementing a registration process for persons filing foreclosure notices in the City (thereby increasing our ability to track ownership of vacant properties and provide better code enforcement); and recreating the Safe and Clean Neighborhood Fund to provide grants to neighborhoods for one-time capital projects.

In addition, I agree with Mr. Winburn that we need to get our house in order in terms of cutting waste and improving efficiency so that our government inspires confidence with performance-driven and accountable service. This is why I created the “City Hall Works” initiative – to ensure that citizens’ tax dollars are being spent efficiently and effectively. Working with a consultant, an advisory committee (headed by a local business leader, and supported by City employees and experts in private business) reviewed government operations and made recommendations to the City Manager and Council to improve the structure of government and service delivery.