Baumann Platform

By Lawra Baumann

Baumann's Approach to governing and establishing an agenda for comprehensive revitalization of the City of Cincinnati

For many of us who have been working in neighborhoods the last decade, we have heard and seen, firsthand, the results of this complacency. Clearly, bold action is needed in assessing the state of police and community relations, but this is but one facet of the overall problem. What is needed is bold leadership to work with residents, corporations, churches, nonprofit agencies and city government to fashion a comprehensive and aggressive agenda for our community that is marked by respect for diversity, access to economic opportunity and the provision of safe and enhanced quality of life in every one of our neighborhoods and throughout the region.

Developing this agenda is not just the responsibility of City Council, the City Manager or the Mayor. It is the responsibility of all of us, but it will require strong and visionary leadership from our Council and Mayor. The Mayor and Council need to partner, the City. To make progress on this plan, Council needs to foster and encourage creative public/private partnerships that tap into new resources.

I believe my 20 years experience working to broker collaborative partnerships between seemingly divergent interests, partnerships that have produced results and progress, makes me a candidate for City Council worthy of your support. All of us, whether we live or work in Cincinnati, have a vested interest in tackling the challenges we face and as a member of City Council I would commit myself to serving your interests in a partnership that produces a renaissance of this City for the benefit of all of us.

Specifically, as a Member of Council I will.-

Actively engage the broadest coalition of business, philanthropic, religious, education, community and nonprofit interests to recruit, tap and utilize social, political, and financial capital to invest in our City. We must comprehensively address our education system, housing for all socioeconomic levels, and economic development. Forging these partnerships requires leadership that thinks creatively and "outside of the box" in terms of what can be done and resources that can be tapped. Simultaneously we need to retain those who currently live, work and play in our City. Investment attracts investment, but we are compelled to marshal all of the locally available resources before we can expect those from outside the City to take a chance and invest in us.

As a City Council Member I will.-

Insist on improved government accountability and clear delineation of policy-making and administrative functions. Residents are cynical and frustrated with lack of progress on numerous initiatives, which often has been the result of Council, the Manager and city departments failing to recognize their respective roles within our government structure. It is a partnership that needs fine-tuning - Council needs to focus on policy-making and leave the day-to-day management of the city and policy implementation to the City Manager.

Towards that end, as a Council Member, I will.-

Direct the City Manager to conduct an immediate assessment of the functionality and responsiveness of our city departments. Clearly, there is a need to streamline and improve how our city administration protects our residents, invites and encourages investment in our neighborhoods, responds to citizen concerns, and ultimately produces results. Likewise, we need to examine our mechanisms for addressing failure to produce results. All public servants from Council to administrators to police officers need to be held accountable for effectively serving all residents and businesses.

As a Council Member I will.-

Recognize that promoting the renaissance of our City will require tough decisions to be made and multiple priorities to be balanced. Council will need to work as a team and provide bold and sensible leadership and work together on a common agenda. Council needs to lead by example in this way - respect and teamwork should be the hallmark of our elected leadership.

As your representative on City Council I will.-

Advocate for changes in our city charter and department procedures that respect and nurture the diversity of our residents and improve community relations. Successful revitalization of our city will be undermined unless we proactively deal with the perceived and real intolerance in our community.

As a Council Member I will.-

Encourage enhancement of partnerships with our tri-state neighbors to ensure our relevancy as the core of the region. Revitalization of our city is crucial to the long term sustainability of our region's quality of life. The City of Cincinnati inevitably needs to plays a leadership role in our region and seek collaboration with our tri-state partners.

I am not only committed to these objectives, but I have experience in applying the skills, resources, and empathy to make things happen. I know a lot about what needs to happen in this city, but I know I have a lot to learn and as a candidate and a member of council, my first priority is and will be to continue -to build relationships with you and others throughout the community to learn how we can partner together for progress.