League of Women Voters of Ohio Education Fund
Hamilton County, OH November 8, 2005 Election
	Amy M. Hoosier Answers Questions Candidate for Council Member; City of Norwood; Ward 3

Questions & Answers

1. What are your Qualifications for Office? (50 word limit)

My professional background consists of my 12-year employment at USA Today newspaper, where I am Regional Marketing Manager. I currently manage the sales department for a 4-state region and my responsibilities include expense and budget management, strategic planning and targeting, high-level customer interaction, sales, and personnel management.

2. What plans do you have to address your top three priorities? (100 word limit)

Norwood's financial issues need to be looked at on several planes, budget, expenses/costs and revenue/income gains. I believe there are several areas left to review to cut costs, but mostly to gain additional revenue, particularly regarding earnings tax income. The street repair program, is virtually extinct and needs to be re-instated within budget guidelines and a more fervent effort to gain state grant monies to do so. Regarding development projects, we need to pass the needed legislation through to get those projects in limbo started up so we can start gaining revenue and tax income from these properties. We also need to put into place a plan on gaining new development projects that make sense and enhance our community.

3. What steps would you take to ensure that all public facilities are accessible to people with disabilities? (100 words limit)

Public facilities currently must be in line with current legislation regarding the people with disabilities act. A review of current facilities should be maintained annually to ensure that this remains so and any facilities not in accordance with the laws and standards need to be addressed in as quickly a time-frame that can be.

4. What specific steps will you take to expand recycling services in your community? (100 words limit)

The current recycling program is pretty extensive in that all households are charged for the service. Wither it is then used is up to the household. We need to encourage more households to do the program since it ends up saving the city money as more participate. If possible, I'd like to initiate some sort of short-term incentive program, particularly to rental buildings, to begin recycling and continue it. This would be one way to cut an expense overall.

5. What steps would you take to provide affordable housing for all residents of your community? (100 words limit)

I believe Norwood has many rental opportunities at lower income levels and is not one of our areas we need to focus on improving (at least not to provide MORE lower-income rental opportunities). I believe the city's higher focus should be on QUALITY rental housing and taking action on those rental buildings not up to building and health codes. If these laws are enforced and action taken, the properties will improve and the rental community will have a higher standard of living.