End Dysfunction and Support a Positive Vision for Stow

Re-electing the same City Council will only result in the same obstruction

‘Tis the Season!

It’s that time when incumbent politicians tell you everything they’ll do if you re-elect them and newcomers share their plans. But, how much of what you read on a campaign flyer can you believe?

A flyer from Councilman At-Large and President Jeremy McIntire hit our doorstep this past weekend. The things he supports seem reasonable enough for the City of Stow:

Investing in infrastructure to spark economic development;
Investing in public safety;
Investing in sidewalks to improve walkability in the city;
Investing in our parks;
Investing in an asset management program.

No doubt, the council members who are endorsed with McIntire as a slate of candidates (Ward 1 Matt Riehl, Ward 2 Councilwoman Sindi Harrison, Ward 3 Councilman Brian Lowdermilk, and Ward 4 Councilman Mario Fiocca) propose the same.

But what have they done in the past two, four, six years or, in the case of Lowdermilk – 10 years, to advance these initiatives? Our reporting on past activities of City Council provides a glimpse into what we should expect over the next two years by re-electing McIntire, Riehl, Harrison, Lowdermilk or Fiocca:

On September 8, 2022, City Council passed Ordinance No. 2022-124, requested by Parks & Recreation Director Linda Nahrstedt, which adopts a 10-year Parks & Recreation Master Plan developed by the administration. The devil is in the details, though. It adopts the plan but doesn’t provide funding – that would have to come later from council, piece-by-piece, and as our reporting on the funding and rebuilding of SKiP park noted, the current majority on council has a history of denying funding for the parks, obstructing plans and delaying projects.
Delaying for five months an updated compensation plan for key non-bargaining employees, including our police and fire chiefs, and then reducing the amounts of the proposed merit raises, is the opposite of investing in public safety.
Continual delays through January 2022 to approve the city’s participation in the regional dispatch center that Stow voters approved joining in November 2020 was not a responsible governing of our public safety.
McIntire’s interest in “investing” in Stow in any context is a blatant misrepresentation of his voting record: Just 2 months ago, he voted against using a $90,000 payment from the state opioid settlement to fund drug abuse prevention program in Stow. He only wanted to spend half ($45,000) of the free money the city was getting.

Certainly, being fiscally responsible as a city is important – no one wants the city to go in debt. But, council’s reluctance to spend on important initiatives has nothing to do with the city’s financial condition. It has everything to do with exerting control over the administration, just for the sake of having that power, and using it as leverage in the next election.

What is Stow’s Financial Condition?

The city had a carryover balance of $10 million from 2022. What’s that mean? It means we had $10 million in the bank at the beginning of 2023 before any income or expenditures. By comparison, in 2013, the city had a carryover balance of $4 million. Every year for the past 10 years, the city’s bank account has grown.

Part of that growth in the city's bank account has come from income taxes generated by new business in the Fogg buildings along Seasons Road in Ward 4, which generate more than $1 million in revenue for the city, a significant stream of revenue.

So, the city is in the position to be able to invest more in parks, roads, sidewalks, economic growth and more – hoarding cash isn’t a responsible use of tax dollars when the city and its residents have identified specific needs. But, we need a council with the will to do it.

A Vision for the Future

In a recent interview with Mayor John Pribonic, he answered the question about what initiatives he’d like to accomplish with a City Council willing to work with him. These include:

Completing the original plan for SKiP park by adding a splash pad. Despite a splash pad being the #1 item that Stow residents voted for in a “Visioning” event in 2020, the park project could only move forward once the administration removed the splash pad from the plans as council members insisted it would be too costly to maintain and that Ohio’s weather didn’t warrant it. Getting a splash pad won’t happen with the current makeup of council.
Improving the city’s staffing levels so that city maintenance work can be completed in a reasonable amount of time. Positions were cut or unfilled during the 2008 recession and very few of those empty positions have been refilled because council won’t approve it. For example, the city’s urban forestry staff, consists of only three people, where other cities have much larger staffs. Another example: Stow only has a part-time position for zoning compliance, whereas Cuyahoga Falls has 2 ½ people. When it comes to zoning compliance, not having enough people for the workload means that zoning violations take a long time to review and address, meaning that residents and businesses that follow the rules have to watch as neighboring properties go untended for weeks or months without intervention by the city.
Expanding economic development, including new restaurants, by reinstating the city’s Community Investment Corp. (CIC). Under former City Council President Mike Razor, the CIC was disbanded because council didn’t like an independent body of business people and government officials making decisions about city grants to fund economic development. Pribonic said without the CIC, the city is hampered in its ability to offer economic incentives to small businesses – unlike other cities where we’ve witnessed tremendous economic development of retail areas in nearby Cuyahoga Falls, Hudson and Kent. Pribonic needs council support to get the CIC reinstated.
Revamping the city’s zoning codes. In an ordinance requested by the city's Planning Director, the city hired a consultant in 2021 to review Stow’s zoning code and the report came back that the whole thing needs to be rewritten to better align with the city’s planning goals. Under the current council, there’s been no effort to start this process.

In the hour-long interview, Pribonic ticked off these four initiatives as items that would improve the quality of life in Stow and that he’d like to address right away, if he had a City Council that would be willing to work with him.

Given the opportunity to do that, with council members who would bring in their own ideas, the next four years of Pribonic’s tenure as mayor could be an exciting time for the City of Stow.