Hundreds, if not thousands, of lobbyists will be ejected from federal advisory panels as part of a little-noticed initiative by the Obama administration to curb K Street's influence in Washington.

November 29, 2009

The Washington Post reported that the move "may turn out to be the most far-reaching lobbying rule change so far from President Obama," resulting in "hundreds, if not thousands, of lobbyists" being ejected from federal advisory panels.

Not surprisingly, lobby groups, corporations, and other K Street influencers are up in arms.

"The reaction from the lobbying community has been swift and overwhelmingly negative."

And this week, congressional researchers concluded that the administration’s crackdown has “already changed the relationship between lobbyists and covered executive branch officials” and suggested that Congress might consider enacting similar restrictions on itself.

READ MORE

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/26/AR2009112602362.html

and

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/04/opinion/04fri4.html

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Well, it's really closer to 1300 to one -- the ratio of Army personnel to psychiatrists. This statistic is becoming more important to us because of the terrible events at Ft. Hood this week.

As the New York Times reports, the Army has 400 pyschiatrists for more than 500,000 active duty troops. (See 'Painful Stories Take a Toll on Military Therapists') And "the number of soldiers with the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder has climbed to 34,000."

That's the reason we need legislation like last year's Ohio House Bill 294, sponsored by Ted Celeste (D-Granview Heights), which called for more mental health coverage for patients with PTSD.

In particular, the bipartisan legislation would guarantee that soldiers returning to Ohio from active duty would be covered for the diagnosis and treatment of PTSD.

That kind of law would certainly help those who are back home. But it is equally distressing to read what the NYT article noted: "Since 2001, the military has deployed many soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder or other ailments."

This situation is another example of the mess we are in, thanks to the Bush Administration's shameful decision to use the 9-11 attack as an excuse to invade Iraq.

Let's pray that President Obama will find help for all the military men and women who need mental health care. And that he quickly gets the U.S. out of quagmire that is the Iraq and Afghanistan conflict

City Council incumbent candidates Frank Ciotola's and Wade Steen's campaign flyers are proclaiming how they got Kingsdale done.

But who really negotiated on behalf of Upper Arlington constituents for the best deal with developers? Who had the backbone to stand up and get the best deal for Upper Arlington?

As it turns out, Ciotola and Steen are two of the least deserving of all the praise they are heaping on themselves.

The market idealogues vs. the pragmatists

We heard it 100 times during the Kingsdale debate from Council's right-wing block --- "let the market dictate what goes in at Kingsdale". In this Columbus Dispatch story entitled 'Big-box approach OK'd for Kingsdale', Ciotola thought that UA was negotiating too aggressively on Regency's big box Target store proposal:

"I think municipalities are getting overzealous in dictating what the mix of development is instead of letting the market dictate," he said.

If UA had solely relied on market forces, as Ciotola suggests, Jacksonville, Fla.-based Regency would have "dictated" our future and we'd likely have a big box Target store or something like it at Kingsdale today.

A view of the Continental's proposed Kingsdale site from Tremont Road. Many of us breathed a sign of relief when Regency failed in their bid to build a big box Target store at Kingsdale. If Ciotola had been in charge of the negotiation, the market would have "dictated" the outcome and UA would likely have a Target store at Kingsdale!

And thanks to Council's moderate, pragmatic majority we will have something much better than Steen or Ciotola were willing to settle for.

The audacity of negotiation

Instead of the passive role of government that Ciotola recommended, the city staff and other Council members embraced their responsibility to the community to get the best deal for UA.

By effectively tempering market forces with the needs of the community as described in the Master Plan they brokered a Kingsdale compromise has been well received throughout our community.

The role of government

At the heart of the Kingsdale debate was how active and engaged City government should be in making economic development decisions.

"Upper Arlington has neighborhood schools and does not bus children to school. The result of neighborhood schools and parents unwilling to let their children walk to school has led to traffic issues on streets adjacent to schools in both morning and afternoon hours...

In reality, very few children should need to be driven to school since the majority live within a 10-minute walk or a short bike ride (if facilities existed) of their neighborhood school."

--- UA Transportation Plan

Upper Arlington currently has sidewalks along approximately only 20 percent of its roadway. This poses a significant safety risk for everybody that travels by foot, by bicycle, by car or public transportation. We need complete streets in UA with curbs, gutters and sidewalks.

In UA we inherited a city with no plan for sidewalks, and until recently there never has been a consistent plan to address this issue.

Now UA has a modest and reasonable Sidewalk Policy on the books to build sidewalks along UA's busiest streets:

When rebuilding an arterial or collector street, the City will look at the feasibility of adding a sidewalk on at least one side of the street.

But conservatives Ciotola and Steen have have fought this common sense and generally well-received approach. In 2007 Frank Ciotola, Tim Rankin and Wade Steen tried to remove the money to build sidewalks along Kenny Road. Their amendment failed:

• Voting to kill the sidewalk funding: Ciotola, Rankin, Steen
• Voting to preserve the sidewalk funding: Krauss, Leach, Mauger, Seidel

And again this year, Ciotola and Steen opposed the Sidewalk Policy, but decided not to offer an amendment to remove sidewalks from the Kenny Road rehab project.

"...However, I don't think I would getting support on that, knowing the past voting history of Council, so I will not offer up an amendment [to remove sidewalks from the Ordinance]."

--- Frank Ciotola, July 13, 2009, UA City Council Meeting Minutes

One of several photos submitted to City Council showing children playing on streets with no sidewalks with on-coming traffic. From the April 23, 2007 UA City Council minutes.

People are willing to pay more to live in walkable communities. The Urban Land Institute compared four new urban communities (those built within existing urban settings) with their surrounding competitors and found that people spent an average of $20,189 more to live in pedestrian-friendly new urban communities. (Valuing the New Urbanism, 1999). More recent studies show similar results.

1. a moderate City Council
2. a capable, experienced, moderate mayor --- Mary Ann Krauss

The only way this can happen is if both Mike Schadek and Debbie Johnson are elected to City Council. Here's the situation:

City Council Race Overview

• This year 4 seats are open and 7 candidates are running for these seats.
• Each voter will get to vote for 4 candidates.
• City Council terms are for 4 years.
• Only if Schadek and Johnson replace moderates Leach and Mauger can Council's moderate majority be maintained.

The progressive vote is key

The progressive vote had a race-determining impact in the 2007 City Council election --- only one vote per precinct separated the candidates in 2nd and 3rd place and the candidates in 3rd and 4th place.

DINO (Democrat In Name Only): Life-long GOP supporter and UA City Council candidate Vern Morrison told a local 9/12 group that he switched parties in 2008 to vote for Hillary Clinton, while at the same time telling progressive and moderate voters he's a "Democrat".

In this year's UA City Council race there's a candidate who claims to be a Democrat, but whose background and recent public statements belie that claim.

Vern Morrison is telling progressive voters he is a "registered Democrat." However, UAPA has learned from several sources that he is telling GOP faithful that he switched parties in 2008 to vote for Hillary Clinton in the Ohio primary. It is reported that Morrison revealed his "Limbaugh vote" at a local 9-12 Republicans' meeting on September 24th for folks who support Glenn Beck's right wing radical agenda. (Beck is with Fox News.)

Voting records confirm that Morrison has been a life-long GOP supporter.

You'll recall that during the Democratic primary Rush Limbaugh was encouraging Republicans to register as Democrats and vote for Hillary Clinton:

Why We Want to Keep Hillary Alive
March 3rd, 2008

RUSH: The strategy is to continue the chaos in this [Democratic] party. Look, there's a reason for this. Our side isn't going to do this. Obama needs to be bloodied up. Look, half the country already hates Hillary. That's good. But nobody hates Obama yet. Hillary is going to be the one to have to bloody him up politically because our side isn't going to do it. Mark my words. It's about winning, folks!

Have you seen Colin Gawel's video "Chemotherapy" It's a great song and it speaks directly to the need for healthcare reform. The version that's posted here also starts with a clip from President Obama's address to Congress. Colin's web site is at http://www.colingawel.com

Colin is an Upper Arlington Resident and the owner of Colin's Coffee at Fishinger and Riverside.

Consider doing a post on the video.