BY HUDSON MAYOR WILLIAM A. CURRIN
CHAIRMAN, NORTHEAST OHIO MAYORS AND CITY MANAGERS ASSOCIATION

In May, the Fund for Our Economic Future approved a grant request for $90,000 to the Northeast Ohio Mayors and City Mangers Association (NEOM&CMA). The grant was awarded to support NEOM&CMA’s effort to study the feasibility of developing a governmental regional economic development collaboration within the 16 counties that encompass Northeastern Ohio. The ultimate goal of this major effort by the NEOM&CMA is to present a solution for the reversal of the ongoing economic decline of Northeast Ohio. Whatever the outcome of the study, the resulting plan will be comprehensive, collaborative, non-partisan and sustainable. The balance of the estimated $135,000 needed for the study will come predominantly from the municipalities that make up Northeast Ohio. The timeline from the start to the completion of the study is from June to December 2007.

While recently there have been many positive signs of our region working closer together, the true test will come when it is time to put a regional economic development program into practice. This is what the Plain Dealer called in its lead editorial on January 2nd, 2007…“A BOLD GOAL!”

Whether the mayors and managers initiative is a bold goal or not… it matters little; what does matter is providing the leadership required to help create an abundance of new jobs within the region. All previous studies point to the need for a more cooperative arrangement between all of our municipalities, large or small. This suggested cooperative arrangement will most certainly reduce the costs we are now collectively subject to and will certainly provide a bigger, louder voice in the national and global market place than what is currently attainable individually. Some of the studies that suggest the need for cooperation include the results of the Northeast Ohio Metropatterns Report (June 2001), the Greater Ohio Report (Fall 2006), and the Voice & Choices Report (November 2006). The most recent reports come from the nationally recognized Brookings Institution entitled: “Restoring Prosperity: The State Role in Revitalizing America’s Older Industrial Cities” (May 2007) and The Presidents’ Council of Greater Cleveland entitled “REGIONALISM: Growing Together to Expand Opportunity to All.” These are but a few of the studies that point to the need for those of us in Northeast Ohio to regionalize many of our responsibilities. Providing unfailing, unwavering leadership is going to be our biggest challenge.

In Ronald Heifetz’s and Marty Linsky’s Harvard Business School Press book “Leadership on the Line,” they say in the introduction…“To lead is to live dangerously because when leadership counts, when you lead people through difficult change, you challenge what people hold dear – their daily habits, tools, loyalties and ways of thinking – with nothing more to offer perhaps than a possibility.” The mayors and managers know all too well how “slippery the slope” can be when one steps up to lead for positive change. We all get to the point of change at different times. That means the early bird can feel very lonely at first.

This is also why we need the critics, the nay-sayers, to speak out, to voice their concerns early and often. Those voices are an indication of what we need to accomplish, what we need to do, and to what we need
to pay attention. They are also helpful in assisting us to formulate a plan that the vast majority can endorse and join. As we research our solution alternatives and the encumbrances to those solutions, we need to listen and react to all of the solicited and unsolicited input. We need to welcome it and, at the same time, not overreact to it.

The issue of Northeast Ohio’s economy and the need to help create an abundance of new jobs is ripe and has universal urgency. There is great pressure for all of us to help turn our collective economic future in a positive direction. To withstand such pressure demands a broad perspective and extra measures of patience, maturity, courage, strength and grace. We need everyone to be a part of this and we need to listen carefully. Nobody cares what we think or say unless they know that we care what they think or say. Receiving input without becoming defensive generates trust. I believe we will find, in the resulting solution, that relationships between the communities of Northeast Ohio will become stronger than we ever dreamed possible. Let each and every one of us support the NEOM&CMA’s effort to develop a comprehensive, collaborative, non-partisan and sustainable regional economic development program for all of Northeast Ohio, and always keep in mind that …

Northeast Ohio is the HEART of the Quality of Life Belt.

"Share the Vision. Become Part of the Solution."

To learn more about joining the NEOM&CMA, or about its efforst throughout the region, please contact Mayor William A. Currin via e-mail at WACurrin@Hudson.OH.US or call him at 330.342.1795.