I owe my friends that signed my petition for Lake County Commissioner, and those willing to help collect signatures, an explanation why I dropped out of the Lake County Commissioner’s race so soon.

Brian Massie, Executive Director of LFC

I started Lobbyists for Citizens to provide a platform that would allow me to give back to the community, and use whatever skills I have to help people understand what is going on in their communities.  With my financial background and training, I chose to initially focus on property taxes, and have written and spoken a great deal on the subject.

We have offered people from both sides of the political aisle a voice to be heard in the community.  Only a few Democrats have taken me up on the offer. Perhaps my Christian Conservative views offend them, but I make no apologies for my views.

After attending Commissioners’ meetings, immersing myself in the complex world of property taxes, and communicating with people throughout Northern Ohio, I thought I could do more.

There are several problems in Lake County that I would have addressed as Commissioner:

1. The ever-increasing property taxes are pricing people out of their homes that they have worked all their lives to achieve. There is NO ONE in County government that determines the appropriateness of a property tax issue. From my experience with the Lake County Budget Commission, I have come to the conclusion that it is ineffective.
   
2. The Lake County public sector is growing at such a rate that eventually the private sector is not going to be able to pay for it.  We need to drastically cut back on the public sector spending. I would have made every entity justify their existence, and measure their performance to their mission. If I found deception, I would not have supported their continued funding.
   
3. The lack of accountability for those in public office is still surprising to me. LFC exposed over $6 million in taxpayers’ funds that were held by the Treasurer and Auditor’s office.  $5.3 million was the overpayment of property taxes by citizens since the 1980’s and was never returned to the taxpayers.  That is inexcusable mismanagement by a host of elected officials over many years.
   
4. There has been wasteful spending by prior Commissioners and entrenched bureaucrats.

• The current jail needs to be replaced at a cost in excess of $100 million because of shoddy work on the original construction.
• The Commissioners just approved an almost $1 million expenditure for jail software to replace the $750,000 previous expenditure that produced nothing.
• The Lake County Port Authority spent $299,000 on refurbishing a Willowick bungalow known as the “Better Flip” when their “budget” was $150,000.
• The Lake County Visitors Bureau receives the majority of the revenue from the Hotel Excise (Bed) tax, but refuses to be subject to Ohio’s Sunshine Laws.
  
  

5. We see a hoarding of cash by governmental agencies.  The excess funds should be in the hands of the taxpayers and not sitting in the agency’s bank account.

6. I had planned to create a Lake County Podcast that would keep Lake County residents informed of what is happening behind the scenes in their Community, and, hopefully, get the younger generations involved.

After being encouraged by friends, I decided to pull a petition to run for the 2 – year Lake County Commissioner position currently held by Commissioner John Plecnik.  Since I am a registered Republican, I opted to run as a Republican candidate.  My mistake was that I did not ask permission from the local Republican officials. I violated the unwritten rules: To be considered seriously, you must pay your dues to the party by working on campaigns, and finally, you must ask permission to run for public office. However, leading local Republicans can cavort and support Democrats, but they are never censured. This is known as the Kabal, and the members from both parties are part of the Kool Kids Klub, and control Lake County.

A young lady tried to run for Commissioner without permission a few years back, and she was treated very unfairly by the Republican Party leadership.  I was told that the Republican Party is trying to shut me out after I was greatly disrespected at a recent fundraiser for a sitting Commissioner.

I say to the Party leadership: No need to apologize, the Christian faith commands us “to forgive those that trespass against us”:

I inquired about running as an Independent for the Commissioner position, and was told that the rules are more stringent for those running as Independents. I would need to collect 983 signatures for my petition rather than the 50 running as a Republican. I find that very interesting, and here is why.

Did you know that, as of today, there are 160,880 registered voters in Lake County.

• Independents 121,608 (75.6%)
• Democrats 20,543 (12.8%)
• Republicans 18,611 (12.6%)
• Libertarians 120 —–

Only 25.4% of the registered voters are affiliated with a political party, yet they dictate what happens in the County! Why are Independents not a political party? Why should Independents pay for the primary elections of the political parties? You may say, well they get to vote who holds office. That may be true, but they do not get to have a say who gets on the ballot. It is not a level playing field.

My community activism will continue to promote honesty, integrity and transparency, by exposing the lies, deceptions and betrayals. However, I will request an issues only ballot in the May primary election, and I will become a member pf the “Independent Party”. I predict that the Lake County Republican Party will continue to lose members, as the have for the last ten years. They have an attractive platform, but very few follow it.

I will continue reporting on issues that impact the citizens of Lake County without favoring a political party, but staying true to my personal beliefs.

To the 25 friends that signed my petition, I hope this explains why I have chosen a new course of action to help the citizens of Lake County.

*****

Categories: Lake, Ohio Counties, Uncategorized