The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
New year offers shift in focus for city
Painesville boasts a 1023% more densely populated area than the average for the state of Ohio, according to statistics compiled by Areavibes. Armed with these statistics, city leaders have to remain prudent in how they allocate and utilize resources. Heading into 2020, Painesville will be operating at an approximate deficit of $300,000. This is a $100,000 rise in deficit spending, when compared to 2019, according to the city’s Financial Director Andy Unetic.
“Council has dedicated 2020 to focus on the budget,” said City Manager Monica Dupee. “By the end of the year we’re usually not at a deficit. But the trend is that we’re spending more money than we’re bringing in. We want to dive deep in 2020. We have to either limit certain services or increase revenue. Those are your only two options in the public sector.”
The city has already made several efforts throughout the year to cut corners. This includes handing over the city’s housing inspection to Lake County. The move is slated to save $100,000 annually, according to Assistant City Manager and Community Development Director Doug Lewis.
The handover may be the last of what Dupee defines as “low hanging fruit.” She adds, “It’ll be a pretty intense discussion to be had in 2020.”
“Council has dedicated 2020 to focus on the budget. By the end of the year we’re usually not at a deficit. But the trend is that we’re spending more money than we’re bringing in. We want to dive deep in 2020... ” — City Manager Monica Dupee
The city effort has to made lean a concerted into a more millennial-minded commercial sector in its downtown region. This includes the December addition of a Chipotle on 7 West Jackson Street and the close partnership the city maintains with the Downtown Painesville Organization. The DPO is a communityminded events group that strives to bring attention and commerce to the city’s retail district. The executive director of the DPO, David Powlakowski, is retiring at the end of 2019. The successor initially named, Stephanie Evans, decided to serve as the program director for domestic abuse shelter, Forbes House. Joy Severa, who will take over Jan. 1, was named in her place.
“Painesville has had my heart for more than a decade and I am excited to be an intricate part of the many impressive things that are happening,” Severa said in a subsequent news release. “I look forward to working with the community; to preserve the past and to grow our downtown area for a vibrant future.”
To do this, the city anticipates shifting some of its economic focus in the new year.
“We’re going to transition a bit in 2020 to what kind of businesses we can have fill the spaces we have, plus bring in income tax.” Dupee explains, “A lot of the focus in 2019 were community projects that the community really wanted, but there may not have been a huge return of investment on those projects. We’re looking at large office and manufacturing.”
To that point, Dupee highlights the recent sale of Victoria Place, a large multi-unit plaza on 1 Victoria Square. “With Victoria Place sold, the focus will be on filling that with corporate office space.”
Certainly a highlight for the city in 2019 was the passage of 2.5-mill additional police levy. The levy was proposed in order to staff more officers and to fund the installation of a surveillance camera network throughout the city.
“Our major answer is a city-wide camera system,” Police Chief Daniel Waterman said prior to the election. “The crime camera system, coupled with license plate readers, would not only serve as a major crime deterrent, but also help the majority of shooting incidents in the city.”
“We are going to hire an engineer to pick out the best spots throughout town,” Dupee said. “We’ll go after key corridors first.”
Several shootings throughout the city led to a public statement by Waterman, which detailed the department’s need for the levy’s passage. In the letter, the chief claimed that many “were not random shootings,” attributing them to drug trade, and that they “frequently involve individuals who are not residents of our city.”
Lieutenant Toby Burgett spoke before Council to address why several open shooting cases had limited information provided due to the ongoing nature of their investigations.
“In the age we live in now, people want information now, they want it yesterday. I do too. We all do,” he said at the meeting. “While we can’t give out new information from the homicides, we can assure you that our detective bureau is and has been working tirelessly and relentlessly on these cases.”
Despite all the talk about shootings, “the data and the statistics show that Painesville is safer now than it has been in years,” Dupee said.
“I need to educate council more and give them better talking points. Painesville has a reputation and always has. We’re working really had to change that a lot through communication and engagement. Every city in the country has crime, we’re just far more transparent about how many crimes are occurring and where. We communicate a lot more than most communities do.”
She feels this can be a double-edged sword that may drive fear of crime but is done so in order to keep residents informed. “I don’t know where the balance is on that.”
Looking ahead, the city will embark on a comprehensive plan in 2020 that will take a deep dive into the city’s demographics, infrastructure, and more to better appraise how best to move forward. Communications Director Kathleen Sullivan says it will be the template from which the city will set its course in the coming years.
Dupee offers four fundamental aspects that she bears close in mind when planning for 2020: strengthening leadership, strategic communication and engagement, strategic infrastructure, and future growth.
“By focusing on those four areas and everything that comes with it,” she said, “it gives us clear direction where we’re headed, but every year we have to tweak what we’re doing under each of those goals to make sure we’re hitting the main objectives.”