League of Women Voters of the Cincinnati Area Education Fund
	Hamilton County, OH November 3, 2009 Election
	Candidates Answer Questions on the Issues Council Member; City of Cheviot; Ward 1

The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of the Cincinnati Area and asked of all candidates for this office.     See below for questions on Qualification, Priorities, Economic, Rental property Click on a name for candidate information.   See also more information about this contest. 1. What are your Qualifications for Office? (50 word limit) Answer from Katherine Marie "Kate" Kinney: I moved to Cheviot in 2005 because the friendly neighborhood was ideal for raising a family. For 14 years, I've been doing service work in various forms including working with children, the homeless, and an impoverished neighborhood in Price Hill. I believe that I can bring accountability, accessibility, and availability... Answer from Ryan T. Zech: I have served as the Ward 1 Council Representative for 4 years and I served as the Clerk of Council for the 4 years before that. Prior to my time as Clerk, I televised the City's Council meetings on the local Cable Access channel. 2. What plans do you have to address your top three priorities? (100 word limit) Answer from Katherine Marie "Kate" Kinney: In order to ensure accountablity, I would resolve that all committee and council meeting minutes include each councilperson's opinion about the legislation being discussed, both before and after any compromises are made. In order to ensure that council is both accessible and available, I would not only post all council meeting minutes online and at city buildings, but would require neighborhood meetings with residents at least 4 times a year and post council meeting videos online. Answer from Ryan T. Zech: We have already begun work on many of my top priorities. The CWCA helped the City purchase a street scape plan. I now want to work to find grants to pay for the street scape. I have advocated for the City to hire an Economic Developer to promote the City. I want to work with that Economic Developer to promote the City. I will continue to weigh all options when a problem is presented to the City and I will continue to make decisions based on what's best for the City and it's Residents. 3. What two actions would you promote to enhance city revenue or decrease city expenditures in order to balance the city budget, given the current economic conditions? (100 word limit) Answer from Ryan T. Zech: We have already taken these steps over the last 4 years. The City is operating with very little to no excess waste. We have stream-lined the expenses while still providing excellent services. The most important action has been the hiring of an Economic Developer. This individual will work very closely with the City Administration and City Council to attract new businesses to Cheviot. New businesses will increase the income tax revenue for the City as well as act as a catalyst to attract new residents to the area. Answer from Katherine Marie "Kate" Kinney: Concerns about enhancing the city's revenue only make sense in this economy, but we can address these through a few improvements centered around increasing business income and resident retention. First, the city needs to do a better job of marketing itself as a good place to live and work. This may mean a marketing campaign as well as making it more convenient to shop here. Secondly, I believe that we need to do more to make it easier to buy property in the city, especially for new homeowners through making it easier to buy quality property here. 4. What steps should the local government take to ensure that the quality of rental property meets minimum legal standards? (100 word limit) Answer from Katherine Marie "Kate" Kinney: Cheviot has a vested interest in insuring that all multi-family dwellings here are of high quality, so we should be proactive in addressing any concerns about these structures. First, I believe that my proposals for improving accessibility and availability will help address this concern. Second, we should have a councilperson assigned to receive tips about problem properties and landlords. Third, whenever a multi-family dwelling is up for sale, the city has a vested interest in touring the property to ensure that any concerns about the property's quality are addressed before any new tenants may move in. Answer from Ryan T. Zech: We have taken many steps toward this already by enhancing our Property Maintenance Codes. The next steps are to bolster our City's Building Department to give them more hours per week. The City's Police, Fire, and Building Departments need to work more closely to identify problem locations and address the needs on a case by case basis as well. Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' statements are presented as submitted. Word limits apply for each question. Direct references to opponents are not permitted. The order of the candidates is random and changes daily. Candidates who did not respond are not listed on this page.