League of Women Voters of the Cincinnati Area Education Fund
	Hamilton County, OH November 8, 2011 Election
	Candidates Answer Questions on the Issues Mayor; City of Deer Park

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 Qualifications, Basic Services, Budget, Clean Air Click on a name for candidate information.   See also more information about this contest. 1. What are your qualifications for office? Answer from Shawn C. Gavin: Elected 2009 for City Council at-Large. Legislative and Finance Committee. Council Representative to the Park Board. Appointed to Park Board May 2004. Festival Chairman since 2007. Appointed to 2008 City Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee. 2. What services do you believe should be considered basic and essential for the City? Answer from Shawn C. Gavin: Our residents expect good police protection and overall safety of our community. They expect the city to maintain our infrastructure. They want a good park system with ample sports and recreational and entertainment activities. 3. How would you balance the City Budget? Answer from Shawn C. Gavin: Two years ago when I was first elected to city council I was informed our city hadn't had a finance committee in over 23 years! I couldn't believe what I was hearing. So I took it upon myself to quickly get up to speed with our city's finances. I began to report my findings to council. Their response, we're ok our city's finances are in great shape. This past June 2011 not only did we have make budget cuts for the upcoming fiscal year 2012, we had to amend our current 2011 budget. Our city's expenditures have grown by over 50% since 2005. Our city had to suspend our earnings tax credit for a couple of years and put on operating levy in 2008, creating an addition tax of $6,000,000.00 to our residents. Reports coming in indicate a continued drop in tax revenues and expenses are still going up. What will it take to correct our problems, Leadership and Good Stewardship, what we are elected to do. 4. What actions will you take to support clean air? Answer from Shawn C. Gavin: The City of Deer Park must get involved with green initiatives. We must become proactive in our environmental activities. In 2011, I organized efforts to participate in the Great American Cleanup Campaign. We removed years of accumulating debris from the railroad property along Blue Ash Rd. We must do more to beautify our community. Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' statements are presented as submitted. Word limits may apply. See individual questions for specific word limits. Direct references to opponents are not permitted. Please edit your work before submitting. We are unable to provide spell-check at this time. The order of the candidates is random and changes daily. Candidates who did not respond are not listed on this page.