League of Women Voters of the Cincinnati Area Education Fund
	Hamilton County, OH November 4, 2008 Election
	Candidates Answer Questions on the Issues Recorder; County of Hamilton

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 Pressing Issues, Implementation Click on a name for candidate information.   See also more information about this contest. 1. What are the two most pressing issues you will face if you are elected? (50 word limit) Answer from Wayne Coates: The "Chain of Title" is vital to identifying property owners of empty properties and an important components in stabilizing neighborhood property values. Improving access to information on the quality and efficiency of government services allows citizens to more readily identify problems and allows for better customer service. Answer from Rebecca Prem Groppe: Hamilton County is constantly changing, and we have to keep up. As costs of doing business increase, we have to keep our budget low. In addition, the rising rate of foreclosures has had an adverse impact on our neighborhoods. 2. How will you address each of those issues? (100 word limit) Answer from Rebecca Prem Groppe: We are already addressing the budget issues by doing more with less and keeping our budget low. We return money to the County while maintaining an award-winning level of service. Our past leadership in this area is evidence that we will continue meeting this challenge. To address derelict properties, we have teamed with Councilman Jeff Berding to begin a project of identifying the owners of offensive properties. As a result, city, village and township officials will more readily be able to contact homeowners to make them maintain their property. Answer from Wayne Coates: We need to stabilize our neighborhoods through increase homeownership by getting families into vacant properties. It's vital to have properties maintained until they're sold, however we need to stabilize our neighborhoods by getting families in to vacant properties. A "faith base" program to rehab vacant homes based on sweat equity similiar to Habitat for Humanity could be helpful. Public employees are every bit as talented as those in the private sector, however many times there is a disconnect between talent and performance. Adopting a public sector performance management gauge should facilitate performance that provides clear job expectations and offering quantifiable (over limit) Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' statements are presented as submitted. The answer must not exceed 100 words. 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.