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Come to the annual GREATER TOLEDO TRAIN & TOY SHOW on Sunday, March 12, 2017 at Owens Community College/Student Health and Activities Building (30335 Oregon Road, Perrysburg, OH 43551).
A mysterious campaign mailer went out recently to some Sylvania residents. It is a mystery because no one put their name on it in clear violation of Ohio election laws. Any guesses on who did it? Ohio election laws will forgive your uncle or aunt passing out letters on the sidewalk, but an organized, professionally done brochure is not going to be forgiven.
(full sized versions can be downloaded below)
I ranted about the issues (proposed tax levies) here, Election 2016, Local Issues, which you may read or not as it amuses you. Some of the demands for more of my money that concern me the most are:
17. Sylvania Local School District 5.7 mills, additional, operating expenses & permanent improvements, for continuing period of time.
Not just no, but Hell No!
So the pre-levy survey is live on the Sylvania Schools website. It's a simple SurveyMonkey survey. Not sure who they've hired to do their PR for this go round, but if it's Mark Luetke and FLS, they are not getting their money's worth. They've tipped their hand about asking for a school income tax in Question 12:
12. You may be aware that Sylvania Schools over time have traditionally asked for community support via a property tax levy. In the future, if the district was to offer a different option to support our schools, which statement would you agree with most?
A couple of days ago, Thomas posted a story about Vicki Donovan-Lyle's tax delinquency for almost 2 years.
A couple of commenters mentioned about it not being much, so what is the big deal?
Here is why this is worse than it appears:
Vicki Donovan-Lyle, a Sylvania School Board Member, has apparently failed to pay her property taxes on her personal home at 4428 Tamworth Road in Sylvania, Ohio. In December 2015, Vicki Donovan-Lyle announced her candidacy for the Republican nomination to Ohio’s House District #47 to replace term-limited Representative Barbara Sears.
Latest update:
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The Ohio Auditor’s office is wrapping up its investigation into how Sylvania Schools staff and resources were used last year to campaign for a school levy, which was rejected by voters.
A spokesman for the state office, Carrie Bartunek, confirmed for the first time that the office was investigating, but declined to provide details of findings or say when the work may be completed.
Read more at http://www.ourtownsylvania.com/Our-Town-Schools/2015/02/18/State-auditor...
Back in November I followed up with the district to see what they put in place to address the problems with the Issue 3 campaign in 2014. Brad Rieger sent the following response:
We had legal counsel conduct a levy training at our Admin Team retreat this past August. Whenever we are on the ballot again, we'll do a similar session for the levy committee. I foresee a communication about levy protocols going out to all staff members at that time also.
The latest into the story surrounding Sylvania Schools' levy practices for Issue 3 which was voted down in May. From Maggie Thurber at Ohio Watchdog:
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Allowing teachers and administrators to contribute to school levy campaigns isn’t illegal, though many Ohioans might be surprised the practice exists.
Instead of writing a separate check, school employees fill out a form authorizing the deduction and, voila, they’re donating to the levy campaign. The district processes the deduction and forwards a check for the total to the campaign committee.
Our Town Sylvania/Toledo Blade has a story of the levy campaign activity as well as next steps.
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Sylvania Schools may have acted improperly in the way it used staff and resources in its recent unsuccessful tax levy campaign.
A Sylvania resident has questioned whether the district violated the law in its bid to get voters in May to approve a 3.8-mill levy. The measure was rejected by voters.
Read more at http://www.ourtownsylvania.com/Our-Town-Schools/2014/06/03/Sylvania-Scho...
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Here is a follow-up to the original story about Sylvania School employees working to pass the school levy on school time and using school resources.
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The Sylvania School Board will not take disciplinary action against their superintendent and other staff who violated Ohio law during a recent property tax levy campaign.
The board placed a 3.8 mill continuous levy on the May 6 primary ballot, but it failed. During the campaign, employees of the district used school resources to promote the levy, illegal in Ohio.
View the rest at:
The story of the Sylvania School employees inappropriately using school resources to support Issue 3 is the feature of the http://Watchdog.org this morning.
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Chris Myers started getting emails about the upcoming Sylvania City Schools levy campaign, but he didn’t think much about it.
Myers signed up for school updates because he has stepchildren in the system. A couple of months ago, those updates began to include solicitations for parents to help with the additional $3.8 million continuous levy, which would appear on the May 6 primary ballot.
Full story:
Update 5/9: These activities also violate school policies
Staff members shall not campaign on school property during school time in behalf of any political issue or candidate for local, State, or National office.
See: http://www.neola.com/sylvania-oh/search/policies/po4231.htm
Update 5/2: Sylvania Schools Superintendent Dr. Brad Reiger sent the following: No, we do not encourage district email accts be used for levy recruitment. We clarified with our Admin Team & staff members that personal email accts are to used. Also, you are correct that the levy website shouldn't be linked to the district website. Thank you for pointing this out. We have removed the levy website link. We'll do better with this moving forward.
The Sylvania Schools district would like the residents of Sylvania to pass the 3.8 mil operating levy on May 6. So much so that employees of the district are using district resources to promote their new levy. This can be proven by a set of emails from one school and resources from another, but one has to wonder how much more effort they are doing throughout the district on district time.
First a primer:
ORC 3315.07 dictates that “no board of education shall use public funds to support or oppose the passage of a school levy or bond issue or to compensate any school district employee for time spent on any activity intended to influence the outcome of a school levy or bond.”
A few residents in Sylvania have been displaying signs in support of higher property taxes. This is yet another school levy, Issue 3 on the ballot. The Sylvania Board of Education claims they desperately need more money or they'll go bankrupt and all the children in Sylvania will grow up ignorant.
They lie.
The sign reads, "FREE!!! I live in Sylvania and just cleaned out my garage for the holidays."
Wyndham Hotels, parent company of the Wingate hotel in downtown Sylvania, took out a full-page advertisement in the Sylvania Advantage to publicize a recent action by the Sylvania City Council.
The ad points out that when the Toledo Convention Center was created, Lucas County Commissioners gave cities the opportunity to petition the County to retain 3% of the 8% hotel/motel tax that would be used to pay for the Convention Center. Toledo, Oregon and Maumee petitioned the County--Sylvania did not.
When the Wingate was opened, Sylvania did apply to retain the 3%, but was denied. Then, using typical politician "logic," the Sylvania City Council proposed that Wingate customers pay an additional 3% (over-and-above the County occupancy tax, which has now increased to 10%). Opposition to this proposal resulted in Sylvania putting a five-year moratorium on the additional tax. That moratorium has ended; and at the December 2012 meeting, the Sylvania City Council voted to impose the 3% additional tax.
Here are the taxes Wingate customers will be looking at:
10% (County tax) + 3% (Sylvania additional tax) + 6.75% (Sales tax) = 19.75% Total
The ad points out that this would be the highest total tax for a guest room--in the U.S.A.!
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Raising a Child is Expensive – Stikii Aims to Help!
http://blog.stikii.com/2012/05/raising-a-child-is-expensive-stikii-aims-...
http://www.randomblogette.com/2012/05/stikii-why-cant-shoes-be-fun/
Have you heard of Stikii shoes? If you haven’t you are missing out. Stikii is a new kids’ shoes company located in Toledo, Ohio! When I say new, I mean new! Stikii was just launched on December 1st, 2011!
Curious about how Stikii shoes work? I sure was. I was first introduced to the company at The Toledo Baby Child & Family Expo last weekend. They looked like such a fun company. I wanted to be a part of it too! They even rolled a car up in the Expo building!
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