Hi Robin,
Thanks for your comment. This is only just the beginning of our Issue 2/SB5 coverage, so I can assure you there's much more to come. I will pass your queries along to the main reporter on this issue. His name is Chris Mazzolini, and he is the editor of the Solon Patch. If you have any other questions, please email him at christopher.mazzolini@patch.com. Thank you for your comments and for reading Patch.

Megan Rozsa

Absolutely...and said statistics, if true, only belie some stated opinions that "the unions" in general have been dominating negotiations with management in some untoward, political way.

One possibility you may not be accounting for;
If only 8% of contracts go to fact finding how many of them flew through because there was no effective taxpayer representation at the table. What if the negotiating officials involved were either politically indebted to one side or politically alligned with that side or both? Everyone knows anecdotally that this is a possibility but could it be determined from the contracts without a full blown legal investigation?

That's quite the extremist conspiracy theory y'all are trotting out here...to believe your claim the city officials, city labor lawyers, union members, union lawyers, all of the independant fact finders/arbitrators are conspiring to screw the taxpaying public. And the LAPD set OJ up also

Donald R.,
hardly conspiritoral and definitely not extreme because I have seen it happen and have discussed this with others that have as well. It is not a conspiracy if it is legal, which happens most when Union approved Board Members get legally elected with union support, they then support the unions. Do not tell me that Community Safety Forces have no influence on municipal elections because I have seen proof that they do in my town. If the Council Memebers and City Leadership owe their elections to the goodwill of the unions then they will certainly support them. The cases I inquire about never make it to the fact finders/arbiters because negotiations are successfully concluded. Union Lawyers and Members are expected to do the best for themselves. City Labor Lawyers follow their leadership lead. So yes, you have Politicians screwing the taxpayer. This suprises you?

The only pension reform contained is Sb5 is abolition of the pickup "some" units have negotiated....the great majority do not get anything picked up and pay the full 10%. Some places like Chagrin Falls did away with the full 10% pickup and replaced it with a 7.75% raise so employees would not be negatively effected....90% of employers WOULD NOT do this....Only a select few work in Chagrin Falls Village.

William,
you don't know the politicians I know. I'm in the 42nd Ohio Cong. Dist. and worked hard to get my candidate in and the incumbant out. I can attest that it was due to policy differences without a hint of "s" the taxpayers on either side. Contact your local Rep. Talk to them. If then they seem to not deserve your support for either policy or character differences, work to oust them. I did, it was good.
Don't lump all of them together, find out which ones deserve your ire and act on it.

Sorry I wasn't quick enough on that,
You're correct that politicians do cater to "them as brought them to the dance". But sometimes the "them" does happen to be us. Sometimes.

The real travesty here is, the unions contribute to the lawmakers campaign. Now why would they do that?

Dave D, what do you think about the corporate elite who contribute to the campaigns of politicians...who then give these same corporations large tax breaks? These same corporate elite-backed politicians also promote policies that, for example, crush public education while increasing public (i.e., taxpayer) funding for privately owned charter schools (owned by the same corporate elite)? To me THAT'S a travesty...that these rich, rich people are destroying free public education and disrespecting our brave firefighters and police officers. Not cool.

to Dave D... for the same reason the wealthiest 1% contribute to the republican party.

Donald R.,
you say this like it's a bad thing. I'd bet there are a lot of Cuyahoga County voters who would like to have my problem.

By "leaders", do you mean the local school boards who've done anything but act like "management" does in the private sector? By "leaders" do you mean the likes of the Akron Mayor/City Council who shoveled millions of dollars down the money pit known as Akron's waste management/heat generating facility...watching as the "management" they hired to run that facility ran it into bankruptcy? We won't go into the billable hours spent in their wrong-headed fight against EPA sewer regulations here, eh? Then you've got the good Mayor/City Council of Cuyahoga Falls who decided to spend at least 5 times more of the taxpayers' money to purchase the former State Road Shopping Center than any private sector enterprise was willing to pay for either Rolling Acres Mall or Midway Plaza. Who knows what any private enterprise would have bid on that parcel of land, our good leaders were so quick to play the eminent domain card as a threat.

The blame for out of control health care costs lay solely on the shoulders of the PRIVATE SECTOR HEALTH CARE MONOPOLY

Yes the facts are clear. The private sector should be keeping up but are being raked over the coals by the elite. CEO's get millions and there is somehow not enough for raises. Subjecting the public sector to the same does not help the private sector. You skew the details and cover facts with lies. If issue 2 passes it pave the way for the collapse of unions, then some quick deregulation and the rich will continue to prosper while they continue to buy politicians to do their bidding. You are suggesting America go in the wrong direction. toward an income/wealth gap the size of the grand canyon!

Wrong all day long ...there is no binding arbitration in issue 2 as the remedy for impasse and you know it , impasse under issue 2 will be 100% given to by CITY COUNCIL (or the local govt. body...county commisioners etc.)....EVERY TIME.

The fact finder (different statutory job than an arbitrator) will be spinning their wheels because in the end the CITY gets to pick THEIR OWN OFFER 100% OF THE TIME. Either you cannot comprehend the language of issue 2 or your just LYING