Heated mayoral race hits final weeks
By Kevin Kelley
Westlake
Published Oct. 26, 2005

Nationally, the country may be divided between red and blue. But in Westlake, the split is red and yellow.

In the past three weeks, it seems a majority of yards in the city have sprouted either the red political signs of incumbent mayor Dennis Clough or the yellow signs of challenger Joe O’Malley.

Dennis Clough, Joe O'Malley

Clough has campaigned on his 20-year record, one he says is marked with the city’s successful, well managed growth from a semi-rural community to one of the prime suburbs in Northeast Ohio.

O’Malley, meanwhile, has argued that city taxes are unnecessarily high. He’s one of the main backers of Issue 159, a proposed charter amendment which would lower property taxes by one-third.

While campaigning door to door, O’Malley, who was elected to the Westlake School Board in 2003, said he’s been spreading his message of lower taxes and alternative methods of funding the public school. O’Malley tells voters his property tax cut will be offset with new revenue, including growing income tax receipts, a coming reappraisal of property taxes by the county and taxes from Crocker Park.

O’Malley also said he’s talked to people who believe Clough has been in office long enough.

“The overriding response is ‘20 years is too long,’” he said. “It’s time for a change.”

O’Malley first was elected to public office in 1987 at the age of 21 after a successful campaign for a city council seat in Fairview Park. But he lost his attempt to retain the seat, as well as two other campaigns to return to council after that.

Today he acknowledges his youth handicapped his effectiveness as a councilman. However, he says the rap his opponents put on him — that he burned his bridges in Fairview Park and had to move out in order to continue his political career — is political nonsense. If his goal was to continue a political career, he wouldn’t have chosen Westlake with its “entrenched incumbents,” he said. O’Malley said his lost races 10 years ago are irrelevant.

He says the race has been very competitive and will stay that way right up to Election Day. He also agrees that it has been, at times, nasty. “I feel like it’s been extremely personal,” he said.

Both candidates had to pay back taxes this year after both took tax breaks they were not entitled to, the Plain Dealer reported last month. The paper also reported Clough and his wife registered three of their vehicles at a property they own in Ashtabula County. Five of Clough’s relatives are employed at the Rocky River Wasterwater Treatment Plant, the PD also reported. Because the plant serves Westlake, Clough sits on the plant’s board. Clough said there was nothing wrong with providing recommendations for his relatives.

Carol Corpus, who is running for council president against incumbent Michael Killeen, filed a complaint with the Ohio Ethics Commission last week over the employment at the plant of Clough’s relatives.

For his part, Clough said he plans to continue campaigning door to door until Election Day. He reports most residents are complimentary about his administration’s management of the city.

“People are pleased to live in Westlake,” the mayor said. “They feel we have a very well managed city.”

Why does he think the campaign has been so nasty?

“Simply because there aren’t very many issues with the city of Westlake in terms of government issues,” Clough said. He believes voters are becoming upset over the negativity of the campaign, which he believes will lead to a greater turnout on Election Day. That will benefit him, he said.

The property tax cut backed by O’Malley is nothing more than a political ploy, Clough said.

“It’s obvious when he proposed the cut there was no planning behind it,” the mayor said. The main reason why taxes have gradually decreased during the past 20 years, Clough said, is the city paid off its debt and managed its funds well.

Clough said O’Malley is “absolutely wrong” in his claim that a 32 percent cut in property taxes could be made up by increases in income tax and property reappraisal, both of which will be only modest, he said. And while Crocker Park is being added to the tax rolls, that process is occurring over a period of time, he said. The city would face serious financial challenges if the property tax cut amendment passes, the mayor said.