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Veteran councilman decries political tactics
(by Sali McSherry - December 09, 2009)
Veteran councilman decries political tactics
By SALI McSHERRY
Orange Village Councilman Herbert Braverman had a few things to get off his chest at last week's meeting relating to negative campaign tactics and voter apathy.
The 22-year council veteran said, "In spite of the incredible negative campaign tactics that have lately become a recurring cancer upon our village political scene and that were viciously directed almost exclusively at me during the recent campaign season, I have won another term of office on council."
Mr. Braverman said he was referring to campaign literature that made false accusations that he was fired by the law firm he previously worked for and about a tax issue, which had been overstated and was not a "nonpayment issue."
Mr. Braverman said he was criticized for not physically attending several council work sessions when he was executive director at the Ohio Liquor Control Commission for about six months. He said he attended the meetings through teleconferencing, listened to audio discs of the meetings and e-mailed his "musings" to fellow council members prior to each month's regular council meeting, which he attended.
In addition, Mr. Braverman said there were inaccurate and disputed e-mails on a local news Web site.
While he said he appreciates those who voted for him, he found it unworthy that some of the other candidates and current officeholders did not speak out against the "demeaning tactics they observed." They instead "stood idly by, willing to benefit from those tactics and to allow others to do their dark bidding in such a disgraceful manner," he said.
On Dec. 1, Mr. Braverman found out that he was still the winner, three votes ahead of former Councilman Phillip Soroky, following a recount at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. During the four-plus hours he waited and watched two elections board employees recount votes, he said, the Democratic process is not holding water anymore.
Mr. Braverman said there were more that 1,700 under-votes in the village in the November election among the fewer than 1,500 voters. Many voters opted to cast their ballots for one or two candidates, rather than for the four council seats available.
"This means that far too many voters shirked their responsibility to find four good people to serve on Village Council for the next four years and instead took part in a political strategy or scheme of one type or another," he said.
Voters did not cast 29 percent of their available votes for council positions, and that doesn't even take into consideration "45 percent of the registered voters who did not even bother to vote," Mr. Braverman said.
"I still wonder, with dismay, why so many of my neighbors and friends would ignore my record of the past two decades, the well-researched recommendations of both local newspapers, their own, self-proclaimed levels of satisfaction with how the village has been administered and governed over the years, the opportunity to attend and to question in person at candidates night, etc."
Instead, he said, they put up with a brand of political guerrilla action in the community, Mr. Braverman said. Such behavior caused a well-respected organization like the League of Women Voters to refuse to participate in Orange Village politics this year, he said, and is likely to deter interested potential public servants from seeking office in the village in the future, he said.
"I did not realize that the levels of apathy, indifference and political ignorance in the village were as significant as I now suspect them to be, although I have stared at an empty council chamber almost every month, including this one, for many years," Mr. Braverman said.
It remains important that residents attend council meetings frequently, volunteer for committees and other village opportunities, "like the upcoming charter review commission, and take other appropriate action to see and to understand who is competent in office and who is not," and who is working for the community and who is not, he said.
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