Candidate for
Council Member; City of Norwood; Ward 3

Hello! I'm, Will De Luca, council member for the city of Norwood. I have had the sincere honor of serving the 6th Ward for the past six years and I am now asking that you elect me to council ward 3.

I am a life-long resident of Norwood. I live at 2446 Indian Mound with my wife, Cheryl, and our three children, Jonathan, Elisa and baby Luciano. I know it may sound trite, but I really care about our city. That's why I ran 6 years ago. That's why I've worked as hard as I have on council. I care about our city's future. This is truly a great city we live in, but this is a critical time for our city. We need 7 council members who will represent the RESIDENTS of Norwood, ALL of the RESIDENTS, not just a select few. We need 7 council members who will continue to take the TIME to communicate with residents, who will continue to welcome citizens' input and who want to continue to address the concerns of citizens. We need 7 council members who will continue to be responsible stewards of our tax money and who will continue to effectively plan the development of our city. We need 7 council members that will be independent and continue checks and balances in this city. I ask that you allow me to be one of those 7.

I put a lot of time into preparing for each council and committee meeting. I believe residents should have the opportunity to address their elected officials. I voted "yes" to allow the people the right to address council at council meetings. As a member of Streets, Infrastructure and Public Works Committee I supported the effort to take politics out of the street selection process. Now we have an independent rating system of every street in Norwood. We now know what streets should be resurfaced first. As a member of the Finance committee, on day one I proposed legislation to cut and eliminates over $300,000 worth of political appointments created under the Joe Hochbein administration. Unneeded jobs that our city economy could not support. I supported the effort to refinance the huge debt this administration inherited from the previous administration, reducing the interest rate while keeping the same payment term. Countless meetings, countless hours planning, balancing the budget, meeting with department heads for their input.

But the hard work has just begun; this city faces new financial challenges this upcoming year. We need experienced Council members to continue to lead our great city in the right direction who will listen and act on your needs. Let me continue to try to bring spending under control in this city. Let me continue to try to bring sensible development to Norwood, development that will not take away from our quality of life. Let me continue to demand that street repairs be performed on a PRIORITY basis. Let me continue to work on changing our building department back to a service, not just a money-maker. Finally, I ask that you let me continue to ask tough questions, the questions that need to be asked.

Presently I serve as the Community Development Chairperson of Council conducting weekly meetings; A first in the history of Norwood Government. Prior to my first term the committee never met, today and over 250 committee reports later, Norwood has clearly been placed on a map of "where to be" and where property values have record increases. As you can imagine, the committee has been extremely busy: planning, negotiating new developments and acting as the design review board for Rookwood Commons, the proposed Rookwood Exchange and Cornerstone at Smith and Williams Avenue. As mentioned in the Cincinnati Enquire in September 12, 2005 news article, I was instrumental in the idea and design of what will be sure to be a Norwood landmark for many years to come, the waterfall feature at Smith and Williams Avenue. I have fought hard to force the developers to take the extra step and expense when it comes to design. Community Development and Small Business Committee has negotiated over $250 million dollars worth of new developments soon to begin construction, leveraged twenty thousands dollars of our city money for a return of over two million dollars of new road and signalization improvements at the Montgomery road, Norwood and Carthage avenue intersection scheduled to begin in 2006. We applied and reapplied until we were finally successful in receiving seventy five thousand dollars in clean Ohio grant money to environmentally clean and help make more marketable the globe werneke site which is scheduled to break ground on a class A mixed use development spring of 2006, we cut and eliminated building permit fees which makes it easier to improve your property, held special meetings with the Hamilton County Business Incubator in business retention within the city. Not only have we encouraged large responsible developments but are also concerned with promoting and retaining small business. Both bring much needed stability and make it possible to improve our infrastructure.

I ask, how many of you have enjoyed Norwood's Semi Annual Street Sale? An event I spearheaded with the support of council and the administration. Hundreds of yard sales in a two day event twice a year receiving positive publicity from media and at the same time, building a sense of community. This event encourages residents to get out and meet their neighbors. As Chairperson of Community Development and Small Business, not only have I walk the walk and talk the talk, I have put my money where my mouth is by personally investing nearly a half a million dollars in my family restaurant Betta's Italian Oven in south Norwood. As Poly Camble mentioned in her January 16, 2004 Cincinnati Enquirer article "Prime Pizza Pops Out Of Betta's Italian Oven in Norwood" she went on to say that my restaurant was located on a "Desolate stretch of Montgomery Road near Dana." A stretch of road that has been lost and forgotten about. But I took a chance, even when family and friends thought I had lost my mind, I took a chance because I believed and desperately wanted to make Norwood a better place to raise our families, like Oakley, Mt. Lookout and yes even Hyde Park. I have a vision, a plan and the will to do so. I want to continue representing you and your thoughts, improving our city government and build a long lasting positive legacy that will leave generations to come, proud of the decisions that we have made.

As always, I want to hear from you. Please let me know what I can do to make our city a better place during the rest of this term. I can be reached at 395-7069 or willworks4u@aol.com or every other Sunday evening at 8PM on cable channel 4 hosting Out Of Order live in Norwood, dedicated to you the people of Norwood.

I would be sincerely honored if you re-elect me to council and I promise to continue to work hard for you. Thank you and God bless this great City!