Collaboration

By Laketa Cole

As a Councilmember one cannot work separately, rather it takes five members to pass legislation and in order to be an effective City Council each member must work in collaboration with one another.

This past year I've worked hard on several issues with several of my colleagues. Back in June The Mayor and I worked together on the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. This agreement continued the city's efforts to make environmental health issue a priority. Chris Monzel and I worked on several recommendations of intervention on the city's serious lead problems by lowering the blood lead levels in our guidelines. Last July I worked with Leslie Ghiz to establish a crime tip website. What we found in our research was that many of the city's youth were witnesses to or knew the perpetrators of crime in the city, and were texting the information to friends via cell phones. So we established a website where citizens could report crime, via text messaging, and give tips to solving many of the unsolved crimes. Chris Bortz and I worked on legislation together to encourage "green" buildings in Cincinnati. Our efforts will provide tax and other financial incentives to develop building to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards. This past budget cycle I worked across three party lines to pass a budget that was unanimously voted on by all members of council as well as the Mayor. Currently I am working with Cecil Thomas, David Crowley, Jeff Berding and Mayor Mallory on an initiative to help reduce the violence in the city.

My record has countless examples of me working across party lines and with my colleagues in a collaborative effort and spirit to make Cincinnati a better city for all of it's residents, and I will continue this collaborative effort in my next term.

This is the first article of a series of four: an acronym for my last name Cole= Collaborative, Opportunity, Leadership, and Experience.