Absent a major distraction, Campbell now turns to issues

It has been a tough 30 years for the city of Campbell, especially so in recent years as the cumulative effects of three decades of change came bearing down on city finances.

Governing a city in fiscal emergency is by definition not an easy proposition.

The last thing Campbell needed was a mayor who didn’t seem to recognize that council legislates and appropriates, the mayor administers, and it’s best when they at least try to work together.

End of a short era

Mercifully, the George Krinos era has come to an early end. The mayor, whose personal life had been marked by lawsuits and a driving while intoxicated charge, and whose political life featured power struggles between the mayor’s office, council and the finance director, resigned last week.

In so doing, he released a self-serving statement that said: “I have fought as hard as I could to bring the change for which the citizens have elected me, however, because of the resistance to change, my hands have been tied with little to nothing being accomplished.”

The implication, of course, is that it isn’t his fault that nothing was accomplished, it’s the fault of others. Well, the citizens of Campbell will now see about that, because the city has a new mayor, the same finance director, the same council (with one new member to be appointed), and the same challenge: to work its way out of the state fiscal emergency that was first declared in 2004.

The new mayor is William VanSuch, who had been council president. Juanita Rich, the 4th Ward councilwoman, has been named council president and her seat will be filled by a vote of council. Sherman Miles, despite the best efforts of Krinos to remove him as finance director, remains.

Challenges ahead

Despite approval of a 3-mill levy in November, Campbell still faces enormous financial challenges.

As we said in August, as the state and national economies continue to sputter, at-risk communities like Campbell suffer a loss of tax revenue. And with the state facing a multi-billion dollar budget deficit, all Ohio communities can expect to receive less state aid in 2011 than they received in 2010.

No one should envy Campbell’s elected officials the challenges they face, but at least now they have one thing going for them: the possibility that they’ll all be able to work together toward an almost impossible goal of balancing the city’s increasing needs against its dwindling resources.