Kevin Marsh Announcements

2019 Membership Drive

Clifton Town Meeting (CTM) is your local community council.  CTM advocates on behalf of the Clifton community, and your membership entitles you to vote on issues that directly affect our neighborhood.  

Some issues that CTM has recently promoted include:

  • Installing a traffic signal and crosswalk on Brookline and Ludlow (at the new library and Burnet Woods entrance)
  • Establishment of a new neighborhood school (Clifton Area Neighborhood School)
  • Putting a new full-service grocery store on Ludlow Avenue (Clifton Market)
  • Improvements in pedestrian safety
  • Increased bicycling infrastructure
  • Opening an art gallery on Ormond Ave – the Off Ludlow Gallery
  • Restoration of the Probasco Fountain on Clifton Avenue

CTM also sponsors a variety of activities and festivals throughout the year to enrich our community experience.  These include the annual Memorial Day Parade & Cookout, Lantern Walk, CliftonFest, Holidays on Ludlow, and our ever popular triennial house tour. We also fund beautification projects such as the flower pots & holiday decorations on Ludlow Avenue; provide communications including the community email list, Clifton Community website and the Clifton Chronicle; and partner with the Clifton Business and Professional Association (CBPA) to operate the Clifton Plaza.

To provide this important community work, we need your generous support. Membership dues and contributions are tax-deductible and make up the second largest source of income for Clifton Town Meeting (the house tour is our main fundraiser). Starting or renewing your membership will help us keep Clifton a vibrant, desirable, and fun place to live, work, and play.  Memberships received now are good through December 31, 2019.

Click here to submit your application online.  If you prefer to mail in your application, you may use this Membership Form. (Eligibility is open to all neighborhood residents, neighborhood property owners, and operators of neighborhood businesses, age 18 years or older).  And please join us for our monthly CTM Board meetings held at the Clifton Recreation Center.

Thank you for your support!

CTM Membership Committee

P.S.  If you have recently renewed, please disregard this reminder and THANK YOU for your support!

Find CTM in social media on Facebook and Twitter

Eric Urbas Announcements, Uncategorized

CTM Candidates for Trustee Bios – 2018

Below are the bios for candidates running for CTM Trustee at the upcoming elections on Monday, December 3 from 6-7pm. Elections will be held at the Clifton Recreation Center on the 2nd floor in the large meeting room. The Rec Center is universally accessible to all. Take the elevator or the stairs to the 2nd floor.

There five positions to be filled by the five candidates receiving the most votes.

Voting by proxy is prohibited in the CTM bylaws. You must be present to vote. It takes only a few minutes. You can pay your membership current prior to voting in advance or at the night of elections.

Joe Brunner

My name is Joe Brunner and I am seeking a Trustee position with Clifton Town Meeting. I have lived in Clifton since 2010, first on Amazon and now on Whitfield. My family and I have benefitted greatly from everything Clifton has to offer, from our business district on Ludlow to our parks, the CCAC, the library, and of course the great people. Clifton has both history that should be preserved, such as our architecture, walkable streets, and independent businesses, and room to grow and change, as is happening with CCAC and the development on the Howell street parking lot, for example. We love our neighborhood and I would be honored to have the opportunity to help preserve and grow our community by joining CTM. I am currently a lawyer at Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease downtown and have extensive experience working with individuals, businesses, nonprofits, and government entities to manage and resolve disputes and develop plans for future growth and success. I would love to be able to use my skills to help my neighborhood and community. Thank you.

 

Malcolm Montgomery

  • Passion, experience, results!  Lifetime of passion for protecting, enhancing Clifton, record of accomplishments, seasoned perspective complements new trustees. I believe that collaborating is not only the best way to get things done, but absolutely essential to strengthening the bonds of community.
  • VP two of the last three years, fought to save CCAC and guarantee good school for Clifton.  Sought unified “win-win” that would not fracture our community.   Currently chair CTM’s “Keep CCAC in Clifton.“
  • Chair bylaws committee to make CTM more responsive and accountable, see announcement this issue.
  • One of handful of Lifetime CTM Members. UC career in  Educational Technology, now consult pro bono. Volunteered over 1,000 hours during my current three-year term.  Also trustee 1990 and 2009.
  • public safety: police liaison, funding for hidden cameras to catch drug dealers, limiting side street traffic and speeding enforcement
  • to improve our quality of life and protect our property values – chaired CTM Housing and Zoning Committee, testified before City Zoning Commission and City Council for a more effective chronic nuisance law, for better zoning laws, for fairness in the enforcement of zoning regulations, and for neighborhood improvements.
  • With your vote, I can keep at it another three years!  Thanks!

 

Peggy Spohr

Hello CTM members! Always looking for ways to contribute to the beauty, livability, and richness of our community experience, I ask for your vote this year.  We are a neighborhood of eclectic tastes, architecture, and people, and I love every strand of our unique tapestry.  Many decades before I was born at Good Sam, and continuing until this very day, my family has lived and/or worked within a two-mile radius of Ludlow and Clifton.  Some amazing historic contributions from those early years are still with us, and many more are yet to evolve.  I hope to help grow our vibrant business district, enhance the sustainable lifestyle we all seek, and keep a mindful eye on the preservation of treasures we have inherited.  Please join me in supporting our neighborhood association with your on-going membership, and thank you for your vote.

Clifton Volunteer Work past 5 years:

  • Decorating Ludlow with holiday lights and greenery;
  • Planting bulbs at Richie’s;
  • Cleaning/weeding Plaza gardens;
  • Set-up for Memorial Day Parade;
  • Registration table at Clifton House Tour;
  • Honeysuckle Hit Squad in Burnet Woods;
  • CliftonFest 5K Race registration;
  • Attend Invest in Neighborhood Summit;
  • Submit proposals for use of NSP Funds;
  • Regularly attend monthly CTM meetings and community engagement sessions

 

Brian Duffy

I am a native Cincinnatian, originally from the West Side. My partner Chris and I have lived in Clifton for the past 11 years with our twin daughters Clare & Julia who are students at Fairview-Clifton German Language School. We also have a 12-year-old Goldendoodle named Ella. I attended UC and before that SCPA.

At home, I love gardening, I am a runner, have a great passion for the arts and architecture.

Professionally, I’m an executive at a Cincinnati based manufacturing company where I’ve worked for the last 20 years. As a senior leader in the organization, my expertise lies in customer experience, project management and distribution operations. I also run a small business providing the most unique lodging in Hocking Hills.

In choosing Clifton as our family home we came for the schools, architecture, arts, walkability, parks, and diverse community, all of which we believed to be the perfect place to raise our family. I’m most interested in preserving the arts in Clifton, working with CPS to ensure a smooth transition as CANS opens its doors, and the continued revitalization of the Clifton Business District.

Thank you for your consideration!

 

Peter Block

Given the craziness of the larger world, I am committed to bringing more cooperation to our neighborhood and city. It is what I have written about and made a living at. This is the overriding reason I am asking to be voted onto CTM again.

There are many questions in front of us which I would like to be a part of. We have to find a way to sustain Clifton Market. It is in our interests to  maintain the neighborhood engagement in the Howell Street Development, which will be starting up again in 2019. We want CCAC to stay as local as possible. We need to come together in caring for Burnet Woods and end the acrimony. The Ludlow business district is still vulnerable with too little foot traffic.

Plus, there are new opportunities to create a current Neighborhood Plan for Clifton, bring more visible art, murals, and gateway signage to the business district.

All of this requires participation from all of us. We need more civic engagement. There are still too few of us, as trustees, acting as if we know what the “neighborhood wants.” I would like to keep working on this.

Kevin Marsh Announcements, Uncategorized

CTM Bylaws Proposals for 2018

During the August and September 2018 CTM meetings, Trustees reviewed the recommendations of the Bylaws Committee regarding various proposals to update the CTM Bylaws. During the Sept 2018 meeting, Trustees voted unanimously to accept this recommendations and put the proposed seven significant bylaws changes before the membership for a vote during the December 2018 membership meeting.

The Bylaws Committee report that was includes all the details is below for your review. Please email us at contactctm@cliftoncommunity.org with feedback and questions.

CTM BYLAWS COMMITTEE JULY 24 BOARD REPORT: FINAL BYLAWS

Malcolm Montgomery, Bylaws Committee Chair; Adam Balz, Brad Hawes, Kevin Marsh, Frank Miller, Michele Murphy. Advisers: Howard Tolley, Derek Tucker

PROPOSALS
Overview:
CTM last revised its Bylaws in December 2015. The Bylaws Committee held seven meetings between February 27 and July 24, 2018 to consider proposed substantive updates that require approval of the Board and membership as well as minor technical corrections that do not. In addition to the extensive pro bono advice received from two attorneys, the committee adopted language from the Model Bylaws prepared by Invest in Neighborhoods (IIN) and received guidance from the IIN Board President and Executive Director as well as the CTM Treasurer. In order to provide CTM members with the required notice of proposed Bylaws Amendments prior to the December annual meeting, the Board should complete its review no later than the October meeting.

Standing Rules:
When expressly authorized in the Bylaws and state law, the CTM Board can adopt Standing Rules that Trustees can revise and/or suspend without the membership vote required for a Bylaws amendment. In June the committee recommended and the Board approved an extensive Standing Rule on Conflict of Interest authorized in a brief Bylaws provision that requires a super majority to revise and/or suspend — ten of the fifteen Board members. In June the Board also approved an Email Vote Standing Rule that requires unanimous approval for all decisions, a state mandate that the Board may not revise or suspend. The committee has proposed several Bylaws provisions authorizing the Board to make additional standing rules and will recommend three additional standing rules for the Board to adopt no later than the November meeting:
1. Special Electronic Meetings rule
2. Financial Affairs rule that addresses periodic independent review of accounts and
procedures fiscal agency and pass through accounts.
3. Rule for specifying Nominating Committee responsibilities and election procedures

Rationale for Substantive Bylaws Changes
1. Revision of several Bylaws that depart from actual, current practice that should be
continued, such as the Article requiring both a Spring and a Fall member meeting each year,
when only a Fall meeting is convened to elect Trustees.
2. Recommendation of new or revised Bylaws and Standing Rules in order to
a) modify current practices that depart from mandatory state/local law, such as
electronic voting,
b) assure implementation of important Bylaws provisions that have not been
followed such as financial record keeping
c) add provisions based on best practices in financial affairs and the conduct of
business meetings

1. ARTICLE II. OBJECT
The Article II (4) Conflict of Interest policy at p. 2, l. 121 has been removed from the Bylaws and revised as a CTM Standing Rule approved by the Board at its June 4 meeting. The new rule clarifies the meaning of divided loyalty and financial conflict of interest with new text from the IIN Invest in Neighborhoods Model COI Policy and also includes the remaining CTM Bylaws provision on COI from Section 11 of Article V at page 7, line 317.

2. ARTICLE IV. MEMBERSHIP & MEETINGS OF MEMBERS
Annual Membership Meeting. Article IV (4) p. 4, l. 146 provides for a single annual meeting and, following the IIN Model Bylaws approach, establishes a quorum requirement of twelve (12) non-Trustee members and eight (8) Trustees.

Parliamentary Authority Article IV (12). Text moved from Article X to p. 5 l. 234. In order to improve compliance with the Bylaws, applicable law and Roberts Rules, assigns responsibility to the Board Secretary and Chair of the Bylaws Committee for identifying departures. Clarifies the Board’s authority to interpret the Bylaws and to suspend the procedural rules within specified limits. p. 5, l. 239.

3. ARTICLE V. BOARD OF TRUSTEES AND BOARD MEETINGS pp 6-7, l. 244-334.
In accord with state law, proposed amendments authorize the Board to adopt Standing
Rules for both special electronic meetings and email voting. To be accompanied by new Board
approved Standing Rule with detailed procedures. Board duties clarified to include
responsibility for securing formal documents and financial records in a centralized, secure
location.

4. ARTICLE VI. OFFICERS
(4) Treasurer. p. 8, l. 377 Provides for a new financial review of CTM accounts by an independent professional every two years prior to the annual meeting, possibly done by Invest in Neighborhoods at no expense.

5. ARTICLE VIII. NOMINATION AND ELECTION OF TRUSTEES p. 9-10, l. 409-459
Clarifies procedure for selection of 3 Trustees and 2 others as Nominating Committee members and adds language from IIN Model Bylaws specifying non-discrimination in determining eligibility to serve as a Trustee. To be accompanied by new Board approved Standing Rule with detailed procedures.

6. ARTICLE X. FINANCIAL AFFAIRS p. 11, l. 477-502
New article based on current Article V Section 8 with additional provisions from IIN Model Bylaws detailing deposits, authorized expenses, fiscal year, financial review by independent professional and disposition of assets. To be accompanied by new Board approved Standing Rule with detailed procedures.

7. ARTICLE XI. AMENDMENT OF CONSTITUTION AND BYLAWS pp. 11-12, l. 504-519.
Two new provisions from IIN Model Bylaws providing for CTM Bylaws review at least once every 3 years and assuring that any invalid Bylaws provision does not eliminate remaining articles that retain full force and effect.

Click here to read the entire bylaws proposal document showing all the above noted changes.

Kevin Marsh Uncategorized

2017 Membership Drive

Fall 2017

Dear Neighbor,

Clifton Town Meeting (CTM) is your local community council. CTM advocates on behalf of the Clifton community. Issues we have promoted in the recent past include supporting the CCAC & Clifton Market, seeking high quality public education seats for your children through a new neighborhood school, removing invasive plants from Burnet Woods, more events at Clifton Plaza, reducing the speed limit on McAlpin and Ruther Avenues, more bicycling infrastructure for Clifton, and getting a traffic light & crosswalk installed at Brookline & Clifton Ave. We have worked on zoning variance issues as well as providing community input into the City’s Land Development Code revisions.

CTM also sponsors many activities and festivals throughout the year for our community including: Memorial Day Parade & Cookout, Lantern Walk, CliftonFest, the House Tour, Holidays on Ludlow and more. We provide funding for beautification projects such as the flower pots & holiday decorations on Ludlow Avenue. We provide communications including the community email list, Clifton Community website and the Clifton Chronicle. We partner with the Clifton Business and Professional Assocation (CBPA) to keep the Clifton Plaza operating. To support this important community work, we need your generous support. Membership dues are tax deductible and make up the second largest source of income for CTM. If you paid membership dues sometime in 2016, thank you for your support. Memberships are based on the calendar year, and we need your support again in 2017. We accept dues in arrears all year long with no penalty.

Starting or renewing your membership will help us keep Clifton a vibrant, desirable, and fun place to live, work, and play. CTM also accepts donations, and you can do that at the same time you renew your membership online. You can click here to renew online.

If you wish, you can also use this Membership Form to do a mail in membership renewal.

Thank you for your support.
CTM Membership Committee

Find CTM in social media on Facebook and Twitter

Kevin Marsh Uncategorized

2016 Membership Drive

Spring 2016

Dear Neighbor,

Clifton Town Meeting (CTM) is your local community council. CTM advocates on behalf of the Clifton community. Issues we have promoted in the past year include supporting the CCAC, seeking high quality public education seats for your children, removing invasive plants from Burnet Woods, more events at Clifton Plaza, reducing the speed limit on McAlpin and Ruther Avenues, more bicycling infrastructure for Clifton, and resolving the noise from the roof of Good Sam hospital. We have worked on zoning variance issues as well as providing community input into the City’s Land Development Code revisions.

CTM also sponsors many activities and festivals throughout the year for our community including: Memorial Day Parade & Cookout, Lantern Walk, CliftonFest, the House Tour, Holidays on Ludlow and more. We provide funding for beautification projects such as the flower pots & holiday decorations on Ludlow Avenue. We provide communications including the community email list, Clifton Community website and the Clifton Chronicle. We partner with the Clifton Business and Professional Assocation (CBPA) to keep the Clifton Plaza operating. To support this important community work, we need your generous support. Membership dues are tax deductible and make up the second largest source of income for CTM. If you paid membership dues sometime in 2015, thank you for your support. Memberships are based on the calendar year, and we need your support again in 2016.

Starting or renewing your membership will help us keep Clifton a vibrant, desirable, and fun place to live, work, and play. CTM also accepts donations, and you can do that at the same time you renew your membership online. You can click here to renew online.

If you wish, you can also use this Membership Form to do a mail in membership renewal.

Thank you for your support.
CTM Membership Committee

Find CTM in social media on Facebook and Twitter