FromtheDeskofRep.
Dovilla
From the Desk of Rep. Dovilla Around the 18th At the Statehouse Upcoming Events
Dear 18th District Resident: November is a month we pause to give thanks thanks to God for the abundant blessings He has bestowed upon us as Americans and thanks to our veterans, who have willingly volunteered to serve a cause greater than self. For my part, I am thankful for this opportunity to represent you and nearly 117,000 residents of southwestern Cuyahoga County in the Ohio House of Representatives. Although many Ohioans continue to struggle in this challenging economy, I hope you know how diligently the members of your legislature are working to put our state back on a path toward prosperity. In this months At the Statehouse section, you will find a synopsis of some of the major legislative actions on which I have focused during my first ten months in office. While we still have a lot of work to do, I believe we have made good progress in each of the four public policy issue areas on which I am focusing: (1) creating jobs; (2) promoting strong public education; (3) protecting our seniors; and (4) advocating for veterans. As your voice in the legislature, I welcome your input on these and other issues of importance to you. Closer to home, I had the opportunity recently to shadow a Strongsville constituent at his office, Walton Elementary School in Cleveland, and to honor a fallen U.S. Marine at a special commemoration in our community. More information appears below in our Around the 18th section. One of the parts of my job I enjoy the most is hearing from constituents. I hope youll continue to keep in touch by calling 614-4664895 or sending an e-mail to [email protected]. Thanks for your time. Sincerely, State Representative Mike Dovilla Aroundthe18th
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On October 25th, I was delighted to accept the invitation of Mr. Gary McPherson, a Strongsville resident who is a music teacher at
Walton Elementary School in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. A dedicated educator who works in a challenging but rewarding environment, Gary allowed me the unique opportunity to co-teach three of his classes. While it had been a while since I was a member of the Berea Meistersingers and the O.K. Chorale at Berea High School, I did my best to conduct Garys advanced orchestra and band classes and spent some time working through musical phrasing with his active class of 4th graders. It was a wonderful afternoon during which I gained a brief glimpse of some of the challenges our teachers face, along with the positive results for which they are responsible. Earlier in the month, on October 15th, I had the high honor of playing a small role in a commemoration at Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3345 in Strongsville, where a sizable audience gathered to pay tribute to Lance Corporal David Mendez-Ruiz, a local Marine who died in Iraq in 2005. North Royalton veterans liaison Wally Ohler, Sergeant Major of the U.S. Marine Corps Michael Barrett, and a number of Davids fellow unit members from the 3/25 Marines participated in the ceremony, which unveiled a sign for a portion of Pearl Road that the legislature designated to be named in his honor. AttheStatehouse As the end of the year approaches, it is an appropriate time to take stock of what we have accomplished together in 2011. I remain committed to four key public policy areas as your representative. Since being sworn into office in January, I have worked to represent the interests of the 18th District and the State of Ohio by taking decisive, albeit sometimes difficult, action to: CREATEJOBS o Serving on the State Government and Elections Committee, which received testimony on the creation of JobsOhio, a new economic development entity to attract and retain jobs (H.B. 1). o Serving on the Economic and Small Business Development Committee, which deliberated on the establishment of the Common Sense Initiative to review and eliminate burdensome regulations on small business (H.B. 94/S.B. 2). o Enacting a transformational $55 billion two-year budget that eliminated an $8 billion deficit, reduced overall spending by $3 billion in FY 12 and $2.4 billion in FY 13, lowered the state income tax by 4.2 percent in 2011, and permanently abolished Ohios estate tax (H.B. 153). PROMOTESTRONGPUBLICEDUCATION o Leading the fight to restore state funding for our excellent suburban schools in the state budget (H.B. 153). o Authoring an amendment to the state budget to improve transparency in school district budgeting (H.B. 153). o Standing up to defend Ohios Constitutional requirement for the legislature to provide a thorough and efficient
system of public schools by opposing House Bill 136. PROTECTOURSENIORS o Introducing bipartisan legislation passed by the House to establish June 15th of each year as Elder Abuse Awareness Day (H.B. 215). o Partnering with the Attorney General and seniors advocates in our community to strengthen Adult Protective Services with a bill to be introduced this fall. ADVOCATEFORVETERANS o Authoring and leading the enactment of a bipartisan, unanimously-passed bill to improve the process for overseas voting for deployed service men and women (H.B. 224). o Partnering with the Secretary of State and colleagues to promote the new Military Ready to Vote and Vote in Honor of a Veteran programs. UpcomingEvents
I recently concluded my second round of 2011 District office hours and was pleased to meet with a number of constituents on issues ranging from the economy and jobs to environmental protections related to proposed hydraulic fracturing. We will soon schedule another set of office hours in public libraries in each city of the 18th District for the early part of 2012. In the interim, I encourage constituents to contact my office directly at 614-466-4895 or [email protected] to share their thoughts, ideas or concerns. Other upcoming community events and meetings I will be attending include the following: November 10: Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony (Class of 2011 includes Berea resident & Army veteran Sean Ennis), Columbus November 21: North Royalton School District Commendation Presentation, School Board Meeting, North Royalton December 5: Guest Lecture: International Studies/Political Science Integrative Colloquium, Baldwin-Wallace College, Berea For more information on any event or to submit an event for inclusion in a future issue of the 18th District Newsletter, please email me at [email protected]. Thank you!
