Lima Mayor Sharetta Smith speaks after a mayors conference in Findlay.
Jacob Espinosa | The Lima News
FINDLAY — Lima Mayor Sharetta Smith said the word of the day was “public safety” at Thursday’s Ohio Mayors Alliance conference in Findlay.
Smith and nearly two dozen other mayors from across the state met at the Hancock Hotel to discuss housing, education and other policy priorities before briefing the media.
“One of the topics that we discussed today at this meeting is the challenges that our cities are facing and being able to build enough housing to meet the demands of being a mayor and the ability to do so varies across cities,” she said. “We talked about the need for streamlined processes with our various building departments, especially with zoning changes.”
Findlay Mayor Christina Muryn introduced Smith along with Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz and Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther and said it was important to stay up to date on what other cities are doing both to learn from their successes and correspond on things like the letter the mayors recently sent to Gov. Mike DeWine about gun violence.
“Public safety is a top priority for every mayor across the state, and we may have different levels of concerns, but violent crime, gun crime, mental health issues, homelessness and all of those things affect each of our communities,” she said. “Similar policies are going to help all of us, so being aware and recognizing that it can’t just be the three C’s advocating for certain change is necessary. Other mayors are coming together and seeing that this is important because there are no mythical boundaries to a city.”
Smith said the meeting mayors had with the governor Wednesday that resulted from the letter was productive.
“We were able to talk about the five recommendations we sent to the governor in early July, and they focused on two things: gun-related crimes, particularly repeat offenders that continue to commit crimes that involve guns, and access to guns for juveniles,” she said. “It was a very productive conversation, and I believe that we are going to see some solutions from the governor’s office based on the effort.”
The conference also discussed chronic absenteeism in schools across the state, receiving information about statewide initiatives to combat it.
“Chronic absenteeism is up by as much as 50 percent and is defined as missing two days of school in a month,” Smith said. “So while that may not seem like it’s a lot, it really does make a difference in the educational outcomes of our children.”
For more information on the bipartisan coalition, visit ohiomayorsalliance.org.
Reach Jacob Espinosa at 567-242-0399.
