Welo has been negotiating with the mayors of Richmond Heights and Lyndhurst to set up a joint taxing authority to fund a shared recreation center. Her trust of those mayors is such that if she had to step down, she says, she knows they would treat South Euclid residents as well as their own: "I know we wouldn't be the stepchildren."
Welo's attitude is refreshingly abundant in the Cleveland area, where many towns are recognizing the benefits of regional cooperation. Ego and self-protection foils most attempts at governmental mergers -- but smart officials are willing to combine forces on an ad hoc basis.
A good example is in purchasing. Welo and South Euclid have joined with a dozen other towns, under the umbrella of the nonprofit Northeast Ohio Sourcing Office (NEOSO), to experiment with joint purchasing agreements. Bureaucrats in South Euclid were skeptical of the idea; the town limited its participation to buying sealant for roads and workers' compensation insurance. But just in those two areas, Welo saved $100,000 last year -- not bad for a community of 24,000 people.
"Together, collectively, we're great," Welo says. "Separately, we're not going to be able to exist. Regionalism is definitely the way to go."
Cleveland-area cities are becoming more serious about regionalism in general. Last week, mayors and city managers from 30 cities, including Cleveland, pledged to fund a joint economic development fund of $25 to $50 million. The cities would devote half of their new income tax revenues to the fund.
If it's unusual to hear mayors talk as happily about sharing power as Welo does, it's even more unusual for them willingly to surrender control of future city dollars.
