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| Affiliation | Democratic |
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| Name | Frederick "Rick" I. Taft |
| Address |
Pepper Pike, Ohio , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
Unknown |
| Died |
Still Living
(2025 years) |
| Contributor | RBH |
| Last Modifed | 00
Jan 02, 2011 11:47pm |
| Tags |
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| Info | Pepper Pike Coty Council Member
I have been a Member of Council since 1998, with a few gaps after the 2005 election as Rick Bain and I seesawed in and out of Council. We found ourselves on the seesaw when we tied in the voting for the final contested seat in the 2005 General Election. Breaking the tie required two coin tosses, scrutiny of a swinging chad and a trip to the Ohio Supreme Court - it was a mini Bush v Gore. Nearly losing the seat has sharpened my pleasure in being a member of Council and has caused me to try even harder to bring good thinking and careful choices to one of the most effective groups I have ever encountered.
Three things help explain the way I feel about serving on the council:
1. I am a public policy enthusiast, perhaps even a wonk. The thrashing about of the body politic that produces public law and administration through the democratic process is to me a beautiful thing. When my children were in the Cleveland Heights schools, I worked for levies and ran for the school board. Over a number of years I developed a software program that I hoped would reshape the way public issues are investigated and debated. Each Friday you will find me at the City Club, gathering in fact and opinion. And on the second and third Wednesday of each month you will find me, now that the election contest is settled, again happily ensconced in Pepper Pike Council Chambers.
2. In 1997, shortly after we moved to Pepper Pike, two good friends from the City Club, Stanley Adelstein, a former Member of Council, and his wife, Hope, urged me to run for the seat from which Jean Seaton was retiring. I came to know Jean Seaton as I considered running and eventually met her husband, Bob. All four of these people - Stanley, Hope, Jean and Bob - are sterling human beings. Their involvement in this community has inspired me, and they have helped make clear what a great satisfaction serving on Council can be. They exemplify generous and disinterested contribution to the life of this city. I try to emulate them.
3. I grew up in Pepper Pike on the street where I now live, Pepper Ridge Road. I love being a part of my immediate Pepper Ridge community and of Pepper Pike. I care especially for the gracious balance of homes and open space which prevails in both. A signal pleasure of my childhood was exploring the creeks and fields and woods of what was then a lightly developed area. My parents moved here in the early 50's with a group of friends to build a community of "contemporary style" homes designed by a member of the group, Bob Little. Forty-five years later that same Bob Little sold a piece of his adjoining meadow to me and my wife and designed a wonderful house for us in the same style. Our two children have now flown the coop and Bob has died, but our special community thrives, my parents still hold forth only two doors away and I still roam with my dogs the woods I first explored as a child.
Education
Hawken School - Salutatorian
Phillips Exeter Academy - Valedictorian, Perry Cup Yale College - Phi Beta Kappa Yale Law School
Profession
Business Lawyer - Spieth, Bell, McCurdy and Newell (member of the firm since 1981; currently President) Business Law Section of Cleveland Bar, Past Chair
Author
Stan Mahoney
Welcome to the Friday Forum
Atlas of Health Care Reform
Negotiator's Toolbox
Entrepreneur
Ideaspace, LLC, President
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