Beachwood City Council Election 2011: Martin Horwitz

Editor's Note: As part of Patch's local election coverage, we will provide profiles of each of the candidates running for office. These profiles will offer biographical and issue-oriented details about each of the candidates to help you, the voters, make more informed decisions at the ballot box. Stay tuned for more coverage of the election, and for full election coverage, visit  and "like" our Beachwood Elections Facebook Page.

Name: Martin S. Horwitz

Age: 58

Occupation: Attorney

Education: Beachwood High School (1971); University of Cincinnati, B.A. in Political Science (1975); University of Akron, College of Law, J.D. (1978); The George Washington University, Graduate School of Education and Human Development, M. Ed. Educational Technology Leadership (2002)

Political Affiliation: Democrat

Office Sought: City Council

Previous Office Sought or Held: Elected to Beachwood City Schools Board of Education, 1990 to 2005

Candidate Statement: I am a unique candidate in the Beachwood City Council race. I am not an incumbent, yet I have served more years as an elected official than most of the incumbent candidates. With my 16 years of experience as a member of the Beachwood Board of Education, including four terms as its President, I am a tested, innovative and proven leader. My time as a Board member gave me experience in issues of construction, policy development, law, public finance, management and personnel, collective bargaining, community relations, crisis management, strategic planning, and building and land management.  Most of all, I am the only candidate in this race who can approach our current economic challenges from an independent perspective. With reductions in the state budget, loss of the estate tax, reduction in small business occupancy in our city, recession, unemployment at an all-time high and continued increases in operating expenses, we need leaders who have experience doing “more with less” taxpayer money. My first priority for Beachwood is to maintain the high level of services our residents enjoy, while being fiscally responsible in an uncertain time. This involves a tricky balancing act of increasing economic development to bring new taxpaying businesses into the City, while reducing or holding the line on current expenses and trying to avoid raising taxes in the future.

As a longtime Beachwood resident, I know that we live in an exceptional community. We are fortunate to have a balance of commercial and residential areas that allow for businesses to offset residents’ tax liability. Our safety forces are the envy of most communities. Neighboring cities rely on our specialized equipment and personnel. Our roads are always well paved, well plowed, and well lit. We have a state-of-the-art aquatics center and exercise paths. We offer an amazing range of programming to residents of all ages.

Yet there are signs that our city’s economic belt needs tightening. 80% of Beachwood’s budget goes to salaries and benefits. If you drive through Commerce Park, Science Park or along Chagrin Boulevard, almost every building has a “Space For Lease” sign in front. Beachwood’s income tax increase in November only passed by 2%. About 100 votes made the difference in one of the closest elections in Beachwood history. Clearly, a significant number of Beachwood residents felt that the city must do a better job of managing its resources, and they realized that an increase in income tax will make it harder to attract new businesses. While my personal politics are progressive, my approach to managing public funds is very conservative. On the Board of Education, we always faced reductions in tax revenue while reorganizing, expanding job responsibilities, and finding new ways to stretch our resources. I have spent 16 years working in the budget climate that Council is just now starting to face.

We need to take new, creative approaches to our issues. I want to reach out to business owners to find out their current and long-term needs. I want to set objective, measurable goals for economic development. While it is a big boost to Beachwood, on many levels, to have an Eaton or UH-Ahuja Medical Center, we still need to encourage small and medium sized entrepreneurial businesses to grow in our community.  I want to look at efficiencies in management through consortiums, collaborations, public-private partnerships and shared purchasing programs. I want to make sure that our salaries are competitive and that we spend our money wisely. I want to revitalize the Chagrin corridor because it is one of our most vital economic engines. Visitors and prospective businesses should be able to drive along Chagrin Boulevard and see a unique environment that they would not see in other cities. Finally, I want to promote civic engagement by broadcasting Council meetings, recreation programs and Chamber of Commerce events on our City’s cable channel. I want to continue to work closely with the Beachwood Schools, because surveys show the schools are the number one reason young families move to Beachwood.

My commitment, if elected, is to apply the same energy and innovation that helped bring us a nationally recognized school district. I want to start to identify comparable cities from across the country to use as “best practice” resources. I know from my experience on the Board of Education that the only way to be an effective legislator is to put in long hours to educate yourself so that you understand your competition and the capabilities, personalities and potential of your legislative body. I often gave up days of work at my own business to attend state and national conferences to improve my leadership skills and to bring back creative, cutting edge ideas for our District.

I have a lifelong commitment to this community. My family moved to Beachwood in 1958 and I graduated from BHS in 1971. I love Beachwood. This is where I grew up, raised two children, practice law, and have participated in community activities for the past 27 years. I’m fiercely proud of the excellence of the Beachwood School District that I helped build, its technology program, which I helped innovate and the fact that I was the first BHS Alumnus elected to the Board. During my tenure on the Board of Education I was a leader in the creation of our technology program. I chaired our first District Technology Committee and helped write the first Technology Mission Statement. I obtained a Master’s Degree in 2002 through distance learning and used much of my research to help develop a distance learning program in the school along with a TV studio. When we built our Middle School I urged that the construction include wireless Internet capability and then I helped pioneer the one-to-one laptop program which received national recognition.

I’m the current President of the Beachwood/Woodmere Democratic Ward Club and a Precinct Committee Person for the past 17 years. I was a Founding Trustee of the Beachwood Historical Society and the Beachwood Alumni Association. I’ve been a Trustee of the Fine Arts Association, a member of the Recreation Board and Co-President of BHS Band Parents. I was one of the original members of the City’s Cable Development Committee – the forerunner of the City’s Cable Commission. I helped to develop the plan that now connects the city, school and community buildings to our cable system. I am a member of the Beachwood Chamber of Commerce, Beachwood 100, Friends of the Beachwood Library and Fine Arts Association.

I want to be a Beachwood City Councilman because I have a history of civic involvement and a proven record of leadership, experience and independence. I invite you to learn about my background and platform at www.horwitzforbeachwood.com and on Facebook at “Martin S. Horwitz for Beachwood City Council.”  You can call me at 216-831-0690 and we can talk or send me an email at mshorwitz@sbcglobal.net. If you have questions, you can also use the Patch as a forum for discussion and I will be happy to respond. Please also call or email if you would like to volunteer on my campaign. Thanks very much for your support.

Editor's Note: Through no fault of Martin Horwitz's, the original version of this article did not contain his entire candidate statement. This is the entire statement.