Rosenthal running for mayor

Transcript Staff Writer

Ward 4 Norman councilmember Cindy Simon Rosenthal announced her candidacy for mayor Thursday afternoon.

The second-term councilmember has represented central Norman including the downtown area since July 2004 and has been a resident of Norman since 1985.

"Norman has been growing rapidly and will continue to grow, and Norman residents want to be assured that we maintain the high quality of life, which originally attracted many of us to the community," Rosenthal said.

She directs the Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center and teaches courses in political science and public administration at the University of Oklahoma. During that time, the Center expanded its public education mission to encourage university students to volunteer time and pursue careers in public service and launched its National Education for Women's Leadership program for undergraduate women across the state.

Rosenthal lists priorities of "neighborhoods, our ability to deliver excellent public safety and basic services, water quality and the downtown revitalization issues."

"And those are things that some to a greater or lesser extent are things that we are working on," she said.

She has served on several of the council's major committees including finance, planning, transportation and community relations. She chairs the council's planning committee, which is spearheading the community dialogue process to develop a strategic vision for the community.

Rosenthal co-chaired the search committee for a new city manager during her first term. She co-chairs the city's efforts to deal with nuisance parties that detract from quality of life in neighborhoods and serves on the floodplain study committee, which is updating the community's development policy in flood-prone areas. She chairs the stakeholder group working to develop a new storm water master plan for the city.

Prior to her council service, Rosenthal served three terms on the Norman Public Schools' Citizens Advisory Council, nine years on the Norman library board including three as president and two years on the Firehouse Art Center board.

She worked on the Norman Greenbelt Task Force and the Norman Futures Committee. As a member of the Norman League of Women Voters, she served on the league executive board and headed the "Making Democracy Work" project. She was named volunteer of the year by the Norman Arts and Humanities Council in 1987. She and her husband Jim are charter members of the Norman Area Land Conservancy.

Rosenthal voted against the $54 million University North Park Tax Increment Financing District approved by council May 23. But she said it's important to understand why.

"Recall that I was on the 'no' side for a couple of different reasons. No. 1, the size had ballooned from what our citizens' committee had originally recommended. And there were additional claims being made on the general fund, which were not again part of what our citizen committee recommended," she said.

"I think that every step of the way we need to ask some really tough questions about what are the wise choices to make in regard of public funds," Rosenthal said. "That doesn't mean that by any stretch of the imagination that I'm opposed to the development up there. And we need to do it well. ... I think it has the potential to be a transformative project in our community."

Rosenthal said she supports building of a new public library.

"I think the infrastructure of the library is badly deteriorating and not only do we need a new facility for this really important community service, but it's also the case that there are lots of communities in our region and around the country that have found that their library can be tremendous economic development engines," she said.

"It's an opportunity for us to do something really important downtown. Now where downtown is still obviously going to be a big question. But I think it's critically important. But we also have to persuade the voters that's the case as well."

"Maintaining and enhancing our quality of life and promoting the recreational and cultural amenities that we value will not happen by accident or by business as usual. We must have inclusive, smart growth that is financially and environmentally responsible as well as representative of all points of view. As a city, we must also be sensitive to the need to preserve safe neighborhoods, affordable housing and economic opportunity for our teachers, small business owners, public employees, and working families," she said.

Rosenthal has been an advocate for transparency in the municipal government.

"There are a couple of things certainly ... I think a tendency of these three-on-three meetings to brief councilmembers is a very bad idea. Because oftentimes that is a way to compartmentalize disagreements or limit the ability of members of council to hear each other and really talk through important issues," she said. "So I think that we secure far more benefits for the community by being open, than we do by working behind closed doors to forge agreements with a small number of people and then bring it to council, with the hope that we have five votes there."

She said the three-on-threes may not be a wise use of staff resources as well.

Rosenthal said the recently released 2004 personnel salary survey after two-and-a-half years was emblematic of why citizens become frustrated with the city.

"That kind of thing leads to mistrust in the general public and frankly frustration on the part of some of the members of council who get excluded from even the small discussions," she said.

And she said the city can improve how it makes decisions.

"I think there has been an increasing amount of effort to cast issues as in black and white. You're either for it or you're against it. You're either pro-business or anti-business. You're either pro-neighborhoods or anti-neighborhoods. And I think if there is one thing that motivates me in terms of a direction is to try to get our community to be looking more at how we find the common ground that doesn't force people into camps."

She believes her own tenure on council has been to try to find consensus.

"And I think we can do a better job at that," Rosenthal said.

She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Northwestern University, a master's degree in urban studies from Occidental College, and a doctorate in political science from the University of Oklahoma.

Married for 28 years, the Rosenthals have raised two children, Catie, 23, and Aaron, 19, in Norman Public Schools, and are members of St. Stephen's United Methodist Church where she led an adult Sunday school class for more than four years and served on the community life and social action committees. She served six years as a Girl Scout leader.

Rosenthal will host a series of neighborhood "talk-back" sessions to get citizen input on issues and concerns before the city. Citizens can consult the campaign Web site, www.cindyformayor.org, to express their concerns, to volunteer to host a neighborhood meeting or to learn more about the schedule of sessions.

The mayoral race will be on the March 6, 2007 ballot, along with council races in Wards 1, 3, 5 and 7.

Carol Cole 366-3538 ccole@normantranscript.com

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