In her day job — Lakewood’s council positions are part-time — George is a senior account manager at Gallagher, a Cleveland-based insurance company, where she often consults with area companies regarding employee benefits and personnel policies. In a conversation with Scene, George noted that she will bring an HR and people-centric focus to the role of the chief executive.
“First step for day one,” George said, “is to sit down with the department leaders and to get a firm grasp on what’s working for them and what’s not.”
George’s platform includes a “Safety First” priority focused on ensuring that local police are well-trained to respond at a moment’s notice. She mentioned that, traditionally, the local police had a shooting range in the area available for training but that officers are currently driving out to Bay Village for shooting practice due to the conditions of the local range. George said that she would like to see officers training in the city and that as chief executive she “would not have let the range go unused and neglected.”
Other agenda items include regular engagement with the city’s business leaders, sustaining the high level of quality in current city services, investing in local housing stock and ensuring thoughtful development of the city’s corridors.
George also told Scene that she is passionate about bringing more female voices to the table. According to the Cuyahoga County Mayors and Managers Association, there are currently fourteen women serving in chief executive roles in cities across the county.
Does a mayor’s gender have any connection to local policy efforts?
Dr. Mirya Holman, an associate professor at Tulane University who studies gender and sub-national politics, told Scene that the research would suggest that, “generally, cities with women mayors have more inclusive governing processes (i.e., more people participate in city council meetings and have their voices heard about important issues).”
Women mayors also generally “spend more money on programs like social services, affordable housing, and services for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault,” according to Holman. If elected, George would be the second female mayor in the city’s history.
This article appears in Mar 6-12, 2019.
The Lakewood mayoral race is looking like a student council. Is there anyone over 40 with some real professional or leadership experience? The current candidate list is not looking good. The choices are inexperienced children or a psychopath right now.
At least they’re not talking about turning the beloved sold hospital site into a refugee resettlement facility YET.
Who cares? Lakewood sucks. Everything second rate. They try, but whatever it is, it ends up sucking.
She hasn’t even finished her first term on City Council… putting the cart before the horse much? Overall, not impressed. She likely wouldn’t even have been elected to City Council if it weren’t for her family ties to local politics.
Weird that Scene would put out a story about her announcing her candidacy but not about any other candidates (besides a drive-by mention in this that O’Leary already announced).
She is part of the conspiracy theory crew that wore the red Save the Hospital shirts, complains on the local lakewood discussion board about everything, sues the city and voted for mike skindell. her mayoral run will end like all of their lawsuits – with a loss.
As long as it’s not Tristan Radar. That Bernie bro has got to go.
I like Meghan George. That she wasn’t involved in the Hospital debacle may be her strongest asset in this race. She has positioned herself as strong on public safety, city services, and community maintenance unlike some of the others in the Lakewood administration who frequently go beyond their charge in order to implement social justice policies at the detriment of long-term residents.
Great another big spending female Mayor, our first one did such a fantastic job (west end development, section 8 etc).
She is obviously a feminist as she is only mentioned being a female more than three times in this small article.
She was also interviewed by the media and is the one pushing to give free time off to city employees. Yeah female mayors spend more money, she has already gone on a spending spree in her first ever term on Council.
Not opposed to a female mayor but lets at least get a qualified female to run, not someone running off of her fathers name and a feminist platform.