An essential step to civic engagement is making sure voices are heard

Soapbox is launching its second phase of the Partner City Middletown series. The city, which sits amid Butler and Warren counties and claims more than 50,000 residents, has a longstanding legacy as a factory town with Armco Steel, now Cleveland Cliffs, and numerous paper mills providing steady employment for generations. However, as manufacturing moved offshore and Middletown’s factory jobs diminished in the 1980s and 90s, the city’s economy and quality of life suffered.

Middletown’s local government, nonprofit leaders and private-sector businesses are developing resourceful, collaborative ideas. Earlier, the series highlighted economic, education, and healthcare advances that improved quality of life. Find all the Partner City Middletown series here.

To launch this second phase, we’re focusing on civic engagement and its impact on the Middletown community. In a centuries-old democracy, it’s all too easy for citizens to take their rights for granted. Amid lives increasingly lived in isolation behind screens, our mutual interest in vibrant communities is at risk of being forgotten. As Alexis de Tocqueville said, “[For a society to] prosper, it is necessary that … citizens be brought together … by some principal ideas.”

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The big-picture view

Founded in 1894 by Theodore Roosevelt, Louis Brandeis and other Gilded Age-era leaders, the National Civic League (NCL) helps city leaders develop strategies for improving citizen participation and crafting innovative initiatives that improve municipal quality of life.

Matth Leighninger, director of the NCL’s Center for Democracy Innovation, noted the extent to which social conditions have changed since the organization’s inception. He noted that people’s involvement in community-level groups, such as through churches, schools, and civic organizations, has declined appreciably over the last 50 years. Conversely, citizens’ educational levels have improved, so access to information has improved. As such, he said that it’s important for local government officials and employees to use social media and other technology to engage citizens directly.

The NCL invites local governments to vie for the organization’s All-American City Award which, according to the organization, “recognize[s] … transformative, community-driven efforts to strengthen environmental sustainability and … civic infrastructure.”

This year, 10 cities earned the All-American City Award designation. Some honorees, such as Seattle and Memphis, are behemoth urban areas with little in common with Midwestern manufacturing hubs such as Middletown. However, others share common traits with Middie City. Chelsea, Mass. is a city of approximately 40,000 across the Mystic River from Boston with blue-collar roots. City leaders had mismanaged funds so badly in the early ‘90s that Chelsea declared bankruptcy and was run through receivership by the state of Massachusetts for several years. However, the city has rebounded, due in large part to an immigrant influx, and NCL recognized Chelsea because of grassroots climate-change efforts such as a tree-planting campaign and investing in an electrical microgrid, which provides local control over its energy – a key step amid utility volatility.

Closer to home, the NCL also commended Akron, which carries a manufacturing legacy like Middletown’s, was lauded for its citywide recycling-education program and investment in stormwater and wastewater-treatment infrastructure.

Leighninger noted that the most essential step to civic engagement is ensuring citizens’ voices are heard: “They want the right to vote, but that’s not enough. That doesn’t build legitimacy or trust. People care about their neighborhoods and communities, and they want their input considered as part of the process of solving public problems.”

He suggests implementing tools that create a more informal forum than a city council meeting, where public comment opportunities aren’t optimal. Leighninger noted survey panels as an effective engagement system. These panels congregate a representative cross-section of a city’s residents and seek their feedback on a municipality’s pressing issue. Digital platforms such as CivicPlus and PublicInput assist in aggregating data and providing efficient, detailed feedback that helps officials take constituents’ pulse on key issues.

Leighninger noted that polls can be an impactful way to stoke citizen interest in council meetings when they can steer discussions towards topics of interest to voters, such as soliciting answers for an “issue of the month” for the next meeting, with the prevailing inquiry being the highlighted topic when new business is discussed.

Citizen engagement and voter participation wanes during odd-year and off-year elections

In last fall’s Presidential election, voter turnout was vigorous, with more than 65% of voting-eligible citizens casting ballots. Throughout Butler County, where most of the Middletown city limits exist, 72.7% of its residents voted (2020’s Presidential election attracted the highest turnout at 73.1%). However, in Middletown, voter participation didn’t quite reach that level. As this interactive map indicates, Middletown precinct turnout percentages ranged from the mid-40s to low 60s.

Eric Corbin, the Butler County Board of Elections’ deputy director, has heard numerous rationales for residents’ refusal to vote. Some have the pragmatic reason of not wanting to be summoned to serve for jury duty, which he debunked by noting that jury pools are accumulated from other resources besides voter rolls.

 The more challenging reason to counter is when voters resignedly claim that their votes won’t make a difference. Corbin noted that in “off-year” elections such as this November’s slate, where all candidates and issues are for local offices and referendums, this is particularly not the case. In 2021, the last post-Presidential off-year, turnout was 19.7%, amplifying the impact of off-year ballots.

“Every time I hear that excuse from a non-voter, I can point to elections where results were decided by a single-digit margin of votes. If just a few handfuls of voters don’t turn out, it’s a different result. These votes mattered.”

Corbin also noted that, in these odd-year elections, voters are choosing townships trustees, city and county officials, school boards, and other elected positions which have the most direct impact on local quality of life.

Since the 2020 election, conspiracy theories have abounded regarding stolen elections and manipulated results. Corbin noted that the Butler County BOE, which is in Hamilton, undertakes many thorough measures to ensure no malfeasance occurs.

“The staff is evenly split between parties to ensure that every procedure is followed and task completed fairly and with integrity,” he said. “There are many safeguards, including testing the equipment and a countywide bipartisan hand-counted audit to confirm the machines were accurate. The Secretary of State has invested in numerous cybersecurity measures to further ensure precision.”

Most of the year, the BOE’s functions entail facilitating voter registration for new voters and residents, updating voter rolls, and auditing campaign finance reports to ensure accurate fiduciary management. When the calendar turns to autumn, Corbin’s office, like every other BOE, begins an energetic campaign to find poll workers for the county’s 291 precincts, 36 of which are in Middletown. Corbin said they need at least 800 poll workers for Election Day, and that Middletown is an area of need.

There is a single county-wide issue on Butler County ballots. Issue 1 is a levy that, if passed, will renew the existing 1.3-mil levy and add an additional 0.7-mil levy to fund the county’s Elderly Services Program. Within Middletown, two of its four city council seats are up for election, with four candidates running: Incumbent Paul Lolli, Joe Mulligan, Scotty Robertson, and Larri Silas. Three Middletown school-board positions are also on the ballot; two full-term seats, where Todd Moore is the only certified candidate, but other write-in candidates are expected to be placed on ballots. The other seat, which is for an unexpired term that concludes at the end of 2027, will be contested by write-in candidates.

Ohio residents may register to vote until October 6.

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• To become a poll worker, click here.

A community-driven organization seeks to promote health equity through engagement and collaboration

Middletown Connect was launched through a grant from an Ohio Health Improvement Zone (OHIZ) pilot project grant that was awarded to the Safety Council of Southwest Ohio and the Middletown Health Department. DeAnna Shores, Middletown Connect’s project manager and the organization’s only full-time employee, became involved with the organization while on sabbatical as a collegiate English professor. Her community engagement led her to play a role in the creation of Coalition for a Healthy Middletown, a grant-funded, Safety Council-affiliated organization that combats underage substance abuse through education and prevention. Her work inspired delving more deeply into issues facing the community.

“There were so many underlying community issues, so much work to be done,” she said. “We decided to pursue the OHIZ grant.”

Using OHIZ guidance, Middletown Connect’s work entails reviewing Census tract data to pinpoint at-risk neighborhoods and how to best serve them. Shores noted that nine of Middletown’s 16 Census-tract areas as listed as “at risk” based on the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) used by the Centers for Disease Control. The SVI measures factors such as access to transportation, educational achievement, and prevalence of health and disease, among other factors. In three of the tracts, residents’ life expectancy was more than 10 years less than other Middletown areas. This led to refining Middletown Connect’s work in improving health outcomes and community engagement.

“Middletown Connect engages the community, and we’re perfecting the process that can be applied to any community issue,” she said.

Middletown Connect’s community ambassadors play an essential role in connecting with Middletonians to learn about their issues and concerns. The initiative began with addressing health-related topics, which progressed to a moderator-led discussion and assessment of residents’ priorities.

“We can’t address every issue that faces these communities, but we’ve narrowed it to three or four priority topics and go from there,” Shores said.

Civic engagement has become a primary thrust of Middletown Connect’s mission. Shores said that a key part of the organization’s messaging has been to register to vote, attend council and school-board meetings, participate in citizen advisory boards, and even consider running for these offices. The organization has also enlisted numerous health improvement partners who represent a variety of public and organizational officials, including the mayor, police chief, health commissioner, city manager, healthcare administrators and others.

“Our partners’ communication among themselves and with the community has been important in helping engage and educate the public,” she said.

One Middletown Connect focal point is advocacy for the removal of the rubble pile created by the demolition of the former Middletown Paperboard factory. Community resident Marva Gaston had voiced concerns about the air-quality impact caused by the dust from the pile prone to blow into nearby homes.

“She didn’t want to be the only one voicing concerns about the pile, so Marva came to us, and we worked together on how to effectively outline and communicate residents’ concerns into a message the community felt comfortable sharing,” Shores said.

Youth outreach is another key part of Middletown Connect’s mission. To address children’s physical and mental-health concerns, the organization paired with Butler County’s Families and Children First Council, and the organizations jointly applied for and received a state grant that enabled the hiring of a youth-outreach program coordinator who will administer focus groups and other engagement tools to determine and meet key needs, such as mental health, vaping, truancy and other issues that impact students.

Outreach in the community has been essential to bringing community concerns front and center to the community’s decisionmakers. Local government and healthcare leaders were taken on a bus tour and “walk and talk” sessions through Middletown neighborhood for an up-close look and discussion of challenges with impacted residents.

“There have been some difficult moments in these tours, but they’ve been effectively for getting leaders on the same page in understanding community needs,” she said.

Mayor Elizabeth Slamka statement about citizen engagement in Middletown

“Every citizen over 18 years of age has the fortunate civic duty to vote. Civic engagement, however, is more than five minutes at the polls; it is a way of life, and everyone is welcome to participate. Civic engagement can be planting a garden or picking up trash as you walk. It can be helping a neighbor move or welcoming the new family to town. It can be volunteering for a board, running for office, or just having a positive attitude in everything we do. People want to give back, be involved, and be in the know, and nations, cities, organizations, schools, families, and friends can do well by sharing the best avenues in which to do so.

Over the past nearly two years in Middletown, we have created a quarterly eight-page mailed newsletter with a monthly e-newsletter in the works and created a Middletown podcast that celebrates hometown heroes. The city has committed to working collaboratively with residents as part of our decision-making process through town halls, surveys, and workgroups, and we have grown our partnership with Middletown Connect.

Middletown Connect is Middletown’s resident-led initiative to bolster community involvement and connect residents with those who are making city decisions, enabling those decisions to be made with our residents instead of just for them. We in Middletown are proud of our focus on increasing civic engagement and communication to and from the City Building. We are thrilled that Middletown is beginning to be recognized as a trailblazer and leader in resident-city communications.”  

This Partner City Middletown series is made possible with support provided by: Cincinnati Commercial Contracting, the city of Middletown, the Middletown Community Foundation, and the Chamber of Commerce serving Middletown, Monroe and Trenton.