Former Ohio Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, now president and CEO of CEOs for Cities, a membership network of innovators and leaders in urban areas, made two presentations in Toledo on March 28.
“We’re not just CEOs even though our name implies that. We’re change makers. Anybody who considers themselves a change maker, in other words committed to making positive changes in their city, is qualified to be a member of our team. And what we do is we share smart ideas and practices for making a city successful,” Fisher said, adding that members are all ages and ome from many sectors.
Cities like Cincinnati, Cleveland, Milwaukee and Memphis, Tenn., have had success with the program, Fisher said.
Fisher, who has led the organization since May 2011, said that with 65 million people moving to cities every year, urban areas are crucial. He travels to a different city every week with his job.
HisToledo presentations were at Toledo City Council’s chambers and the University of Toledo’s Libbey Hall and attended by several city officials.
“Here’s what we do — we curate ideas. We take the ideas that we see around the country every day and we identify the ones we think are the most interesting and best ones and we connect people — we do regional meetings; we do national meetings,” Fisher said.
These ideas include Cincinnati’s revamping of its Over-the-Rhine area and Grand Rapids’ GRid70, which enables creative employees from top corporations in the area to work in the
same building and share ideas.
There is a $25,000 fee for a two-year membership. CEOs for Cities has about 350 individual and organizational members and 11 “cluster” members who can share the membership and work together, Fisher said.
“Clusters” are a “team of cross-sector, cross-generational leaders committed to the economic success of their city,” according to the website. Membership includes discounted or free attendance of meetings where ideas are shared.
Sue Wuest of UT Urban Affairs was one of a few UT employees who attended a CEOs for Cities meeting recently. She said she enjoyed the variety of people comfortably conversing at the March 2012 meeting in Cincinnati.
“It was like the nexus of high-level and mid-level business folks, high-level and mid-level university folks, students, young entrepreneurs and community organizers,” Wuest said.
While Fisher was in Toledo, he also met with representatives from UT, Toledo Community Foundation, Regional Growth Partnership and the Mayor’s Office.
Mayor Mike Bell said the group will discuss the decision to potentially join as a cluster and split costs April 2. Bell said the program appealed to him because it would connect Toledo with other cities going through similar situations like a water-rate hike.
CEOs for Cities has several criteria for evaluating cities. The group uses what it calls CITY Vitals, which measures how connected, innovative, talented and distinctive a city is.
Wuest said the CITY Vitals could be helpful in serving as benchmarks, which are useful for applying for grants and setting goals.
The program also promotes setting several 1 percent goals like improving college attainment by just a percentage point. This could potentially raise Toledo’s per capita income by $600 million per year, Fisher said.
The national meeting is set for Sept. 29 in Grand Rapids. Bell said the Toledo representatives would potentially like to attend that meeting. For more information, visit www.ceosforcities.org.
