Mentor City Council Election 2011 Candidate Profile: Sean Blake

Editor's Note: As part of Mentor 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. We also will have a short video of each candidate in which we ask them, "What is the biggest issue facing Mentor and how would you address it?"

Stay tuned for more coverage of the election. 

Name: Sean Blake

Age: 49

Occupation: Physical therapist

Education: Cuyahoga Community College 1984. Cleveland State 1986. 

Office Sought: Ward 1 Council

Elected Experience: None

Non-Elected Experience: Current Vice-Chair of Mentor Building and Zoning Appeals.

City of Mentor Car Cruise, Parking coordinator 2005-2009.

Lake County YMCA, Central Board of Managers 2005-2009.

Lake County Historical Society Board of Directors 2006-2008.

Candidate Statement: I see Mentor approaching a crossroads in our development. We cannot plan or govern this city like it is 1990.

We are entering a phase of “smart redevelopment.” New opportunities are on the horizon if we are forward thinking and grasp hold. One such opportunity is the marketing of Mentor to all the medical businesses who will locate themselves within the new Medical Mart in Cleveland.

These businesses will need support sites such as warehouses, office space and manufacturing locations. Other cities in the region will be aggressive in their marketing. Mentor has everything that these companies would need. We need to start thinking about Mentor in the year 2020 and plan now.

I would like to see our children finish college and return to Mentor to live their American dream. We do a fantastic job educating our children in the schools here in Mentor. We need to focus on opportunities for them.

The 2010 U.S. census has shown the median age of Mentor residents to be 44.8 years old, up from 38.9 in the 2000 census. That figure to me represents Mentor’s “brain drain. Our children are not coming back to Mentor. I will work to make Mentor the place where our children come home to.

In my job I travel from community to community in our region. For the past 25 years I have studied what works and what does not work and why.

I would like to bring this insight to Mentor City Council. In Mentor, we have a fantastic quality of life, excellent city services and some of the best neighborhoods in America.

On October 8, 2010, I did a 12-hour ride-along with the Mentor police during the overnight shift. Following this experience I gained a very deep respect for what our police and fire departments do for us. I also affirmed that Mentor is a great city, a city full of promise, but the future holds no guarantees. We must be forward thinking and plan for continued success. 

One final note: if elected, I would only serve two terms on city council. I believe after 8 years on council my ideas would have been acted upon, and I will cheerfully step aside to let the ideas of others come forward.