DaytonDailyNews.com

Kettering City Council Member Peggy Lehner said she's looked at many of the political and economic development issues facing Dayton and its immediate suburban neighbors, and believes a lot more interests bind the communities together than pull them apart.

"I don't see a lot of circumstances where we should be adversaries," said Lehner, president of the First Tier Suburb Consortium of Dayton.

That's why the consortium, made up of 11 communities surrounding Dayton, has invited Dayton City Manager Rashad Young to the table when the group meets in Trotwood this evening with Montgomery County's delegation to the Ohio House of Representatives.

"Inviting the manager from Dayton reflects the fact that the first-ring suburbs and the inner city now are dealing with a lot of the same problems," Lehner said. "The problems in the city tend to be more severe, but they're not that different."

Lehner was endorsed Monday by the Montgomery County Republican Party's central committee to fill the 37th House district seat being vacated by Jon Husted, R-Kettering.

The suburbs consortium formed two years ago to discuss common problems, look for ways to cooperate and concentrate their political influence. The group includes elected officials and administrators from Clayton, Harrison Twp., Huber Heights, Jefferson Twp., Kettering, Moraine, Oakwood, Riverside, Trotwood, Vandalia and West Carrollton.

Lehner said collectively those communities account for about 240,000 people, which is more than Dayton's approximately 157,000. The consortium meets monthly, and today's meeting is so the group can talk legislative issues with local state representatives and state Sen. Tom Roberts, D-Trotwood.

"If Kettering, for example, held a meeting with the state delegation, it wouldn't have as much impact as a group of 11 governments meeting the delegation at once," Lehner said. "Working together gives us more of a voice."

And Lehner said the consortium didn't have a lot of trouble settling on what they need help with. She said the Dayton region resembles other major metro areas in that it has an aging central city with close-in suburbs that are also showing their age.

Problems that hit Dayton in decades past have started hitting its neighbors — aging and abandoned houses, aging population, aging infrastructure, commercial districts in danger of failing and pockets of poverty.

On top of the suburban consortium legislative agenda is what the group calls a crisis of foreclosed, vacant and abandoned properties.

"When you look at the Fair Housing Center's reports on where predatory lending has caused problems, Dayton is the highest on the list, but the other communities aren't that far behind," Lehner said.

Another issue where Lehner said Dayton and the suburbs are on the same page is highway funding through the Ohio Department of Transportation.

The last major issue to be addressed is development cooperation.

"We've got to avoid competing against one another to move jobs from one community to the next," Lehner said. "We've got to compete as a region to bring in jobs from outside the area."

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2395 or jcummings@DaytonDailyNews.com.