Porkopolis

2006-07-20T12:09:00.000-04:00

We've Moved and Improved

Please visit our new, more reader-friendly blog (at http://citybeat.wordpress.com) and add it to your bookmarks.

— Gregory Flannery

2006-07-19T16:43:00.000-04:00

Deadline for Banks Developer Shifted Again

For at least the third time during the past year, the deadline for selecting a developer to build The Banks project along Cincinnati’s downtown riverfront appears to have changed.

The long-stalled project involves building condominiums, offices and shops between the Reds and Bengals stadiums. It’s expected to cost about $800 million, which will include roughly $200 million in taxpayer money.

Although a high-powered advisory panel formed by Cincinnati and Hamilton County officials stated in late June that a developer would be selected in the next six to nine months, County Commissioner Pat DeWine said this week that the choice will be known sometime in August.

The timeline proposed by the advisory panel — known as The Banks Working Group — refers to how long it might take to get a finalized contract with the developer selected for the project, not the selection itself, DeWine said.

“I think there was some confusion about that,” DeWine said today. “The six to nine months is to go through the whole process to get a development agreement and work out the details.”

DeWine’s clarification comes just after it was publicly revealed that one of four development teams vying for the project, New York-based Rockefeller Group/Kimco, withdrew because of delays. That prompted the county commission’s sole Democrat, Todd Portune, to worry that one or more of the other applicants may also drop out.

DeWine calls those concerns unfounded: “The top two (choices ranked by county staffers) were ranked pretty closely together, so I imagine they will both stay interested.”

The top choices recommended by the staffers were Cincinnati-based Western-Southern Financial Group and Atlanta-based AIG Global Real Estate Investment Corp.

DeWine noted that selecting a finalist or finalists for building the project is listed as the third step in an 18-step process outlined by The Banks Working Group. It’s not until step 8, however, when Cincinnati City Council and Hamilton County Commissioners give the final OK to the selection by formally approving a contract.

Most of the intervening months between the steps will involve negotiations to hammer out a deal. Any contract will include a “completion guarantee” by the developer because the project will be built in phases over a decade, the advisory panel said.

County efforts to jumpstart The Banks project began in June 2005, when commissioners unilaterally took control away from the regional Port Authority and began negotiating a deal with the Corporex Cos. and Vandercar Holdings, hoping to have a contract by December. The six-month negotiation period ended in failure, however, when Corporex withdrew citing financial concerns.

Following the withdrawal, commissioners set up an in-house group of county staffers and others to review applications from potential developers and make a selection by April 5. Amid criticism that Western-Southern’s team — led by big cash contributors to the campaign of County Commission President Phil Heimlich — appeared to be the front-runner, commissioners shifted course again. They created The Banks Working Group in conjunction with city officials to review the selection process and make its own recommendations.

On June 30, The Banks Working Group stated that if the existing applicants fail to impress the panel will their plans the selection process will be opened to other developers. That seemed to contradict previous statements by Heimlich, who wanted a developer picked this summer and hoped construction could begin late this year or in early 2007.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-07-18T20:55:00.000-04:00

Developer Loses Interest in The Banks

A development team vying to build The Banks project along Cincinnati’s riverfront quietly dropped out of the running last week, prompting at least one Hamilton County Commissioner to worry that the remaining contenders could follow.

The Rockefeller Group/Kimco announced its withdrawal in a July 11 letter to Bob Castellini, the Cincinnati Reds co-owner who heads an advisory panel reviewing developer applications. Copies of the letter also went to several local officials, including Mayor Mark Mallory and County Commission President Phil Heimlich, although neither has discussed the matter publicly.

New York-based Rockefeller/Kimco was among the four developers vetted by county staffers last winter. It ranked third, after a team led by Western-Southern Financial Group of Cincinnati and AIG Global Real Estate Investment Corp. of Atlanta. A team called the Partnership for Lasting Urban Growth, involving a Columbus developer and local labor unions, ranked fourth.

Since the ranking, city and county officials have formed The Banks Working Group, an advisory panel led by Castellini. The panel intends to ask for more information from the developers and draft policies guiding how the project should be built. Castellini recently said it would take six to nine months to make a final selection.

Rockefeller/Kimco’s short, two-paragraph letter doesn’t list a reason for its withdrawal, but the team previously stated to county officials that it didn’t want to start the selection process over from scratch.

Todd Portune, the sole Democrat on the three-member county commission, said “mixed signals” from his Republican colleagues about when and how a developer would be selected are confusing applicants and could cause them to lose interest. That would put the long-delayed Banks project, planned since 1999, even further behind schedule.

“I’m not surprised that someone would pull out in light of all that has happened,” Portune says. “(Rockefeller/Kimco’s) decision by itself doesn’t necessarily denote bad news. They would not be my choice based on what we’ve seen so far. If it portends a trend that developers are no longer interested, that would be a problem that someone needs to address.”

— Kevin Osborne

2006-07-18T17:32:00.000-04:00

School Cuts Could Be Even Bigger

Although no firm estimate has yet been provided to the public, up to 18 proposed schools could be cut from the Cincinnati Public Schools’ massive reconstruction plan based on new enrollment projections.

As CityBeat reported July 12 in “Disappearing Schools”, the board of education is considering scaling back the $1 billion rebuilding plan, but couldn’t decide to what extent until board members agreed on what the school district’s enrollment would be by the plan’s completion in 2011.

The district's current plan calls for building 64 schools to accommodate 38,565 students. Superintendent Rosa Blackwell recently proposed changing it to 55 schools to accommodate 34,865 students based on updated enrollment estimates, but she didn’t identify which schools could be on the chopping block. Some board members, however, cited studies that enrollment might drop to 27,000 or lower.

After two weeks of heated debate, the board settled Monday night on an enrollment projection of 31,550 in the next five years. Some board members said that could require cutting up to nine additional schools beyond what Blackwell proposed.

Blackwell and her staff will now devise a plan on proposed cuts to submit to the board sometime later this summer.

Residents without school-age children or who lack any direct ties to Cincinnati Public Schools still likely will be affected by the district's fate. Concerns about the quality of education provided by the district consistently rank near the top in most surveys about why people move away from the city, and causes Cincinnati's tax base to shrink. Also, some studies indicate that dropout rates partially correlate to increased crime.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-07-17T20:13:00.000-04:00

The Mystery of the Cincinnati Police study

Getting details about a confidential study done last year on officers’ attitudes and deployment issues within the Cincinnati Police Department — including who was given the study’s findings and when — is proving curiouser and curiouser.

City staffers finally released copies of a PowerPoint slide presentation outlining the study’s findings to the public June 21, one day after city council members got a copy and more than six months after the study was completed in December 2005.

The release followed a May 9 public records request by CityBeat for any documents related to the study that the city had in its possession. We were told at the time that no city staffer or elected official had anything fitting the bill.

But many of the study’s recommendations for improving the police department’s operations were included almost verbatim in Mayor Mark Mallory’s plan for fighting Cincinnati’s rising crime rate, announced in a much-publicized press conference Mallory held Jan. 19. None of the anti-crime initiatives that Mallory proposed during his mayoral campaign the previous summer, however, was included in the plan.

According to various city staffers, several people were given verbal presentations on the study’s findings and recommendations since it was completed Dec. 12, including Interim City Manager David Rager, Police Chief Thomas Streicher Jr., police supervisors and some council members.

The Cincinnati Business Committee (CBC), which outlined the findings, didn’t leave copies of the slides with any of the attendees, at the time, council members said.

A council majority is using one of the study’s findings to push for adding 100 new police officers to street patrol in the next few years, at a cost of up to $8 million annually.

Former Mayor Charlie Luken commissioned the $100,000-plus study in June 2005, designed as an independent assessment of the department. It was paid for using private money from the CBC and other business interests, a tactic that prevented the study from being classified as a public record under Ohio's open records law until someone at City Hall took possession of a copy.

Renowned police expert John Linder did the study, but it remains unclear if council has even seen the full report. Only PowerPoint printouts and results from a police survey were publicly released, and city staffers and the CBC each continually refer questions to the other about whether more study documents exist.

“Whatever City Hall has is all I know of,” said Laura Long, the CBC’s executive director, in a recent telephone interview. “We were just a conduit to get it funded.”

Asked if a slide presentation justified the more than $100,000 expense, Long replied, “John Linder and his team did a lot of work, like the interviews and a lot of physical work. … I know John worked closely with Chief Streicher.”

In a June 21 memo to council, Rager wrote, “Having recently received the set of slides, police department staff has begun the process of reviewing the intent of many of the recommendations. … it is likely that many of the recommendations can be incorporated into current initiatives generated from other studies and agreements.”

Rager’s memo states that police will make a presentation to council “in the next few weeks”; council returns from summer break Sept. 7.

Among the study’s findings, it recommends that Cincinnati Police should use a ComStat-style system to monitor crime trends and assess the performance of individual districts on an ongoing basis. In the past few years, when council members suggested police use ComStat, Streicher and supervisors insisted their own current system was sufficient.

In most cities using the system including New York, daily meetings are held with police captains and other supervisors to update crime hotspots, and benchmarks are developed to gauge police progress. Streicher is proposing weekly meetings with assistant chiefs, but not district commanders.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-07-13T14:06:00.000-04:00

Catching Up On The Banks

Anyone interested in an insider’s view about the status of The Banks project, Cincinnati’s proposed downtown development along the Ohio River, should tune into WVXU (91.7 FM) on Monday.

News Director Maryanne Zeleznik will interview three members of The Banks Working Group, the advisory panel created by Cincinnati and Hamilton County officials to quicken the pace of the long-delayed project. Panel members participating are Bob Castellini, Cincinnati Reds co-owner; local attorney Tom Gabelman; and Tim Riordan, a former city administrator and consultant.

Proposed in 1999, The Banks is envisioned as a mix of condominiums, offices and shops between the Reds and Bengals stadiums. The project has stalled over funding and jurisdictional issues, particularly who will pay for $68 million in parking garages needed to lift the development area above the flood plain. County sales tax revenues were supposed to pay for the garages but are far below initial projections.

About $200 million in taxpayer money is expected to be included in any financing plan for The Banks, which has an estimated price tag of more than $800 million.

Unlike many of her counterparts in commercial TV and radio, Zeleznik is known for providing context on local issues and asking in-depth questions. Her news special will air Monday at 9:20 a.m. and 7:20 p.m. on WVXU, and via a live streaming audio feed on www.wvxu.org.

-- Kevin Osborne

2006-07-12T16:39:00.000-04:00

Cleves Police Chief Indicted

As reported in the issue of CityBeat that hits newsstands today, Cleves Police Chief Mark Demeropolis was placed on unpaid administrative leave pending an investigation into “internal issues” by the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office. Late this afternoon, we found out why.

Demeropolis was indicted today on a series of criminal charges, including a Bureau of Motor Vehicles scam, according to County Prosecutor Joe Deters. Demeropolis, 42, was charged with three counts of tampering with records, two counts of forgery and one count of tampering with evidence involving two separate incidents.

A probe by the Ohio Organized Crime Investigation Commission concluded that several employees at the deputy registrar’s office on Colerain Avenue in Mount Airy issued license plate registrations to businesses, friends and family members, even though their vehicles failed the state-mandated E-Check test for emissions. In 2004 and 2005, Demeropolis licensed two personal vehicles at the office using fraudulent EPA codes. Demeropolis, a former BMV employee, knew how to manipulate and abuse the E-Check system, prosecutors said.

Also, three workers at the Mount Airy office — Aimee Wolfinbarger, Veronica Newell and Trecy Bates — were each indicted on two counts of tampering with records for issuing false license plates.

In a separate incident that occurred in May, Demeropolis allegedly instructed a Cleves police officer to shred information concerning a drunken driving arrest, prosecutors said. He then had the officer charge the suspect with reckless operation instead of driving under the influence.

Demeropolis faces up to 22 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

Check out writer Justine Reisinger’s article, “Police Chief Suspended,” in this week’s CityBeat for more information on the troubled police department and Demeropolis.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-07-11T17:26:00.000-04:00

I Went to Death Row but Didn’t Even Get A Lousy T-Shirt

Why? No gift shop!

In order for CityBeat to obtain an interview with Death Row inmate James Mills, we had to make a special request to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections. After being asked the focus of the story, a reply came two days later: the interview was granted but only questions about the prisoner’s life and his case would be permitted — no questions about Death Row, the death penalty or his incarceration experience.

A few days later Jeff Gamso, the legal director for the ACLU of Ohio, informed CityBeat that the staff of the Ohio State Penitentiary is “still new” to housing Death Row inmates and is in the process of figuring out how to handle the rules and procedures. He said the restrictions on the interview were unconstitutional.

Gamso sent an e-mail to Assistant Warden Keith Fletcher. When Fletcher didn’t respond, Gamso went to the warden. What followed was a call to CityBeat from an irate Andrea Dean, who described herself as Fletcher’s boss. Her ire was the result of what she described as a threatening e-mail from Gamso challenging the restrictions on the interview.

Dean suggested that there had been a miscommunication and coordinated a three-way call with Fletcher, during which she explained the only question restrictions were on questions about prison policies and procedures, such as when guards change shifts.

On the day of the interview, Fletcher said CityBeat was receiving more leeway than other reporters, who were usually restricted to questions about an inmate’s case. As it turned out, the only thing Mills wouldn’t discuss was his case. But he was free to explain what his life is like as a prisoner on Death Row in Youngstown, Ohio.

— Margo Pierce

2006-07-11T17:24:00.000-04:00

Dead Brother Walking

Having the state act in a manner that models the kind of behavior society deems acceptable is why many of those dealing with the loss of a loved one believe the death penalty creates barriers to healing the emotional and social wounds caused by murder. The negativity of taking a life makes it harder victim’s families to have a positive focus on their loved when the state repeatedly reminds them of the event by killing in their name.

David Gallagher, a local attorney and death penalty opponent, explains the implications of the death penalty on victims’ families by referring to Sam Reese Sheppard, the son of Dr. Samuel H. Shepard, who was convicted of killing his wife but later acquitted. Gallagher debunks the idea that anger and retaliation can lead to healing and peace frequently called “closure.”

“Sam speaks as the son of an innocent man on death row and a murder victim, his mother. When he talks about the victim’s families who become fixated on the death of the killer providing them some sense of closure, some sense of relief, (they) are left with a true sense of hollowness when that even happens.

“Once that death is gone, there’s nothing left to take that place any more. These people find they have permanently damaged or severed ties with family and close friends because they became almost consumed with the death of the killer. They talk about the wasted energy and hours and days spent on somebody that most of society would say should never have been the focus of their attention.”

Jay Clark, a Cincinnati attorney and teacher at UC, believes the death penalty defies the argument of justice for the victims by artificially elevating their importance to a point where other murder victims are deemed less valuable.

“Supporters will say it’s just another way to deny justice to the victim’s family. Bullshit,” he says. “In a death penalty case, you have to have the aggravating circumstance of a robbery, a murder or rape. Why is a victim’s life more valuable if he was being robbed than if he was shot randomly? In other non-capital crimes cases were the death penalty doesn’t apply, are those victims’ lives less valuable?”

The rhetorical question frequently posed by those who oppose the death penalty brings the point home in a way many never consider: What if that were your brother on death row?

Insert child, parent, aunt, cousin or anyone you love and you get the idea that just because someone else doesn’t value the life of your loved one doesn’t mean the value you have for him disappears.

— Margo Pierce

2006-07-10T20:57:00.000-04:00

Ghiz, Casino Backer, Sues to Stop Casinos

Call it a case of karma, says Cincinnati City Councilwoman Leslie Ghiz.

Ghiz filed a lawsuit today against Ohio Learn and Earn, a political action committee seeking voter approval to allow two slot machine casinos in Cleveland and up to seven others at horse racing tracks throughout the state.

Ghiz's lawsuit alleges that Ohio Learn and Earn misrepresented its primary purpose when it submitted its petition language to the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office in May. The petition lists the proposed state amendment's purpose as establishing a scholarship program and doesn’t refer to the casinos that would be allowed as its funding method. The tactic allows Ohio Learn and Earn to use "false, misleading and deceptive conduct" when it collects voter signatures on the petitions, the lawsuit states.

The PAC faces an Aug. 7 deadline to collect 323,000 signatures from registered voters to place the issue on the Nov. 7 ballot.

Also, the lawsuit alleges that Washington, D.C.-based FieldWorks LLC, the firm hired to collect signatures, failed to register as a company doing business in Ohio; and the petitions don’t disclose that Ohio Learn and Earn is paying for the effort, a disclosure required by state law.

Ghiz's lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction barring Ohio Learn and Earn from collecting signatures using the current wording. A hearing in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court hasn't yet been scheduled.

Initially, Cincinnati was included in the ballot language but later was excluded due to what Ghiz describes as "outside pressure from special interests." One of the PAC's backers is Penn National Gaming, owner of Argosy Casino in nearby Lawrenceburg, Ind. Argosy's profits could suffer if slot parlors are allowed in Cincinnati, according to Ghiz.

Earlier this year, Ghiz mounted her own petition drive to add Cincinnati to the state proposal. It was dropped, however, after legal challenges by Ohio Learn and Earn and the looming deadline to make the ballot.

The lawsuit was partially inspired by the tactics Ohio Learn and Earn used against the local effort, Ghiz says.

"Turnabout is fair play," she says. "I didn't know about this stuff until they did it to us to keep us off the ballot. That made me go and research exactly what the law says."

Ghiz calls the petition effort "underhanded," adding, "They're lying to our voters, at least in this area of the state."

— Kevin Osborne

2006-07-10T11:37:00.000-04:00

Controlling WAIF

My “evil” and “treacherous” plot to take over WAIF (88.3 FM) is being foiled by a legitimate effort to help the radio station realize its full potential. Bummer!

Joe Wessels, a WAIF member and avid supporter, is spearheading a membership drive in advance of the next membership meeting in an attempt to bring in enough people to vote for new board members and restore responsible stewardship to the board of trustees. The Aug. 1 deadline is approaching fast, so he’s in a hurry to explain his motivation.

“A good faith effort was put forth to talk with the organization’s leadership in the hopes that collectively we could come up with a solution to the stations problems and begin to discuss an alternate future for WAIF,” Wessels wrote in an e-mail to supporters. “Unfortunately, these overtures fell on deaf ears and issues at the station continue to go unaddressed.”

Those issues include allegations of FCC violations documents in “Naughty Stepchild” and a board president, Donald Shabazz, who apparently doesn’t keep his word and who discusses WAIF business on the air — a violation of station policies.

A programmer who wishes to remain anonymous so that s/he can keep her/his show, informed CityBeat last week that all the people who spoke on the record and were critical of the board of trustees have been banned from the station and lost their shows. This after Shabazz said programmers wouldn’t face repercussions for sharing their views. His statement appeared in the article “Watching at WAIF” about security cameras installed in the production booths earlier this year.

After speculating about who criticized the cameras, (Shabazz) dismisses the idea that anyone would be penalized for doing so.

"Nobody has ever been terminated," he said.

According to the WAIF programmer, Bill Polak was the latest victim.

“They had a meeting last night and lynched him,” s/he said. “As of last night, all of the people who spoke to CityBeat have all been fired.”

Wessels isn’t going to allow the board to stop his efforts.

“Unfortunately, the board of directors, aware that a membership drive might be launched, apparently moved the deadline ahead nearly a month. I am sorry for the short notice,” Wessels wrote. “Joining is important, but more than joining, we need new members to vote at the upcoming Sept. 17, 2006 annual meeting. That way, five new board members can be voted onto the board and begin the work needed to take WAIF to a better place. Here are some of the reasons I think you might be interested in helping WAIF:

• “Once a member joins the station, they have a say in one of the country’s last community radio stations. WAIF — owned completely by its members — has been on the air in Cincinnati for more than 30 years.
• “WAIF embodies a way for your group or organization to become the voice of the station — whether that is on the air, being on the board of directors or a member.
• “With an FCC educational broadcasting license, WAIF delivers truly original programming, commercial free — and the opportunity to create new programs — to an audience throughout the Greater Cincinnati area.
• “The potential for the station is limitless. Remote broadcasts, new programs, the chance to increase WAIF’s programming hours, better management, better programs, better audience development and better fundraising.
• “Cincinnati has dwindling radio diversity. WAIF represents a chance to improve diversity and have less-heard and unheard voices on radio in Cincinnati. WAIF truly is ‘what radio is meant to be.’

“Here’s what you can do. First, members need to join the station — and we need a lot. Second, and arguably most important, we need members who can be at the WAIF annual meeting Sept. 17 to help get enough votes for qualified people to join the board of directors.”

To join, send a check for $15 to WAIF Radio, along with your request to join, to WAIF, 1434 East McMillan Ave., Cincinnati, OH 45206.

Keep a copy of the canceled check and your request, in order to verify they were submitted before the Aug. 1 deadline so you can vote Sept. 17. This is important because the board has banned new members from voting in the past, according to Wessels.

— Margo Pierce

2006-07-06T16:32:00.000-04:00

Rules for Outdoor Bars

Mea culpa.

The back and forth dickering among Cincinnati officials about changing the rules governing outdoor areas at bars and restaurants is enough to confuse even bleary-eyed reporters.

Wednesday’s blog posting erroneously lists the proposed operating hours for outdoor areas from an earlier version of the ordinance, not the most recent one that city council’s Economic Development Committee will review July 31.

The earlier version prohibited outdoor areas from operating between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays and between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. other days.

In fact, the later version being considered by council provides longer operating hours in what some city officials describe as a compromise with bar owners. The rule changes before council only prohibits outdoor areas from operating between midnight and 7 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays and from 10 p.m.-7 a.m. on other days unless a conditional use permit is granted.

The proposed later operating hours have concerned some neighborhood groups, which think it will disrupt residential areas next to bars with outdoor seating.

The city’s planning commission also dislikes the later hours, putting it at odds with council’s latest stance on the issue.

During the past few months, several different sets of operating guidelines have been proposed.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-07-06T10:44:00.000-04:00

People's Party

Northside's annual Independence Day parade is unlike any other in Greater Cincinnati, with offbeat entertainment and progressive politics setting the tone. Sean Hughes, art director at CityBeat, shares these images from Tuesday's parade.

— Gregory Flannery

2006-07-05T22:06:00.000-04:00

Council Delays New Outdoor Bar Rules

Residents and tavern owners can expect to square off July 31 about proposed changes that would expand the size of outdoor seating areas allowed at Cincinnati’s bars and restaurants but further restrict their hours of operation.

Cincinnati City Council delayed a decision on the proposal at its June 28 meeting, voting instead to send the item back to its Economic Development Committee for more review. Council voted 7-2 to delay a vote; Vice Mayor Jim Tarbell and Councilwoman Leslie Ghiz were opposed and wanted a decision made that day.

Under the latest proposal being considered, the size of outdoor seating areas cannot exceed 50 percent of the establishment’s indoor area that is accessible to the public. That would double the current allowed maximum, which is 25 percent of the indoor space. The outdoor areas must be at least 50 feet away from residential districts.

Also, the proposal would prohibit the use of outdoor areas between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. on other days, unless a conditional use permit is granted by the city. The changes would mean the outdoor areas would have to be closed an hour earlier than currently allowed.

The proposal would require a 10-foot buffer area next to residential districts and mandate off-street parking be provided at a ratio of one parking space per 300 square feet of outdoor floor area.

Because of City Hall renovations, the Economic Development Committee will hold its next meeting at downtown’s Duke Energy Center.

The city’s planning commission dislikes the proposed rule changes and recommended that more restrictive rule changes be passed. It rejected the proposal before city council, meaning council must muster at least six votes to overturn the decision.

Many residents also have spoken before city council objecting to the changes, noting they would make Cincinnati’s rules the least restrictive among an area including the cities of Blue Ash, Covington, Newport and Norwood.

“Voting ‘no’ means voting ‘yes’ for the family orientation of our city,” Clifton resident Michael Ramundo told council during its last meeting. “No one leaves our city because they want more bars with outdoor areas.”

Several bar owners countered that additional restrictions would harm their business and drive customers away.

City officials began considering rule changes after Oakley residents complained about customers at R.P. McMurphy’s Pub causing problems in their neighborhood. Patrons at the Wasson Road bar block their driveways when parking their vehicles, urinate on their lawns and dump beer bottles on the streets. Bar owners are appealing a decision by the state liquor board to revoke its license.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-07-04T16:46:00.000-04:00

What Are You Celebrating?

Today's Cincinnati Post has a deligthful story about the futility of laws against fireworks, with police chiefs lamenting the civil disobedience that takes over neighborhoods every Fourth of July.

When Independence Day comes around, I always wonder what it is that people are celebrating. Is it power of the United States of America or the values espoused by its founders? The two are increasingly in conflict. We have become an empire, with troops stationed in more than 100 countries. We conquer and occupy virtually defenseless nations. We imprison foreign citizens without charge or access to the courts. Our soldiers rape and kill civilians. The federal government monitors the use of our telephones.

This is liberty?

— Gregory Flannery

2006-07-03T15:42:00.000-04:00

Another Mallory Insider Appointed

City Council’s hectic final meeting before summer recess last week included a mayoral appointment that stirred some debate about whether the independence of the Cincinnati Human Relations Commission (CHRC) has been compromised.

Mayor Mark Mallory nominated his chief of staff, Carla Walker, to sit on the CHRC’s board of directors. Council confirmed the appointment in an 8-1 vote, with Republican Leslie Ghiz opposed.

Because the mayor’s office drafts the proposed city budget that is presented to city council every fall, and the CHRC receives funding from the city, Ghiz is worried that Mallory — through Walker — will have too much influence in the CHRC’s decisions.

“I think it’s a terrible conflict of interest to have your chief of staff sitting on the CHRC board,” Ghiz said.

The commission received $415,000 from the city in the current budget.

Mallory made no public comments about the appointment but council members Laketa Cole and Cecil Thomas, both Democrats, defended Walker’s selection. Cole noted that then-Mayor Charlie Luken appointed his aide, Bernadette Watson, to sit on the Community Action Agency’s board of directors.

“This is not a precedent,” Cole said.

Also, Thomas, who was the CHRC’s executive director until he quit to run for council, said the city manager used to appoint an ex-officio member to CHRC’s board. Ghiz replied that the Community Action Agency (CAA) receives funding from multiple sources including the city, Hamilton County and federal programs, unlike the CHRC, which relies almost entirely on the city. Further, the CHRC’s ex-officio member didn’t have voting rights and was there mostly to monitor the group’s action to report to the city. That position was eliminated years ago by then-City Manager John Shirey.

“There has to be some independence on that board,” Ghiz said. “Every time an issue comes up, they’re going to look to Carla for an answer about where the mayor stands on it.”

The CHRC’s contract with the city includes a conflict of interest section that states, “Service provider agrees that no officer, employee or agent of city who exercises any functions or responsibilities in connection with the planning and carrying out of the program, nor any immediate family member, close business associate or organization which is about to employ any such person, shall have any personal financial interest, direct or indirect, in service provider or in this agreement, and service provider shall take appropriate steps to assure compliance.”

Also, the CHRC’s previous contract with the city, from 2003, had a section entitled, “Political Activity Prohibited,” which affirmed that no “officer or employee” of CHRC can engage in political activity for any candidate, party or cause. It is not included in the current contract.

Walker is former director of the Hamilton County Democratic Party and was an aide to Mayor Roxanne Qualls.

This isn’t the first time Walker has spurred city council debate. Mallory hired her at an annual salary of $76,000, then later asked council to approve a higher range for the position, increasing the maximum amount from $64,900 to $95,500. Some council members criticized Mallory’s process, but they approved the request. Even if it hadn’t, Mallory said at the time, Walker could have worked most of the year and would leave when she hit the $64,900 mark.

Since taking office in December, Mallory also has appointed another aide, Shawn Butler, to the CAA’s board; and appointed his father, former Ohio House Majority Leader William Mallory Sr., to the transit board that oversees the Metro bus system. Like Walker’s position, the board appointments are voluntary and receive no compensation.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-06-30T22:10:00.000-04:00

Going South: Mallory on Holiday

Plans for a beach getaway by Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory led to some confusion this week over the last-minute cancellation of a neighborhood forum that he had scheduled in May.

A TV news show Thursday afternoon reported the forum as an upcoming event that evening. Mallory’s spokesman quickly issued an oddly worded press release informing media that the event, in fact, was canceled.

“The cancellation has been previously announced, but not necessarily widely announced,” said the statement by Jason Barron, Mallory’s communications director.

That’s because the announcement was made Tuesday during Mallory’s weekly press briefing, which has been sparsely attended in recent weeks. The City Hall session mostly involves Mallory listing what appointments he had in the previous week, and TV news crews, as well as some print reporters, have stopped regularly attending.

Just why the neighborhood forum on housing issues was canceled, however, remained a mystery for a short time. Later Thursday, CityBeat was contacted by two Cincinnatians who were on the same airline flight to Fort Lauderdale as Mallory and a friend. Amused by inadvertently traveling with the mayor, they snapped photographs of him in the Fort Lauderdale airport, using their cell phone’s camera. Barron later confirmed the forum was canceled because of conflicting vacation plans.

“The mayor took some time off, but I don’t know where he went,” Barron said. “He hasn’t taken anytime off in about a year because of the campaign and everything.”

Mallory’s office contacted housing agencies and told them the forum had been canceled, Barron said. But some residents didn’t know and showed up at Memorial Hall in Over-the-Rhine. Barron and another staffer were present to tell them about the cancellation and take some input on housing issues.

Barron said Mallory’s cancellation isn’t newsworthy.

“I really would hope the mayor wouldn’t be blamed for going on vacation,” he said.

Some residents, though, noted the forum had been planned at least four weeks earlier. Mallory should have either scheduled his flight for another day or provided earlier notice of the cancellation, they said.

Located about 45 minutes north of Miami, Fort Lauderdale is perhaps best known as the locale for the 1960 cult classic film, Where the Boys Are, based on the popular Connie Francis song.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-06-30T22:01:00.000-04:00

No ‘Banks’ Developer for Nine Months

An advisory panel won’t be ready to recommend a developer to build The Banks, a multimillion-dollar project along Cincinnati’s riverfront, for another 6 to 9 months. But the panel has set some minimum expectations for whoever is selected.

The Banks Working Group met for the second time today, and members agreed to some basic timelines and principles as they move ahead with reviewing potential developers. Panel member Robert Rhein said applicants must be willing to put up a letter of credit or a bond to ensure their commitment to building The Banks, if selected. Also, a developer will be expected to sign a completion guarantee, because the project will be built in phases over 10 years.

The panel has yet to meet the four developers recommended by a Hamilton County task force but plans on holding in-person interviews in July. If any of the four developers can’t make the interview, they will be eliminated from consideration, Rhein said.

Prospective developers are the Western-Southern Financial Group of Cincinnati, AIG Global Real Estate Investment Corp. of Atlanta, the Rockefeller Group/Kimco of New York and the Partnership for Lasting Urban Growth of Columbus.

If the four fail to impress the panel will their plans, the selection process will be open to other developers, members said.

“We don’t feel any pressure that we have to select one of these if the plan is garbage,” Rhein said. “There’s no feeling that we’re so desperate to do something that we’ll do anything.”

Hamilton County Commission President Phil Heimlich, who created The Banks Working Group in conjunction with Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory, had hoped a developer would be picked this summer and construction could begin late this year or in early 2007. That timeline is unrealistic, panel members said.

Any developer recommended by the panel also must agree to a workforce inclusion policy that ensures participation by minority and women contractors. The policy is being drafted by a subcommittee of the working group, headed by Steve Love of the African American Chamber of Commerce. The subcommittee also consists of members from the local NAACP, the Baptist Ministers Conference, the Urban League, the AMOS Project, the Building Trades Council and others. The inclusion policy probably will be done by July 31, Love said.

Cincinnati and Hamilton County officials created The Banks Working Group in April to quicken the process of selecting a developer. Proposed in 1999, the project has stalled over funding and jurisdictional issues, particularly who will pay for $68 million in parking garages. Sales tax revenues were supposed to pay for the garages but are far below projections.

The Banks will involve $200 million in public funding to supplement $600 million in private investment in a vacant eight-block area located just north of the Ohio River.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-06-30T14:27:00.000-04:00

Fountain Square Party Planner

Game shows, a scavenger hunt and a chess match played on a giant board with people serving as chess pieces are just some of the unconventional ideas the new Fountain Square event manager is toying with to so visitors “have a great time and connect with people they wouldn’t connect with otherwise.”

That person is Suzanne Schindler, who served as Bill Donabedian’s "right hand woman" for the MidPoint Music Festival since February.

Donabedian conducted the interview and offered her the position on Tuesday. The 34-year-old Schindler says her head is “still spinning” but she’s excited about her new role.

“I’ve never been as fired up about a job in my entire life,” she says. “I really believe in cities, and I think Cincinnati is about to take off.”

In addition to usual family activities, Schindler wants to bring the unexpected to the new square.

“There is going to be some conventional stuff but also things people aren’t expecting,” she says.

Fountain Square is undergoing a $42.6 million facelift that includes refurbishing the garage beneath it, moving the fountain away from Fifth Street, adding a new restaurant and placing two stages on either side of a large open space that will be filled with a large skating rink during the winter.

If the new and improved square is going to live up to it’s billing as the place to be in downtown Cincinnati and draw people back to the city, the events are going to be a critical factor. We’re looking forward to having them live up to all the hype.

— Margo Pierce

2006-06-29T21:12:00.000-04:00

City Council Late Again

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again — even if no one at City Hall seems to be listening.

For the second time in less than two months, small business owner and local activist Monica Williams scolded Cincinnati City Council Wednesday about its tardiness. In recent months, council has routinely started its afternoon meetings late, while some members skip the public forum or arrive late.

At Wednesday's meeting, the public forum, scheduled for 1:30 p.m., began at 1:42 p.m. The main council meeting, scheduled for 2 p.m., began at 2:23 p.m., after council members took a break to privately confer among themselves or
visit their offices.

Williams noted that many residents must take time off from work to attend council’s afternoon meetings if they want to provide input on local issues. Mayor Mark Mallory and city council should respect that sacrifice and handle business in a timely manner, she said.

“If this is the people’s council … and I can get away from my job, it’s unfortunate that members of council can’t do the same,” Williams said.

A few years ago then-Councilman Paul Booth suggested city council meet during the evening to make it easier for residents to attend. But the proposal got a chilly response. As a compromise, four nighttime meetings are held each year, or one each season.

Williams and other residents also have criticized city council for not paying attention during the public forum, instead typing on their Blackberry or other PDA devices.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-06-29T11:49:00.000-04:00

Failing Successfully?

The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) and the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) commented yesterday on the failure of the U.S. House of Representatives to protect their sick and dying constituents from federal arrest and prosecution.

"For the fourth year in a row, Congress had an opportunity to stop wasting taxpayers' dollars arresting seriously ill patients who possess and use medical cannabis in compliance with state law," said Allen St. Pierre, executive director of NORML. "Instead, 259 members of Congress chose today to prosecute patients."

The MPP took a more optimistic approach. In a press release from Bruce Mirken, director of communications, the group lauded the 18 “yes” votes from Republicans, up from 15 last year.

“An amendment to stop the U.S. Justice Department from arresting medical marijuana patients in the 11 states where medical marijuana is legal received a record vote on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives today,” Mirken said. “Although the measure failed to pass … medical marijuana advocates hailed the record vote as the result of a growing groundswell of support for medical marijuana from across the political spectrum. Last summer the amendment received 161 votes, which was the previous record until today's vote.”

Equally surprising are some of the supporters who came out in favor of the bill before it went up for a vote. The conservative organization Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) and the USA Presbyterian Church spoke in favor of the amendment. The CAGW recently published a report called “Wasted in the War on Drugs” , which criticizes the federal government as "using valuable taxpayer dollars to track down and persecute medical marijuana patients that are using the drug legally in their state" calling such efforts "useless."

The Presbyterian Church also passed a resolution affirming "the use of cannabis sativa or marijuana for legitimate medical purposes as recommended by a physician" and urges "federal legislation that allows for its use and that provides for the production and distribution of the plant for those purposes."

Maybe, as more groups and citizens recognize the legitimate use of drugs that were once legal in this country, the witch hunt that victimizes people who are already struggling with medical issues can end.

For more information about re-legalization, check out NORML and MPP.

— Margo Pierce

2006-06-28T17:00:00.000-04:00

Rebellion Ends: Council Hires New City Manager

With the help of Cincinnati City Councilman Jeff Berding’s reversal on the issue, Mayor Mark Mallory won approval this afternoon to hire Milton Dohoney Jr. as the next city manager.

Berding, who previously opposed Dohoney’s hiring based on the selection process used by Mallory, decided to support Dohoney after Mallory agreed in principle to an annual performance evaluation for Dohoney with council input. It’s unclear what effect the evaluation process would have, however, because the city’s charter states only the mayor can initiate the hiring and firing of city managers.

Berding’s proposal hasn’t yet been approved by city council. It was referred to a council committee for review and debate, which will occur in late summer or early fall, after council returns from a summer break. Still, council approved hiring Dohoney in a 6-3 vote.

Berding admitted he made a “rookie mistake” by not raising his concerns about the city manager’s selection earlier in the process.

Opposed to Dohoney’s hiring were Charterites Chris Bortz and Jim Tarbell and Republican Leslie Ghiz. Generally, the trio said it preferred someone with more executive-level experience for the job.

“Unfortunately, he’s probably a ‘C’ candidate, and I was hoping we’d get a ‘B+’ or ‘A’ candidate,” Ghiz said after the vote.

Dohoney, chief administrative officer for the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, has 22 years’ experience in the public sector. But opponents were quick to note that experience doesn’t include time in positions equivalent to the city manager’s job or for governments as large as Cincinnati’s.

“With no record of executive leadership, we’re putting a great deal of faith in him to rise to the level of an executive challenge,” Bortz said.

Councilman David Crowley, after interviewing Dohoney, said he believes Dohoney will perform well.

“Mr. Dohoney is not one to impress you with style, charisma or pizzazz,” Crowley said, but those qualities aren’t essential. “Do you have substance? That is the question.”

Councilwoman Laketa Cole, who previously was undecided on Dohoney’s hiring, voted to hire him today after investigating his credentials. Although Cole earlier had said she’d push for a lower annual salary than the $185,000 proposed by the mayor, the amount will remain the same.

Dohoney will begin his new job Aug. 14. He will manage city government’s daily operations, responsible for a $1 billion annual budget and a 7,000-member workforce.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-06-28T16:48:00.000-04:00

So You Want to Start a Newspaper?

Continuing coverage from sessions at the 2006 Allied Media Conference…

Representatives from the newspapers Critical Moment in Detroit and the NYC Indypendent presented a session on the basics of publishing a newspaper.

Arun Gupta of the Indypendent describes five areas of focus when starting a publication: target audience, content and design, financing, distribution and structure.

I've been developing a Wiki book on DIY publishing since last year. You can read and contribute to the book here.

“Is it for the general public or is it for activists?” Gupta asks.

It could have a niche focus, such as queer or environmental issues. He says, insofar as content, the Indy is reader -driven, not writer-driven. This means that, “… you're always asking, ‘What is the audience looking for?’

“Design cannot be emphasized enough,” Gupta says.

He says four-color process helps the paper be visually appealing and that clear images and words help the reader — or potential reader — quickly know what's inside. Gupta says he prefers photos for the cover rather than illustrations. A clean, clear image helps, he says.

Gupta says the Indypendent has recently launched a new publication, IndyKids. He says you have to decide if you're going to have a newsy publication or cultural, with a first-person point of view or a more traditional style.

Gupta says you should publish articles that have a shelf life that is 1.5 times as long as your distribution cycle. For example, a monthly paper should run articles that are good for six weeks.

Donations were discussed as a major revenue stream for small, upstart papers. Gupta suggests people wanting to use this sort of revenue stream should study direct mail solicitations. He says 1-2 percent is considered an excellent return on a direct mail solicitation; but once when the Indypendent had Naomi Klein write an appeal letter, they had a 12 percent return — more than $10,000 from 3,000 solicitations sent.

Posters — a US map of our domestic weapons of mass destruction — and T-shirts have also been major revenue streams, with 5,000 posters delivering $30,000 in revenue, Gupta says.

Free versus paid subscriptions: Both have their advantages, he says. Free distribution means the Indypendent reaches a wide audience.
“We didn't want to be ghettoized,” Gupta says.

On structure of the organization, Gupta says you must have clearly defined roles.

Max Sussman says his publication, Critical Moment, is two-and-a-half years old. It publishes every two months and is free. Sussman says Critical Moment has an open submissions policy. He describes the process of collecting content as a kind of mixed bag. Some is assigned by the collectives — they have one in Detroit and another in Ann Arbor — and other content comes in unsolicited.

“One of the things we've started to do more recently is to put on more events,” Sussman says. “We think that really increases our visibility.”

Sussman says they've hosted speaking engagements with featured writers. Music show fundraisers are also helpful, he says.

“We do dance parties,” Gupta says.

Sussman says they primarily raise money through ads but are developing plans for donor streams. The paper carries an ongoing, 20 percent debt that's shouldered by cash infusions from members of the collective, he says.

“Our ads go through our editorial policy,” Sussman says.

If an ad is outside of their values or if ads are blatantly offensive, without a purpose, they ask the advertiser to redesign the ad. He gives as an example an ad that said something like, “Fuck the war – Shop at my store,” saying the Critical Moment collective objected on the basis that shopping at this store clearly wouldn’t end the war and the large word “fuck” was used without a real purpose, just for shock value.

Gupta says the Indypendent doesn’t use a union print shop because of the cost. He says that his team has threatened to drop their printer to negotiate a better deal.

Ad sales is a major hurdle for Critical Moment. Sussman says the paper has no paid ad reps at this time, and garnering advertising is a difficult task. Gupta says they try and focus their ad sales on indie culture producers in New York, such as poetry and music events. One member of the audience suggested publishers focus on wealthy non-profits towards the end of their fiscal season.

Both newspapers operate as collectives. This means there's a lot of work that is shared, and members wear many hats.

Sussman says they judge their success as a publication by how many copies are left at newsstands at the end of a cycle. Gupta also discusses a story that they ran on an Iraq War vet who became homeless. The Indypendent broke the story, and it was later picked up by major dailies and CBS.

“They're never going to credit you,” NYC says. “But they use the same sources.”

— Stephen Carter-Novotni

2006-06-28T13:51:00.000-04:00

Exciting Lies: Military Recruitment

At the 2006 Allied Media Conference, I caught the tail end of a fascinating session. The Pittsburgh Organizing Group (POG) presented information on how the U.S. military hooks new recruits.

I found out about the Joint Advertising Marketing and Research Studies (JAMRS), the Department of Defense's marketing database, used to collect information on potential recruits. The Army has also released a free, high quality video game – it cost the US $16 million to produce, glorifying combat and ignoring the costs of war. There's no reality there,” POG member Bridget Colvin says.

She also presented information on myfuture.com, which offers a free career aptitude test to students. After the test comes an inducement for students to take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery. This tests only a student's current proficiencies, not what they're interested in exploring or what they might be good at with training.

Colvin also presented several examples of pseudo-news stories that ended with requests for personal information and information on friends and promoted the fitness, opportunities for travel and adventure and college money that can be gained through the military.

There were also reports among the audience of military marketing at movie theaters, offering free I-Tunes songs and DVDs for kids willing to watch military promotional films.

I reported on the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center's Counter-Recruitment drives in Cincinnati earlier this year.

“There is no job worse than the military,” Jeremy Shenk, a POG member, says. “The pay sucks, you're on call 24-hours a day and they can shoot you– if you try and quit.”

““How voluntary is an army where you don't have all the information before you join., Colvin asks.

One of the POG members said, after the session, that the Justice Department has been spying on POG, as it's considered a threat to national security.

— Stephen Carter-Novotni

2006-06-27T17:33:00.000-04:00

Heimlich Turns on Fellow Republican

One of Hamilton County’s top Republican politicians is helping people take public potshots at his GOP colleague, in an attempt to gain support for a sales tax increase.

In a mass e-mail to his supporters, Hamilton County Commission President Phil Heimlich’s “Pit Crew Alert” provides links to a newspaper article about fellow Commissioner Pat DeWine’s opposition to the proposed tax hike.

Heimlich’s e-mail also includes a letter critical of DeWine from Sheriff Simon Leis Jr., who supports the tax increase, and a column by Peter Bronson, the Enquirer’s arch-conservative columnist. Further, the e-mail provides links to several local media outlets — including WLW (700 AM), WKRC (550 AM), four local television stations, the Enquirer, the Post and the Community Press — so recipients can comment on the issue. Sadly, CityBeat isn’t on the list.

Earlier this month Heimlich proposed raising the county sales tax by a quarter-cent to pay for expanding the county jail. The tax hike was supported by millionaire financier Carl Lindner, a major contributor to many local politicians, including Heimlich, who is seeking re-election this fall.

Heimlich wanted to put the proposal on the November ballot to let voters decide, but his two fellow commissioners — DeWine and Democrat Todd Portune — were opposed. A tax increase should be the last option for funding the expansion, they said; instead, they prefer creating a task force to examine other alternatives.

Heimlich and DeWine were scheduled to appear together last Sunday on WKRC’s (Channel 12) Newsmakers program to debate the issue. At Heimlich’s insistence, however, the commissioners didn’t sit together or engage in a back-and-forth dialogue.

During the TV program, host Dan Hurley said, “I wanted to have commissioners Heimlich and DeWine discuss this issue together, but Phil Heimlich decided that he did not want to sit together, and consequently we are going to do these interviews separately.”

— Kevin Osborne

2006-06-27T16:58:00.000-04:00

Just What We Need: Faster Legislation

Cincinnati City Council will vote Wednesday on changing its operating rules and allow it to pass legislation more quickly, with as short as a one-day period between a proposal being introduced and voted upon.

If approved, the change would undo a rule passed by the previous council. It requires new items introduced by a council member during a committee meeting to be held for at least one week before a vote.

That rule, championed by ex-Councilman David Pepper, was designed to give council members more time to fully review proposals, as well as respond to critics who said council too often passed items with little public notice.

Councilman Jeff Berding, Pepper’s successor as Rules Committee chair, proposed the latest change. Council needs more flexibility in dealing with emergency items, he said. In a written statement attached to his proposal, Berding said, “When the original amendment to (the rule) was made, it was assumed that the rules could be suspended if an immediate vote was necessary. Now that the solicitor’s office has clarified that the rules of council may not be suspended in committee, it is necessary to revise this amendment.”

But Berding’s interpretation of the current rules isn’t entirely accurate, and doesn’t reflect what the city solicitor’s office has advised. Under existing rules, an item already can be taken out of committee and placed before the full council for a vote either by the mayor or if at least six of council’s nine members agree to do so during a council meeting.

Berding’s proposed rule change was made after a dispute last week over a budget proposal supported by him and five other council members. The proposal set priorities for the 2007-2008 budget, including the goal of putting 100 more police officers on the streets. No funding source or deadline was included for adding the officers.

Berding and five other council members wanted a decision by the next council meeting, held two days later on June 21. Assistant City Solicitor Roshani Hardin said the committee couldn’t forward the proposal itself, because it was just introduced that day, but had to wait until the full council decided to forward the item. That meant there was a possibility, however remote, that the proposal might not have been voted on that week.

Despite touting the police hiring proposal as news before TV news cameras, the council faction changed its tune when it looked like a vote could be delayed.

“I interpret (the proposal) as an amendment to an existing item on the agenda,” said an agitated Councilman John Cranley. “Nothing here is new; it just makes it easier to vote on.”

— Kevin Osborne

2006-06-27T16:44:00.000-04:00

Political Art Revisited

Art and politics in Cincinnati converge at Save Our Souls (S.O.S.) Art. Billed as “an annual art show and event of sociopolitical expression for Peace and Justice,” SOS Art is the brainchild and passion of Saad Ghosn.

Ghosn, a pathologist, University of Cincinnati professor, self-taught artist and naturalized U.S. citizen of Lebanese descent, is so committed to the social conversations brought about by the exhibits that he organizes and funds them himself.

Begun in 2003, the project is old enough to host a retrospective show. It begins June 30 at The University Galleries, 628 Sycamore St. The show includes 2D and 3D artworks on peace and justice by 50 Greater Cincinnati artists.

Before my interview with Ghosn before the opening of the 2006 show, I was a little anxious about meeting at his home in Clifton. A doctor and artist combo conjured up an image of a self-important egomaniac that would require more patience than interviewing a politician. When I walked into the beautifully restored Victorian home, I felt like I was walking into a museum — artwork everywhere reminded me to be polite when he talked about all of his pieces.

I was dumbfounded when his warm greeting was followed by running commentary on the work of other artists he collects and his reluctance to have his work photographed for the article. After an hour-long interview, and more material than my 1,000-word article would contain, I found myself reluctant to leave. I was one in a long line of victims of his infectious enthusiasm.

Fortunately Ghosn, the proud papa of the 2006 show, was on hand opening night to answer questions about the exhibit. He knows most of the artists personally in addition to the history behind each piece. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take him up on the guided tour he offered, but I’ll be rectifying that situation at the retrospective.

So, if you see me wandering the exhibit with a white-haired man with a goatee and round glasses, tag along. I’m sure the explanations will be fantastic!

“S.O.S. Art Retrospective: Selections, 2003-2005” runs June 30 through Sept. 8. Opening night is 5-7 p.m. Friday. Gallery hours are 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 11 a.m.-4p.m. Saturdays.

— Margo Pierce

2006-06-26T13:31:00.000-04:00

Desdemona’s Revenge

This past weekend’s three-day Desdemona Indie music festival at Sawyer Point came at the end of a week that — if you paid attention to local media, especially The Enquirer — implied that Cincinnati was on its last legs as a viable “big city.”

With the census report indicating the city was losing population at a rate higher than any other big city in the United States, the hyperbole that Cincinnati is a boring, ass-backwards town riddled with violence and racial strife and devoid of anything to keep young, ambitious and creative people from making the Queen City their lifelong residence was at full volume.

Coverage of Desdemona also painted a bleak picture, as organizer Nick Spencer’s frustrations with what he saw as a lack of full support from city leaders often overshadowed reporting about what made the festival so great in the first place — the cutting-edge music and a cool concert-going experience. In the midst of the city’s low self-esteem, here was Mr. Creative Class presenting something vital on our own riverfront that many young people would travel to Chicago or other “cool” towns to see. Desdemona could be the start of a creative-class revolution, but it often seemed painted more as a fringy little side project.

But Desdemona turned out to be an unabashed success. Thousands of young music fans piled into to Sawyer Point over three days to see everything from Hip Hop (Ghostface Killah) and Electronica (Annie) to Dance Rock (Radio 4) and Indie Pop (Richard Swift). The performances were top-notch, and many of the performers, some of whom had never played Cincinnati before, commented on what a great festival experience it was. It’s the kind of good-vibes buzz that could spread to other artists and booking agents, making Cincinnati look a little more appealing to those assembling touring itineraries.

Things were overwhelmingly peaceful at the event. Spencer told CityBeat’s John Fox Sunday evening that there had been no arrests and some on police detail were even sent home early. It was amusing to see the police standing around all day, idly chatting with each other all over the fest grounds. When rapper Ghostface Killah, who had the biggest crowd Friday night and also cost Spencer the most in booking fees and added insurance, took the stage, several cops hurried to the crowd’s perimeter. But after a couple of songs, they fell back and continued their conversations. It was clear this was not a hostile or aggressive crowd.

There were a few flaws, as is to be expected with any first-year fest. Most problems were worked out as the festival progressed, and the others are things that could be handled better if there are future Desdemonas. One of the side stages had consistent sound problems, marring sets by Marvin and the Experience and Radio 4. Press credentials seemed to be doled out on the honor system. Some local acts mentioned that they had to hunt down Spencer for load-in details.

Local Punk/Blues trio The Sundresses were at the center of the only “controversy” of Desdemona. The band cancelled its set at the last minute due to a communication breakdown with Spencer. The Sundresses’ Brad Schnittger said that, despite Spencer’s insistence that he had e-mailed every act, the band never received any information about their appearance. He said they found out they were playing when they saw their name listed in an advertisement in CityBeat; they found out their set-time the same way. He said they would have played for free if asked but never heard a word from Spencer.

“When I asked Nick Spencer to tell me why The Sundresses should play Desdemona, his response was (with a tone of indignity), ‘Well, if you don’t wanna play, just don’t play,’ ” wrote Schnittger in an e-mail to local media. “Well, fine, if we’re not worth YOUR time, you’re not worth OURS, Nick.”

Hopefully, these are the kind of things that can be handled better next time — if there is a next time; Spencer told the Enquirer it was doubtful he’d “reward” the city by having the fest here again next year. If Spencer — who told me last month that he was handling every detail without volunteer help until Day 1 of the festival — spreads some pre-fest duties around (getting someone to handle PR, local band liaison-ing and other tasks), the bumps could be smoothed over easily.

Spencer also told Fox that he was close to reaching his attendance expectations but was still going to lose money. He said he planned to go back to the city this week to again ask for assistance. Before the closing set by The Walkmen on Sunday, Spencer got on stage and asked the audience to go back and buy two more beers before the 10 p.m. “last call” so he could hit his target intake.

In another example of hindering city rules, the festival had to stop selling beer, a major source of income, just as the headlining acts were starting each night, taking another chunk of income from Spencer.

For the average fest-goer, the experience overall was fantastic and the music was amazing. Desdemona offered a chance for fans of Indie music to see some of their favorite — or future favorite — bands. It also gave the opportunity for more adventurous music fans of all kinds to take a chance and check out something new. You could spot a few older attendees who seemed to not know any of the bands but were curious nonetheless.

It’s the kind of thing that should happen here every weekend. More events like this are exactly what the city needs to encourage young people from fleeing to other cities. It was also a great way to get people to visit our sometimes struggling downtown area.

Desdemona’s overall success was revenge on the naysayers who were just waiting to say, “I told you so.” Instead, it’s Spencer who can claim victory.

Be sure to check my full review here for more musings on Desdemona, plus a slide show of over 100 photos.

— Mike Breen

2006-06-23T18:45:00.000-04:00

Ongoing Coverage of Allied Media Conference

BOWLING GREEN, OHIO — Clear Channel was the subject of the lunchtime keynote here at the Allied Media Conference. The conference was starting to fill in at this point — I’d guess that there are about 350 people here now.

Attendance typically crests at 800. I know this because this is the fourth time I’ve been to this Con. This is also the eighth year for the event, which always has been here in Bowling Green. It’s moving to Detroit next year, which makes me a little sad — I’m saying goodbye to this sleepy little town but also excited at getting to know the Motor City, Patti Smith’s Dead City.

Taishi Duchicela of Oakland’s Youth Media Council (YMC) presented her arguments that Clear Channel has wrecked local Hip Hop radio stations in the Bay Area by holding pro-war rallies (as they have in Cincinnati and elsewhere), dropping almost all local musicians and promoting ultra-right politics.

“All they talk about is war and immigration and they are very, very vulgar,” she says, adding that the make money off of Hip Hop to pay for their racist, sexist agenda. “That, to us, is not right.”

Duchicela plays audio clips from Clear Channel broadcasts, including one broadcaster suggesting that aborting black babies would help ease crime in the U.S.

The YMC’s response has been to develop an organizing campaign, Unplug Clear Channel. They’ve protested in front Bay Area radio stations and challenged broadcast licenses.

“We own the airwaves,” Duchicela says. “We also have a say in what kind of programming goes out over those airwaves.”

Clear Channel, she says, has been very reluctant to speak with the YMC. She says her organization is developing a list of standards and steering documents describing what they believe a model station should look like.

Part of the struggle is getting people to care about media policy and to communicate, especially to young people, why it’s important.

Pop Culture, Hip Hop and Media Literacy
Bowling Green State University Professor Awad Ibrahim played a Jennifer Lopez video and asked the audience in this session to dissect the messages the music and images conveyed. He said, as a teacher, his job was to try to speak with his students about pop culture and their music — even if he finds it repugnant.

The song and the video presented was “Love Don’t Cost a Thing,” a piece filled with contributions — the vocal about her “love” was punctuated with close ups of her body. The vocals also regarded female empowerment that JLo apparently gets by taking off her clothes. It’s a song that says that money doesn’t matter while showing Lopez driving a sports car, living in a mansion, etc.

“The visual aspect hits the boys more than the girls,” Ibrahim says. “It’s really interesting when you enter the space of gender. The boys do not see anything except her butt.”

He asks the audience to listen to the music separately from listening to the video to show the divide between one message and the other.

This session continues the day’s theme of scholarly deconstruction. Ibrahim stresses that it’s important not to judge the students’ taste.

— Stephen Carter-Novotni

2006-06-23T18:36:00.000-04:00

Allied Media Conference Tackles the Process of Communication

BOWLING GREEN, OHIO — It’s the first full day of sessions at the Allied Media Conference here in Bowling Green, and there are three to five different sessions going on at any given time. There’s a lot to choose from.

I’m covering the event for CityBeat and learning a lot at the same time.

ACME’s (Action Coalition for Media Education)Bob McCannon discussed media literacy and education in his session, “Process is more important than content." McCannon says that the fastest way to alienate students, or the public for that matter, is to tell them how much their media sucks — that it’s sexually exploitative, materialistic, crass, fluff-rich and content-poor. He said that makes his students feel guilty at best, angry at worst. Either way, it’s a turn-off.

McCannon, who teaches college courses on media, says introducing critical thinking exercises is key to getting people to become educated about what they’re being sold. And by “sold” I mean the concrete, as in the material goods that are being marketed in their media and metaphorically — as in the bill of goods and the brand identities they’re trying to sell.

In this session, McCannon shows a film clip from a Sean Connery movie in which he plays a Vietnam vet who’s a drunk, has post-traumatic stress syndrome and is redeemed by a scholarly, inner-city black kid. He says these elements — “all visible in a 14 second clip” — are counter to most of the images that are conveyed by the pop-media-industrial complex. Fourteen seconds, he says, is far longer than the attention span that’s ingrained by MTV’s scenes.

Several marketing examples were presented for discussion. Seventeen Magazine has one cover that advertised ways to boost sex appeal and asked, “Does your personality SUCK?” — covering the bases of both depression and obsession with body image. The magaine's covers are decided by formula, McCannon says, as is the content, with stories decided on the basis of who’s advertising. More clothing ads equals more stories on clothing.

President Bush on stage with a Bush impersonator, McCannon says, was engineered by the administration to make Bush look softer and more like a regular guy.

“We never say the media are mad and we never say the media are good,” McCannon says. “But the media are always good and bad.”

— Stephen Carter-Novotni

2006-06-23T18:25:00.000-04:00

Yates: Appoint Black Member to Banks Group

State Rep. Tyrone Yates (D-Walnut Hills) sent letters today to local officials and the Cincinnati Reds owner, asking them to appoint an African American to an advisory group that will help set policies on how to develop Cincinnati’s riverfront.

Noting that 44 percent of Cincinnati’s population is black, Yates stated that the appointment of five white males to fill all of the seats on The Banks Working Group was a “historically and socially important oversight.” Excluding black people from the panel will cause “dashed hopes, missed opportunities for collaboration and participation, and a further feeling of important … stakeholder groups not having a decision-making role.”

Yates sent the letters to Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory, Hamilton County Commission President Phil Heimlich and Reds CEO Robert Castellini. All three appointed members to the working group, and Castellini is its chairman.

The NAACP’s local chapter, the Baptist Ministers Conference and other groups also have protested the appointments. Because the advisory panel will draft policies about workforce inclusion and minority hiring, an African-American perspective is needed, they said.

In his letters, Yates states that appointing a black member is “a necessary and a right thing to do.”

“Editorials in The Cincinnati Enquirer insist that the best people for the job must be chosen; I fully agree,” the letters continue. “Unfortunately, it is a sad commentary on our city to suggest that almost half of Cincinnati is not qualified to serve. Every public project must have a mix of a diversity of experiences, opinions and talents in order to be successful.”

Mallory, who is black, previously has said he opposed any changes to the working group’s makeup. Cincinnati City Council and Hamilton County commissioners will have final approval on any policies drafted by the working group and will ensure workforce development policies are sufficient, Mallory said.

Cincinnati and Hamilton County officials created The Banks Working Group in April to quicken the process of selecting a developer. Proposed in 1999, the Banks project has stalled over funding and jurisdictional issues, particularly who will pay for $68 million in parking garages. Sales tax revenues were supposed to pay for the garages but are far below projections.

The Banks will involve $200 million in public funding to supplement $600 million in private investment to develop a vacant eight-block area located just north of the Ohio River.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-06-23T16:03:00.000-04:00

Police Union Wins Latest Round in Issue 5 Dispute

Almost five years after Cincinnati voters approved a charter amendment to change the method for hiring police supervisors, a legal challenge by the local police union still is winding its way through the courts.

Earlier this month, a magistrate issued a decision that sided with the union and recommended reversing an administrative ruling by the State Employment Relations Board (SERB) that had upheld the charter amendment’s legitimacy.

Hamilton County Common Pleas Magistrate Judge Richard Bernat sided with the Fraternal Order of Police Local No. 69’s appeal. Common Pleas Judge Ethna Cooper will now review the recommendation and decide whether to overturn SERB’s earlier ruling.

In September 2005, SERB found that city officials hadn’t committed an unfair labor practice when they implemented the charter amendment and discarded a longtime method used for deciding police job promotions. The union had argued that the earlier promotional system amounted to a contractual benefit that trumps any charter change approved by voters.

SERB’s ruling effectively meant that the vote of Cincinnati citizens overruled state civil service laws on police promotions. As a result, the FOP filed an appeal in Common Pleas Court.

In Bernat’s decision, the magistrate ruled that the SERB order should be overturned because “the people are not a branch of the government” and the charter amendment therefore wasn’t an act of a “legislative body.”

Any party in the case can appeal Bernat’s decision to Cooper. All sides, however, expect Cooper’s ruling won’t be the final determination, agreeing it probably will proceed to the First District Court of Appeals.

Bernat’s ruling is the latest salvo in the back-and-forth history of the dispute over the charter amendment, known as Issue 5. SERB’s earlier ruling overturned findings in 2003 by a state fact-finder and an arbitrator. Both had ruled in favor of keeping the previous promotional system for assistant chiefs, based on the test scores of in-house applicants.

Passed by voters in November 2001, Issue 5 allows the police chief and assistant chiefs to be hired from outside current ranks. Issue 5 supporters said it would bring fresh perspectives to the troubled department and allow city officials to hold police supervisors more accountable. Opponents, including the police union, countered that it illegally removed civil service protections and made the positions vulnerable to political pressure.

Since the dispute began, ex-City Manager Valerie Lemme promoted two people — Michael Cureton and James Whalen — to the assistant chief position. Both came from inside police ranks.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-06-22T17:50:00.000-04:00

Population Loss Outrage Mounts; Power Structure “Shocked”

With the news of Cincinnati’s continued population loss — first reported by Kevin Osborne Tuesday in this blog — a storm of conversation has once again erupted. Not that anyone is actually doing anything to address the situation, but a lot of mouths are flapping and keyboards tapping.

The Cincinnati Nation web site has a good overview of the local shit storm, linking to several local news sources covering the issue, including The Enquirer’s web area posing the question, “How would you change Cincinnati?”

Here are three points to consider:

1. Ignore the bitching and moaning about how there’s nothing to do in Cincinnati and it’s soooooo boring here. That’s categorically wrong. With all of its problems, Cincinnati has no shortage of fun events, great arts and cool neighborhoods. So drop that line and move on to a meaningful discussion of actual problems.

Could downtown have more and better bars and clubs? Sure. Could The Banks have opened three years ago? Yep. Could Over-the-Rhine have more art galleries and a thriving nightlife scene? You bet. I won’t argue with any of those concepts, but those situations aren’t driving residents out of the city.

Look at two recent pieces I wrote about the last weekend of the Fringe Festival and the Pride Is Alive festival and about the blooming arts district in lower Over-the-Rhine. The point of each piece was simply that, on a particular weekend almost picked at random, Cincinnati offered a ton of things to do in the urban center — especially edgy, provocative arts and culture.

In both pieces I also wished that every weekend could be like these two, but just because every weekend doesn’t have a Fringe Festival, a Pride parade, a Desdemona music fest and a members opening at the CAC doesn’t mean Cincinnati sucks.

“There’s nothing to do” is an easy knee-jerk response when the subject of Cincinnati’s population loss comes up. Not only is it factually incorrect, it diverts attention from the problems that really matter and are more difficult to articulate and address.

2. It just kills me to see the front page of today’s Enquirer trying to address people’s frustrations over the state of affairs in Cincinnati. I can just imagine an editors meeting yesterday with everyone sitting around saying, “Wow, people sure are upset. Who could have possibly seen that coming?” (Insert President Bush’s voice there talking about no one anticipating a breach of the New Orleans levees.)

Look on the Enquirer’s message boards about this topic and read what people are saying about Cincinnati’s shortcomings, and I guarantee you that over the years the paper has ignored, downplayed, maligned or editorialized against 90 percent of these suggestions.

Honestly, that’s part of the frustration that seems to be boiling over now. If The Enquirer — this area’s dominant media outlet, the organization that drives what mainstream radio and TV cover every day and what corporate execs talk about in their boardrooms — had ever seriously dealt with any of these problems (mass transit, racial issues, police/community concerns, crime, conservative politics, diversity/tolerance) maybe people wouldn’t be spewing comments like a dam that’s finally broken.

But when your city’s dominant media organization is completely out of touch and supports an equally out-of-touch political and corporate power structure, people are going to give up and either go away or just shut up.

Here’s a prediction: Tomorrow’s front page headline on The Enquirer: “Why Are People So Angry?”

Another prediction: Friday’s front page will sport another follow-up story, “Young People Spurn Cincinnati for ‘Better’ Cities.” Meanwhile, they’ll bury a preview of that afternoon’s opening day of Desdemona — the very cool Indie Rock festival bringing very cool young music fans downtown, many of them traveling to Cincinnati from throughout the Midwest — on page 5 of the Life section.

3. A huge statistic in Kevin Osborne’s blog post on low morale in the Cincinnati Police Department has gotten a little lost, but I think it says more about the city’s problems than anything. In a study of internal department views, 82 percent of Cincinnati cops say they don’t believe Cincinnati will be a safer place two years from now and 72 percent don’t believe Cincinnati will be a safer place five years from now.

That’s astounding. And those feelings are pretty much department-wide, as the study included focus group interviews with 63 officers and 635 completed surveys.

So with crime a huge issue across the city — what many people consider to be the No. 1 problem in Cincinnati right now — the police department rank and file have no faith in their own abilities to affect any change. To even move the needle a tiny fraction.

Now that’s the kind of news that could cause me to give up and move to the suburbs — not the supposed lack of things to do or poor public transit or segregated neighborhoods or anything else. But with crime such a hot-button issue and with the people in charge of reducing crime pessimistic about the near future, why the hell would anyone want to live in, work in or visit the city?

Why Police Chief Thomas Streicher Jr. still has his job is beyond me, but it’s a good metaphor for how things are going in Cincinnati: The powers that be are more concerned with not rocking the boat than with devising creative solutions to complex problems.

“We’re just shocked — shocked! — that there are problems in Cincinnati,” announce the collective political, corporate and media power structure.

The rest of us just roll our eyes.

— John Fox

2006-06-21T19:38:00.000-04:00

Dohoney Hiring Delayed Again

Despite a last-minute attempt at lobbying city council members, Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory was forced to delay a planned vote today on whether to hire his nominee, Milton Dohoney Jr., as city manager. (For background, see this post and this post from last week.)

Mallory delayed a vote last week when Councilman David Crowley — a Dohoney supporter — was absent, and the mayor had vowed then to push for a vote during today’s council meeting. The plan prompted an outcry from some council members because Vice Mayor Jim Tarbell — a Dohoney opponent — was traveling in France and wouldn’t be present.

The wrangling proved moot, however, when Mallory realized this afternoon that he didn’t have the seven votes needed to suspend council rules. Without the suspension, the ordinance that would allow Dohoney’s hiring would have to undergo readings at three separate council meetings before the group could vote. Council has just one more meeting, June 28, before it breaks for summer recess.

Council typically suspends the three-reading requirement on dozens of items each week, but with the group split on Dohoney’s hiring, opponents used the delay as a procedural maneuver to buy more time for discussion.

The start of Wednesday’s council meeting was delayed by more than 30 minutes as Mallory met privately with various council members in the corner of council chambers, in full view of the public, trying to determine how to proceed.

Some council members dislike that Mallory submitted only one nominee for consideration, while others said Dohoney is too inexperienced for the job.

Councilwoman Laketa Cole, the swing vote on hiring Dohoney, said she would try to negotiate a compromise with Mallory during the upcoming week. She wants to clarify the city manager selection process and get a commitment calling for a performance review by council after a year if Dohoney is hired.

Asked what Mallory would get in the deal, Cole replied, “I’m expecting he wants a 9-0 vote (by council), so he’s willing to compromise.”

— Kevin Osborne

2006-06-21T19:17:00.000-04:00

Bill Clinton: ‘Do Ohio Voters Really Know How Bad Ken Blackwell Is?’

Six CityBeat staffers were among the 450 or so alt weekly brethren who gathered June 15-17 in Little Rock, Ark., to share story ideas, ad sales techniques and financial advice and to hear from a number of notable speakers, including former President Bill Clinton. The conference’s opening night reception was held at Clinton’s presidential library overlooking the Arkansas River.

Clinton’s appearance at the Saturday lunch was an amazing spectacle, both in terms of the length (more than two hours) and his free-flowing grasp of The Big Picture. One person told me later it was the best experience he’d had at the 25 or so Association of Alternative Newsweekly (AAN) conferences he’s attended. I can’t imagine anyone else in the audience — even the jaded, cynical editors — felt differently.

(See AAN’s coverage of the Clinton appearance here and blog coverage from other AAN papers here. See an AP story about the Clinton appearance here. And read a transcript of Clinton's remarks and answers to the audience questions here.)

Lunch was supposed to begin at 1 p.m., but we were informed that Clinton wanted to speak first and then get on with other commitments in Little Rock and so the food would be served later. He finally came on almost 20 mintues late, introduced by the publisher of the host paper, Arkansas Times.

Clinton said he wasn’t planning lengthy remarks, holding up two pieces of paper to show a speech outline, and said he wanted to leave time for questions. He immediately set an informal tone by saying, “The greatest thing about not being president anymore is I can say whatever the hell I please.” Pausing a beat, he added, “And the worst part is you don’t have to care about what I say anymore.”

(Disclaimer: I didn’t take notes, so I’m winging it here, although I’ve confirmed details with my fellow CityBeaters.)

He told us how much he appreciates the kind of journalism alt weeklies do in their communities and said he tries to read our papers in whatever city he visits. He complained about what he called “two-dimensional cartoon” coverage in the mainstream media of important issues and people and said alt weeklies tend to flesh out important local stories into the full three dimensions.

He used that two- and three-dimension language to morph into a discussion of his wife, saying there was no public person in the United States who’s been turned into a two-dimersional cartoon more than Hillary.

In my mind, Clinton clearly was trying to plant the thought in our heads that we should give Hillary a little room over the next few years to be treated as a real person dedicated to serving the public instead of the ball-buster caricature we’ve all come to label her. Since most AAN papers offer the liberal political view in their home media markets, it’s a smart ploy to begin planting the seed of cutting Hillary some slack.

After about 30-40 minutes of remarks, Clinton sat in a comfy chair on stage to field questions. Patty Calhoun, editor of Westword in Denver and chair of AAN’s editorial committee, offered the first three. (Read Calhoun's hilarious blog entry about her backstage dealings with Clinton's handlers.)

Calhoun asked Clinton if he’d seen the Rolling Stone magazine story by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about Ohio’s 2004 presidential vote being stolen by the Republicans. The June 1 article says that shenanigans out of Secretary of State Ken Blackwell’s office — including confusing and contradictory directions to county boards of election, purging of voter lists, allocation of fewer voting machines to inner city precincts and tampering with vote counts after the fact — resulted in as many as 357,000 votes going uncounted statewide in 2004, enough to have swung Ohio (and the presidency) to Sen. John Kerry.

Clinton said he’d read the Rolling Stone story and, although he wasn’t ready to pronounce the Ohio vote “stolen,” was concerned about the state GOP’s tactics and about future elections.

Questions were then taken from the audience, and one person asked Clinton what his role might be in a theoretical President Hillary Clinton adminstration. He laughed and said he’d give his “automatic response answer.”

Point one, he said, is he doesn’t know if Hillary is going to run for president. When some audience members groaned, Clinton said he really doesn’t know.

Point two, he said, if Hillary runs he doesn’t know if she’ll win the Democratic nomination. Three, if she wins the nomination he doesn’t know if she’ll be elected president. So there are a lot of “ifs,” he said.

Still, if she were to become president Clinton said he’d probably relate with her much as he’s done with President Bush: “If she asks me to do something, I’ll do it. If she asks me not to do something, I won’t do it.”

Calhoun then asked Clinton what his “non-automatic response answer” was, but he wouldn’t bite.

At least three times Calhoun tried to end the Q&A session by announcing that an offstage Clinton aide was motioning to wrap it up, but each time Clinton waved his hand and said, “Let’s take some more.” When she jokingly told Clinton that the aide had passed out from stress, Clinton said, “He’ll get over it,” and looked for another question.

Finally Clinton got up, waved goodbye and stepped down from the stage, joined by several security agents with things in their ears. Audience members swarmed to the front of the room, and Clinton proceeded to work his way across the front of the stage — for 40 more minutes.

He autographed AAN name badges, conference programs and photos and books people brought — none of us from CityBeat had thought to bring anything to sign — and talked policy and politics with everyone whose hand he shook.

My friend David Rolland, editor of San Diego CityBeat — no relation; they just stole our name — wandered away after an encounter in the line, smiling and shaking his head. He’d asked Clinton about three dubious laws Clinton signed that he disagreed with, and Clinton methodically explained to David his reasons for backing the laws as well as the laws’ benefits and shortcomings. David was pretty impressed. (Read his take here.)

“A politician who looks you in the eye and answers your tough questions,” I said to David. “How often does that happen back home?”

CityBeat sales rep Kris Sommer said hello to Clinton and invited him to come to Ohio in the fall to campaign for various Democrats. Clinton said he’d definitely be in Ohio between now and the November elections.

A little while later I was standing behind a female staffer of the alt weekly in Athens, Ohio, who again asked Clinton if he’d be visiting Ohio to help campaign for Democrats. Clinton said he would, then turned to autograph something for another person.

He stopped and looked back at her and asked, “Do Ohio voters really know how bad Ken Blackwell is?”

The woman shrugged and said something like, “I don’t know, but we’re going to tell them.”

Clinton nodded and moved on.

Lunch was finally served at 4.

— John Fox

2006-06-21T11:14:00.000-04:00

Study: Police Are Defensive, Have Low Morale

Police expert John Linder’s study of Cincinnati police concludes that morale of local officers is low, and the department acts in a defensive manner that affects all of its operations. Also, a survey of officers included in the study found that a large majority doesn’t believe that Cincinnati will be any safer five years from now and many would leave the department if they had other job opportunities.

The study was ordered last summer and completed in December. City council members yesterday released hard copies of key findings that had been outlined in Power Point presentations, following repeated inquiries by CityBeat and other local media. (See yesterday’s post “Secret Police Study Finally Goes Public” below.)

A summary of Linder’s study states the police department is suffering from “chronic organizational trauma,” described as “negativity toward department, from mid-1990s through events in 2001 and since, has worn away at department’s sense of self.”

The study adds that the department is “overwhelmed and defensive.” Its operating culture is described as “systematically defensive posture hamstringing operations and affecting all basic systems.”

Under the heading “bottom line,” the report states there’s a “widespread reluctance today to engage in pro-active crime fighting because officers feel not supported by city government, citizens, media and bosses.”

As part of the study, Linder interviewed 63 officers in seven focus groups. Additionally, 1,029 surveys were distributed to officers, with 635 completed.

The results show that 81.8 percent of respondents don’t believe Cincinnati will be a safer place two years from now and 71.7 percent don’t believe Cincinnati will be a safer place five years from now.

Other results show that morale is low, with 31.4 percent saying they would leave the department if they had the opportunity.
A section entitled “conclusion” states that “police see selves (the) way chief sees them, but police believe neither politicians, media, public, nor department, sees them (the) same way.” To address the problem the study recommends “operational and perceptual transformation” that should be accomplished “first internally, then externally.”

Sentiments about feeling embattled and misunderstood aren’t just among rank and file officers but extend up the chain of command to Police Chief Thomas Streicher Jr. Under a section entitled “What the chief asks,” it states that “media will report the whole truth, not just the negative.”

— Kevin Osborne

2006-06-20T20:10:00.000-04:00

‘Secret’ Police Study Finally Goes Public

A long-delayed study on the deployment and problems of Cincinnati police was released late this afternoon, more than six months after its completion. The study is dated Dec. 12, 2005, and its key findings previously were presented privately to the Cincinnati Business Committee, police supervisors and some city council members.

City Councilman John Cranley’s office distributed the study to council members at 4:50 p.m. today. Its release comes one day after Cincinnati officials based a potential $8 million budget policy on one of the study’s findings even though they’d never seen a copy in its entirety. (See Monday’s post “The Police Study They Don’t Want You to See” below.)

Cranley, who chairs the finance committee, is pushing to hire 100 more police officers, which could cost up to $8 million annually beginning in late 2008.

As CityBeat previously reported, Former Mayor Charlie Luken ordered the study in June 2005; it was conducted by John Linder, a police expert who consulted with New York, New Orleans and other cities in the 1990s. The study cost more than $100,000 and was paid with private funds from business groups.

Among the study’s findings, the Cincinnati Police Department has fewer officers per capita than other cities with high murder rates like Atlanta, Baltimore, Detroit and Philadelphia. The department, which now has 1,028 sworn officers, would need 355 more officers to achieve optimum effectiveness and efficiency.

With improved technology, however, the department needs just 194 more officers to achieve the goal, the study states. The technology includes computer software that allows more sophisticated crime mapping and analysis.

The December report also lists several other suggested changes to improve the department’s operations, some of which were included in Mayor Mark Mallory’s anti-crime plan unveiled in late January. The changes include reorganizing the investigations bureau, combining the drug and vice units to work together in a more coordinated fashion; focusing efforts on mid-level drug dealers instead of street corner sales; and asking the U.S. Attorney’s Office to prosecute more suspects under federal gun laws, which entail longer mandatory prison sentences.

Also, the study concludes that Cincinnati police should use a ComStat-style system to monitor crime trends and assess the performance of individual districts. Such a system is used in New York City, Baltimore and elsewhere. In most cities using the system, daily meetings are held to update hotspots and benchmarks are developed to gauge police progress.

Locally, Police Chief Thomas Streicher Jr. is proposing a strategy that involves weekly meetings with the assistant chiefs of the patrol and criminal investigations sections; district commanders would be required to attend only when called by Streicher.

In 1998, council unanimously voted to have police use the system, but that never happened. Former Councilman Pat DeWine renewed the push to use the system in 2003, to no avail. At the time, police supervisors said the system in place was sufficient.

The study criticizes police for not adequately developing intelligence data on crime, stating that the department compiles statistics but doesn’t analyze them.

Further, the study recommends changing how arrest warrants are investigated. In 2004 and 2005, only about half of fugitives with felony warrants were arrested; the others were added to the warrant backlog. The study suggests having the warrants squad identify 36 fugitive felons, keep six for itself and assign six to each of the city’s five police districts.

To address the concerns, Streicher also is planning an operation called “Full Court Press,” involving every non-patrol officer being required to spend one tour on patrol each week under district supervision.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-06-20T19:58:00.000-04:00

Cincinnati Expected to Soon Drop Under 300,000 Population

Cincinnati is expected to lose more residents during the next four years, enough that it could put the city’s eligibility for certain state and federal funding at risk and cause cutbacks in services to residents, economic experts told city council this week.

City Council’s finance committee received a multi-year economic and demographic forecast Monday from the University of Cincinnati’s Economics Center for Education and Research.

The forecast kicks off city council’s planning process to devise a 2007-08 municipal budget. Council will set priorities for the budget during the next few weeks, then Mayor Mark Mallory will submit a proposed spending plan this fall. Council will tinker with that document and pass a final budget, probably in December.

Cincinnati’s population, currently at 308,590 people, will drop below 300,000 by the 2010 U.S. Census, according to the forecast. In addition, the Cincinnati and Dayton metro areas will merge after the Census for classification purposes, the UC report states.

The Queen City’s population was just more than 330,000 in the 2000 Census. The numbers are decreasing as people move into outlying areas like fast-developing Butler, Clermont and Warren counties.

The shift is important because eligibility for some state and federal programs and grants depends on population level. Further, Cincinnati could find itself competing against Dayton for some of the same limited funding, and economists say the continued northern suburban draw will pull more of the educated workforce away from Cincinnati and Hamilton County.

About 39 percent of Cincinnati residents currently work outside city limits, and 65 percent of Cincinnati’s workforce lives outside the city.

“Both of these ratios have increased since 1990,” said George Vredeveld, a UC economics professor who helped compile the report. “If, in fact, employers follow employees, it could have a very significant detrimental impact on Cincinnati.”

The rate of population loss, however, is slowing for the first time in decades, since suburban flight began in earnest during the 1950s.

Moreover, downtown lost 6,333 jobs between 2000 and 2005, a 7.5 percent decrease. By comparison, the uptown neighborhoods — where UC and many hospitals are located — added 3,449 jobs, or a 7.8 percent increase. Uptown consists of the Avondale, Clifton, Clifton Heights, Corryville, Fairview, Mount Auburn and University Heights neighborhoods.

Overall, Cincinnati’s employment level dropped 3.2 percent during that time period.

Still, there was some good news for city officials. Cincinnati’s total share of Hamilton County employment increased from 46.4 percent to 48 percent because of greater losses in county suburbs. And the city’s employment level is expected to remain fairly steady over the next few years because some job sectors, such as health care, are expected to grow more rapidly than others.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-06-19T19:06:00.000-04:00

The Police Study They Don’t Want You to See

Cincinnati City Council is basing a major budget policy that could cost taxpayers up to $8 million annually on data from a study that they haven’t seen in its entirety and have been blocked from obtaining.

As council begins setting priorities for the 2007-08 city budget, a five-member majority has endorsed a proposal to add 100 police officers to street patrol “as quickly as possible.” Although some of the officers could be shifted from desk duty, others will have to be hired from outside current ranks, said Councilman John Cranley, the group’s budget chairman.

But Police Chief Thomas Streicher Jr. already was ordered by council a few years ago to shift all available officers to patrol duties. If it turns out that all 100 officers eventually have to be hired, it will cost the city $8 million annually in salaries and benefits, Cranley said. The earliest that those officers could hit the streets would be late 2008 or 2009, after Cranley and some other council members have left office.

Besides Cranley, Council Members Jeff Berding, Chris Bortz, Leslie Ghiz and Cecil Thomas support adding more police.

Council’s proposal is based on a segment of an independent study on police deployment issues. Then-Mayor Charlie Luken ordered the study in June 2005, and it was scheduled for completion by the following November — seven months ago.
Nationally renowned police expert John Linder, a Cincinnati native who consulted with New York, New Orleans and other cities in the 1990s, conducted the study.

The study cost more than $100,000 and was paid with private funds from business groups such as the Cincinnati Business Committee and the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber of Commerce, which allows the document not to be considered a public record under Ohio law — and thus avoid public scrutiny — until someone at City Hall is given a copy.

Cranley presented data from the study today during council’s finance committee meeting that shows Cincinnati has fewer officers per capita than other high crime cities like Baltimore, Detroit, St. Louis and Washington, D.C.

When questioned later, council members said they’ve never seen the full study and haven’t been able to procure a copy.

“We’ve asked and they won’t give it to us,” Ghiz said.

Cranley added, “It’s their property. They own it. It’s their study. … I’ve asked repeatedly that it be released. They won’t give it to us.”

Chamber representatives didn’t return CityBeat’s calls.

As CityBeat first reported in our May 10 issue, leaked portions of the study show that Cincinnati’s homicide rate jumped 190 percent between 2000 and 2004 and its violent crime rate increased more than 31 percent.

Business leaders have given presentations on the study’s findings to Streicher and other police supervisors as well as Interim City Manager David Rager and some council members. CityBeat filed a public records request with the city May 9 to see the study or any draft versions and was told by a spokeswoman that no one at City Hall had any documents. The presentations were verbal, council members said.

City Hall insiders familiar with the study say business leaders and police don’t want the full, unedited version released because portions are critical of the police department.

Cincinnati had 79 homicides in 2005, its deadliest year since 1971. Although overall crime is down in the city, homicides have steadily increased over the past five years, ever since 2001 riots following the police shooting death of an unarmed African-American man during a foot pursuit.

Some community leaders partially blame the increase on a slowdown in enforcement by a demoralized police department that must make dozens of reforms subject to a federal court order.

Arrest rates and citations by local police dropped dramatically in 2001 and 2002, while violent crime jumped by about 40 percent. After pressure from council and others, the arrest rate rebounded but still is below pre-riot levels.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-06-16T14:48:00.000-04:00

The Enquirer and the Art of the GOP Smear

People who read The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Politics Extra blog might get the idea that David Pepper, Democratic candidate for the Hamilton County Commission, supports building a new jail in Colerain Township.

There are a few problems, however, with the claim: There is no record that Pepper ever made such a proposal, he doesn’t know anything about the site mentioned, and — in what’s become a typical Enquirer trait — the posting doesn’t present any comments from sides of the issue other than the group that issued the press release.

The blog entry posts verbatim a five-paragraph press release issued by the Hamilton County Township Association. It quotes Kathy Wagner, a Symmes Township trustee who is the group’s president, and lists Tom Weidman, a Sycamore Township trustee, as the media contact. Both Wagner and Weidman are Republicans active in the local party.

According to the Enquirer blog and the press release, “Pepper proposed that the Educational Service Center, which commissioners (Phil) Heimlich and (Pat) DeWine would like to sell to the Educational Service Center Board, be the site of the new jail.”

The township group cites two press releases issued by Pepper, on June 2 and 6, as its source for the claim. Pepper’s releases, though, criticized commissioners for selling numerous county-owned properties without competitive bids. Pepper’s release stated the county could make more money to put toward the jail by using a bidding process.

Pepper’s release proposes “tabling the decision made by Heimlich to sell county-owned property that might be useful for the jail location.” But it continues by endorsing an engineering analysis to determine the proper site for a jail, adding, “If that analysis shows that a purchase of property is necessary, swiftly move forward to conclude the siting and purchase of the necessary property.”

Pepper said today, “There’s no specific site in mind. My comments were responding to a general practice by the county. I’ve never proposed (the Colerain site) and (Commissioner Todd) Portune never proposed it. It’s literally a lie. It’s the art of a smear.”

The blog entry is the latest example of what many local officials have said is biased or unbalanced reporting in the Enquirer.

As an example, they cite the page 1A story that ran June 12 about Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory’s city manager nominee, Milton Dohoney Jr. The article proclaimed Dohoney “a hit” at every stop on a weekend walking tour, but quoted no one else besides Dohoney.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-06-16T14:35:00.000-04:00

By Promoting Gambling, Ghiz, Leis and FOP Promote Crime

A statement released today by City Councilwoman Leslie Ghiz makes it clear she doesn’t want Cincinnatians to sign gambling petitions.

"DO NOT SIGN A PETITION TO LEGALIZE GAMBLING IN OHIO," she wrote.

Of the competing gambling petition drives to put a referendum on the November ballot, the one that now looks most likely to make the cut wouldn’t permit gambling in Cincinnati. That’s why Ghiz is saying, “Don’t sign.” She wants gambling downtown.

Insisting on gambling in the Queen city will also include more job security for law enforcers. Apparently they, like Ghiz, haven’t had their fill of crime yet.

“Council passed a resolution in May stating their support of a casino at the Broadway Commons location in downtown Cincinnati,” Ghiz wrote. “Since then Hamilton County Sheriff Simon Leis and the F.O.P. have come out in support of this initiative.”

If an organized crime syndicate were to offer the sheriff or the chief of police money for more staff or computers, it’s a pretty good bet that they’d turn the money down — not just because it would look bad, but there would be a serious conflict of interest in taking money from criminals.

Yet, council, the sheriff and the F.O.P. want to take tax money from an institution that will bring more crime and criminals to the city, not to mention enabling compulsive gamblers. Granted, the money will be laundered through a legitimate government agency — the IRS — so it looks clean.

“A slot parlor in Cincinnati would generate an estimated $22 million in tax revenue for the city of Cincinnati, plus an additional $18 million for Hamilton County,” Ghiz wrote. "Southwest Ohio cannot afford to let this opportunity pass us by. We must work to oppose the Learn and Earn gambling initiative."

Where is the list of other opportunities that come along with gambling?

• The number of aggravated assaults in gambling counties, for example, increased by 112 five years after casinos opened. One reason may be that the slots and tables attract unsavory characters.

• Compulsive gambling and the development of associated problems, such as excessive alcohol consumption or drug abuse.

• Gabling addiction includes changes in personality — anger, irritability, sarcasm, depression.

• Gambling operations, including card rooms, earn large amounts of cash and present particular opportunities for skimming and money laundering .

When does the political campaign rhetoric of reducing crime and improving our city trickle down in the decision making process by seriously weighing the full impact of public policy, not just on tax revenues?

Check back next election season to see if Ghiz and other gambling supporters are touting their efforts to get slots in this city as a good thing or a bad thing. That might help answer the question.

— Margo Pierce

2006-06-15T16:55:00.000-04:00

Another Missed Target for The Banks

Even discussions about constructing the long-delayed Banks project along Cincinnati’s riverfront are taking more time than expected.

An advisory group formed to quicken development of the proposed housing and shopping district hasn’t convened since its first session May 25, despite a pledge made then by its chair to meet again “within 10 working days.”

That goal would have meant the Banks Working Group should have met by June 8. As of today, another meeting has yet to be scheduled.

The delay is mostly due to conflicting vacation schedules among members of the working group and other people needed at the meeting, according to attorney Tom Gabelman, a group member. The working group probably will meet late next week or during the week of June 26, Gabelman said.

Meanwhile, Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory met privately in his office June 8 with a group of people to discuss creating a subcommittee of the working group. The subcommittee would create policies for ensuring the inclusion of minority contractors in the project. The meeting comes after the NAACP’s local chapter and other groups complained that only white men were selected to sit on the five-member working group.

Mallory said he would monitor the subcommittee’s progress.

“They’re going to be reporting information to me as it comes out,” he said.

Cincinnati and Hamilton County officials created the Banks Working Group in April to quicken the process of selecting a developer. Proposed in 1999, the project has stalled over funding and jurisdictional issues, particularly who will pay for $68 million in parking garages. Sales tax revenues were supposed to pay for the garages but are far below projections.

The Banks will involve $200 million in public funding to supplement $600 million in private investment to develop a vacant eight-block area located just north of the Ohio River.
Last month County Commission President Phil Heimlich said he hoped the Banks Working Group would select a developer in June and negotiate a deal over the summer, with construction beginning by year's end or early 2007.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-06-15T16:09:00.000-04:00

Dohoney’s Competition Work for Larger Bodies

Two public sector employees from Florida were the other finalists in Cincinnati’s nationwide search for city manager candidates.

The final report from the executive recruiting firm hired by city officials to conduct the search recommended three candidates for the job: Milton Dohoney Jr., Carl S. Harness and Larry M. Spring Jr.

Mayor Mark Mallory ultimately nominated Dohoney, and Mallory and city council are involved in a heated debate about the mayor’s selection process and Dohoney’s qualifications.

Dohoney is chief administrative officer for the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, whose budget and workforce is about half the size of Cincinnati’s.

The Roberts Consulting Group’s other recommendations for the job work for much larger governments. Harness is assistant county administrator for Hillsborough County in Tampa, Fla. He helps oversee a $3.4 billion budget and 5,800 employees.

Spring is chief of strategic planning, budgeting and performance for the city of Miami, which has a $707.5 million annual budget and about 3,800 employees.

By comparison, Dohoney oversees a $411 million annual budget and a 3,500-member workforce.

All three finalists are African-American.

Despite Dohoney’s two decades working in government positions, some council members say he is too inexperienced to manage a government of Cincinnati’s size, which has a nearly $1 billion annual budget and 7,000 municipal workers.

Mallory has countered that Dohoney is the best candidate, in part, because he’s an Indianapolis native and worked in Lexington and Louisville, making him familiar with regional issues.

City officials paid $39,000 to the Roberts Consulting Group to conduct the search. Twenty-two people either applied for the job or were sought out and solicited to apply. The firm submitted its report listing three finalists to Mallory on March 20. Although Mallory initially wanted to make his choice by March 31, he delayed a decision until June 6.

Council will vote by month’s end on Dohoney’s hiring. If he gets the job, he will begin Aug. 6.

—Kevin Osborne

2006-06-15T15:14:00.000-04:00

Cole: Proposed Manager’s Salary Too High

Milton Dohoney Jr.’s chances to become Cincinnati’s next city manager apparently hinge on whether he will accept an annual salary less than the $185,000 offered by Mayor Mark Mallory.

At least five votes on city council are needed to hire Dohoney, and the swing vote — Laketa Cole — says a major factor in her decision will be how much Dohoney would be paid. Mallory’s initial offer to Dohoney is $9,000 more than the starting salary that his predecessor, Valerie Lemmie, got in spring 2002.

Dohoney has 22 years’ experience working for local governments in Kentucky, but hasn’t been a city manager before, Cole said. Dohoney currently is chief administrative officer for the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, where he is paid $132,000 annually. He previously served as Louisville’s deputy mayor and public services director.

Those positions were for government administrations about half the size of Cincinnati’s, Cole said. As a result, hiring Dohoney to oversee a nearly $1 billion annual budget and a 7,000-member workforce would be a bit of a gamble, she added.

“I would be really interested in renegotiating his compensation package,” Cole said Wednesday, after city council questioned Dohoney for nearly three hours in a public session. “We’re about negotiating, so hopefully we can negotiate and come up with a compromise.”

Also, Cole is urging Mallory to delay a planned council vote on Dohoney’s hiring from June 21 to June 28, because Vice Mayor Jim Tarbell will be absent from the earlier meeting.

Mallory delayed a planned vote Wednesday because Councilman David Crowley, who supports Dohoney’s hiring, had to leave early to catch a flight to Washington, D.C. Also, the mayor wanted to give members “time to digest” Dohoney’s answers from the interview, he said.

It’s only fair that any vote be delayed until Tarbell, who opposes Dohoney’s hiring, returns from a long-scheduled trip to Paris, Cole said. If forced to vote without the entire council present, Cole likely will vote “no,” she added.

Referring to Mallory’s appointment of Tarbell as vice mayor, she said, “If he’s important enough to be vice mayor, he’s important enough to be involved in this decision.”

— Kevin Osborne

2006-06-14T14:40:00.000-04:00

Talk ‘Terror’; Win Votes

Although politicians have long railed against using the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks for partisan purposes, a local congressman is advising his Republican colleagues that they should mention the attacks as the House debates the Iraq War and efforts to fight terrorism.

ThinkProgress, a Washington, D.C. think tank, obtained a confidential memo written by U.S. Rep. John Boehner (R-West Chester), the House majority leader, that provides detailed talking points for GOP lawmakers. The memo is posted on the Web at Rawstory.

The memo mentions 9/11 seven times in 18 paragraphs. Boehner advises House members to focus on three major themes: “the importance of our actions,” “a portrait of contrasts” and “resolve will triumph over defeat.” The memo’s sections repeatedly refer to the importance of security in a “post-9/11 world” and state an Iraq victory is “the best gift of security we can give to future generations of Americans.”

“Republicans believe victory in Iraq will be an important blow to terrorism and the threat it poses around the world,” Boehner wrote. “Democrats, on the other hand, are prone to waver endlessly about the use of force to protect American ideals. … The attacks we witnessed that day serve as a reminder of the dangers we face as a nation in a post-9/11 world. We can no longer expect oceans between us and our enemies to keep us safe.”

But have Americans ever felt safe during modern history? The memo conveniently omits the fact U.S. citizens lived under the specter of total nuclear annihilation for about 40 years, throughout the Cold War with the former Soviet Union.

Also, the memo’s focus is at odds with a speech then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice was set to deliver Sept. 11, 2001, before the New York and Pentagon attacks occurred. The draft speech, outlining threats to the United States, never mentioned the words “terror” or “terrorism,” instead concentrating on why the nation should build a new missile defense system.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-06-14T13:06:00.000-04:00

Mallory: Playing for Time?

People waiting for a showdown between Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory and city council over Mallory’s nominee to be the next city manager will have to wait a little while longer.

During his weekly press briefing Tuesday afternoon, Mallory said he wouldn’t ask council to vote on confirming nominee Milton Dohoney Jr. at council’s Wednesday meeting, as had been expected.

Because Councilman David Crowley will be out of town, Mallory decided to delay acting. Also, the mayor wants to give council members “time to digest what they hear” after they question Dohoney at the meeting.

It’s unclear if Mallory has the five votes needed to hire Dohoney. Based on public comments and an unofficial straw poll, only three council members are firmly in Dohoney’s corner: Democrats David Crowley and Cecil Thomas and Republican Chris Monzel. Opposed are Charterites Chris Bortz and Jim Tarbell, Democrat Jeff Berding and Republican Leslie Ghiz.

Council’s two remaining members, Democrats Laketa Cole and John Cranley, appear undecided or haven’t committed.

City Hall insiders are abuzz with talk this week on whether Mallory will remove Tarbell as vice mayor or strip Berding and Bortz of committee chairs if they balk at his choice. Mallory hasn’t commented publicly.

Some council members were upset earlier this month when Mallory announced Dohoney as his nominee, saying they weren’t given enough time to interview the prospect. Other members, mostly Charterites on city council, disliked that Mallory didn’t submit a list of nominees to council. The city’s charter requires such a list, they argued.

Mallory insisted Tuesday that members had opportunities to talk to Dohoney before a June 6 press conference announcing his nomination, either in person or by telephone. Also, Mallory said he complied with the charter, as he interpreted it.

“Every member of council spoke with, met with or talked to, in some form, with the prospective candidate before I made the public announcement,” Mallory said.

Whether Mallory complied hinges on two issues, and is open to debate. According to Article III of the charter, “The mayor shall appoint the city manager upon an affirmative vote of five members of the council following the mayor’s recommendation for appointment. Prior to the vote, the mayor shall seek the advice of council, to include the opportunity for council to interview the candidates considered by the mayor.”

Another section, Article IV, states, “The city manager shall receive such compensation and related benefits as are determined by the council.”

Mallory already has offered Dohoney a deal that includes an $185,000 annual salary and other perks such as a $550 per month car allowance and $7,500 for relocation expenses. Mallory complied with the provisions, he has said, because Dohoney was the only candidate considered for the job, and council can still approve some other compensation deal.

Some council members contend Dohoney, who is chief administrative officer of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, is too inexperienced for the job. Dohoney isn’t certified by the International City/County Management Association, a common standard in that field, they noted.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-06-13T09:31:00.000-04:00

First, Kill All the Adverbs

This 2000 snippet from Fresh Air's linguist Geoff Nunberg hammers home the manipulative tongue twists in our media. As he says in his report, "Don't romance me, just pour the drink."

— Stephen Carter-Novotni

2006-06-12T13:29:00.000-04:00

John Zeh Spotted at Pride Parade

Local writer and activist John Zeh died unexpectedly in February. Some of his friends memorialized him at a brief ceremony in Burnet Woods prior to Cincinnati's 2006 Gay Pride parade and festival. His empty wheelchair was then decorated and entered as one of the floats in the 2006 Pride Parade.

John's presence at the parade was more than just symbolic. Arrayed on the chair among the memorabilia, protest signs and his life's ephemera was a box containing his ashes, which have rested on a shelf in his lawyer's office since his death.

No word yet as to where Zeh went after the parade.

— Sam Robinson

2006-06-10T21:06:00.000-04:00

No War But Class War

I was gratified to learn that executives from Duke Energy, Cincinnati Bell, Fifth-Third Bank, Dinsmore & Shohl law firm and other companies were jailed this week, even if only temporarily. The corporate employees voluntarily went to lock-up as part of a fundraiser for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. After making phone calls to solicit pledges, the execs went free. Someday, when the revolution comes, we'll do something similar, but the corporate bosses will have to raise a lot more money to pay for their crimes and earn their freedom.

— Gregory Flannery

2006-06-09T15:39:00.000-04:00

Arts Committee Recommends City Grants

The Cincinnati Arts Association, the Ensemble Theatre, the Know Theatre Tribe and Ink Tank are among the groups that could receive almost $106,000 in grants from the city.

Cincinnati City Council will vote Wednesday on its Arts Committee’s recommendation about who should receive funding this year in the competitive arts grant program. Overall, 19 organizations or individuals were recommended to receive grants.

Ten groups were recommended to receive $7,500, the maximum amount allowed per grant. They include the Arts Association, Contemporary Dance Theatre, the Know Theatre Tribe, Ink Tank and Muse, a women’s choir.

In making the recommendations, city officials reviewed requests from 28 eligible applicants, whose requests totaled $169,095 — or $63,198 above the $105,897 available. City council sets aside a portion of Cincinnati’s operating budget each year for arts grants.

Grants are made in three categories: established organizations that have existed for three years or more, emerging groups that have existed less than three years and individual artists.

Three individual artists were recommended for grants this year. If approved, Anthony Baysore, Amy Bogard and Tim McMichael would receive a total of $8,000.

Vice Mayor Jim Tarbell heads the Arts Committee, which also includes council members Chris Bortz, Laketa Cole, John Cranley and David Crowley.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-06-09T14:59:00.000-04:00

Chesley Faces Scrutiny Over Fees

A Cincinnati attorney who gained national prominence as the master of disaster for his expertise representing victims in class action lawsuits could face legal sanctions over his role in a $200 million settlement in a Kentucky case involving fen-phen.

Attorney Stan Chesleys conduct in the 2001 settlement is being reviewed by a Lexington judge handling a lawsuit filed by more than 400 of the former plaintiffs in the fen-phen case. They allege Chesley is among attorneys in the case who took fees that exceeded their contracts.

Special Judge William Weir already has ruled that three Lexington attorneys Shirley Cunningham, William Gallion and Melbourne Mills violated the contract and accepted excessive fees. The action breached the trios fiduciary duties to the plaintiffs, Weir said.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit allege Chesley knew that the other attorneys in the fen-phen case accepted fees that violated their contract. Thats because Chesley received $20.5 million for his role in negotiating the settlement. As Chesleys deal called for him to get 21 percent of the three attorneys fees, that showed the trio received nearly $100 million half of the settlement and exceeded what was allowed.

Chesley has argued that he had no direct contact with plaintiffs in the fen-phen case and that his fiduciary duties were to the three attorneys who hired him, not the plaintiffs.

If the judge decides Chesley violated his fiduciary duties, he could make Chesley give away more of the settlement funds or make him pay punitive damages.

Chesley, 70, lives on an Amberley Village estate with his wife, U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott. He is a frequent contributor to the campaigns of Democratic and Republican political candidates.

Fen-phen was a popular prescription weight loss drug in the 1990s until it was shown to cause heart disease in some people.

Kevin Osborne

2006-06-09T10:25:00.000-04:00

Boehner Among Leaders When It Comes to Free Travel

A new study has found that a local congressman is among the top lawmakers who accept free travel from privately funded groups.

U.S. Rep. John Boehner (R-West Chester), the House majority leader, ranked third among all lawmakers for accepting free travel, according to a study released this week by the non-partisan Center for Public Integrity. Boehner accepted more than $350,000 in free travel, and he or his staff members took more than 200 free trips in the 5½-year period examined by the study.

Ranking below Boehner were former Rep. Tom DeLay (fourth), who recently resigned amid an ethics probe, and Rep. Dennis Hastert, the House speaker (fifth).

Boehner won the majority leader’s post after DeLay resigned largely by positioning himself as the reform candidate. According to the non-partisan Campaign for a Cleaner Congress, however, “Boehner has traveled on more exclusive golf outings, lobbyist-funded vacations and fundraising excursions to luxurious destinations than he has on return trips back to his Ohio district to visit constituents during this time period.”

Overall, Republican and Democratic lawmakers accepted almost $50 million in free trips during the period covered by the study. Many of the trips were paid by corporations and groups seeking to influence lawmakers on pending bills or future legislation that would benefit them, the study says.

Boehner has countered such allegations in the past by noting that the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct approved all of his trips. Critics reply that the committee does not have a codified approval process and is ripe for abuse.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-06-08T13:03:00.000-04:00

Jail Tax Would Be Hardest on the Poor

The Hamilton County Board of Commissioners this week revealed its long-awaited plan for expanding the county jail: asking voters to increase the county’s sales tax by a quarter-cent.

Predictably, Sheriff Simon Leis and Cincinnati’s police union, which have pushed for more jail space for a decade, have endorsed the tax hike. Also putting his clout behind the proposal is millionaire financier Carl Lindner, who is a major contributor to many local politicians, including Commission President Phil Heimlich, who is seeking re-election this fall.

The commission’s two-member Republican majority said the increase is a good deal for the county’s homeowners because the plan also cuts property taxes by $32.5 million annually during the course of the 20-year sales tax hike.

What Heimlich and his GOP colleague, Commissioner Pat DeWine, haven’t mentioned publicly is that the $32.5 million reduction likely would occur even if voters reject the sales tax increase. That’s because the savings come from ending the levy for the Drake Center treatment facility in 2010, with its operations being assumed by the Health Alliance, and also reducing the amount of the indigent care levy beginning next year. Those actions are planned regardless of any changes to the sales tax.

Further, the sales tax hike provides a break for homeowners but shifts the burden to others, including non-county residents as well as Hamilton County residents who rent their homes, such as college students and poor people.

Moreover, the sales tax increase would raise Hamilton County’s rate to 6.75 percent, above the 6.5 percent rate in nearby Butler, Clermont and Warren counties.

“If you’re going to buy a car or open a restaurant, where are you going to go?” asked one business leader opposed to the plan, who asked for anonymity because of fear of retaliation. “Those are the counties we're competing against.”

The anti-tax Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST) supports the sales tax plan, noting it keeps the overall tax burden at or below the inflation rate. State Rep. Tom Brinkman Jr. (R-Mount Lookout), a COAST leader, added that the burden on students and the poor wouldn’t be significant because they mostly buy non-taxable items like food and medicine.

Todd Portune, the county commission’s sole Democrat, called the plan “not a bankable real solution.” Portune said, “For the Heimlich tax increase to work requires a vote of the people, and the history of voting for tax increases for jails is not a good one. This smacks more of election year politics than anything else.”
Heimlich countered that an opposing proposal asking voters to approve a downtown casino to help pay for the jail is unreliable.

“I’m not going to gamble with the safety of our citizens on some future slot parlor,” he said.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-06-08T12:08:00.000-04:00

Dohoney to Face Council Questions

A tri-partisan faction on Cincinnati City Council apparently has won the initial battle in a political turf war with Mayor Mark Mallory over what is the correct process for selecting a city manager.

Mallory agreed this week to have Milton Dohoney Jr., his nominee for the all-important city manager’s job, appear at council’s meeting June 14 to publicly answer council members’ questions.

Mallory initially said members could question Dohoney by telephone and was pushing for a council vote on Dohoney’s hiring as soon as Wednesday or today. That plan fell apart after four council members said they didn’t know enough about Dohoney and that the city’s charter requires Mallory to submit a list of nominees to council.

The members are Democrat Jeff Berding, Republican Leslie Ghiz and Charterites Chris Bortz and Jim Tarbell. The Charter Committee, Cincinnati’s third political party, created the city manager form of government in 1924 to end the corruption of the Boss Cox era.

It’s important that council have a larger role in the selection process, because only the mayor can initiate the firing of that person once hired, Berding said. The manager is responsible for City Hall’s daily operations and oversees an almost $1 billion annual budget and a 7,000-member workforce.

Council members Laketa Cole and David Crowley, both Democrats, are undecided about Dohoney. At least five votes are needed to hire him.

At least one councilman is firmly in Mallory’s corner. Cecil Thomas, who heads city council’s law committee, appeared Tuesday at Mallory’s announcement about Dohoney’s selection and stood by Mallory’s side, privately conferring with him in the audience of the council faction’s Wednesday afternoon press conference.

The dispute is similar to one when then-Mayor Charlie Luken selected Valerie Lemmie as his finalist for the job in early 2002. At the time, several prominent Charterites, including former Mayor Bobbie Sterne, appeared before council, asking it to insist on a list of names from Luken before selecting.

The Charter Committee played a role in rewriting the charter sections giving the mayor more executive power in 1999, provisions that took effect in 2001. Supporters touted the changes as a compromise between Charterites and the two major parties, which generally believe the city manager form of government has outlived its usefulness.

Some critics noted when the changes were made that provisions had vague wording and were unclear, including the parts involving hiring a city manager.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-06-07T21:48:00.000-04:00

Reporting from Death Row

Staff writer Margo Pierce is scheduled to visit Death Row on Thursday for an interview with condemned prisoner James Mills. Ohio has moved most of its condemned to the new supermax prison in Youngstown, and securing the interview didn't come easily. A prison official initially told Pierce that she couldn't ask any questions about Death Row or capital punishment but must limit herself to questions about Mills' crime and trial. Challenged, the prison backed off that unconstitutional nonsense.

— Gregory Flannery

2006-06-06T12:09:00.000-04:00

Mallory Nominates City Manager

For the second time in a row, Cincinnati’s mayor is looking to a smaller neighboring community for someone to oversee City Hall’s daily operations — and that person will get a $75,000 yearly raise if city council OKs the deal.

Confirming reports first posted by CityBeat earlier this morning, Mayor Mark Mallory announced Tuesday that Milton Dohoney Jr. is his choice to become city manager. Dohoney is chief administrative officer of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, where he is paid nearly $110,000 annually. He also previously served as Louisville’s deputy mayor.

Dohoney’s predecessor in the Cincinnati manager’s job was Valerie Lemmie, who left a similar post in Dayton after she was recommended by then-Mayor Charlie Luken. Lemmie was paid $192,302 annually. She resigned in September 2005, after a rocky tenure that involved frequent clashes with city council.

Because Mallory tries to keep a clearer definition between the manager’s duties and council’s role, and due to stricter council operating rules enacted earlier this year, the mayor believes those problems can be avoided in the future.
“The bottom line is, he’s going to do what he needs to do as a city manager, he’s not a politician,” Mallory says. “I’m confident he’s going to transform this city.”

Mallory described Dohoney as a “collaborator” who is good at team-building.

Dohoney’s nomination still must be confirmed by city council. Mallory plans on asking council to vote at its Wednesday meeting, but as of Tuesday morning there were at least four members opposed to Dohoney and two more who hadn’t decided. Chief among opponents’ concerns was that Dohoney doesn’t have experience managing a city of Cincinnati’s size. Dohoney oversees a $411 million annual budget and a 3,500-member workforce in Lexington. Cincinnati has a nearly $1 billion annual budget and a 7,000-member workforce.

Among the perks in Dohoney’s proposed contract, he would receive $185,000 annually in salary, a $550 per month car allowance, $7,500 for relocation expenses and up to $1,500 per month for temporary housing, not to exceed six months. Also, he will begin with 21 days accumulated vacation time and 250 hours of sick leave, and would get a year’s salary for severance if fired without cause.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-06-06T11:34:00.000-04:00

Obama and the 'Goose Bump' Factor

The future of the Democratic Party — Ohio’s near future and the nation’s more distant future — was on display June 3 at the Westin Hotel downtown, where about 150 people attended a fundraising lunch for U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown, running for the Senate seat now held by Republican Mike DeWine. Many came to find out about northern Ohio native Brown, who represents the Cleveland area, but the real buzz surrounded Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

Like most people in the room, I knew Obama from his scintillating keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, where the self-described “skinny kid with a funny name” vaulted to national prominence. Now touted as the party’s Great Black Hope — pinned with expectations that include his eventual election as the country’s first African-American president — Obama clearly was a huge “get” for this Cincinnati appearance as well as the Democrats’ annual state dinner later that night in Columbus. He told the Westin lunch crowd he receives hundreds of speaking invitations daily but he wanted to come to Ohio “early and late in this campaign” because of the state’s obvious importance in the national political scheme.

Jennie Rosenthal Berliant — who, with husband Allan, organized the event — set the mood by observing in introductory remarks the difference between Democrats and Republicans: “There’s a political saying that in elections Democrats fall in love and Republicans fall in line. We need to fall in line behind Sherrod Brown and get him elected, but I’m hoping today to fall in love, too.”

The name Paul Hackett wasn’t mentioned once by any speaker, but it was pretty clear that a lot of people in the room weren’t familiar with Brown other than as the guy who pushed Hackett out of the Senate primary. Some of the party veterans remembered that Brown served two terms as Ohio Secretary of State in the 1980s, but everyone else simply seemed excited at the prospect of beating a vulnerable DeWine and helping Democrats take back the Senate.

Brown did his best to woo, name checking a number of local office-holders in the room as well as those also running this fall, such as Congressional candidates John Cranley (District 1) and Victoria Wulsin (District 2) and State Sen. Eric Kearney, who introduced Brown.

Brown spoke without notes, starting with a funny anecdote about buying a red, white and blue ceramic donkey at an Adams County Democratic fundraiser the night before. And he made sure to introduce his wife, Connie Schultz, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist at The Cleveland Plain Dealer who’s on a leave of absence during the campaign. (Obama and Kearney also praised Schultz and her Pulitzer during their remarks.)

He talked about the lapel pin of a canary he wears and how coal miners took canaries into the mines with them 100 years ago to warn of oxygen deprivation and how average life expectancy in the U.S. back then was 46 years. Over the past 100 years, he went on to say, life expectancy and quality have improved for Americans due to a host of (Democrat-backed) initiatives such as better working conditions, eradication of child labor, cleaner air and water, improved education, etc.

As all politicians do — even those with Pulitzer Prize-winning wives — Brown also took some shots at the media, which he says is defending “poor Mike DeWine” because he has to run for re-election in a year when President Bush’s approval ratings are in the toilet.

“But DeWine has been a rubber stamp for Bush on Iraq, on Medicare, on support for the big oil companies, on issue after issue,” Brown said, refuting the claim that DeWine is being unfairly tarred by the president’s plummeting popularity. “And DeWine’s reward for that support was a huge fundraiser in Indian Hill and strategy sessions with Karl Rove.”

Obama took the stage after Brown and offered fairly low-key remarks about rallying the troops for a strong showing in the fall. (I heard a few people afterwards complain they thought Obama was a little too low key.)

“I love politics deeply, as many of you do,” he said, “but even we have to acknowledge that people feel cynical about politics and public life these days. Every two or four years they hold their nose and vote for the lesser of two evils or out of habit, but they don’t believe that government will really make a difference in their lives.”

Obama said his overriding goal in the Senate is to convince Americans that we’re all connected and have a mutual obligation to each other. Each of us, he said, has to commit to lifting the country up and has to understand that we have a stake in each other’s success.

He ended with a challenge to the Democrats to “have a serious adult conversation with the American people that talks about a future that’s optimistic and hopeful” — not to be negative about what’s wrong with the country, a message he said Americans naturally resist, but to point out how Democrats offer a better future than the Republicans.

Obama invoked a quotation of Martin Luther King Jr. about the arc of history always bending toward justice, using it to buoy the spirits of Democrats used to Ohio giving Bush two national elections, giving Republicans every statewide office and supporting conservative causes like the gay marriage ban. If everyone in the room can just pull together and help bend the arc of history a little bit more, he said, justice (and the Democratic cause) will ultimately prevail.

It was the closest Obama came to providing a goose-bump moment during his remarks, but the audience clearly was appreciative of being in the same room with him. Many people sought him out for photos and handshakes before and after lunch, and he took time for everyone.

An older African-American woman at my table told me her grown children were thrilled for her to see Obama. Then she said, “I know this sounds strange, but I just want to touch him.”

— John Fox

2006-06-06T09:33:00.000-04:00

Council Meets City Manager Frontrunner

Some Cincinnati City Council members met individually Monday night with Mayor Mark Mallory’s prospect to become the next city manager.

Four council members were scheduled to conduct brief one-on-one interviews with Milton Dohoney Jr. at a downtown hotel, City Hall sources said. Five council members met earlier this year with Dohoney.

Dohoney is chief administrative officer of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government. He previously served as Louisville’s deputy mayor.

Among city council members who met with Dohoney earlier, reaction was mixed. Some liked the applicant as a “go-getter,” but others were troubled by what they called his lack of experience and his record in Lexington.

Dohoney became the frontrunner for the city manager’s job after Mallory’s top choice, Robert Bobb, rejected the overture following talks. Bobb is city administrator in the District of Columbia. Four years ago, during another city manager search, Bobb was a finalist for the job that eventually went to Valerie Lemmie, who resigned last year.

Whoever is selected will replace David Rager, the city’s water works director, who has served as interim city manager since September 2005. Mallory originally hoped to submit his recommended city manager for city council approval by March 31, but later extended the timeframe until this fall.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-06-05T14:33:00.000-04:00

Republicans Skip Jail ‘Deadline’

Today is the self-imposed deadline for the Hamilton County Commission’s Republican majority to reveal their plan for funding a new jail, and as of 2 p.m. no announcements have been made.

When Commission President Phil Heimlich announced a deal April 5 to house up to 200 Hamilton County prisoners per day at the Butler County Jail due to overcrowding here, he added that commissioners expected to unveil a proposal to fund and finance construction of a new jail within 60 days. At the time, Heimlich said he and fellow Commissioner Pat DeWine, the group’s other Republican, had been working on the issue for a year.

No formal announcement has yet been scheduled, but county government insiders say one proposal seriously being considered is asking voters to increase the county’s sales tax.

A sales tax increase might prove a tough sell: Voters still are smarting over a half-cent increase approved in 1996 to pay for new stadiums for the Reds and Bengals and development between the stadiums. The Bengals stadium opened in 1999 with about $58 million in overruns, and the retail and housing components haven’t materialized because tax revenues are far below initial projections.

Hamilton County is charged $65 daily for each prisoner it houses in Butler County.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-06-03T14:01:00.000-04:00

Drag Yourself Downtown

There's still time to register a team for Sunday's 2006 Cincinnati Drag Races, the unofficial kickoff of Gay Pride Month in Cincinnati. Whether or not men who don't already have a pair will still have time to find high-heeled shoes, campy frock and wig that they'll be comfortable enough to run in is a whole 'nother question.

Organizers of last year's race were surprised when as many as 900 fans lined up along Court Street to enjoy the spectacle of drag queens racing outdoors between Vine and Race in broad daylight. Pleased by the large turnout, this year The Court Street Drag Race Committee has added events, making the Drag Races into a mini street festival, Sunday June 4 from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Janet Hill of Women Out Front, host of Dykes on Trykes, says, "Bring friends -- gay, straight, men, women -- to make up your team. If you don't have a full team or if you are a free agent, show up and we'll match you up for fun!"

Dogs of the four-legged variety are encouraged to enter Drag Your Dog Out. Racing drag dogs step off at 5 p.m. The winning pooch receives a gift basket from Strasse Dog Pet Boutique.

Plan to register at least one hour prior to scheduled start time. Rules, applications and information, including race fees, available at Universal Grille (formerly Hamburger Mary's), downtown at 909 and Vine Street, and online at CincinnatiDragRaces.com

Schedule - Cincinnati Drag Races 2006

1 p.m. Start the party with Host/Emcee DJ Round Boy.

2 p.m. Chefs' Races. A pancake tossing race amongst celebrity Chefs from various Cincinnati restaurants. Host EMCEE Penny Tration

3 p.m. Vogue Off. Parade of Drag Queens hosted by Pennytration.

3.30 p.m. Dikes on Trikes. Hosted by Janet Hill of Women Out Front has kindly undertaken to host and organize this event. So if we have any women out there wanting to compete check out www.womenoutfront.com and contact Janet directly for more details. Janet is also kindly working on some logos for the event. Host/EMCEE Penny Tration

Tentative Teams: Metro Nation, Dan Howell Travel, Universal Grille, Women Out Front

4 p.m. Arts Groups Drag Race. Hosted by Peter Laffoon and Host/EMCEE Raven

4.30 p.m. Bar Races. Hosted by Randy from On
Broadway Bar. Host/EMCEE Raven. Teams include: Universal Grille, Jeanro, On Broadway, Adonis, Union Station,

5. p.m. Drag Your Dog Out. Dress up your dog!
Winner receives a gift basket from Strasse Dog Pet Boutique. Host/EMCEE Opera Dogs

5.30 p.m. Queen City Rainbow Band

After Parties: Universal Grille, Union Station Video Cafe, Shooters, Adonis, Rosie's Tavern and On Broadway.

— Sam Robinson

2006-06-02T15:31:00.000-04:00

Next Step for Abortion Ban
A proposal to criminalize abortion in Ohio is now set for a legislative hearing. The Ohio House Health Committee will hold a hearing at 10 a.m. June 13 on House Bill 228, sponsored by State Rep. Tom Brinkman (R-Mount Lookout). Now is the time to make your opinion known. The bill, like a new law passed in South Dakota, is an effort to give the new U.S. Supreme Court grounds to overturn Roe v. Wade. Brinkman’s bill wouldn’t just ban abortion in Ohio; it would also make it a felony to take a woman across state lines to get an abortion in a state where it is legal.

— Gregory Flannery

2006-06-01T17:26:00.000-04:00

Protect the Net From Corporate Greed

No thanks to U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Westwood), the Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act won approval of the House Judiciary Committee, passing by a vote of 20-13. Chabot voted no.

The bill would use antitrust law to protect Network Neutrality. This bill would amend the Clayton Act to require that network providers: 1) interconnect with the facilities of other network providers on a reasonable and nondiscriminatory basis; 2) operate their network in a reasonable and nondiscriminatory manner such that non-affiliated providers of content, services and applications have an equal opportunity to reach consumers; and 3) refrain from interfering with users’ ability to choose the lawful content, services and applications they want to use.

To get involved, contact the Save the Internet Coalition.

— Gregory Flannery

2006-05-31T14:43:00.000-04:00

We Told You So

Last week's recommendation of Eagle Realty as developer of The Banks was no surprise to us. We told you it was coming, in the April 26 edition of "Porkopolis," before CityBeat had a blog.

The first part of the prediction — "The commissioners will choose a developer team, including Eagle Realty ..." — is still in process. So far only the county advisory panel has recommended it (see Kevin Osborne's story, "Friends of Phil," in today's edition of CityBeat). We hope the full prediction won't come true: "The commissioners will choose a developer team, including Eagle Realty, without input from the city and will attempt to get the project up and running, but it'll stall again when the phantom funding promised by the county doesn't materialize."

— Gregory Flannery

2006-05-30T14:05:00.000-04:00

A 'Wicked Scheme' Exposed!

So often politics is handled with such seriousness that it becomes painfully dull. Then every once in a while someone will serve up a load of horse shit with a straight face, and I get a big kick out of it.

Today's server is Donald A. Shabazz, chair of the board of trustees of WAIF (88.3 FM). We kept hearing Shabazz had written a letter to station supporters in response to Margo Pierce's investigative article, "Naughty Stepchild." But Shabazz didn't send a copy of the letter to us, so we didn't know what it said.

But now we've received a copy. As with most documents at WAIF, this one was leaked to us by someone reluctant to be identified because of the expulsions issued by the trustees against any WAIF programmer who speaks up.

Here's my favorite line in Shabazz's letter: "And what possible or legitimate interest could Ms. Pierce or CityBeat have in WAIF's records and files, except that they are part of the wicked scheme being hatched by a certain group of racist, right-wing political operatives who are trying to hijack our station and destroy WAIF as we know it?"

We have so been caught.

Gregory Flannery

2006-05-28T16:09:00.000-04:00

War Makes Criminals

One must always be wary of comparisons to the Nazi atrocities. But I got a chill when I read the recent remarks of U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Michael Hagee . He was commenting on the slaughter of unarmed Iraqi civilians by his own troops. Reading his words, I couldn’t help but remember a 1943 speech by Heinrich Himmler , head of the SS.

This is what Himmler said 63 years ago: “Most of you must know what it means when one hundred corpses are lying side by side, or 500 or 1,000. To have stuck it out and at the same time — apart from exceptions caused by human weakness — to have remained decent fellows, that is what has made us hard.”

This is what Hagee said the other day: “When engaged in combat, particularly in the kind of counterinsurgency operations we’re involved in now, we have to be doubly on guard. Many of our Marines have been involved in life or death combat or have witnessed the loss of their fellow Marines, and the effects of these events can be numbing. There is the risk of becoming indifferent to the loss of a human life, as well as bringing dishonor upon ourselves.”

— Gregory Flannery

2006-05-27T19:06:00.000-04:00

Smitherman's Back!

Having a Democratic majority on Cincinnati City Council has meant nothing in terms of ensuring inclusiveness and openness in the process of developing The Banks. The Old Boys Network and the corporate power brokers have had a free hand from Mayor Mark Mallory and his team. But former Councilman Christopher Smitherman is taking up the fight. In a letter to supporters (below), he defends the progressive principles that the city's "new" leadership seem to have forgotten.

— Gregory Flannery

Dear Smitherman Supporters,

There is a critical issue that has developed surrounding city council, the mayor, and The Banks project. The mayor cut a deal with Phil Heimlich by creating a five member board that will oversee a $700 million project called The Banks. The Cincinnati Enquirer called the Mayor's political move a "winning compromise." The Enquirer has indicated that council and the mayor are a great team.

The Reds CEO Robert Castellini was appointed the chair of the five member committee. County commissioners Phil Heimlich and Pat DeWine get a second appointment to the committee. 3CDC gets the third appointment. The fourth appointment was given to Castellini himself. The fifth appointment was the mayor of the city of Cincinnati. The mayor on 5-17-06 submitted Timothy H. Riordan to the Banks working group and it was approved by City Council. This last appointment sealed the fact that five white men, no African Americans, no Latinos and no women are part of the largest development that the region has seen in recent history. Having diverse boards is a major key to the success of our region.

The land that we are describing is between the Freedom Center and Paul Brown Stadium. Remember that when Paul Brown Stadium was built these same players promised that African Americans and women would get a piece of the action. Jeff Berding was a key architect of that deal. African American citizens in the last election went into the polls in large numbers and voted for the democrats in council right now and the democratic mayor. Now when $700 million are on the table council and the mayor did not find it fitting to include us in the deal. The mayor and council has recently stated they are not changing anything. These same politicians will come out to your churches and parades in 2007 and we will vote for them again ! and again We seem to not get it.

The city is 45% African American. The mayor and council will play like they are surprised when African Americans don't support the project when it is complete. African Americans are not stakeholders and they have not been stakeholders on other projects. Why would we support the project?

The action item is to send out your own e-mail about this issue to your entire e-mail list. Please do something. These are the first baby steps to making change in our community. Whether you are white or black, these are your issues and these are the kinds of decisions that tear us apart as a community.

Christopher Smitherman

PS: Our focus should be on voting out the majority of council. The banks project is the back drop. The larger issue is who we elected in the last election. Council confirmed Tim Riordan as the appointment and you have verbally heard very little from the council members stating that this is wrong.

2006-05-26T16:12:00.001-04:00

I Don't Glow in the Dark

Last week I received a letter from the IRS, opening, “Dear Fernald worker…”

I have to admit to a certain pleasure in knowing that the federal government mistakenly believes I used to work at the Feed Materials Processing Plant in Fernald, now closed. With the state’s surveillance mechanisms growing so powerful so quickly, official incompetence is something to be celebrated. And who’d have guessed that the big, bad IRS, of all agencies, had such shoddy information about who worked where?

For the record, I never worked at Fernald, a uranium mill that used to provide essential material for the U.S. nuclear arsenal. I’m a pacifist. The only work I ever did there was to interview plant officials and protesters for newspapers.

But my delight at the government’s mistake is limited. I have to wonder if another person of the same name is being deprived of necessary health benefits because the military industrial complex has such shoddy recordkeeping.

— Gregory Flannery

2006-05-25T14:52:00.000-04:00

In Search of Food and the Truth

The sign on the door at Za, the restaurant across from the Aronoff Center on Walnut Street, might say, Closed for remodeling. But the reality seems to be that their doors have closed forever. The same holds true for the Red Squirrel restaurant on Vine Street. I found this out when I went there for lunch this week.

I write a column for CityBeat called Living Out Loud; and in November 2004, I wrote a satire about the restaurant closings downtown (They Closed). Now, more than a year and a half later, the situation hasnt gotten any better.

I got taken to task on my essay in 2004 by Nick Spencer, then a candidate for Cincinnati City Council. On his Web site, he said the essay was silly, deceptive and called it Cincinnati bashing. In the essay, I mourned the loss of Mullanes, a restaurant that was located next to the Shakespeare Festival on Race Street. On his Web site, Spencer told me, Oh Christ, just shut up. Mullanes is closed for expansion. Well, gee, Nick, that expansion sure is taking a long time. Do you think those doors are still going to open?

In fairness, Nicks a good guy and a strong supporter of downtown. Im just having a little fun with him here. The only reason I bring him up at all is that I dont consider myself a Cincinnati basher. Ive lived many years in this city and, as the old saying goes, you always hurt the ones you love hurt, in this case, meaning telling the truth about whats wrong with downtown Cincinnati. Lets talk about that and why not start with the restaurant closings? Why cant downtown Cincinnati keep them open? What are the problems, what are the issues and what can we do to fix them?

Im looking for debate and discussion here. Please dont tell me to just shut up.

Larry Gross

2006-05-25T14:26:00.000-04:00

Burning My Cookies

When I approached a downtown street corner Tuesday I was asked by a clipboard-toting young woman if I’d like to support the establishment of scholarships for children in Ohio from kindergarten to some grade I can’t recall. I remembered reading about the casino gambling lobby’s ploy of slot machines supporting education and asked, “Is this about the casino gambling initiative?”

The young woman’s smile disappeared when she confirmed my suspicion. I declined and walked away. When I turned back to take an informal sampling of her efforts, I saw that she managed to get three of the next four people who passed to sign after she made her one-line pitch. I didn’t see anyone ask her about the petition.

About an hour later, when I returned to the same corner, she was still getting people to sign. I approached a women who signed and asked if she knew she’d just signed on to support putting the casino gambling initiative on the November ballot.

“No,” the woman said. “She said it was about education.”

Talk about a spin job! Those who support casino gambling complain opponents aren’t looking at the big picture and yet those supporting it are doing exactly the same thing by touting it as a means to support children, education in particular. While I haven’t seen any study that links gambling to better schools and more highly educated students, there are numerous studies that link gambling with an increase in crime (Casino Gambling Causes Crime).

People who claim to support community development for the sake of children — including better education, inclusion and economic development — are jumping on the casino bandwagon because of the cash we supposedly lose. What I’d like to know is how people, who all love children, can support lower crime rates and stronger schools and then endorse a scheme that’s been proven to increase crime and isn’t proven to have any effect on education?

The method of duping people in to signing the ballot imitative really burns my cookies. Truth in advertising is required of businesses; I think it’s about time people with ballot petitions ought to be required to follow the same rules. Partial truths and half-information isn’t the way to bring about the kind of change and positive community development this state, or our city, need.

— Margo Pierce

2006-05-24T19:28:00.000-04:00

Council OKs Festival Subsidy — Sort Of

Cincinnati City Council approved using taxpayer money Wednesday to provide free or subsidized fire protection and EMS services to the Taste of Cincinnati festival — but officials don't know the amount or whether the services will be provided by city firefighters or a private company.

Council voted 6-2 to support a motion, introduced by Councilman Jeff Berding, that asks the group to recognize the festival's value to the city and "honor our past commitment to this event by taking necessary steps to approve free, or at a subsidized rate, fire and EMS services for the 2006 festival."

Because of a budget crunch caused by spiraling overtime costs in the fire department, city council last year ended the practice of providing free service to some large events like the Taste festival and Oktoberfest. But a new council has taken office since then, and Berding initially led an effort for the city to again provide the service. When that effort stalled, Berding pushed to give the Chamber of Commerce nearly $3,000 so it could hire a private firm to provide the services.

Berding described Wednesday's motion as a compromise that allows city administrators to attempt to strike a deal, but Councilman David Crowley called the proposal vague.

"The motion doesn't move us forward to clarification or better understanding," Crowley said. "I'm not sure what it says to the administration."

Councilman Chris Monzel — who, along with Crowley, opposed the motion — said city council needs to draft a consistent policy on funding special events with clear guidelines.

"It's an issue we've been tackling for at least five years and we need to settle it," Monzel said.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-05-23T16:54:00.000-04:00

Mallory Won’t Budge on Banks Inclusion

A day after the local NAACP and other groups demanded that the city expand a riverfront advisory panel to include four black members, Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory said Tuesday that he opposed changing the panel’s makeup.

The NAACP, the Baptists Ministers Conference and about a dozen other groups dislike that five white men were the only appointees to The Banks Working Group. The five-person panel will make policy recommendations to quicken construction of the proposed Banks riverfront project, which envisions condominiums, offices, shops and a hotel between the Reds and Bengals stadiums.

Planned since 1999, the stalled project is expected to involve about $200 million in taxpayer money supplementing nearly $600 million in private investment. The NAACP and other groups dislike that an all-white, all-male panel will be drafting the policy for minority inclusion in contracting and hiring.

During his weekly press briefing, Mallory called minority inclusion and workforce development important, but reminded critics that any policies devised by the Banks Working Group are subject to city council approval.

“The structure of the Banks Working Group has already been agreed to by the city and the county, and that’s the structure we’re going to work with,” Mallory said. “I will not agree to any Banks deal that doesn’t have any inclusion or workforce development as part of it. ... The buck stops with the elected leaders.”

The Banks Working Group will hold its first meeting at 10 a.m. Thursday at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. The session will be open to the public, but future meetings might be private, Mallory said.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-05-23T16:50:00.000-04:00

Council to Decide on Festival Subsidy

City council will decide Wednesday on a grant request for nearly $3,000 made by the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber of Commerce that would pay for private fire and EMS service at this weekend’s Taste of Cincinnati festival.

After some council members had difficulty getting information earlier this week about the grant’s status, they worried that administrators had approved the request without their consent. Such an action could set a policy precedent when dealing with other special events seeking aid, council members said.

A city spokeswoman said Tuesday that an item will be brought before council at its regular meeting Wednesday afternoon for debate and possible action.

City council last year ended the practice of offering free fire and EMS service to certain large events, including the Taste festival and Oktoberfest, after the fire department exceeded its overtime budget and resorted to using “brownouts” — or reduced staffing — at some fire stations.

Taste of Cincinnati organizers use fire protection and EMS services provided by the city. It typically costs about $10,000; Chamber officials made arrangements for reduced services from a private contractor for about $3,000 and wanted the city to defray the cost.

Leaders from the local firefighters union say the contract for the private service raises a safety issue, because the firm would have at least one less paramedic on duty than the city’s standard four-person crews, and that the firm would have to rely on city firefighters if its single crew was busy.

Contract supporters, however, note that the Reds and Bengals routinely use private service at their games with no problem.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-05-23T13:02:00.000-04:00

Breathlessly Publishing

This week's edition of CityBeat didn't come easily. The elevator serving CityBeat World Headquarters is undergoing repairs, so the staff has had to trudge up and down the stairs to get to our offices. The editorial department is on the sixth floor, which involves 109 steps each way. It's my nature to grumble and complain about this sort of thing, especially because it makes it inconvenient for me to smoke cigarettes outside. But after seeing Geoff Raker, a production artist, climb five flights of stairs to get to his work area, I had to shut up. He traversed the stairs on crutches.

Gregory Flannery

2006-05-22T21:04:00.000-04:00

Secret Deal for Chamber of Commerce?

Did organizers of the Taste of Cincinnati festival get taxpayer money from the city without city council's prior knowledge or approval, using a behind-the-scenes favor? Answers proved elusive Monday.

After a request to provide free fire protection and EMS service for this weekend's Taste of Cincinnati festival stalled before city council earlier this month, some council members were perturbed to learn that the city manager's office apparently disbursed a "grant" without their consent to help the Chamber of Commerce hire a private service.

The city's fire and EMS service typically costs the festival about $10,000 annually. Chamber officials made arrangements for reduced service from a private contractor for about $3,000.

Calls to City Hall staffers Monday seeking to confirm the grant's disbursement weren't returned, and council members were unsure about its status.

Late last year city council ended the practice of offering free fire and EMS service to certain large events, including the Taste festival and Oktoberfest, after the fire department ran into a budget crunch caused by skyrocketing overtime costs. Because of the shortfall, some fire stations last year temporarily had fewer vehicles available during some shifts, in a cost-cutting measure commonly known as "brownouts."

Although no event was supposed to get free service in 2006, four council members ─ Jeff Berding, Chris Bortz, Leslie Ghiz and Jim Tarbell ─ proposed May 8 that Taste and Oktoberfest get free or subsidized service because of their economic impact on Cincinnati, which they estimated at $70 million. Berding, Bortz and Ghiz are all newly elected and weren't involved in the budget that cut the free service; Tarbell was opposed at the time.

Some council members wanted to delay a vote on the request in favor of a standardized policy on providing city services to special events. Currently, some events get free service, some get a 10 percent reduction in cost and others must pay the full cost.

With time running out, local Chamber officials inquired about hiring private service and then requested the grant from city administrators to help defray costs. The grant's amount wasn't immediately available Monday.

Some council members said they planned to address the issue with administrators during this Wednesday's council meeting.

─ Kevin Osborne

2006-05-21T16:33:00.000-04:00

Secrecy Breeds Corruption

Why should planning and decision-making meetings about The Banks be open to the public, even if not required by law? Here’s an analogy the board members might understand.

When investing hard-earned money, a person will consult financial advisors, pour countless hours into market research and brokerage reports, carefully consider which investments match his interests and his financial goals, questions any inconsistencies in information he finds and then finally choose a person and firm that will match his desires and keep him informed. He’ll expect reports and updates and advice in order to make decisions about leaving investments where they are or moving them.

This isn’t micromanagement; this is being thoughtful, careful and responsible.

That's what taxpayers deserve, given that their millions are being spent on a playground and neighborhood that’s being touted as the most important economic development project in the Midwest. Why should we trust a bunch of other people with our money just because they don’t want to have to deal with photographers and questions?

If they’re so intelligent as to be able to manage and make decisions about such a huge venture, then surely they ought to have the intelligence to figure out how to get the work done in an above-board and transparent way that won’t compromise a successful outcome.

Whenever anybody in a suit says, “Trust me” or “I’ll take care of that,” you can bet one of those board members isn’t going to follow blindly. So why should we follow them blindly?

A board without oversight is an opportunity for corruption and power struggles that are less likely to happen when the individuals involved have to justify what they’re doing. Can oversight slow things down? Sure. Can a spotlight make it more difficult to manage the subtleties of negotiation? Sure. But that’s why you guys get paid the big bucks — to figure out how to do it all legally, profitably and with the results you promise. If it were easy, we’d all be in line for a ride on the Ferris wheel next to the Ohio River.

—Margo Pierce

2006-05-19T15:58:00.000-04:00

Brer Tony Backpedals

Tony Snow told Hugh Hewitt that White House critics misinterpreted "hug the tar baby" as a racial slur and are ignorant of American cultural history.

On Hugh Hewitt's radio show, Snow said he doesn't want to have to "explain a hundred and fifty years of American culture," so he's pulled 'tar baby' from the "toolchest of rhetorical devices."

Not everyone hears 'tar baby' as a benign historical reference to Uncle Remus' tale of Brer Fox and Brer Rabbit (The Wonderful Tar Baby Story).

The Black Commentator cites a different contemporary meaning: "A tar baby is a black person you can't get rid of."

There's more than just fairy tales tales and children's stories lurking in the last 150 years of American cultural history. The White House should stop ignoring America's strange fruit.

— Sam Robinson

2006-05-19T14:58:00.000-04:00

Tom Hanks' Hair: But Is it Art?

I’ve never read The Da Vinci Code. Nor do I have any desire to add it to my already bloated reading list.
That said, I find the hype surrounding the film version of Dan Brown’s wildly popular book curious, if not altogether ludicrous.

Based on the rabid, across-the-board coverage of the past week — Matt Lauer on a Da Vinci Code tour of Europe, magazine covers, NPR segments and, of course, the Catholic Church’s call for a boycott — you’d think director Ron Howard’s big-screen adaptation was more important than, say, those missing WMDs and soaring gas prices.

Not since Mel Gibson’s overheated The Passion of the Christ has a movie touched such a pre-release nerve. I don’t think I have to point out the common denominator.

Our local art house, Esquire Theater, has jumped on the bandwagon, devoting four of its six screens to The Da Vinci Code. The other two screens feature Poseidon, a mega-budget disaster flick, and Thank You for Smoking, an effective satire that has played in some multiplexes across the country. That’s an art-house theater?

Elsewhere, the film’s studio, Sony Pictures, is opening the film wide, and not just in this country: They sent 393 prints to China, of all places, which likely makes The Da Vinci Code one of largest openings in movie history.

Yes, it’s a big deal. Or is it?

I attended a press screening May 17, which might make me one of the first non-studio people on the planet to view it — thus the wand-frisk and confiscation of my picture-taking cell phone.

Given that I was totally foreign to the book’s premise and that I’m woefully ill-informed on matters of religious history, I found the film a fairly effective — if conventional — thriller. Yes, I can see how readers could get swept up in its conspiracy-laced, history-jumping narrative, which is most assuredly an even richer experience in book form.

But I suspect readers will be disappointed with Howard’s version of The Da Vinci Code. Early critical response has been tepid to terrible. The movie’s strongest aspect — its suspense plot — will be no surprise to those in the know, leaving Tom Hanks’ widely-pondered hair choice as the film’s most curious feature.

As for the controversy over the content of Brown’s fictional story, if the Vatican can’t survive this tame piece of pop-culture entertainment, they’re in big trouble.

Or, as a friend put it after the screening, “If my faith can’t withstand this film, then it wasn’t very strong to begin with.”

— Jason Gargano

2006-05-18T15:02:00.000-04:00

White Men in Charge, As Usual

Are five grey-haired, middle-aged, affluent white men the best qualified people to make decisions about the long-planned Banks riverfront neighborhood, particularly when it involves issues about workforce development and including minority contractors in the multimillion-dollar project?

Thats the question on the mind of some community activists and a few Cincinnati City Council members after Mayor Mark Mallory this week nominated his sole appointee to the five-person Banks Working Group.

Mallory nominated Tim Riordan, a retired city of Cincinnati employee who served in numerous roles at City Hall over his long career, including finance director and interim city manager. Although the entire city council praised Riordans administrative talents May 17, the group voted 6-3 to confirm his appointment.

Council members who voted against the appointment were Democrats Laketa Cole, John Cranley and David Crowley. The trio was concerned about the lack of diversity on The Banks advisory panel.

Other appointees to the Banks Working Group are Robert Castellini, Reds owner and board member of the Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. (3CDC), who was jointly appointed by Cincinnati and Hamilton County officials; Tom Gabelman, a local attorney appointed by the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners; 3CDC President Stephen Leeper, appointed by 3CDC; and Robert Rhein, a local developer appointed by Castellini.

Some black candidates also applied for spots on the panel, including NAACP President Edith Thrower and Steve Love of the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky African-American Chamber of Commerce.

Some city and county officials dislike that The Banks Working Group doesnt have to comply with Ohios open meeting laws and could make major decisions behind closed doors, such as drafting a policy for minority inclusion in contracting and hiring. The local NAACP has submitted a proposed policy, but its unclear whether The Banks group will consider it.

Cincinnati and Hamilton County officials created The Banks Working Group last month as a method to quicken the process of selecting a Banks developer. Proposed in 1999, the project has stalled over funding and jurisdictional issues. Planned for the area between the Reds and Bengals stadiums, the project envisions a mix of condominiums, offices, retail space and a hotel and would entail about $200 million in taxpayer funds supplementing private investment.

Kevin Osborne

2006-05-18T12:55:00.000-04:00

Every Sperm is Sacred; Treat Nearly All Men as Pre-Pregnant

New federal guidelines ask all men capable of having sex that could result in a fetus to treat themselves — and to be treated by the health care system — as pre-pregnant, regardless of whether they plan to have a child anytime soon.

Among other things, this means all men between their first erection and when impotence drugs no longer work should take vitamin supplements, refrain from smoking or taking drugs, maintain a healthy weight, avoid risky behavior that could damage the penis or scrotum and keep chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes under control. Men should also make sure all vaccinations are up-to-date and avoid contact with lead-based paints.

Experts say it's important that men follow this advice throughout their reproductive lives, because about half of pregnancies are unplanned and so much damage can be done to a fetus if sperm isn’t healthy and strong, resulting in deformed babies and risk to the mother.

The recommendations aim to "increase public awareness of the importance of preconception health" and emphasize the "importance of managing risk factors prior to pregnancy," said a co-author of the guidelines.

Pre-conception care should be delivered by any doctor a patient sees — from his primary care physician to his sports medicine doctor. It involves developing a "reproductive health plan" that details if and when children are planned, said a second co-author.

"We know that men — unless you're actively planning (a pregnancy) … he doesn't want to talk about it," she said. So clinicians must find a "way to do this and not scare men," by promoting preconception care as part of standard men's health care, she said.

"It's a simple way of getting primary care providers to think about preconception care," said a maternal fetal medicine specialist who sat on the advisory committee that helped produce the report. “It's simple and [it] costs nothing.”

____________________

Sound ridiculous? If you substitute men for women, you’ve just read part of the text from an article titled Forever Pregnant - Guidelines: Treat Nearly All Women as Pre-Pregnant by January W. Payne of The Washington Post. Last time I checked, health care was supposed to be a personal matter and the U.S. government, unlike China, isn’t in the business of participating in pregnancies.

What’s alarming to me is that a complicated problem, like infant mortality, is being treated in such a simplistic manner and that women are the only targets of this solution.

The infant mortality rate in the U.S. is appalling. It’s “higher than those of most other industrialized nations — it's three times that of Japan and 2.5 times those of Norway, Finland and Iceland, according to a report released last week by Save the Children, an advocacy group.” But that doesn’t mean all people with a womb need to be treated as “pre-pregnant.”

This focus by the federal government does address an important health care issue; however, it does so at the expense of trivializing other critical factors — inconsistent delivery of health care, the negative effects of poor health care for the uninsured, the high cost of drugs and vitamins — and making women 100 percent responsible for the outcome of a pregnancy created by two people.

Here’s an idea: instead of seeing all women as potential incubators, why not have our federal government promote the health for all citizens by providing information on things such as birth control, family planning and good prenatal care in addition to protecting the most vulnerable by providing insurance or services to all in need so that we can all make our own decisions about how to be healthy?

— Margo Pierce

2006-05-17T21:29:00.000-04:00

Love the Machine, Hate the Noise

TV news is easier to watch with the sound turned off but sometimes that doesn't keep me from wondering what the talking heads are trying to say.

Like the odd bit I saw on all the TV news broadcasts from Tony Snow's premiere as George Bush's presidential spokesman.
Snow (who's from Cincinnati) looked like he was on the verge of tears. I turned the TV sound on for a minute and I listened, but nothing the announcers said explained it.

Snow appeared wet-eyed with a smirky half smile, managing to look equal parts George Bush and Pat Robertson. It made sense that Snow, a cancer survivor, could get emotional talking about his illness. But the cancer story and the images I saw on TV sent mixed messages: too happy and too sad, too staged and and too spontaneous. FOX TV personality Snow, who called himself a persuader (not a journalist, not an entertainer) in an interview with Rick Bird, might have been playing to his new audience's emotions to ingratiate himself with them. Or he might have been trying to distract reporters from even more uncomfortable topics, such as Bush's illegal domestic spying.

Asked about Bush's illegal wiretapping and domestic surveillance, Snow used the phrase "hug the tar baby," sending another mixed message. Snow said, "I don't want to hug the tar baby of trying to comment on the program." (Crooks and Liars has video) That can be interpreted to mean he wanted to avoid a sticky situation but it can also be interpreted as a racial slur.

In April, when a Stearns County Commissioner referred to the St. Cloud, Minn. human rights commission as "this tar baby," the local NAACP president called his comments "bigoted and insulting," according to FOX News. People have been fired for using the slur.

No one could expect Snow to be familiar with every racial incident FOX news reports. But still, given Snow's Cincinnati background, he would have heard "tar baby" used as a racial slur. As a child, Snow lived in a Cincinnati housing project near Madisonville. He attended Princeton High School during the tumultuous era of Cincinnati Public School desegregation, experiencing firsthand the much feared merger between the Lincoln Heights and Princeton School districts. He had to know that him saying "tar baby" would offend.

People claim when right wing "entertainers" like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly use racist code words to gin up their audiences that it's all for laughs, just part of the show. But when their former cohort Tony Snow, now presidential spokesman, reaches for offensive racial slurs in the name of the U.S. President, a person has to wonder if maybe George Bush really does hate Black people.

— Sam Robinson

2006-05-17T21:20:00.000-04:00

New Guns for the Cops

Although some officers resented the extra oversight and made the changes reluctantly, Cincinnati Police in recent years have been quick to publicize how various modifications to its use of force policies and other procedural items are helping make the department state-of-the-art.

The changes were part of a negotiated settlement to a class-action lawsuit that alleged racially biased policing, as well as a review from the U.S. Justice Department in the wake of the April 2001 riots.

Now the department is on the cutting edge of weaponry, too.

Cincinnati police earlier this month ordered 1,100 military-style pistols from Smith & Wesson. The new models, known as the M&P 9, are 9mm handguns that have a steel-reinforced plastic frame. The gun can carry 17 rounds in the magazine and have interchangeable hand grip pieces.

Cincinnati is the largest police department in the nation to order the new guns, and will gradually phase in the weapons with all 1,050-plus officers during the next few months. The M&P 9 typically sells for $500 each, gun dealers said, putting the value of Cincinnati'’s purchase at roughly $550,000.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-05-17T21:08:00.000-04:00

The High Cost of Protecting the Mayor

CityBeat was first to report in April that Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory had decided to use police Specialist Scotty Johnson as his personal bodyguard, a story later picked up by other media (Bodyguards and Snitches). The full cost of Johnson’s new duties, however, is just beginning to emerge.

Since Johnson began protecting Mallory on April 19, he has received 42½ hours in overtime at a rate equal to time and a half of his normal pay rate, and received three hours at double his normal rate.

Through May 6, the end of the latest City Hall pay period, Johnson has made $1,954 in overtime. The figure includes a two-week period in late April and early May, when Johnson was paid $1,300 in overtime.

If that pace continues, Johnson — who has an annual salary of about $58,600 — is on track to make nearly $48,000 in overtime by year’s end. Some city council members dislike the arrangement, because Johnson’s salary and overtime are being paid by the police department, not the mayor’s office's budget.

Johnson’s overtime usage also could yield some long-term benefits. The longtime police veteran is about five years away from being eligible to retire, and police pensions are based on the three highest-earning
years in an officer's career.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-05-16T15:06:00.000-04:00

Ignorance Won’t Stop Sex Offenders

Everybody who loves sexual predators, raise your hands.

I’ll bet most readers thought that statement was sarcastic and sensationalistic. Nobody will admit to loving someone who would sexually abuse a defenseless child, an elderly woman or any other victims of sexual assault. Yet 85 percent of all men, women, boys and girls who sexually abuse are known by their victims. Parents, sisters, brothers, cousins, aunts, uncle, coaches, grandparents, scout leaders, piano teachers, tutors and neighbors — the people we say we love or entrust with the care of our children — are the people who are most likely to be convicted of sexual assaults.

Is that too frightening to consider? I have eight nieces and nephews, and the idea that someone would harm them in that way infuriates me. What gets me equally ticked off is the ignorance surrounding this issue that allows it to continue unchecked as it has for hundreds of years.

In a press release today, City Councilman Chris Monzel announces he’ll oppose a proposed treatment facility being located in Cincinnati, saying he wants to “stop dumping sexual predators in our city.” His opposition is to a downtown facility proposed by the Volunteers of America.

As politically popular as this kind of rhetoric seems, it does more harm than good because it galvanizes attention away from the biggest issue. The sexual predators among us — across the dinner table and in the office next door —aren’t being “attracted” to Cincinnati by treatment facilities, as Monzel suggests.

Once again a politician doesn’t appear to have done his homework (see Postcards from the Edge.) If he had, he’d know that most people who commit a sexual offense are less likely to repeat their crime if they receive treatment. If more people knew the truth over the hype, we’d be welcoming a treatment facility here in order to reduce the number of predators in our own backyard.

“Furthermore, I have asked the city’s Law Department to develop a plan to force the state to enact a moratorium on paroling sexual offenders in Cincinnati,” Monzel wrote. Ever heard of the Constitution, Chris? If you want to be hard-ass, do it in a way that’s going to bring about a legal and effective change.

If you want to reduce sexual assaults in Cincinnati, raise your hand. Then find out what you need to do to uncover the secrets your child, sister and uncle are keeping, because people don’t tell on those they love, especially when they’re being threatened.

For more information, visit:

Division of Violence Prevention of the Centers for Disease Control , the National Sexual Violence Resource Center , the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network and the U.S. Justice Department’s Office on Violence Against Women .

— Margo Pierce

2006-05-15T16:37:00.000-04:00

Showtime for the First Amendment

I’ve had two memorable personal experiences in the theory and practice of free speech at Fountain Square, so its future as a forum for dissent is of great interest to me.

In 1984 President Ronald Reagan spoke on the square during his re-election campaign. Charter buses ringed the square, and Republican activists confiscated protest signs at the one entrance through which all guests had to pass. I managed to sneak onto the square a sign saying, “Dump Reagan.” But when I held it aloft for the Gipper to see, a man punched me in the jaw and tore up my sign. A Cincinnati Police officer was standing nearby; when I told him what had happened, he ignored me, making no response at all.

In 2003 I joined with Michael McCleese in planning to block traffic in front of Fountain Square to protest the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Three other people unexpectedly joined us in being arrested. I’m proud to say that, with the help of dozens of fellow protesters, we nicely tied up traffic on Fifth Street during evening rush hour.

Now that the city has put the Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. (3CDC) in charge of the refurbished Fountain Square, how will protests be handled? During a recent meeting with CityBeat staffers, 3CDC officials tried to assuage concerns that the new entertainment focus will inhibit use of the square for protests.

“My board isn’t trying to restrict protests on the square,” said 3CDC President Stephen Leeper.

But I’m not convinced. Leeper attempted a joke about the kind of art that will be welcome on the square.

“No Mapplethorpe,” he said. “I’m kidding — don’t print that.”

But joking aside, Bill Donabedian, the square’s new manager, is determined to transform it into an entertainment venue and “selling point” for downtown.

“Fountain Square has to be a place where people just have to go because they’re never sure what’s going to be going on — but it will be a lot of fun, a lot of excitement,” he said. “My job is to give people one reason to come downtown and, once they experience that entertainment and that fun, they’ll realize there are other things to do downtown.”

Donabedian even suggested that, with enough entertainment, people might feel less need to organize protests at all.

“I have a feeling that, if you fill the space with events and entertainment, there will be less protests,” he said. “Part of it is because people have been unhappy.”

Yes, well, I’d be happier if conservative Republican presidents were sent elsewhere to give their speeches. But arguing that more entertainment is the way to mollify dissent isn’t just supercilious; it also shows ignorance of the law.

It just four years ago that U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens weighed in on the question of the proper uses of Fountain Square. In tossing out a stay issued by the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, Stevens dispensed with the city’s efforts to ban Ku Klux Klan crosses, Jewish menorahs and other symbols from the square between Thanksgiving and New Year’s day.

"Given the square's historic character as a public forum, under the reasoning in this court's decision in Capitol Square Review and Advisory Bd. V. Pinette 515 U.S. 753 (1995), I think the district court correctly enjoined the city from enforcing ‘those portions' of the ordinance `which give the city exclusive use of Fountain Square' for the next seven weeks,” Stevens wrote.

That historical character won’t change just because 3CDC wants to turn the square into an entertainment venue. Leeper and Donabedian said that the new, improved square will likely have a section where protests can occur. But Leeper hinted at restrictions that are almost sure to lead to litigation.

“If there’s an event there, (protests) can’t interfere with the event,” he said.

The larger question, of course, is whether the trade-off is sound public policy: downsizing a public forum to accommodate a bigger show.

— Gregory Flannery

2006-05-14T15:00:00.000-04:00

Urine Nation

Turns out the country is awash in piss. They're called "trucker bombs," but they've got nothing to do with terrorism. Even though we're still officially in Code Yellow, according to the Department of Fatherland Security.

Trucker bombs. Plastic containers of urine passed by truckers, then thrown along the highways. Woe to the state workers who encounter them while mowing grass. An unwanted golden shower often results, according to State Sen. Kimberly Zurz (D-Green).

"The containers explode under lawn mowers, often showering workers with urine," she says. "There are a million trucker bombs tossed on Ohio's roads every year. Not only is it unacceptable to litter on our highways, but the content of this type of litter is simply disgusting."

Zurz has proposed a law that would set a new maximum fine of $1,000 and possible license suspension for repeat piss-tossers.

— Gregory Flannery

2006-05-13T20:47:00.000-04:00

A Concert for the Resistance

What a great event for Cincinnatians opposed to the U.S. wars of conquest and its crusade against Muslims! Cindy Sheehan — the Peace Mom who has rallied ordinary Americans against the war in Iraq — and Muslim Mothers Against Violence appear June 9 and 10 with MUSE and recording artist Holly Near. Each evening opens at 7 p.m. with a teach-in, followed by MUSE's annual spring concert at New Thought Unity Center, 1401 East McMillan St. Tickets are $15 in advance or $20 at the door. But a sliding scale applies, running from $8 for those in need to $25 for people of means.

Near has been called a mix of Pete Seeger and Judy Garland. She and MUSE will sing peace and justice-themed songs promoting local and global solidarity among women. Mothers and their children will be invited to sing together on stage as part of the Annual Mother's and Children's Chorus, and MUSE will present the 4th Annual Enduring Spirit Award, which recognizes a woman who embodies any or all aspects of the MUSE philosophy, including a commitment to feminism, diversity, musical excellence, community service and social justice. The choir is accepting nominations from the public for this award until May 22.

Cindy Sheehan, internationally renowned peace activist and founder of Gold Star Families for Peace (www.gsfp.org), will join MUSE for a pre-concert teach-in June 9. On June 10, Muslim Mothers Against Violence will lead a pre-concert teach-in. MMAV is a 100-woman organization based at the Islamic Center of Cincinnati. The group's goal is to encourage non-violence through collaboration, understanding and unity within communities. These women work locally to open dialogue with Muslim mothers and their neighbors, providing adult education and youth forums, such as "Bullies and Buddies" in schools.

To order tickets, call 513-221-1118, write muse@musechoir.org or visit MUSE.

— Gregory Flannery

2006-05-12T15:46:00.000-04:00

Wonk This!

A policy wonk is an expert in current or proposed government policies and their effects. I had to look up that term during the 2005 elections in Cincinnati because I was going to use it in a story and I had to make sure I used it correctly.

While getting excited about public policy is not likely to get anyone elected to council, writing and implementing effective policy is the only thing thats going to make a difference for Cincinnati. Mayor Mark Mallory is right about one thing, the problems of this city wont be solved quickly. Nor will they be solved by policies that dont address the problems politicians claim they will.

The research that went into the latest marijuana ordinance consisted of a list of laws from Kentucky and Indiana. Im no policy wonk, but I am a research geek (the weird breed of person who enjoys doing research) and I can tell you that aint research. Thats a rationalization for a policy that hasnt been proven to work.

If Councilman Cecil Thomas had bothered to put effort into his proposal beyond asking the cops to prepare a list, he would have found a myriad of data that proves tougher penalties do nothing to distribution, sale or use of pot or any other illegal substance. Heres an easy one by some academic research geeks: Marijuana Law Enforcement in the United States .

Pick any other topic of public policy managed competition, labor unions, trash collection, traffic light bulb selection, citizen oversight of police, county/city economic development collaboration its been studied and put into practice all over the world. Businesses call them best practices, and common sense suggests its not wasting time or money reinventing the wheel.

I think policy makers should be required to document their policies prove that somewhere at some point in time this thing they want to make law actually had some positive impact.

When I write a story, I have to be able to substantiate every fact and attribute every comment. If I dont have proof or independent verification, it doesnt go into print. That seems to be a reasonable standard for politicians to meet, especially given that most arent policy wonks and our future success or failure is largely dependent on their policies.

Margo Pierce

2006-05-12T13:32:00.000-04:00

Politics and PR

During my 10 years in PR, marketing and communications, I helped companies “make up” news to garner media attention, so I have a pretty good sense of what qualifies as legitimate information versus fluff.

Keeping the general public informed and developing awareness is, at its most idealistic, what public relations ought to be about in the political arena. Even negative events can be put to good use with the right kind of focus. Case in point: The Tylenol pain reliever scare in 1982 (The Tylenol Crisis).

After several deaths in the Chicago area were attributed to Extra-Strength Tylenol, Johnson & Johnson did what many considered economic suicide. They told consumers that, even though the tampering didn’t take place in manufacturing or distribution, nobody should use their products. They instituted a nationwide recall and kept everyone from the federal government to the general public informed about their efforts to cooperate with the investigation into the deaths. In short, they voluntarily and publicly took responsibility for their product and held themselves accountable for the safety of their customers.

This is a lesson many of our political leaders need to study. Before indulging in knee-jerk reactions and politically expedient rhetoric, focus on the things that elected officials are supposed to do in order to implement effective action. Things like public safety and effective community development sound like high ideals; however, these and other goals can be achieved if they’re integrated into every action and speech.

Calling the shooting of Kabaka Oba "targeted" implies that other shootings are random. Guess what? All shootings have a target — whether it’s a person or a piece of paper at a shooting range. In the hurry to assure citizens that the steps of City Hall are “safe” for those who aren’t “targets,” Mayor Mark Mallory and the rest of our political leaders lost an opportunity to interact effectively with the public.

Yes, downtown Cincinnati is a violent place — anyone who compares the number of killings in Hyde Park or Pleasant Ridge can see that. Yes, we need and want to change this. Start by acknowledging that there’s a problem and take some responsibility for reaching a positive outcome. Like voting, do it early and often.

Be honest — the “public” can easily be dismissed as uninformed or incapable of understanding complex issues; but that kind of attitude devalues us, and we’re smart enough to figure that out.

Talk about practicing personal safety. Provide practical information: Drive with your car door locked, don’t leave valuables in plain sight in a locked car. Then provide resources for learning more.

A standard in PR is that any publicity is an opportunity. Whether it’s deemed negative or positive is irrelevant as long as you know what you stand for and you know how to use those moments to communicate what matters. Ask any PR firm in town; they’ll tell you the same thing. Maybe UC can offer PR for politicians next fall.

— Margo Pierce

2006-05-11T12:27:00.000-04:00

Mallory Promises City Manager by October

Cincinnati will have a new city manager before this fall, according to Mayor Mark Mallory.

During his weekly press briefing, Mallory revealed that he hopes to select a prospective city manager — and receive city council's approval for the choice — by Oct. 1. That is when a proposed advisory group of council members, business executives and others will submit recommendations for changes at City Hall designed to save money and improve services.

Mallory originally hoped to submit a name to city council by March 31, but that date came and went with no announcement.

“I certainly hope to appoint a new city manager before the first of October,” Mallory says. “It’s going to be soon. It’s taken a little bit longer because of the logistics of all I have to deal with on a daily basis.”

Mallory has had council members meet individually with four city manager candidates at a local hotel but hasn’t yet decided which name to submit for approval, City Hall sources say.

Whoever is selected will replace David Rager, the city’s Water Works director, who has served as interim city manager since September 2005. He filled the spot after Valerie Lemmie resigned as city manager following a tumultuous three-year term.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-05-11T12:18:00.000-04:00

Welcoming Gamblers, Regulating Poor People

Cincinnati officials don’t mind if you want to try your luck at slot machines to make a little extra cash, but they’re less enthusiastic about asking people for money on the city’s streets.

During its evening session May 10, city council voted 7-2 to support efforts to amend a state ballot issue on gambling and let voters decide whether to allow a casino at the Broadway Commons site in Over-the-Rhine.

Local businessman Louis Beck has an option to buy the 20-acre site, which is now mostly a series of parking lots, where he envisions a casino and hotel. Before that happens, though, backers will have to collect the signatures of 323,000 registered Ohio voters and then convince voters statewide this fall that the idea is worthwhile.

Council members Chris Monzel, a Republican, and Cecil Thomas, a Democrat, opposed the effort, saying gambling causes various social problems. Supporters counter that a casino could generate up to $40 million annually for Cincinnati and Hamilton County, money that could be used for purposes such as building a new jail.

Meanwhile, council also voted 7-2 Wednesday to permanently enact a law that requires panhandlers to get a license from the city. The law, first passed in 2003, had a sunset provision and would have expired June 20 without any council action.

Under the law, beggars must register with the city and carry photo identification cards. The Cincinnati Health Department issues free licenses at its Elm Street clinic in Over-the-Rhine. Beggars who violate local panhandling restrictions could have their licenses revoked for up to 18 months and face other penalties.

Council members Laketa Cole and John Cranley, both Democrats, opposed keeping the law. They called it unnecessary.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-05-10T16:46:00.000-04:00

What Kind of Crackdown?

The Cincinnati Police Department has been noticeably more aggressive in Over-the-Rhine in the past month, with 1,000 arrests reported so far to date. At a recent press conference the police announced about 20 guns had been seized. While that's progress, we want to know about the hundreds of misdemeanor arrests involved. We're hearing reports that many of the 1,000 arrests have been for such trivial offenses as littering, jaywalking, even spitting — hardly the kind of crime that has made Cincinnati so violent in recent years. Brian Garry uses the term "ethnic cleansing," arguing that what's really underway is an effort to push poor people out of the neighborhood to make way for upper-income tenants in proposed new condos. The arrest of Berta Lambert, a Streetvibes vendor and photographer, certainly doesn't speak to a crackdown on violence; Berta is a gentle soul who loves Over-the-Rhine.

In the next few weeks CityBeat will have a detailed report on exactly what kind of crackdown the police are conducting. We're waiting on the police department to turn over the raw data. We've asked for copies of every arrest report in Over-the-Rhine since April 10. We're told the process of redacting social security numbers means a delay of about two weeks.
— Gregory Flannery

2006-05-09T17:19:00.000-04:00

The Return of Newfarmer

Perhaps taking their cue from Al Gore’s efforts a decade ago, Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory and Councilman Jeff Berding announced Tuesday an initiative to “reinvent” city government in an attempt to increase efficiency and generate cost savings.

Mallory’s and Berding’s “City Hall Works” proposal involves creating an advisory group to review the recommendations of a consultant hired to perform an in-depth analysis of city operations.

The group, which still must get city council’s OK, would be comprised of three council members, one from each political party; the city manager; two city department heads; two representatives from City Hall’s largest labor union; the internal city auditor; an independent financial professional; two business executives; one human relations expert; and an executive loaned from a local company to help staff the committee.

The consultant who’s been hired isn’t a stranger to City Hall — it’s former Cincinnati City Manager Gerald Newfarmer, who was forced out of his job several years ago in a showdown with then-Mayor Dwight Tillery.

City council earlier this year approved spending up to $100,000 on hiring a consultant. Mallory and Berding are hopeful that Newfarmer’s eventual suggestions — if recommended by the advisory committee and approved by city council — will offset the expense.

Once approved, the advisory group will quickly undertake its mission. It’s supposed to offer initial recommendations by Oct. 1 and complete its work by Dec. 1.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-05-09T17:13:00.000-04:00

Heimlichs Revisionist History of The Banks

What a difference a year makes in attitudes about who is responsible for delays in building The Banks, Cincinnati's long-planned multimillion-dollar riverfront neighborhood.

Hamilton County Commission President Phil Heimlich is touting the countys recent deal with Cincinnati officials to create the Banks Working Group to quicken the process of selecting a developer. The proposed group, which would be comprised of county and city appointees, is a compromise that would allow Cincinnati and Hamilton County to jointly control major decisions about the project. It was negotiated after city officials strongly objected to county commissioners unilaterally taking over the developer selection process in June 2005.

At the time, Hamilton County chose the Corporex Cos. and Vandercar Holdings Inc. as developers for The Banks. That deal eventually fell apart, though, prompting city officials to reassert their authority. Cincinnati controls zoning decisions and some development rights to the riverfront property, located between the Reds and Bengals stadiums.

In a Pit Crew Alert mass mailing recently sent to political supporters, Heimlich, a Republican running for re-election, credits county officials with jump-starting progress on The Banks.

Though promised to taxpayers as part of the new stadium deals in the mid-90s, The Banks was stalled indefinitely less than one year ago, Heimlich wrote. At that time, Hamilton County stepped in and took the initiative from the Port Authority to build the project.

Despite the fact that the deal negotiated in 2005 imploded when Corporex pulled out, Heimlich had a different view on who was delaying Banks progress in an e-mail from March 2005, just three months before the county intervened.

In the e-mail to then-interim County Administrator Suzanne Burke, Heimlich placed the blame on two county officials Assistant County Administrator Eric Stuckey and attorney Tom Gabelman. Moreover, Heimlich wrote that he didnt want the pair interfering with the Port Authoritys work on The Banks.

If Eric and Tom want to control the process, the Port will not get anything done, Heimlich wrote. If Eric and Tom are unable to analyze the final recommendations of the Port without being involved in every decision along the way, that means they are either not competent or the Port will not have done an adequate job of explaining their proposal.

Elsewhere in the e-mail, Heimlich wrote, I do not want to see any further interference in the Ports work along the way.

Kevin Osborne

2006-05-09T17:04:00.000-04:00

Panhandling Licenses to Become Permanent

Cincinnati officials are poised this week to permanently enact a temporary law, first passed in 2003, that requires panhandlers to get begging licenses from the city.

After hearing words of support from downtown business owners and police, City Council’s law committee voted 5-1 Tuesday to recommend the full group approve the measure. Council will make a final decision during its Wednesday evening meeting.

Supporters were Vice Mayor Jim Tarbell and council members Jeff Berding, Leslie Ghiz, Chris Monzel and Cecil Thomas; opposed was Councilman John Cranley.

The law, which requires beggars to register with the city and carry photo identification cards, will expire June 20 unless renewed. This time city council isn’t including any sunset provision, meaning it will remain on the books indefinitely unless officials vote to rescind it.

Under the ordinance, the city’s health department issues free panhandling permits at the Elm Street clinic in Over-the-Rhine. Beggars who violate local panhandling restrictions could have their permits revoked for 18 months and face other penalties. Panhandlers typically receive one warning for violations before being cited.

City council passed the law after receiving several complaints about aggressive and threatening panhandlers intimidating downtown pedestrians. It followed tighter restrictions on panhandling passed in 2002 that prohibited begging in most cases after dark, banned panhandling at bus stops and near ATMs or bank entrances and prohibited beggars from using abusive language.

Aggressive panhandling already was a fourth-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a $250 fine. Police found the law difficult to enforce, however, because they had to view any potential violations before issuing a ticket.

Some homeless advocates have complained that the law criminalizes mental illness and addiction issues, and is designed to hide the city’s problem with poverty.

— Kevin Osborne

2006-05-09T14:19:00.000-04:00

Journalism 101

My business card says, “Margo Pierce, Staff Writer.” However, the moment I introduce myself as being from CityBeat or sit in on a meeting, I’m a “reporter.”

Other than the stories shared by long-time local journalists, I’ve had no formal training to prepare me for the trappings that go along with my press credentials — politicians trying to pass off partial truths as the “whole” story and getting snippy when I ask hard questions, suspicious sources who begin with hostile accounts of past experiences of being misquoted, cops painting me with the same disdain they have for my employer, family members who place me in the camp of the “enemy” because my stories and perspectives aren’t conservative.

So what qualifies me to write for CityBeat? Beyond college courses and 20 years of writing for my employers and for fun, I’m a good storyteller, curious as hell and I have an insatiable desire to get behind the scenes. My editor tells me I have a low bullshit threshold; I’m finding that’s another essential. These are the things any writer needs to survive being a reporter. Can’t nobody teach that in a classroom.

Journalism is about negotiating the task of finding interesting material that readers (and my editors) will like, fitting it into a specific word count (no, I can’t have another 200 words, no matter how much I plead; and yes, I realize the daily papers sometimes give only 200 words), relating as much accurate information as possible and hopefully inspiring the reader to go learn more (read: all the stuff I couldn’t fit in). Writing is the easiest part of the job. Here’s a short list of why the non-writing skills are needed for collecting material:

• Getting a source to consider me as a person, not as the reporter who already burned him
• Treating people fairly and being honest in the face of being treated like shit
• Figuring out who is in any given room and the significance, if any
• Sorting out PR from fact and figuring out what information is being withheld
• Using “off the record” in a way that doesn’t damage my credibility or the story
• Being fair when it's impossible to present all sides of a story (see word count)
• Maintaining an “adversarial” relationship with sources — politicians, cops, government agencies or anyone who wants me to write about them — that lets people know I want their stories but the sound-bite-approach to information sharing doesn’t fly.

Having learned all this, why would anyone get a degree in this field, let alone build a career doing this? I can only answer for my apparent insanity. There’s more to what goes on than makes a television news broadcast. I want to know what’s really going on, and I think most reasonable people do, too. Being threatened with lawsuits — my count is two threats so far — and writing about the ugly things people do to each other turns my stomach. But if we don’t look at things like the death penalty, emotional abuse, sex offender notification programs, developers who fail to do their jobs, then we aren’t dealing with this thing we call reality.

It’s not my job to win a popularity contest. It’s my job to do the best reporting and writing I can. Ask the people I’ve interviewed, I’m not a jerk — I’m a journalist.

— Margo Pierce

2006-05-08T15:05:00.000-04:00

3CDC Says It’s No Threat to Homeless Shelter

The Drop Inn Center has nothing to fear from the Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. (3CDC), according to Stephen Leeper, president of the public/private partnership.

In a recent meeting with CityBeat Editor John Fox, staff writer Margo Pierce and myself, Leeper promised 3CDC has no intention of trying to force the homeless shelter to move. Supporters of the Drop Inn Center have expressed concern that 3CDC’s plans to redevelop the area near Washington Park will lead to pressure to move the shelter.

But Leeper says no.

“There’s no plans on our behalf,” he said. “The Drop Inn Center’s there. They own the property. We’re not like the Wizard of Oz, thinking about where we can move them today. I promise you.”

If the Drop Inn Center wants help, however, 3CDC is ready to offer it, Leeper said.

“My view is there’s a need for homeless support,” he said. "You can have a facility like this and have it compatible with the neighborhood. Our intention is not to get them out of there. Our intention is to improve the Drop Inn Center.”

He acknowledged the possibility of tensions between the center’s clientele and the kind of people 3CDC hopes will be drawn to the neighborhood by new condos and a new School for the Creative and Performing Arts.

“I am very concerned about how existing conditions have an impact on the neighborhood,” Leeper said. "What has gone on in Washington Park is unacceptable behavior — screaming, yelling, taking a leak in the middle of the park. These are inherent tensions. It’s easy for us to blame the Drop Inn Center and for them to blame us. We’ve got to get beyond that.”

— Gregory Flannery