Hamilton County on the Ropes

 Let me first say that when it comes to local politics I believe that it makes little to no difference what party you are with. Elected officials at the local level have much more impact on our lives and it is a must that all elected officials regardless of which party they are with work together to improve the lives of the people they represent. Unfortunately, as we have all seen we have had  a real lack of leadership in Cincinnati and Hamilton County over the last 15 years and we are paying quite a steep price for that today.

For some reason we have had a history of electing former Cincinnati City Councilmen to become Hamilton County Commissioners. For what ever reason the Hamilton County citizens that loathe the way the Cincinnati is ran seem to think that magically they figure it out when they become County Commissioners.

To be fair Todd Portune, Pat Dewine, and David Pepper didn’t creat this mess they certainly though have done plenty to add to it. The lack of vision and the lack of leadership of the Commission is now potentially going to us put not only in greater financial danger but physical danger as well.

How did we go from needing a new jail to expand capacity to being able to close Queensgate and have less jail beds available? That makes absolutely no sense and does nothing but instill more fear into the public that still is trying to recover from the riots in 2004 and the years of record murders in Cincinnati since.  On top of that it  has been proposed that the county cut back police service to three county townships. Why not spread the cut backs evenly throughout the county.This policy alone will hurt Hamilton County as much as the lack of development. The population is already shifting to other Ohio Counties and to Northern Kentucky, how does cutting these services help us?

Hamilton County needs to focus on stabilizing and increasing the population, along with economic development. How is it that after 12 years since the approval of the sales tax we still don’t have the Banks project completed? That project alone would have brought in tens of millions of dollars to Hamilton County.

We have to make this county the best and easiest county to do business with in the State of Ohio. We must demand that the county work with the City of Cincinnati and the rest the governments within Hamilton County to come up with a comprehensive plan to get Hamilton County back on track. All entities must work together, gone are the days when people move away from Cincinnati to neighboring townships, now people are moving out of Hamilton County to neighboring counties, like Butler, Warren, and even to Northern Kentucky and Southeast Indiana.

I agree with the County Commissioners that cuts must be made, but they must be done in a prudent manner. Slashing public service such as police protection in the manner proposed is not prudent. Any plan that the Commissioners come up with must also include a comprehensive plan on how to grow our economy in Hamilton County. We are in danger of becoming just like Detroit, we need our local leaders to step up to the plate before the damage becomes irreversible.