Cincinnati Budget Issues
In typical fashion, the new majority of five, just like the old ones, chose to put off rather than actually deal with the budget issues that dominated the council’s time in 2009. We are setup again for a repeat of the same budget fight in 2010. We can thank the leadership once again of Mayor Mallory who barely beat what turned out to be a weak candidate and Councilwoman Cole who was the last to be elected onto council for putting together this wonderful budget.
Their is little doubt in anyone’s mind that the city is in major trouble financially , and with this budget it looks to stay that way. How on earth can we possibly expect to balance a budget on hopes and gimmicks? We have already elected President Obama with that same promise and look where we are now. We need a real budget that is balanced not only on paper, but that is realistic in nature. To not close more underutilized pools and recreation centers, along with actually giving additional funding to programs that bring no revenue into the city is reckless.
There are two key areas that the city should address with the 2010 budget and they must start working on this now. The first issue going to be the toughest and that is getting concessions from the unions. I truly believe that our police and fire departments are asked to do far too much with far too few resources. Unfortunately though because of our city’s lack of leadership for so long, we must get some concessions to fix our budget.
To do this though we should engage all of unions now so that we can work with them without putting a gun to their heads and the heads of the citizens with the threat of major job cuts, and public safety issues without concessions. I have no doubt with the right amount respect given to the union groups along with the right approach, and a good plan they would be willing to help the city that they serve. I am glad Council has stepped up in taking 10 unpaid days but Council needs to show more leadership than that. We need to install confidence in the both the citizens’ and the unions that taking these cuts are a temporary solution and that the city has solid plan in place to fix the budget issue so that we don’t have to make cuts like this again in the future.
The other area that the city must address is job and population growth. This is critical because we must increase both to increase our tax base. This is the best and most logical plan to solve our long term budget woes. It does us no good to build new skyscrapers downtown only to have the new tenants be tenants that are moving out of one downtown building to another. Council for years has failed to address concerns when it has come to population and job growth. We can no longer just bank on the Banks project to move us forward
We have a great foundation in place with groups like 3CDC and Agenda 360. Cincinnati needs to capitalize on their leadership and enthusiasm in help turn Cincinnati into a local and regional leader again. Cincinnati Council should make it the number one priority next to public safety, should to make Cincinnati the most business friendly and least taxed city in the State of Ohio and in the region. This would spur the growth in the tax base necessary to fix this deficit budget.
Now is not the time for politics on city council. We need leaders. Councilwoman Laura Quinlivan tweeted recently “Glad the budget process is over, Next time we will do better…” I don’t know about you but that the exact attitude and leadership we don’t need and have too much of on Council. I want leaders that what to tackle the hard issues and solve the problem right for what is best for Cincinnati and not for political gain.
In 2010, I hope that Charles Winburn, since he seems to be the swing vote, can give us the leadership that he has promised when he ran for office. He has already joined Councilwoman Cole in passing this mirage of a budget this past December, but we can hope that with the 2010 budget fight looming, that he along with four others will focus on making our city the friendliest city with regards to opening and expanding businesses in the region. We need leaders that will work hard to fix Cincinnati with real ideas for growth in population and business, not with gimmicks and serving special interest. If this can be accomplished then Cincinnati will be able to thrive once again.
My Endorsements for the Mayor’s Race and Cincinnati City Council
I am endorsing Brad Wenstrup for Mayor of Cincinnati. Mark Mallory is trying to move the city forward, but he has lost the faith of the citizens of Cincinnati. He lacks the leadership skills necessary to bring our city together during this critical time. While I support the streetcar project I feel his leadership has tainted the cause and that until he is replaced as the leader of the streetcar initiative and the leader of Cincinnati the streetcar issue is a dead issue. We need someone to provide true leadership in this city, and while I may disagree with Brad on the streetcar issue, I feel his leadership skills are something that this city must have. He will be the type of Mayor that doesn’t try to play the politics as usual game but will do what he feels what is best for Cincinnati and not for what is best for his political career.
My Cincinnati City Council Slate in no particular order:
Amy Murray
Charles Winburn
Chris Monzel
Antria Brockman
Greg Harris
George Zamary
Chris Bortz
Jeff Berding
Leslie Ghiz
I feel it is time we replace most of the incumbents that make up the voting majority on Council. Their leadership has been questionable at best, and their handling of the situation when it came to layoffs of city workers and public safety works can be labeled as childish. The majority on council today is largely responsible for the situation we are in, including approving a budget over the last couple of years that projected a rise in revenues while the state and the rest of the country were projecting declines. Of that majority I feel Greg Harris is the least culpable given the amount of time he has spent on Council(less than one year), and further more I find while I have fundamental disagreements on several issues I find he is far more pragmatic in his reasoning and is truly trying to make Cincinnati better. The best thing he could do is to distance himself from the Laketia Cole and the rest of the “Fab Five”.
My picks are far more conservative than the make up of the current council. I do believe that political parties are not as much a factor at the local level, with that said though we need a major shake up on council and I feel these nine would provide that. Lastly while I have reservations about Antria Brockman taking the Green Party endorsement I feel she would be a good addition to Council as pseudo independent candidate from a background that many of our residents indentify with and she would bring a perspective that Cincinnati City Council has lacked for years.
We must elect a council that is different than the current dysfunctional mess that we have today. We have all complained that Cincinnati Council doesn’t listen to the citizens and they have made terrible decisions time and time again. If we want that to change we must change who is on council and who is in the majority. We can’t expect to elect the same people and hope they will do a better job than what they are doing today
Why you should vote NO on Issue 9
I understand that Issue 9 (better known as the Street Car Issue) is an extremely controversial and important issue in this city. I think though that both sides have mischaracterized what this is really about. This issue in the end isn’t about whether a streetcar should or should not be built. The issue is about how are we going to govern this city.
The reason I am voting for NO on Issue 9 is because making decisions by ballot initiative rather than having those that we elect make those decisions is a very bad way of running a government. What is the point of having elected officials if we are going to vote on single issues like this? We do not need to become another California where the people vote on what seems to be every law. This is extremely costly and becomes extremely inefficient, and in the end you have people voting for or against laws that have consequences that the voters had no ideas about. For instance I would be willing to bet that the majority of voters in Cincinnati think that voting yes on Issue 9 means that Cincinnati will not have a streetcar system and voting No means we will have a street car, both assumptions are false and couldn’t be farther from the truth. In the end we elect officials to make decisions and if we disagree with those decisions we need to remove those that we disagree with from office. Which seems to be the problem we have in Cincinnati. We keep on complaining about our elected officials not doing the job but then we reelect them to office.
Let me be clear about this also. Voting No on Issue 9 does not mean the streetcars will be coming to Cincinnati. All it will mean is that we will leave it up to the people we elect to do their job, which is to govern. If you as a voter do not want streetcars in Cincinnati you have the perfect opportunity to prevent that from happening this fall. All you have to do is vote out Mayor Mallory and those that are running for council that want the streetcars and vote in the people that are opposed to them. It is simply that easy.
On Election Day lets not let those that say you should vote YES for this Issue 9 confuse the issue. This issue while they may tell you it’s about the streetcars, they are wrong. What this issue is about is allowing special interest groups to continue to use the system to force votes on issue that our elected officials should be dealing with at our expense. While I agree that we should have a say if Cincinnati should have streetcars we should use that voice to vote in the elected officials that share our beliefs and work to do what is best for our city rather than spending money that the city and county do not have on these single issue items.
Saving Cincinnati and Hamilton County
Hamilton County and Cincinnati are both facing over the next few years what could amount to a financial collapse. Tax revenues are dropping, and people and business are moving away. We are also struggling to bring new business to the Hamilton County and Cincinnati area. What should we do to save this county and the city?
The first thing we must do is recognizing that the old ways with the same elected officials isn’t working. We need to elect new people that have new ideas and that are not afraid to think outside the box and to work with more than just the people within their party.
We must have Cincinnati and Hamilton County governments come together with a comprehensive plan for stability and growth for the area. While there is need to reduce spending and cutting out government waste, we also must have a plan for growth and development. The city and county should be focusing on three areas’ to do this. Merging all departments that are duplicated at the city, township and county levels. The next area of focus should be making Cincinnati and Hamilton County a better place to operate a business. The third area is to have a plan to attract people to move back to Hamilton County and Cincinnati.
The first thing that the city and county must do is cut cost. One of the best ways to do this is to merge departments that are duplicated. There is no reason why both the city and the country should both be paying to do the same things. We need to eliminate waste not create and perpetuate more bureaucracies in this region. We need to look at all departments including Public Safety and see what makes sense. The time for business as usual must come to an end.
The next thing we must do is make Hamilton County and Cincinnati a better place to run a business. We have the assets with the proximity to the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport plus having both Lunken and Blue Ash Airports in the County, along with the Ohio River, and two major North/South Interstates we have a great set up as far as major transportation in the region. We are easy to get to, and must use that to our advantage, whether it is by rail, plane, or car.
We must expand and improve on this infrastructure. We have a unique set of assets and must capitalize on this to attract new business. We must also make this area friendlier when it comes to taxes. The state of Ohio is notorious for how unfriendly it is for businesses to operate. The city and county must do everything possible within the current law to make Cincinnati and Hamilton County easy to operate a business.
The last major factor we must address is the fleeing of our citizens out of Hamilton County and Cincinnati. We must attract those that have moved out back to Cincinnati, and keep our young professionals that are graduating from the surrounding Universities in the city and the county. To spur this growth we must reduce property taxes in both the city and the county and attract more jobs to the region.
The other major area that will help bring people back to Cincinnati and Hamilton County is to improve the Cincinnati Public School system. We must hold the school board accountable and force them to come up with new approaches to teach our young people. It should no longer be acceptable that CPS only has a couple of great schools with in the district and the vast majority of the schools failing. We fix this by taking new approaches in academics and in discipline. If they are unwilling to change then our local government must vigorously support a comprehensive charter school program.
Our city and county governments must recognize that they must work together to turn around this economic situation in this area. It benefits no one and it would be nearly impossible for Hamilton County to prosper without Cincinnati and vice versa. With that said we must have our elected officials from both sides engage the current economic situation together to come up with a comprehensive plan. If our only response is going to be to continue to cut essential services and we have no combined plan for development and growth for both the county and city then will never recover from this free fall.
Could Cincinnati City Council’s new budget kill you?
The short answer to this question is yes it can. Taking police officers and firefighters off the streets of Cincinnati will not only put the lives of other firefighters and police officers at greater risk, it will put your life at risk as well. Some will say I am over dramatizing this situation, its only a dramatization until someone’s house is on fire or until someone is being robbed, or in need of medical attention. With the potential of seconds making the difference between life and death shouldn’t Cincinnati City Council look at every other avenue to make cuts before taking police officers and firefighters off the streets.
Where can the cuts be made? Well at the very least if council is willing to cut the pay of every city worker by 6 days the Council members themselves should be willing to do the same thing. I think it is terrible leadership on Council’s part if they are not willing to cut their own pay and expect everyone else to take a pay cut. In fact I think it is down right arrogant and pathetic that city leaders expect city workers to bailout the city for its gross mismanagement of funds. When I am elected to Cincinnati Council I will put forth legislation that will cut Cincinnati City Council and their office budget by 20%. That is the least Council can do to acknowledge their poor management of funds, and be leaders in cutting costs in helping to balance the budget.
After reading the article in the Cincinnati Enquirer about our city pools not being used it is amazing how some on council still have this nonsensical and insane idea that all pools should remain open. If Councilwoman Cole can look into anyone in this city with a straight face and give a good reason why it is more important to keep a pool that has less than 100 swimmers a day open rather than keeping more police and firefighters on the streets than she clearly doesn’t have her priorities straight and should resign immediately. She clearly should not be on Council let alone the Chairwoman of the Finance Committee because she has shown how she intends on leading this city and how competent she is of making the decisions necessary to lead us through this financial crisis.
We need real leaders in Cincinnati not leaders like Councilman Harris that call our Police and Firefighters “big, fat, spoiled brats”. Why should those that put their lives on the line every day take a pay cut because our Council can’t manage our money? Why not listen to our Firefighters, Police Officers, which say they are willing to make cuts without taking personnel off the streets? We should be using that as a starting point at the least rather than starting out with reducing the number of people that are protecting us.
The fact is Cincinnati City Council has to make budget cuts, but we have to prioritize those cuts. Public Safety has to be number one. There is no gray area with this issue. If we have any hope for redevelopment, and population growth we must feel safe in this city. We must make hard decisions like closing pools that are severely under used, and cutting programs that don’t work and that are already being done at the state level. We also must have a redeployment plan that increases businesses and attracts people to Cincinnati. The budget just like this election is going to determine the direction of our city for the next decade. We have seen what the current Council members have accomplished, isn’t it time we start holding them accountable for the job they have done and elect people to Council that have the people of Cincinnati rather than their political careers as their number one priority?
Part 5: Why I am running for Cincinnati City Council.
Cincinnati has suffered for going on almost two decades with a lack of leadership and a lack of vision. This has cost our city dearly. We have seen such projects as the stadiums and the Banks become a laughing stock. Redevelopment of Downtown is not where it should be. Crime over the last 10 years has been at unacceptable levels, and our school system has new building but the same old problems. I could go on but we all understand the challenges that Cincinnati faces. The question that you are asking yourself is why should you vote for me?
You should vote for me because I represent what Cincinnati leadership should be about. I am person that understands that status quo is no longer acceptable. We need new people in office that are not beholden to the same tired idea’s that got us here in the first place. We need people with backgrounds that are more than just being a lawyer or a career politician as we have had many times in the past. We need people on council that understand the daily struggles that the average Cincinnatian faces. I feel that living and growing up in Cincinnati I am acutely aware of the struggles that most of us face living in Cincinnati.
I have been married to my wife Jamie for nine years, and we have one son that is almost three years old. While we have been married we have both gone to college while working full-time and have purchased our own home. Like many families to make ends meet and to have a little extra, we both are currently working full time and I also have second job that I work part-time. Even with all of this we would be considered living “average middleclass lifestyle”. I mention this not to brag but to say that I understand everyday struggles that hard working Cincinnatians face.
Growing up in Cincinnati and going to C.A.P.E. (Cincinnati Academy of Physical Education) and Western Hills High School, I understand the concerns that people have with our school system. We must improve this system and when I am elected to council I will push for council to take an active role in being a partners with CPS to make our school district the best public school district in Ohio.
We must have a renewed focus on education and provid opportunities for all students to learn and succeed. Some may argue that this should be left up to the Cincinnati Public School Board to handle. They have been handling it for this long with very little in the way of results. Our children’s education directly affects the quality of life for those of us that live in Cincinnati. Students that have a better education will be less likely to commit crimes. We need real solutions to fixing our crime problem, I feel rather than using gimmicks, improving our education system will gives us a great opportunity to reduce crime in Cincinnati.
I am running for Cincinnati City Council because I would rather help change our city for the better than be another person that has given up and moved away. We have real problems that need to be addressed. Cincinnati City Council must improve its relationship with its minority population and finally address their concerns in a meaningful way. We must have a redevelopment plan for all our neighborhoods that doesn’t continually displace our less fortunate citizens. We must have leaders of Cincinnati that are more worried about the citizens of this city than their political careers and aren’t beholden to special interest groups or business. We have paid a steep price over the years for the lack of leadership at City Hall. I realize that change can be hard, but to move this city forward a change on Cincinnati City Council is a must.
Vote for Darryl Cordrey II for Cincinnati City Council not because I am well connected or a lifetime politician, vote for me because I am the average Cincinnatian that will fight not for a just one neighborhood or one group of people. I will fight for what is best for all that call Cincinnati home.
Part Three: Socio-Economic Issues
Cincinnati is no different than many cities throughout the country that are dealing with socio-economic issues or what I like to call class warfare. What will hopefully be different is how we as citizens and what our elected officials will do to engage this issue in a manner that this beneficial to all that live in Cincinnati. The citizens of Cincinnati need to not only elect officials that have the vision to move forward with improving our infrastructure and increase our tax base through new business, but we must elect officials that understand while doing this we cannot leave behind those in need like we have so many times in the past.
When it comes to economic development in Cincinnati I feel many times we do this at the expense of the poor in this city. We seem to take the attitude that if we can move the poor out and create “ a better neighborhood” then it will make Cincinnati as a whole better. I would argue that in fact that this has made our city worse. The reason why this is the case is because we are forcing the poor out of more of our neighborhoods in Cincinnati and they are moving into more concentrated areas, which is increasing crime in those areas like for example Price Hill. I am by no means saying that all people are criminals what I am saying that statistics show that poorer areas tend to have more crime.
All plans with regards to neighborhood redevelopment should be sensitive to the potential displacement of all residents in the area whether they are rich or poor. I am not saying that those projects should not move forward, what I am saying is lets find a way to improve our city by helping the residents that live within the the city while attracting new residents rather than trying to move out the poor and lower middle class in favor of those that are rich. We can be sensitive to those in need and that our less fortunate than us and still move Cincinnati forward with redevelopment.
This is why I favor of Smart-Growth Policy’s and Form-based Codes when it comes to neighborhood redevelopment. This isn’t some new government program that wastes millions of dollars a year on programs to win the vote of a particular block of voters. This is plan that encourages mixed use and mixed income growth. It promotes such ideas as having a livable walker friendly neighborhood that can support business growth for customers of all income levels. It also supports the idea of a viable public transportation system that is accessible and user friendly to all types of people for all types of uses.
I know it seems unusual for a Conservative to even want to bring up this issue especially when it comes running for Cincinnati City Council. Usually Conservatives want to scream we need more police and more jails to solve our crime problem. While I agree that we need more jail space, I do not believe that more police or jail space is the only answer. Raising taxes to solve this problem or adding more wasteful government spending is not the answer either. City Council needs to address the socio-economic issues while promoting growth instead of just promoting growth. We as a city cannot continually forgot about our poor for the sake of growth and expect to become a first class city. The cities that are successful are the ones that have found that balance. When I am elected to Cincinnati City Council I will promote growth in infrastructure and in making public transportation adequate for all that live in Cincinnati while also working to give those that need it better opportunities to improve themselves and to succeed in Cincinnati.
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