Crappy Budget and Five Are to Blame

Only one of the five who voted for this bad budget deal are to blame. The four: Cole, Qualls, Quinlivan, and Thomas had no choice. Charlie Winburn pulled a Joe Liberman on them and was 'for' furloughs and then flipped in such a manner that The Flying Wallendas would be proud.

The FOP Election was going on yesterday and it appeared to me that Winburn and his staff may have been doing a little acting in the effort to make Kathy Harrell look like she won a victory. How real were those shouts in the hallway that Jane Prendergast reported? Kathy Ended up winning easily, 555-90, but just below half (49.4%) of the rank and file voted for her. What does it say that voter turnout for the FOP election was only 57%? Does the rest of the membership feel like their vote doesn't count? Or that there was no real choice?

The rest of the blame goes to those who put forth no ideas and no plan of their own, namely Berding, Bortz, Ghiz, and Monzel. Leslie Ghiz can call this plan 'garbage, but what did she offer up in its place? Bortz attacked it and I think he is most concerned about raiding the City's Working Capital Reserve Fund for 8.2 Million. He is right to call that irresponsible from a development and infrastructure perspective, but unless you get furloughs or layoff cops and fire fighters, there is no other way, or at least no other way on the table. If the silent four are going to govern, they have to play the game with Winburn too. No, you can't trust Charlie Winburn. He will double deal everyone, unless you pay him off. He agreed to the rules and he got himself a new committee to play with. Yesterday, he got to dance with the FOP and help Harrell raid the city's reserve to keep the seasoned cops sitting on their butts getting pay raises, while still having the younger pups out doing the work. The FOP now owes him, and he will collect.

If you are going to sit on your hands and not put forth ideas, you really have nothing to complain about. Hell, no one of the Gang of Five put any pressure on the unions to provide concessions. The only thing close in the budget is a cut of Overtime, which reportedly will come mostly from the CPD, and none of the silent four voted for that!

We have a crappy budget. We have to live with it, for now. It is time that every member of council starts participating in the process. The first step would be to stand up to the Police Unions. Next, some reform of the police and fire departments might be in order. If you are not willing to do that, then no one is really serious about fiscal responsibility.

Buyer's Remorse for the FOP?

FOP President (at least for now) Kathy Harrell may be a little bit pissed at herself for supporting Charlie Winburn for Council. Charlie appears to be playing word games in his reported support of the latest budget deal. Winburn pledged to not support any budget that included fire or police layoffs. The the current deal on the table doesn't directly call for police or fire layoffs, but instead calls for 10 day furloughs with layoffs coming if unions don't agree, so I guess in the world of a slimy politician, that's keeping your word.

Harrell may not have agreed with Greg Harris, but he was a council member who was honest. There are no exchange policyies in council races. She claimed to have help defeat Harris and win it for Winburn. Well, caveat emptor, Kathy.

Latest Budget Deal on the Ropes?

A new budget deal for the city was announced today, but late word from Jane Prendergast is that this deal may have stalled, with Charlie Winburn, the presumed 5th vote, calling for a recess.

The deal puts the plan for layoffs in the hands of the unions, either furloughs or layoffs. The police and fire departments would need to accept 10 days otherwise 34 from the Fire Department and 47 from the Police Department would be laid off. Additional cuts for AFSCME and CODE would be put to those unions as well.

For the FOP this couldn't come at a worse time, as they are holding union elections today.

Did COAST Help Cause an Increase in Crime?

The point of this article from Enquirer's Jessica Brown is that the lack of jail beds is turning criminals back on the streets.

The article goes on to say there are two causes for the lack of jail beds, the closing of Queensgate Jail in 2008 and the defeat of the Jail Tax plan in 2007.

So, 20,000 arrestees were turned away because we don't have enough jail space. COAST and its other allies were the main campaigners fighting to defeat the Jail Tax effort. They reveled in that defeat.

During the election, many (mostly the conservatives) said the crime rates were increasing this year in the city. If that is true, part of it can be laid at the feet of the recession. More people are poor, crime goes up. That's a general fact of life that no one can prevent or deny.

If any increase in crime can be traced to 20,000 people not being on bail before their trial and being free, then COAST should get a big fat share of the blame and be ridiculed for its efforts to defeat the jail tax. The problem with that notion is validating those released from jail are committing more crimes. The article uses as a source Sheriff Simon Leis, who is not shy of point out problems with solutions that would get more funding for his department.

The bias of the Sheriff aside, there is a lesson to learn. The anti-government stances put forth by COAST, like the 2007 anti-jail tax campaign, are examples of how bad ideas that are born out of shortsighted extremism come back to bite everyone in the ass. People are far to ignorant and groups like COAST prey upon that ignorance. Their strategy is to make complicated issues into yes/no questions. That is how charlatans work. They try to convince people the issues are simple, but they know that's a lie, but when your goal is destruction, lying is no vice.

Ghiz Blocks the Cincinnati Blog on Twitter

You have been blocked from following this account at the request of the user.

I've never held back my criticism of Council Member Leslie Ghiz, but I've never been offensive. Is that reason enough to block me on Twitter (@Leslie_Ghiz)? I had been a follower of her account for a while and replied to many of her tweets, with fair, but critical questions. I just realized she was tweeting or so I thought. I don't know when she blocked me, but I would guess its been a while, likely before the election. I guess she prefers to isolate herself from critics. Sounds like she's preparing to grow up to be a Republican.

Two questions arise from this: 1)Was I the only one blocked? Did anyone at the Enquirer or any other blog get blocked as well? 2)If she is twittering from a city owned computer does that fall under the public record statues?

Know Theatre Adds Shows!

The Know Theatre has added two additional performances of Sideways Stories From Wayside School on Sunday December 20th and 27th at 3PM. The family friendly show is fun for all ages (I'd say kids maybe 8 or older will have more fun, but matures younger ones might like it too).

For tickets, go to www.knowtheatre.com. Tickets are only $12 in advance, and get them now, they are really starting to sell out, which is why they added more shows!

If you go on either day, be sure to come early and visit the neighborhood and shop! Check out www.otrgateway.com for all of the shopping, eating, and drinking options.

The Phony Coney's Christmas Wish For COAST

There is only so much coal in the world, but The Phony Coney has a big pile of it ready for the members of COAST at their Christmas party. I'm sure the event will be filled with the anti-City, anti-urban, anti-government negative spirit we come to know and expect from COAST.