So, Anyone Think Amy Murray Will NOT Fill Monzel's Seat?

WVXU has a story today reporting that the Hamilton County Republican Committee will be meeting tonight to select someone to fill Chris Monzel's Cincinnati City Council Seat. Leslie Ghiz and Charlie Winburn 'offically' get the appointment, but they are expected to do what the county party wants.

Great, the anti-City Republicans (which in my opinion make up about 90% of local Republican Party officials) get to pick who will serve on City Council. I would love to know how many voting tonight actually live in the city. That would be a great news item for a professional reporter to dig up.

Amy Murray was the next highest Republican vote getter in the 2009 election and would be the fair and logical choice. The tone in the media and the actions of Mrs. Murray indicate she is the front runner. I have heard that many or at least a powerful few in the local GOP want Brad Wenstrup, the failed 2009 Republican Mayoral candidate. I've not heard his name mentioned for a while, and he may no longer want the job, but as Ghiz referenced in the article, it wouldn't be the first time the local GOP screwed over a woman Republican. If Murray is not the pick, Ghiz should stand up to the outsiders in her party and nominate Murray. I don't know how it would work if she and Charlie Winburn don't agree, but I would hope Charlie wouldn't stand to see someone who worked for it, not get what is fairly their's. Yet, no one can actually trust Winburn, and Winburn's buddy, Sam Malone, was the person who denied Ghiz's appointment back in 2005, in favor of Chris Monzel. If I were Amy Murray, I wouldn't trust anyone.

UPDATE: The Enquirer Politics Extra blog is reporting there are Five candidates being interviewed tonight by the 40 member GOP committee. They are: Amy Murray, Lamont Taylor, Wayne Lippert, Jr., Sam Malone, and Mike Robison. Reportedly, Brad Wenstrup isn't being interviewed. That makes Four ways the GOP could screw over Murray. If anyone on the committee votes for Sam Malone, please name them publicly, so they may be ridiculed appropriately.

UPDATE #2: The Enquirer's Politics Extra blog has an update on Brad Wenstrup. He's out of the mix for the council seat and says he was his choice.

So...'We Demand a Vote,' Where's the Outrage about $809M?

The I-74 expansion is thoroughly described by UrbanCincy's Jake Mecklenborg. It is a plan that does nothing but continue our transportation system down the high cost wasteful path we have been on for 60 years.

I've yet to year the coalition of groups, called "We Demand a Vote," come out with a press release denouncing this boondoggle and demanding that the Citizens of Hamilton County vote to approve any spending for building new or upgrading existing roads. This new road will not pay for itself and there is no budget for its maintenance and operation in either the City, County, or State budgets.

After all, its not like anyone on the West Side is going to ever travel to the East Side (or visa versa).

So I expect to see a new ballot issue to require the citizens vote on this plan prior to spending a dime on it. I don't just expect to see, I demand to see it. (Cough, cough)

City Council Approves Budget, Ghiz Throws a Rock in a Glass House

The Cincinnati City Council finally approved a budget for 2011. The deal nearly fell apart after Cecil Thomas and Charlie Winburn temporarily pulled their support over curtailing the Marijuana ordinance. I'm not actually clear what the budget could do to actually repeal the ordinance. I am inferring that they cut the budget for enforcement of the law, but did not overturn the law. The details of the whole plan are quiet sketchy and clearly Thomas and Winburn didn't understand it and only relented after some lobbying from the Mayor. If they did actually repeal the Marijuana ordinance, that's the one good thing to come from this mess.

Leslie Ghiz spewed a gem

"'There are five members of council who won't part with a thing,' she said."

by "thing" I presume she means the non-public safety workers. Trash Collectors must be things in her world. Things can be dumped in the hands of the private sector to be consumed and destroyed. Cops and Fire Fighters are not things in her world. They are gods, that must be appeased all costs. They are not be touched. Not one god can lose their job. That would bring an end to all that is holy. By holy in this case I mean endorsements and conservative voter support, which for some reason isn't considered sacrilegious, even in the slightest. Leslie shouldn't complain about not cutting 'a thing' when there was massive chunk of the budget she refused to cut, even though the evidence shows they should be. I guess she has the "do what I say, not what I do" part of being a mother down pat.

City Council Found a Way to Punt, AGAIN!

Call it election year gaming,call it gutless, but after basically no one on Council could agree on an honest budget, we got a budget that repeats last year's short term thinking. We punt.

Terrible idea.

In other words we got a big pile of steamy poop.

Politics rules again. Fear of the FOP and Fire Fighter's unions ruled, again. We had multiple council members willing to fire all of the garbage collectors, but not touch the CPD or CFD staff levels at all. That is not honest, that is appeasement to special interest. Refusing to raise fees for trash collection because you want to push through an ideological concept, isn't responsible governance, it a political ploy.

A handful of social service cuts (Pools, school nurses) and a cut to Police overtime, which a couple of years ago wasn't even used, and then the city raids other funds for a ONE TIME FIX.

What that means is unless money falls from the sky, we will be right back where we are this time next year.

We are unfortunately going to get 10 months full of bullshit and hollow political stunts where Ghiz and Winburn will promise the moon and the stars, then in the case of Ghiz put forth no plan and in the case of Winburn be the person who made the steamy pile of poop we got this year, happen again.

Monzel ends his tenure as a City Council member without contributing anything to the City.

As for the rest of council, I am disappointed. The only one making a strong case was Laure Quinlivan. She stood up to the FOP and Fire Fighter's union, pushing both union's leaders to get ejected from Council Committee meeting for disruption. Her ideas were good, but I think her lack of political experience showed in her in ability to muster public support for her plan to cut the excess police staff, something we should do.

There are now clear issues for candidates to run on for election next year. The problem is that few candidates will have the guts to discuss those issues honestly and specifically.

If anyone is paying attention, they might spend some time learning about the candidates and voting for people who would not be afraid to actually make real choices and not use hard economic times to push through selective ideological ideas.

So What Do You Make of Porkappolis?

A new local social media application is out for the iPhone and it is for Cincinnati. It's called Porkappolis, and it's from the Enquirer. If you want it, you need to go to the AppStore on your iPhone and sign-up. At this point, the website is only a place holder.

Picture a localized FourSquare and you have Porkappolis, at least in a nut shell. I've signed up for it and checked in at a whopping one location, which I created myself. I copied a place I created on FourSquare, I'm so original. Porkappolis doesn't stray far from FourSquare's functionality. I don't know yet what makes it better.

Greg Sterling at www.screenwerk.com comments on the new app and is optimistic.

Is Kathy Harrell Possessed By Kabaka Oba?

It has been over four years since Kabaka Oba was gunned down outside City Hall, but his spirit clearly is living inside local FOP President Kathy Harrrell. No, seriously, Harrell is possessed by Kabaka Oba. When she got thrown out of a City Council Committee meeting yesterday for being disruptive, nothing short of Kabaka Oba's spirit entering Harrell's body and taken over her actions can explain it.

A Piece of Coal For City Council

The City will not be getting a nice gift wrapped 2011 budget under the tree this year. Instead we get more bickering, contradictions, and lack of planning. I think it is time for the mayor to come in and knock a few heads together, assuming he still has any pull left. If not, we will headed towards a New Year's Eve showdown.

I still don't understand how Leslie Ghiz can be out to protect police and fire union jobs, but more than willing to crush the unionized trash collection workers with the effort to outsource trash collection. I can understand how she might believe ONLY police and fire functions should be provided by the government, a position held by extreme right wing politician, but why the hypocrisy in support for only some union jobs? If she is wiling to outsource part of city services, why not outsource it all? Why have a government at all? (Yes, I am asking rhetorical questions.)

Ghiz and others on council are using the budget crisis as cover to push their goal of outsourcing many government run public services. This has been a long standing political point of many Republicans, and trying to force it through now is far more distasteful then trying to offload the patrol function of the police on the Sheriff. At least the plan to outsource police patrols was vetted with the Hamilton County Sheriff and current police would have good opportunity to keep a job. No plan would exist with the outsourcing of trash collection.

The Enquirer Editorial Board is not pleased with the city council's lack of progress.