City Reaches Deal to Add 55 Jobs Downtown

The Enquirer is reporting that the City has a deal to keep First Financial Downtown for 12 years and add 55 more jobs by 2014. According to the article, First Financial Plans to invest 4 million dollars in its Downtown facilities.

We needed some positive news for the City, so this helps a little.

Who Is Running For Cincinnati City Council? An Update:

With the Republican slate set, the time to choose is here for candidates to make up their minds on running for Cincinnati City Council.  For new candidates, the time honestly came and went.  For prior candidates the time is now. Here's the latest on who is or believed to be running for Cincinnati City Council in 2011:

Incumbents:
Leslie Ghiz
Amy Murray
Roxanne Qualls
Laure Quinlivan
Cecil Thomas
Charlie Winburn
Wendell Young

Previous Candidates:
Nicholas Hollan
Kevin Flynn

New Candidates:
Wayne Lippert Jr.
Jason Riveiro
Chris Seelback
P.G. Sittenfeld
Catherine Smith Mills
Yvette Simpson

Unknown Status:
Chris Bortz
Christopher Smitherman
Bernadette Watson

Is there anyone missing?

Dear Jeff Berding: Hurry Up and Resign Already

City Council Member Jeff Berding announced back on January 27th that he would be resigning in a matter of weeks. Well, it is going on six weeks later, and he's not gone yet. It's time for him to hurry up and resign. No one likes long goodbyes.

WCPO's Coverage of the 10th Anniversary of the Riots Begins

WCPO will have 30 days of coverage leading up to April 7th anniversary of Timothy Thomas' death, starting Today, March 7th.

Has Wendell Young Killed the CPD-Sheriff Merger Until After the Election?

If you take the mayor's threat serious to veto any effort to outsource to or merge the police department with the Hamilton County Sheriff's office, then you need a veto proof majority to pass any such ordinance. With Wendell Young basically coming out against a merger, does that kill any plan until a new council is sworn in on December 1st? I am going to say, yes, that kills the idea for now.

The study should still be done, however. We need to talk about this plan, if nothing else, especially if this becomes an issue in the campaign. With all of the Republican union bashing it will be fun to see the hypocrisy from the likes of Republicans Ghiz and Winburn. Both have been pretty much silent on SB 5, the State Bill that will strip away collective bargaining rights for public sector unions, included in FOP, making a police/sheriff merger less of a need. You don't need to bust a union that already been crushed by the Governor.

'Full' Slate of GOP Council Endorsements Are Out

CityBeat's Kevin Osborne has the full list of Republican endorsements for Cincinnati City Council. There are Five:

Incumbents:
Leslie Ghiz
Amy Murrary
Charlie Winburn

New Comers:
Wayne Lippert
Catherine Smith Mills

Yes, a short list yet again. I am glad to see some new people in the mix, but what holds the Republicans back from even fielding enough candidates to over-ride a Mayoral veto?

Wayne Lippert Receives Republican Endorsement

Based on a Facebook status post to his page, Wayne Lippert, candidate for Cincinnati City Council, got the Hamilton County Republican Party endorsement last night. I've not see a press release on this yet, nor have I heard who else got the endorsement. It will be interesting to see if the GOP puts up enough candidates to fill a super-majority of seats on council or not. In the past, they haven't had the candidates to do so.