'Every Breath You Take, Every Move you Make'

Bring on "Big Brother!" Public Safety will improve with the installation of video cameras at various points around town. Starting in Downtown and Uptown, street corners will have 24 hour surveillance and will be able to better catch criminals and watch for medical emergencies.

OTR is being considered for this, and I personally say yes please!

I am trusting the police on this issue. I understand that every time I walk to Fountain Square, I will be captured in the surveillance. This invades my privacy on one level. It is legal. The police could just have multiple officers stationed at the same locations and watch me just as much. They would be witnesses to know that I walked by just as much as video tape would be. Stationing multiple police officers as each corner is obviously way too expensive, so not a practical option.

One point that is not mentioned in the article and is the key question against this idea is how long is the video tape stored? 24 hours of tape is a lot and takes up a ton of space, whether digital or not. How long will it be stored? How long will police have to trace your movements? There has to be some time restraint, unless they have as much server space as Google, so that time frame will be something that should be made public.

Jim Knippenberg - Requiescat in Pace

What a sad thing to learn of Jim's death last evening. He was truly a legend in Cincinnati, the kind of person who knew everyone and, truthfully, knew a lot of gossip about everyone. Jim was a kind and generous man who loved life and lived it about as fully as one can. He will be missed.

Somewhere Jim is gathered at the bar with all his friends who went before, hoisting one and laughing that gregarious laugh. Some evening soon, all of those of us left here on this mortal coil should lift a glass to Jim and his life and memory. And in doing so, remember that "Life is rather like a tin of sardines - we're all of us looking for the key." Traveling mercies Jim.

Good News For CNN

National Cable News became a joke yeas ago and Lou Dobbs made CNN far worse than it needed to be with his insanity. His anti-immigrant jingoism, his embrace of birthers, and his out right anti-Obama stances were what you expect from outright biased news outlets like FOX. Lou Dobbs is now leaving CNN which does nothing but increase the credibility of the TV network. I think the cheers from Atlanta could be heard across the country when this was announced.

Serious Run or a Stunt?

28 year old Surya Yalamanchili is running of the Ohio 2nd Congressional District. By itself, that action is neither serious nor a Stunt, but when you add the fact the Yalamanchili was a contestant on "The Apprentice" television show, then I just don't see how this would be anything other than a stunt to provide him with attention to use for personal gain. Yalamanchili is a former marketer for Linkedln, so media stunts are not out of the possible sphere of his area of experience, so I am very doubtful of the seriousness of his campaign. If you want to run for political office, you need to do more than just issue a press release and have a website. You need an organization with people to help you and they must believe in you. The election is less than a year away, so he better start working on the basics if he doesn't want to be just an also-ran.

Remove Cole From Finance Chair

If there is one thing Mayor Mallory can do to improve City Council quickly, then it is removing Laketa Cole from the Finance Committee Chair. Her inability to work with, well, anyone, makes it an obvious need. She was the only person voting for her motion on the Property Tax rate in the committee session yesterday. So, now things are up in the air and someone with actual credibility wouldn't have let it get to this point.

Qualls Nixes Vice Mayor Slot

In this in-depth piece by Howard Wilkinson Roxanne Qualls stated she does not want the Vice Mayor's appointment. Here's the meat of what her future may hold:

Does she parlay her strong support among Cincinnati voters into a position of greater influence on the new City Council, such as an appointment to a major committee or as vice mayor?

Nobody knows; and Qualls isn't saying much.

No, she told The Enquirer on Friday, she isn't interested in being Mallory's vice mayor. Yes, she said, she might be interested in running for mayor in 2013, but "it's too early to talk about that." Yes, she said, she would consider a run for county commissioner, but is "leaning against it."

She clearly has City Wide support. That support will be something to think about in the future. A post as Finance Chair maybe something worth considering, especially if she can have more influence in getting some on the right to vote with her.

Oscar at 40: Does He Need a New Home?

The New York Times reports that Sesame Street has reached its 40th anniversary. The article points out that the show's sets have changed and now look "gentrified."

As a kid, my two favorite characters were (of course) Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch. PBS has already updated Cookie Monster for the new millenium, rounding out his diet with fruits and veggies and moderating his cookie consumption. (I don't know when the last time he was televised singing my favorite song, "C is for Cookie.")




But the article had me thinking: how many of today's kids come into contact with a trash can like that which serves as Oscar's home? Is it time for Oscar to trade in his metal can for a plastic "Herby"?

Downtown Restaurant Happenings (Mayberry's, Roma Trattoria, and Busken's)

None of these items seemed substantial enough for a full post, but each is interesting enough to be included in a round-up.

Mayberry's: Earlier this week, Mayberry's opened on Vine Street between Ninth and Court, in the space formerly occupied by Tom's Pot Pies. It's run by the same folks who own the Whole Food Market at Findlay Market. I stopped in for lunch on Tuesday and had (to go) a chicken Caesar salad and macaroni and cheese, both of which were quite good. A friend had the tuna melt and the tater tot casserole. He indicated the tuna melt was very good, but the tater tot casserole might just be an excuse to carbo-load (not that I ever need such an excuse). I'll note that I could smell the pot roast when I was there; it smelled great, but I was in the mood for something lighter. I'll definitely be back, as it's directly on my courthouse-to-office route.

Roma Trattoria: The big fight regarding the remodeling of the Metropole and its conversion to a luxury hotel will center on the relocation of its more than 200 residential tenants. But the sale of the Metropole will also force the relocation of two commercial tenants, Roma Trattoria and the Subway Lounge. I've never been to the Subway Lounge. Roma Trattoria is a great restaurant that will no doubt be hurt by taking away its Aronoff-friendly location. There are a couple spaces nearby that might be suitable: the space formerly occupied by Arloi Dee (on Seventh) and the space formerly occupied by the Maisonette come to mind.

Busken's: Finally, the Busken Bakery at Ninth and Plum (across the street from City Hall) will be moving in early December. It will take over a space on Seventh between Walnut and Main that was formerly occupied by Mythos (and, for those whose memories go back that far, occupied by Sushi Ray's before that). That seems like a sensible move to me, as the Ninth and Plum location always seemed to be a bit outside of the hustle and bustle of downtown (and thus lacking in foot traffic). No word yet on where the mayor and council members will get their doughnuts after the move, though.

Who Will Be the Next Vice Mayor?

With David Crowley term limited, the position of Vice Mayor will become vacant. The mostly cermonial position is not filled with much power, but it carries some influence. The Mayor gets to pick the person he wants, but it is often used as a way to reward or instill loyalty to a member of senior member of Council. Greg Harris may have been the logical choice for the Mayor, but now I don't know who he picks. Cole and Thomas are in his party with seniority, but wouldn't it be smarter for the Mayor to bring a foe into the Mallory camp by picking Chris Bortz? Bortz does not have the rumored eye on the Mayor's office that Qualls is alleged to have.

There are not other choices that gain the Mayor much. If there are better options, chime in.

Someone Tell Ghiz There's a Veto

I just heard Leslie Ghiz speaking on WVXU (mp3) about getting five City council members to reverse anything thing the lame duck council does, specifically on Property Taxes. Is she forgetting about something called the Veto? Here's the relevant part of the City Charter:

Section 6. Every ordinance shall be fully and distinctly read on three different days unless three-fourths of the members elected to the council dispense with the rule. No ordinance shall contain more than one subject which shall be clearly expressed in its title, and no ordinance shall be revived or amended unless the new ordinance contains the entire ordinance revived, or the section or sections amended, and the section or sections so amended shall be repealed. Council may adopt codification ordinances, codifying, revising and re-arranging the ordinances of the city or any portion thereof.

Any legislation passed by the council, whether in the form of an ordinance or resolution, shall be dated when passed. If the mayor approves the legislation, the mayor shall sign and date the legislation and it shall be effective according to its terms when signed by the mayor.

If the mayor does not approve the legislation, the mayor may veto the legislation and return it to the council within four days after passage with a notation of the veto on the legislation. The vetoed legislation shall be placed on the agenda of the council at its next regularly scheduled meeting. Legislation vetoed by the mayor and returned to the council may not be amended.

Upon motion passed by five members of the council, the council may reconsider the vetoed legislation. If six members of the council vote affirmatively to override the veto and enact the legislation, it becomes law notwithstanding the mayoral veto. It shall be effective according to its terms upon the affirmative vote and, if otherwise subject to referendum, the time for referendum on the legislation shall begin to run again from that date. Unless the council overrides the veto of the mayor at or before the second regularly scheduled meeting of the council following passage of the legislation, the legislation shall not take effect. Legislation enacted by the council over the veto of the mayor shall not be vetoed a second time. An ordinance placing on the ballot a charter amendment initiated by petition shall not be subject to a mayoral veto.

If the mayor neither approves nor vetoes the legislation, the legislation shall be effective according to its terms the fifth day following its passage. The effective date shall be noted on the original copy of the legislation by the clerk of council.
Every ordinance shall be published once within 15 days after its passage in a newspaper of general circulation in the city of Cincinnati, or a newspaper regularly published under the authority of the council. In the publication of every ordinance or resolution relating to improvements or to assessments upon private property for such improvements, the advertisement shall contain simply a statement of the title, number and date of the ordinance and resolution, a concise description of the private property affected, a summary of the nature of the improvements, the rate of any assessment levied or to be levied, and a reference to a copy of the said ordinance or resolution, which shall be on file in the office of the clerk of council. In the publication of all other ordinances or resolutions the advertisement shall contain a statement of the title, number and date of the ordinance or resolution, a brief statement of the nature of the ordinance or resolution, and a reference to a copy the ordinance or resolution, which shall be on file in the office of the clerk of council.

(Amended by Ord. No. 77-1999, eff. Dec. 1, 2001; election of May 4, 1999)

So, based on reading the above, the Mayor can veto Council ordinances and resolutions passed by council, and it requires 6 council members to override the veto. Now, other than measures to add Charter Amendments to the Ballot, there are no exceptions to the Mayor's veto power listed in this section I found.

If there is another section exempting the power of the Mayor on the veto, I invite anyone to post the link to it. I couldn't find it. I only found two sections mentioning the veto in a search of the entire Municipal code, including the Charter. The other simply was in Article III restating the Mayor has the power of the veto as defined in Article II, which is the section referenced above.

So, if the Mayor doesn't like what Leslie Ghiz and company wants, he can veto it. Why he's not used the veto yet, I don't know. If he doesn't use it now and going forward, then I'd like to know why. Leslie needs to work on getting 6 members of council to do something the Mayor does not like, not just five. Five is not the Magic Number when you don't like the Mayor.

Why do people keep underestimating the tenacity of the Mayor?

The Truth Sometimes Does Win

Like the Mayor, I was a little bit worried about Issue 9 going into last night. Once the absentee votes came in, however, I was convinced that the night would end well for those of us opposing Issue 9.

The campaign by the those in favor of Issue 9 was filled with a combination of out right lies and scores of misleading comments from both Chris Smitherman and COAST. Top that disreputable combination off with a very confused Tom Luken and you get a campaign that got far too much unquestioning attention from the media regarding its clearly visible goal to damage the city. With great effort from the No on 9 team, that gaggle of strange bedfellows failed. Truth and common sense won out.

The defeat of this measure does do two things to make transportation improvements closer to happening. For the Streetcar it takes away a big hurdle to funding the project. Efforts can now confidently be taken to secure the Federal and State funding require to move forward on the Streetcar. We don't need to vote on it again. We just elected a Mayor and 6 council members who support the Streetcar plan. That is how representative democracy works.

We'll still get the crack-pots around to unfold their latest tin-foil hat reasons why more jobs, increased public transit, and the economic development of the urban core is a bad thing, but that argument is easy to refute. Until then, I really hope the handful of anti-city zealots at COAST will learn something from their big defeat.

The second thing to help transportation is to remove any hindrance to the high speed rail efforts to connect Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati. This Federal plan was destined to pass Cincinnati by, but again the Truth won out.

Council Election: What the Hell Happened?

Well, the council on the surface has appeared to have flipped to a majority Conservative 5. I think we need a new name, the rebirth of the Fiscal Five maybe? I don't know what we are going to call them, but what ever it is, with Charlie Winburn making up the fifth member, I pity the other four ever getting a trustworthy answer out of the nutty soon-to-be council member.

The bad news from the council race was the loss of Greg Harris. It is really a terrible thing to lose Greg. He was a level headed council member who consistently worked to find good solutions and to date has issued the only viable 2010 budget plan that I hope people look at even after Greg leaves office. I hope to see Greg stay around politics in Cincinnati, we need more people like him running for office.

The question from Greg's loss is: what happened? Well, I've done some Ward totals comparison analysis between 2007 and 2009 and I see two trends.

1) The more conservative wards came out in big strength yesterday, especially on the East side with Mt. Washington, Mt. Lookout, and Hyde Park (Wards 1,4,5) with a 6.08%, 4.40%, & 3.85% increase in voter turnout. Key West side wards generally increased between 2 and 3% over 2007 as well, adding to the strength of the former minority 4.

2) African-American Wards generally only moderately increased, or in the case of Avondale (Ward 13), West End/OTR (Ward 17), and the West End (Ward 18) all decreased from 2007, with Ward 18 dropping a whopping -1.21%.

With the increase of conservative voters, liberals like Greg were left off more ballots and with the loss of the African-American voter turnout, Greg was put behind the 8-Ball. Cole's drop also supports this idea, as she was ninth after the final, yet unofficial numbers were reported last night.

In the coming weeks I likely look over the numbers more and compare trends with the Mayor's race and Issue 9.

Election Post-Mortem

The final election results are in. Once again, Roxanne Qualls was the top vote-getter. Greg Harris has been ousted from Council, and Charlie Winburn and Laurie Quinlivan will join the fray. What does all this mean?

First, the political breakdown is as follows: Council now has three Democrats plus a Charterite/Democrat; one independent (Berding); three Republicans; and a Charterite who leans Republican.

Next, the big question is on the 2010 budget. Part of that will depend on what happens with property tax. Crowley and Harris, as lame ducks, could be in favor of ending the property tax "rollback," which would constitute a significant tax increase. If that's so, a tax increase would pass if just three members of the newly constituted Council were in agreement. (The property tax millage must be finalized next week, before the new Council takes office.)

But if the property tax isn't raised, the budget will need to be reduced by around 50 million dollars. I thought Greg Harris had offered a plan that made sense: go to the unions (including the FOP) for concessions in 2010, with reimbursement made in 2011 and 2012. The problem, of course, is that 5 members have apparently made promises that there would be no police or fire layoffs. If they're unwilling to change their positions, then concessions are out of the question. (If I were a union member, and I knew that my employer would not, under any circumstance, reduce the size of its workforce, I'd vote against concessions). That may mean huge cuts in services: parks and recreation; health clinics; reduced trash collection.

I suspect Mayor Mallory learned a lesson as an incumbent executive. He knew he had won the race and, he acknowledges, he didn't campaign very hard. But this race wasn't about him. It was about the Council he'd be working with. Mayor Mallory is an extremely likeable guy who campaigns well. He needed to be on the trail more to support the Dems for Council. This was the first time Mallory was in this position, so the error is certainly understandable. The mayor will come to regret that his coattails weren't a little bit longer this year. But his personality and affability may make him uniquely able to bridge the divisions amongst the current Council to build a majority that can govern sensibly and effectively.

Jeff Berding may be the key to a governing majority. If he wishes to mend fences with the Democratic party, he may join forces with Qualls, Quinlivan, Thomas, and Cole. But he's been treated badly enough that it's unlikely he'll be looking to make peace. Instead, the Council Dems will have to find a way to offer him an olive branch if they wish to garner his vote on important issues.

Council committee chairs are appointed by the mayor, so expect little changes there. That means Cole probably retains the gavel in Finance. But membership (and vice-chairs) are elected by Council, so there should be some shake-ups in the composition of the committees.

Finally, there's one thing I don't understand, perhaps because I've only lived in Cincinnati since 2000: why does Roxanne Qualls do so well in these field races? Don't get me wrong. Qualls is smart as hell, and I enjoy hearing her pontificate on public policy; she resembles liberals who are about 30-40 years older than she is. (Qualls often reminds me of Daniel Patrick Moynihan.) But Qualls isn't terribly charismatic, at least not in the traditional politician sense of the word. And "smart" doesn't always get you very far with the electorate; we live in a county that twice sent George W. Bush to the White House. It's got to be more than mere name recognition. What's the answer? Why does Qualls do so well with so many demographic and geographic groups across the city?

Council Race

Alright, yet another post.

98.50% of City precincts have reported. I'm not sure the last 1.5 percent will change the running order much. If not, the order of finish is:

Qualls

Thomas

Bortz

Berding

Ghiz

Monzel

Cole

Winburn

Quinlivan.

Greg Harris is in 10th place, a full .7% behind Quinlivan.

This Council is going to present a much greater challenge for Mayor Mallory with respect to building a governing coalition. I'm not sure that I see either Winburn or Quinlivan being consistent party-line voters.

Mayor's Race: Mallory Wins

Ok. One more post. If you didn't see it on WCPO: Brad Wenstrup has conceded the race to Mayor Mallory. We should thank Wenstrup for being willing to serve his community, even if he was ultimately rebuffed by the voters.

And congratulations to Mayor Mark Mallory. I voted for him last time, and did so again this time. His first job will be to rebuild a fractured Council. But his talents may be uniquely suited to doing just that. Time will tell.

This Doesn't Mean "Yes" On Streetcars

Issue 9 is clearly going to fail. But I'd better not hear streetcar supporters tell me this means Cincinnatians favor streetcars.

You told us that Issue 9 was about more than streetcars. It was about all passenger rail. And even more broadly, it was about our form of government. We're supposed to, you told us, trust our elected officials to make these decisions.

I remain relatively ambivalent about the streetcar. I thought Issue 9 represented bad government and voted against it accordingly. But don't tell me my vote translates to approval of a streetcar.

No on Nine Winning Big!

The votes are almost all in, and I think Issue Nine will fail! A last
minute prediction.

Live-Blogging Results

I'm in the office late tonight, so I'll be live-blogging election results as they're available from the BOE. I will continue to update this post as the night goes on; feel free to use this as a comment thread, as well.

8:10 PM: HamCo BOE has released some results. 0 precincts reporting, but constitutes 6% of registered voters. Must be absentees.

• Issue 9: losing, 51.72-48.25. Too close to call.
• Issue 8: Passing, 65-35.
• Mayor: Wenstrup and Mallory in a dead heat.
• Council: VERY early results: Harris losing, all other incumbents winning, plus Winburn and Quinlivan.

10:25: Still holding at about 10% of precincts city-wide, 5% county-wide.

• Mayor: Mallory, 56-43. Expect this lead to grow through the night.
• Council: Harris is first out, but only by .01%. Cole is in ninth. Winburn and Quinlivan in 7th and 8th, respectively. Twenty-five percent of all council ballots cast thus far have under-votes.
• County-wide levies are all winning by a healthy margin, except Issue 4, which is losing 51-49. It'll be close, but I expect it'll pass.
• The Cincinnati school levee also passing, 55-45.

10:30: Finally, updated results. 16% of precincts county-wide, 23 % city-wide.

• Mayor: The race tightens again. Wenstrup with a narrow lead now.
• Council: Holding as before. Qualls doing extremely well.
• School board: Looks like Bates, Cooper-Reed, Ingram, and White. Haap lagging well behind in 11th, beating only Curtis Wells.
• All county-wide levies are now passing.
• Issue 9 is failing, 54 to 46.

Honestly, folks, I don't know what to make of the mayor's race. I don't know what precincts have reported in, but the fact that Issue 9 is now being soundly defeated and the mayor's race is this tight is leaving me perplexed.

10:40: More results. 55% of city precincts; 35% county-wide.

• Mayor: Mallory back to a ten-point lead. I'm really curious now as to which precincts the last batch of votes came from.
• Council: These votes are from heavily Democratic wards. Cole's up to 5th, Quinlivan to 5th. Ghiz would be last on: Watson first out; Harris in 10th.
• All county-wide levies passing. School board levy passing.
• Issue 9 failing, 56-44.

11:10: 78% of city precincts.

• Mayor: Still Mallory, but a little tighter: 53-46.
• Council: Order: Qualls Thomas Bortz Berding Ghiz Monzel Winburn Quinlivan. Harris in 10th, down by .5%, which is looking like a lot right now.
• Issue 9 being handily defeated, 56 - 49.
• All county and the Cincinnati school levies are passing.

At this point, you've got the news outlets covering the races. I've got an early morning and am headed to bed. Look for some analysis from Griff and me tomorrow.

Some Random Election Thoughts

As Election Day winds down, I had a few thoughts to share.

First, I hope Greg Harris retains his seat. Conventional wisdom holds that as an appointee, he is the most vulnerable of the incumbent Council members (though I suspect it may be a long night for Jeff Berding), but Harris was the only candidate to offer a specific path forward to closing the looming budget gap. His approach to police and firefighter concessions--pay cuts (but no layoffs) next year that would be restored in 2011 and 2012--is a long-term approach that should be acceptable to the unions. I don't agree with Harris on everything (and particularly not on his stance on "environmental justice"), but he is thoughtful and overall, an asset on City Council.

Second, I hope County voters see the merit in Issue 4 and approve it. The levy--the former Drake levy--funds the Drug Court and other important programs that provide avenues to rehabilitation and re-entry. Drug addiction is a problem that nearly anyone, given the right circumstances, could be susceptible to. I can't tell you how many people I've represented for unlawfully possessing prescription drugs whose addiction started with a legal prescription following an injury of some sort. And even street drugs can afflict nearly anyone. (Have Cincinnatians really forgotten Josh Hamilton already?)

Finally, I'm hoping we can have a reprieve of the current hyper-political climate, at least for a few months, before it's time for the 2010 campaigns to begin in earnest.

Congratulations, New Lawyers

This past Friday, the Ohio Supreme Court announced that 957 applicants achieved passing scores on the July 2009 bar exam. They will be sworn in during public ceremonies in Columbus on November 9. The state's passage rate was 81.3 percent overall, and 87.8 percent for first-time test-takers.

Locally, University of Cincinnati graduates had an 89 percent pass rate overall (first among the nine Ohio law schools), and 91% (third) for first-time test-takers. Dayton's overall bar pass rate was 78 percent, with 82 percent of first-timers passing. NKU (Chase) grads passed at rates of 73 percent overall and 84 percent for first-timers.

Congratulations to all the newly-minted attorneys. Please immediately remit your registration fee to the Supreme Court.