Luken and Cranley Appear to Be Chicken

Charlie Luken has bowed out of the debate on October 12th on Issue 22, an amendment to the City Charter giving the Mayor a huge slush fund to help buy votes from a few key neighborhood leaders in hopes of getting elected in 2017. Luken, political mentor and co-destroyer of city finances with John Cranley, was replacing Cranley who refused to debate unless his diva-style debate riders were met. I guess his need for only blue M&Ms and Miller Lite in only cans can be a tough request to fulfill.

Enquirer Demonstrates Bias or Laziness?

In their article this week, discussing who may run for the GOP nomination to fill Boehner's seat, the Enquirer made the choice to outright declare the GOP to be the winners of the special election not even scheduled yet.

It is true that Boehner's district is heavily Republican. It would have been fair opinion journalism to focus on the GOP and state that Dems are unlikely to win. This article is trying to be a straight news story, but failed.  It just skiped over the Democratic party. It was as if they didn't bother to call anyone and picked the least flattering email reference they could find, 'surely' by chance.

It's not like a different Ohio newspaper hundreds of miles away didn't get a hold of Cincinnatian David Pepper, the Chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party. I wonder if anyone from the Enquirer even tried to call him or the other possible local Dem candidates.

Instead we get a poll that states "Who Will Replace John Boehner?" and below it we read the long list of Republicans. I guess the Enquirer will decide all elections this way? They won't bother to list anyone who they judge has no chance to win, unless they are a Republican, because they need to save time for articles about the sister of soon-to-be former Speaker of the House.

So, biased or just laziness.  I am thinking both.

Welcome to Midpoint 2015! #mpmf

Starting off with some Jr Jr

It's Oktoberfest Zinzinnati Week!

Truth About the Mayor of Cincinnati

WCPO's Kevin Necessary has a cartoon that sums up a big problem with the Mayor of Cincinnati.

Please note that is no the only problem with the Mayor, just one of many.

Did City Manager Black Just Cost the City a Ton of Money?

Chris Wetterich of the Cincinnati Business Courier has an in-depth article that brings up the Cincinnati City Charter and the section of it that deals with how the City Manager is required to provide the Chief written charges and the right to have a hearing on them prior to being fired. Statements reported, and not yet denied by the City Manager or Mayor, indicate that Chief was just fired and not given a written copy of the chargers and not given the chance to have a hearing prior to being fired.

So a key element to a wrongful termination lawsuit has evidence. When you have a prescribed rule on how to fire someone and you don't follow it, you have a problem.  This is the type of problem that an employment lawyer would cringe upon hearing. When that rule is a city law, well you have mountain of a problem to overcome.

This situation could not have been more poorly handled.  It was an administrative failure.  It was a political failure.  It was a moral failure.  Cranley and Black should be ashamed.

It would be interesting to see how many similar types of documents provided in this case by the City Manager could be produced upon request on any of the prior two police chiefs.  I believe there would be no doubt that Streicher or Craig would have some number of similar complaints.  I doubt those records would be found if requested, however, or someone might create a special power to keep them private.  Some special rule that an elected office might claim doesn't exist, but won't stop invoking.

Marian Spencer Opposes Park Levy

The Cincinnati Enquirer is reporting that political leader Marian Spencer has removed her support for the Charter Amendment for a Parks levy that is being pushed by Mayor John Cranley.

This presents another good reason this effort should be thoroughly reviewed and not supported without careful consideration of the pitfalls and hidden agendas within this scheme.

Major Donor to Cranley Campaign Gets Appointment to Historic Board

Shree Kulkarni, a local developer and major campaign donor to Mayor John Cranley's 2013 election, has been appointed to the Cincinnati Historical Conservation Board.

In 2013 the Kulkarni family and 4 of his companies contributed $8,300 to Cranley's campaign. The individual limit is $1,100 for both the primary and general election periods. This week he was appointed tot he board by the City Manager Harry Black who takes no action without approval of Mayor John Cranley. Buying your way onto a public board appears to be acceptable to the Mayor. How man other suburban based developers have gotten their money's worth?

As the Business Courier's article points out, Kulkarni's appointment is being questioned by the the OTR Foundation.  Over-the-Rhinre (OTR,) in case you are new, has the most historic buildings for the board to review and is a nationally recognized district of historical buildings.  The OTR Foundation's questions, according to the article, appear to rest on Kulkarni's comments on the recent action of the Conservation Board on the Davis Furniture Building.  As a suburban developer, Kulkarni's belief in conservation of history seems to not extend beyond the best interests of the developers who don't seek to preserve the history and architecture.

We need urbanists to make decisions about urban areas.  We don't need Cranley's strip mall mindset to have more power in our city's government.

Smitherman's Hand Picked Cabal is Sued by National NAACP

The Courthouse News Service is reporting a group calling it self the "Cincinnati Branch" of the NAACP as an "fraud" and unsanctioned group. In Federal court they are seeking an Injunction to shut down the group and $300K in damages.

This group was previously run by Cincinnati City Council member Chris Smiterman who resigned to run for public office. His allies took over the group and refused to allow for an orderly election and allegedly have continued to try and run the organization as if the national organization did not hault the election and freeze out everyone from controlling the local chapter.

A Note for the local media, don't attribute any press released from anyone sued by the NAACP as speaking for the local branch of the NAACP until a new election of leadership is held.

Sittenfeld Running for Senate

As much rumored in the last few weeks, Cincinnati City Council Member PG Sittenfeld has announced he is running for U.S. Senate. He'll face a primary challenge next year, but as he's the only known declared candidate, who he'll face is unknown.

This is on the surface a long shot, but Sittenfeld does look before he leaps. All Democrats running against Rob Portman will need the voter turnout to be bolstered by the Presidential race that year in order to win. Sittenfeld has to worry about the primary before that and he could face the challenge of former Governor Ted Strickland, who would be a good candidate against Portman and be the front runner in a primary race.

More from WVXU.

PG Sittenfeld Is Getting Some National Attention

It is a long held axiom that any attetention is good attention, but for PG Sittenfeld when that attention is positive attention, it it triples the value. The National Journal has given him some of that good attention.

Give a cigar to his PR team.

The next few months wil be where the most the political action will happen when we see who runs for Senate against Portman and who does not. PG wants to run, that much is obvious, but is it wise for home to run now? That is the action that is turning in his head. I don't envy having to make that political judgement, but I'd like to be a fly on the wall when he discusses it with his advisors. 

Strategic planning is the holy grail of political analysis.