The politicking continues

Pink slips go out today, with some part-time jobs being eliminated immediately, and other layoffs beginning on September 6.

Meanwhile two unions (the Fraternal Order of Police and CODE - Cincinnati Organized and Dedicated Employees) are suing the City for more information.

From the Cincinnati Enquirer:

Union officials say the city's deficit isn't nearly as high as Dohoney claims and that employees shouldn't be laid off. CODE lawyer Bill Gustavson says the $12.6 million listed on an August city financial report as "unappropriated surplus" should be spent before anyone is laid off. But city officials say that money isn't real, it's a projection only on paper.

The unions asked in court this week that the city turn over a lot of financial documents so they can study them before an Aug. 31 hearing. City Solicitor John Curp said the documents are nothing more than "public records that are available to anyone. They'll have access to anything and everything that's available in the finance department."

A private auditor from Burke & Schindler, a Cincinnati accounting firm, has begun looking at the city's books also.

That's at the request of four members of Cincinnati City Council - Leslie Ghiz, Jeff Berding, Chris Monzel and Chris Bortz. They're the four in the minority on council and therefore do not have control of any council votes related to cutting the city's formerly $371 million budget. They sought the private audit to try to better understand the city's finances, in particular the projections on which the budget office sets expectations, Berding said.

And Laketa Cole is taking the same tack as Greg Harris did to me in a twitter earlier this week. Basically, they've said that if you don't have the facts, then you should shut up. Unfortunately, the facts aren't easily available to the every day citizen. I'm still waiting for Mr. Harris to send me a copy of the budget plan.

Here's more from the Enquirer:

She chastised fellow Democratic council candidate Tony Fischer on Wednesday after he held a press conference to unveil his budget-cutting plan he says would save the jobs of the 138 police officers scheduled to be laid off. He said he had to estimate some of his numbers since he's not a council member and doesn't have access to all the figures. Cole said there were flat-out errors, including that cutting pools wouldn't save money this year because they're already almost closed for the season.

"I wish he would get his facts straight," she said. "But his plan is better than what other council members are offering. You have the other members of council still pointing the finger. I have no idea what planet they're living on."

Laketa, maybe if you stop chewing gum, your brain might engage.

More City Council Stuff

Concilwoman Laketa Cole (she of the bovine-like gum-chewing at the council meeting last week) has spoken in today's Enquirer.

What she has to say is pretty much the same thing she said in the letter I included in an earlier post.

She accuses the council minority of "playing politics" but that she and the rest of council majority "took action" and "passed $16.6 million in savings to provide critical services."

Yup -- savings that puts out-of-touch office-job cops back on the streets and eliminates the jobs of the most recently trained and most fit on-the-street officers and savings that shuts down fire stations, making it likely that responses to fire alarms will be longer.

Don't get me started on the police changes. In 2001, it became apparent that Cincinnati Police had made many, many mistakes in dealing with minorities. Since then, there has been a huge overhaul of the way policing works in this city. The Police Academy graduating classes since then have been well-trained, and community-police relations have improved significantly.

If many of these officers lose their jobs, the old guard will be back on the street, and I have little confidence that community-police relations will remain at the current level. I don't want the old Cincinnati Police force out there on the street. The officers returning to street patrol will be people who haven't been patrol officers in a long time -- will there be money in budget to get them back in physical shape and train them on what's been going on out there since they last rode in a patrol car?

The most ridiculous statement in her article, which she also articulated in her letter to me is that by not taking a pay increase for several years, City Council members have taken a pay cut. Of course, such faulty logic shows how frantically she has been searching for ammunition to use to attack her fellow council members.

The Enquirer, in yesterday's edition, stated:

"Being a council member is considered a part-time job. Some members have other jobs: Bortz works for his family business, Towne Properties; Leslie Ghiz is a lawyer; Berding works for the Cincinnati Bengals; Monzel is an engineer at GE Aircraft Engines; and Vice Mayor David Crowley's family owns Crowley's bar in Mount Adams. Cecil Thomas is a retired police officer. Laketa Cole recently finished a master's degree."

I think she doth protest too much, since it appears she's the only one on Council without another job or income. By the way, the salary for City Council members is $60,646 per year.

Some councilmembers are attempting to skirt the state law against pay cuts for such positions by giving money back. Admittedly, it makes no difference to the budget, but it's a nice gesture. I am wondering why all except one of them (who had already tried to find a way to return some of his pay) had to be goaded by public comment into taking such actions. Citizens had to scream for "leadership by example" to get them moving.

I am waiting to receive a copy of the budget plan from Councilman Harris, at which time I'll likely have much more to say.

The debate moves to Twitter

As of this morning, the debate has moved to Twitter. Below are tweets between me and two members of council, Leslie Ghiz and Greg Harris.

I have rearranged the order of the tweets to show them in logical, rather than chronological order, so that comments and responses are together.


Leslie_GhizThanks for the wonderful letter. I posted it on my twitter. Leslie.

Leslie_GhizWoke up to my op ed piece in the Enquirer. Thanks to Enquirer for giving me a voice. The majority of council doesn't want it heard.


[Here's the Op-Ed Piece: Police, firefighters are core of city's basic services]

CouncilHarrisGhiz column in Enquirer misleading. Says citizen's input at Council special session stifled, yet everyone who wanted to speak was allowed.

alto606@councilharris: Only the cards in Mallory's hand were allowed to speak. There were other cards that didn't make it up front. Ghiz is right.

CouncilHarrisConspiratorial thinking really unproductive. This is the system we have for all council sessions. People fill out comment cards.

CouncilHarrisIf FOP gives up raise, no layoffs. 4 on Council say gut all other programs and services to let powerful union remain immune from economy.

alto606@councilharris: I think they may have accepted furloughs if they had been given more info re: how many jobs would be saved.

CouncilHarristhey still can

alto606@councilharris: However the real issue is all the unnecessary expenses. In a crisis, you cut the luxuries: take home cars cell phones horses

CouncilHarrisYes, exactly. These unessential expenses will get cut. We are facing a $28 mill budget gap this year, $40 mill next.

alto606@councilharris: if luxuries they will be cut, why wait until AFTER layoffs were announced? No way to tell what real deficit is, otherwise.

CouncilHarrisI have many friends who lost their jobs. All would have given up pay raise to keep job. And most of them don't earn $65k.

alto606@councilharris: argument that it's the cops' turn for layoffs is specious. It isn't a matter of taking turns.It's a matter of public safety.

CouncilHarrisBut that's not the argument. The argument is they should give up raises for first time in five years to avoid layoffs.

alto606@councilharris: Dohoney should have made all possible other budget cuts first before thinking about laying off anyone.

alto606@councilharris: BTW - I'm not a city employee.Just a concerned citizen who thinks this has been a very sloppy effort by cty mgr, council

CouncilHarrisGiven the confidence in the assumptions you convey, can I assume you actually reviewed where the $28 mill in cuts are coming from?

alto606@councilharris: As Will Rogers said. "All I know is what I read in the newspapers." Budget details are talked about in generalities there.

alto606@councilharris: If the entire proposed budget is available for perusal online, please let me know -- or should I join the lawsuit?

The debate continues -- City Councilwoman's Response

Dear ****,

Thank you for your email.

I, along with Councilmembers Crowley, Harris, Qualls, and Thomas, voted in June to cut $16 million from our City's Budget which saved jobs as well as delayed layoffs. We also asked the Administration to report back on the feasibility and any savings that could be reached by merging some City and County services, eliminating take-home cars, and other suggestions that you proposed.

I have been working very hard to prevent layoffs and will continue working to find other cost saving mechanisms, so that we do not have to layoff ANY employee.

Unfortunately, we are in the midst of a global economic crisis, and the City of Cincinnati is not the only entity in town (or in the country) looking at layoffs as a "last resort" way to fill budget deficits. Companies like the Enquirer have laid off 100, Smuckers 85, and Hamilton County just laid off dozens of Sheriff's Deputies, while Dayton was forced to layoff police as well. This is not an easy place for us to be in, but it is the reality.

In terms of cutting the Mayor or Councilmembers’ salary, those salaries are set by the Charter and an amendment could not be passed in time to save any positions in 2009. Furthermore, Mayoral and Council salaries have been frozen since 2005 resulting in a 9.4% reduction over the last four years (compared to other non-represented City Employees).

As I said before, I am currently looking at ways to prevent layoffs, and I am willing to work with any group, individual, or party who is willing to help provide solutions to solve this crisis. I appreciate you sharing your thoughts with me on this matter.

Sincerely,

Councilmember Y Laketa Cole

President Pro Tem


Meridian's response:

Dear Ms. Cole,

Thank you for your response. I, too, understand layoffs in the current economy and am very aware of the current crisis. I am an IT employee with ****** Bank, and once the integration of our bank with *** is complete, it is likely that I will be laid off, too.

My parents raised their first family during the Great Depression of the 1930's. As grandparents, my folks found themselves expecting another child after WWII, and I was raised as though the depression hadn't stopped. We thought long and hard about every expense -- is this a want or a need? Can we make/do this ourselves, or is a purchase necessary? If we have to purchase it, what is the lowest price we can find?

Cincinnati needs to think in a similar fashion. As my letter indicated, there are many things that the City of Cincinnati funds that are not necessary. This emergency requires prioritization of budget items, which has not been done. I would like to stress that those "nice-to-haves" need to be cut from the budget before Police and Fire layoffs are even considered. Such things include swimming pools, golf courses, take home cars, City employee cell phones, too-heavy administrative staff. Have you considered reducing recycling to bi-weekly? I'd be happy to hold my recycling for less frequent pickups. How about asking citizens to pay for trash pickup, as happens in many other local municipalities?

There are many, many more things that in this economy are luxuries for the City. No one of these things will prevent Police and Fire layoffs, but together they can contribute to significant reductions in the numbers.

Additionally, I would like to address the request for furloughs from union city employees. I have spoken to police officers about this issue, and I believe that furloughs are a real possibility, but only if officers have some idea of what those furloughs might buy them. With no information given about the effect of furloughs, I certainly wouldn't vote for them. Asking for that concession was premature, in that there were no concrete numbers about how many layoffs those furloughs would prevent.

I believe that if City Council gets their ducks in a row and gets the numbers put together in such a was that only NECESSITIES remain in the budget, then you'll all have a happier constituency and likely will also have more cooperation from union employees.

Thanks for listening,

Cincinnati City Council Needs to Pay Attention to Citizens' Safety -- Above All Else!

To the Mayor of Cincinnati, members of the Cincinnati City Council and the Cincinnati City Manager:

I have lived in the City of Cincinnati for the better part of 29 years. Here in Cincinnati I have trekked to Music Hall every week since 1980 as a member of the May Festival Chorus. Here in Cincinnati I raised my daughter, who attended Cincinnati Public Schools. Here in Cincinnati is where she returned last year after college to begin her career. Here in Cincinnati she works hard to make Over the Rhine a vibrant and improving community as the Marketing and Development Manager for the Know Theatre. Here in Cincinnati I continue to live and work. Here I had expected to stay when I retire.

Some quick points:

• Cincinnati has finally begun to live down its horrible and formerly well-deserved reputation as a crime-ridden and racist city
• Downtown has once again become a vibrant and exciting place to be
• Huge conventions are coming back to the city
• The Cincinnati police force has remade itself into a force to be proud of
• We've got a long way to go to make Cincinnati what it can be
• You now have the opportunity to help Cincinnati continue its upward movement
• Making it a less safe place will stop that upward movement in its tracks, and likely will take us backward

Fewer police means we're all unsafe. I will feel less comfortable knowing that my daughter often works at her Over the Rhine theatre until long past ten or eleven at night. If something untoward should happen, how long will she have to wait for a police officer? Will it be too late for her? I will certainly feel less comfortable on the streets around Music Hall at similar hours, often alone.

If I were a business owner, I would think twice about moving into or remaining in the City, knowing that the safety of my employees was in doubt. Therefore, cutting the police force to mitigate declining revenues will lead to a further decline in revenues.

An argument was given that it is the Police Department’s turn to have layoffs because other City departments had taken the brunt of layoffs in the past. That argument is specious. It isn’t a matter of what’s fair to City employees. It is a matter of what's fair to the citizens and taxpayers of Cincinnati. When police are laid off, the entire community suffers.

I don't work for the City of Cincinnati. However, my taxes pay for the salaries of those who do.

The first duty of a government is to provide a safe place for its citizens.

Adam Smith phrased it as "protecting the society from the violence and invasion of other independent societies." There are a lot of those "independent societies" in Cincinnati these days: they are called the criminal element. The Cincinnati Police were responsible for putting a stop to one of those societies, the so-called "Taliband," earlier this year. Who will be here to stop the new ones that will most assuredly form in a vacuum left by laying off 138 officers?

Let's think seriously about the services provided by the city that are "nice-to-haves," but which are not necessary. There are many things that can be provided in times of prosperity but that can, and should, be dispensed with during times when that prosperity is not present. Some of those things are:

• A staff of nine for a figurehead mayor who spends a great deal of time outside of the city
• A large number of take-home cars used by city employees (Private industry doesn't provide that sort of perk for its employees; why should government? )
• Cell phones for City employees (My large company, with over 30,000 employees, no longer provides cell phones to employees)
• Swimming pools
• Golf courses
• Two dispatch centers for fire and police

I'm certain there are many other areas that could be looked at. My impression is that these things have not been looked at.

Let's also think about salary reductions for non-union City Employees, including City Council, the Mayor and the City Manager. Some layoffs may still be necessary. However, I am adamant in saying that it totally unacceptable to remove any members of the two services that keep us all safe, Police and Fire.

On a related note, perhaps now is the time to begin thinking about combining services within our region. The duplication of services throughout Hamilton County alone costs all of us millions each year. For example, I've lost track of how many police departments exist in the county, and the overlap of police departments and the sheriffs' department is both expensive and complicating.

Think about it. Please. The alternative is an entirely new City Council when the next occasion arises.

A trip back in time

Some photos from the Genesee Country Village Museum in upstate New York, taken last month.
For more information, you can visit the museum's website at: www.gcv.org/

Click on the photo below, and then click on the "slideshow" button at the left above the photos.

Genesee Country Village