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.