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.