Cincinnati City Council is recognized for the ineffectual non-entity it is

Today's Cincinnati Enquirer had two very interesting things in it today - a letter to the people of Cincinnati from a local restaurateur, Jeff Ruby, and an editorial that says a lot that has needed to be said.  Here are both of them, for your edification:

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To the Great People of Cincinnati,

Our elected “leaders,” Harris, Thomas, Cole, Crowley and Qualls recently decided it was more important to spend $5 million to replace the windows at City Hall, than to keep the people safe who voted them into those offices and whose tax dollars are paying for those windows.

Shortly after learning that Over-the-Rhine was the most violent neighborhood in America, these city officials chose to lay off 138 police officers unless every officer accepted a pay cut. Unapologetically, these same five council members voted against taking pay cuts themselves. Councilman Thomas happens to be a former policeman – what a trooper. So, instead of providing funding for public safety, he and his colleagues chose to hire a tree trimmer and a climate control coordinator, and to spend $3 million on recycling containers and $1.5 million on sidewalks. Sidewalks? Who needs sidewalks when it’s too dangerous to go out for a walk?

After all of the positive action Mayor Mallory has taken to bring millions of dollars of assets to our city, isn’t it counterproductive not to also protect those assets?

The irresponsible spending of the “Furlough Five” has jeopardized the safety of the very people they promised to protect by providing safer neighborhoods. We as a city might be better served to abide by the tenants [sic] of many well managed companies whose foremost responsibility is “safety first.” At reelection time, remember that these “public servants,” who were elected to serve the public’s best interests, have a different priority: “WINDOWS FIRST”!

Wishing you a happy and safe 2009 holiday season,

Jeff Ruby

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City Council math: 9 - 4 = Dysfunction


Editorial: Your chance to change the equation starts Tuesday with early voting

Cincinnati voters may assume that city policy is crafted by the mayor and the nine members of City Council they elect.

Unfortunately, they're only a little more than half-right. During 2009, Cincinnati in effect has had a five -member council on decisions that really matter.

• Tough calls await city - after election

The council majority, controlled by Mayor Mark Mallory, makes the key calls among themselves, often in a round-robin of private meetings that circumvent at least the spirit of laws intended to keep government decision-making open and public.

They cut off debate, twist council's own rules, hold items off the agenda then rush them to a vote without discussion. And if anyone steps out of line, the Democratic party and unions are there to bring down the hammer, as they did recently by un-endorsing Councilmember Jeff Berding.

The Favored Five includes Democrats Laketa Cole, David Crowley, Cecil Thomas and Greg Harris, along with nominal Charterite Roxanne Qualls.

The Forlorn Four - a multi-party mix of Republicans Leslie Ghiz and Chris Monzel, Charterite Chris Bortz and recently excommunicated Democrat Berding - can't get so much as a sniff at having a proposal considered or a discussion held.

"There's a fundamental difference between the two sides," Ghiz says, "and I don't know if it can be married up again."

Council's outward appearance as an efficient, smoothly running body under Mallory's watch contrasts favorably with the chaotic councils of past decades.

But the reality behind the scenes points more to dysfunctional control-freakery.

The Aug. 6 hearing on proposed police layoffs in which majority council members' questions - and reactions - were scripted in advance has come to symbolize this council.

"Everything is tightly scripted, designed to stop dissent," Berding says. "They use the rules to avoid discussion and controversies. It's almost pathological. But government is supposed to be about having disagreements, working through controversies openly and finding answers openly."

The current scheme is hardly representative democracy at its best. And it's up to city voters to correct that in this fall's election, which starts Tuesday when Ohio's early-voting season opens. With term-limited Crowley leaving council, there's an opportunity for the dynamics on council to improve.

"All I can hope for is the public gets smart and gives us a fifth vote," Ghiz says.

Or how about nine with the freedom to vote their consciences in the community's best interests? Nine independent-minded officials with the courage to stand up to the party bosses, unions and other interest groups?

Calling the question

To be fair, most of the routine matters council decides are handled through consensus. About 80 percent of council's roll-call votes this year have been unanimous or with token dissent. Nearly all council members support Mallory in his signature issue, the downtown streetcar proposal. "People are working together," Berding says.

And yet, the big items in 2009, generally those on budget-related matters, show a consistent 5-4 split, with the majority five controlling the agenda and stifling debate.

A pivotal moment came in December 2008 when Cole switched her expected vote on the city budget plan at the last minute, and the majority presented a different plan. "Then we had to vote on an alternate $1 billion budget without discussion - two minutes and it's 'call the question,'" Ghiz says. "Ridiculous."

The sense now is that Mallory has his loyal team and is ignoring the rest. The mayor has been heard making statements such as, "I have five votes; I can do whatever I want. I don't need the rest of you," according to members of the Flung-away Four.

"That's certainly not how he campaigned to be mayor," Berding says. Recently, the majority's treatment toward the dissenters has taken a more negative turn.

A letter from Crowley on behalf of Mallory and the five-member majority started the process that got Berding, a lifelong Democrat, kicked off the party's fall ticket after a Sept. 12 vote by the Cincinnati Democratic Committee for a "lack of party loyalty and integrity."

Berding says the charges that he was "giving aid and comfort to the enemy" were way out of line. "I've never called the mayor out on anything. In those situations, I've always just said I respectfully disagree with the majority," he says. "There's only nine of us. I'm not going to demonize Leslie (Ghiz) and Chris (Monzel) and oppose them at all costs just because of party labels."

No chaos, no dissent

Mallory came into office four years ago promising to "end the chaos" at City Hall and craft a more positive image for the city. To his credit, he has done much of that. The widely praised style he brought from the Ohio Statehouse relied on conciliatory, deal-making skills behind closed doors. But ultimately, it's translated poorly to governing in Cincinnati's awkward "stronger mayor" and council system - a system Mallory can't be blamed for.

"The mayor doesn't have true accountability," Bortz says. "He can say 'It's not my job, it's someone else's fault.' He has no real executive authority. He's like a super council member."

Somehow, it has morphed into a council-majority system that avoids controversy and squelches dissent.

What has changed? Key factors:

The economic downturn, and the budget crisis it brought to the city. Real problems started appearing in early summer, when the city's unrealistic tax revenue projections fell way short. Council was caught off guard. It shouldn't have been. Its reflex action has been to hunker down in an election year, underplay the problems, and delay and defer solutions. That requires tight control of the agenda.

"We've never been in a financial position like this, so council never got to this point before," Ghiz says.

Meanwhile, all the council members are in an unenviable spot, being whipsawed and pressured by outside groups - notably the Democratic party and the unions - that seek to control the outcomes, especially regarding city jobs and cutbacks.

"Council must have the spine to stand up against entrenched power," Harris says.

Earlier, council dynamics changed when Harris came on board in January, replacing Democrat John Cranley, who went into the private sector.

Cranley, a veteran council member, was a more independent swing vote with a strong base of support. He could afford to vote against the mayor's coalition on key issues. But Harris, a sincere, thoughtful neophyte, is vulnerable, with no real constituency. After a dressing-down by Mallory in front of other council members in May for teaming up with Ghiz to suggest using stimulus funds for blight abatement, Harris has pretty much stuck with Team Mallory.

Yet even Harris, like Berding, was whacked - with the blessing of Mallory and the Fab Five - for straying from the One True Path. His sin? Proposing that the city consider separating ambulance service from the fire department, an idea he says could "improve safety and save money" but could result in job reductions. His punishment? He lost the fire union's endorsement this month, and an e-mail blast against Harris went out to 3,000 people.

Council is reaping what it has sown over the past decade or more - overspending during the boom '90s, expanding and adding programs while underfunding the city's pension system. Now it faces a projected $40 million deficit for 2010, and will have nowhere to hide when budget time comes in December - conveniently, after the election. "It's the result of 10 years of bad decision-making," Bortz says. "If we had a structurally balanced budget, we wouldn't be looking at this kind of problem."

A matter of philosophy

The nature of what Ghiz calls the "fundamental difference" between the Frustrated Four and the High-Flying Five has been portrayed in various ways:

Bortz would say it's the difference between being willing to make tough decisions and just putting them off or papering them over. "We have serious budget issues, yet we continue to sweep it under the rug," he says.

Others would say it's the gap between fiscal conservatives, who believe the city should focus on essentials such as public safety, and liberals who believe the city must offer a wider range of services to its citizens.

But the most intriguing notion comes from Ghiz herself, who notes the four in the minority all have jobs in the private sector. "We know what it's like in the real world these days," she says. "We see what's happening. They have no clue."

However it breaks down, the bottom line is that Cincinnatians are getting only 5/9ths of the council they're voting - and paying - for.

Even worse, the taxpaying public, along with the Unfortunate Four, are being cut out of the discussion on crucial city policy.

"This is completely contrary to transparency in government and people should be outraged by it," Ghiz says.

She's right. Cincinnatians should ask tough questions. And they should vote accordingly this fall - for a NINE-member City Council.

Some people dance in the rain

The MidPoint Music Festival (a midwestern version of the South by Southwest festival with 200+ bands performing all over town) kicked off Thursday night in pouring rain on Fountain Square in downtown Cincinnati.

The unfortunately rather sparse crowd was surprised when about 200 people connected with Cincinnati's arts organization, including Alex, erupted into what's being called a "splash dance."

I had wanted to do this, but when I looked at the rehearsal videos, I was a little worried about my knees, so bowed out.  As it turned out, I had a symphony dress rehearsal that night, so was unavailable.



Here's what the Fine Arts Fund had to say about it:

Cincinnati, which embraces the arts like no place we know, erupted in a mass flash dance celebration on Thursday evening.

It had been raining, but stopped just long enough for the first ever splash dance surprise. Dancers amazed the onlookers at the music festival kickoff event when they suddenly started to dance after the first band finished.

Hundreds of people from all parts of the metro area and all walks of life volunteered their time and resources to plan the surprise over the past eight weeks.

It started with just a few people from theater, dance, music, museums, and the Fine Arts Fund staff, and grew to include hundreds of Cincinnati residents.

Even though the initial invitation didn’t say what the participants would be doing, hundreds of people signed on to show their enthusiasm for the arts. We successfully kept the secret for weeks because we all shared the goal of touching others in our community with the unexpectedness of the event.

It is amazing how the arts reach everybody in every part of our city. We started with a small group, and before you knew it, we were dancing with people who live from Mason to Covington, and all over the region. The volunteer dancers included everyone from soap executives to young children.

Great big thanks to Scott and Riann and everyone at Lightborne, which produced the video, and contributed in so many ways to making this a fun event that lives on in this video so many others can share with friends and family!

The Creative Team -- volunteers from large and small arts organizations across the region who helped the Fine Arts Fund organize the dance -- spent one afternoon listening to local musicians and choosing the music together. More thanks go to these local bands for contributing the music.

Getting Started

It's beginning. I started out by wandering through my library, developing a bibliography. I found so much --

• 3 Histories of New York State and one of Central New York
• An 1836 New York State Gazetteer
• The Encyclopedia of New York State
• Three (count 'em, three) books about place names (two specific to New York, one to the whole country)
• A regimental history of three New York Civil War regiments (including the one my great-grandfather fought in), written in 1899
• A modern history of another local Civil War regiment
• A previous, badly written history of the village
• Histories of three other local villages
• My great-grandmother's scrap book started in 1895
• The same great-grandmother's diary from 1898
• My great-grandmother's collection of assorted papers -- deeds, building specs, coal bills, you name it -- all windows into daily 19th century farm life
• A crate full of my mother's diaries from the 1930s through the 1980s
• Mom's collection of newspaper clippings (she didn't get so far as to paste them into a scrapbook)
• And a lot of other stuff I haven't pulled together yet.

Yesterday, I wandered through some patent searches. Theodore Timby, who invented the revolving turret used on the USS Monitor during the Civil War, lived in the village for a while, and while there patented three improvements for water wheels (he had lots of patents, from his teen age years through until his eighties).

I found four other locals with patents, as well. The man who drove my school bus patented a device that keeps seaweed from getting entangled in outboard motor propellers, and two village engineers had many patents between them, all assigned to their employers in Syracuse (General Electric and Carrier Corporation). My nephew, Eliot, also has several patents, all but one assigned to Carrier. The one that's all his is for some software controls for traffic signals.

Today was the beginning of Civil War research. There were four (actually three: one shifted from infantry to artillery and started over) regiments that recruited locals. One, the 111th NY Volunteers, was a storied group that started out badly. They were at Harper's Ferry almost as soon as they were recruited, and as yet had no training. They were cowards and ran. But by the time of Gettysburg, they turned the tide of the battle as heroes, losing a large proportion of their membership. There
is a wonderful monument to them at Gettysburg.

I’ve been going through muster rolls, and it’s hard to keep the tears away when reading things like these:

• age, 21. Enlisted 8 Aug 1862 at Cato. Wounded in action 2 Apr 1865 at Petersburg, VA
• age, 20. Enlisted 31 Jul 1862 at Sterling. Wounded 5 May 1864 at Wilderness,VA.
• age, 23. Enlisted 8 Aug 1862 at Ira. Wounded in action 2 or 3 Jul 1863 at Gettysburg, PA.
• age, 18. Enlisted 4 Aug 1862 at Sterling to. Missing in action, 6 May 1864, at The Wilderness, VA.; no further record.
• age, 33. Enlisted 30 Aug 1764 at Sterling. Captured while on picket 30 Oct 1864 at Petersburg, Va. Died of dysentery 10 Dec 1864 at Salisbury, NC. [as prisoner of war]
• age, 23. Enlisted 8 Aug 1862 at Ira. Deserted 19 Sep 1862 at New Market, MD.
• age, 18. Enlisted 30 Jul 1862 at Ira. Killed in action 2 Jul 1863 at Gettysburg, PA.
• age, 18. Enlisted 7 Aug 1862 a Ira. Captured while on picket 1 Dec 1863 at mine Run, VA.; died of starvation 3 Jun 1864, while a prisoner of war.
• age, 21. Enlisted 7 Aug 1862 at Ira. Killed in action 18 May 1864, at Spotsylvania, VA.
• age, 33. Enlisted 5 Aug 1862 at Victory. Captured in action, 2 Oct 1863 at Lewinsville, VA.; died 28 Jan 1864, at Richmond, VA.
• age, 23. Enlisted at Cato,. Died of disease, 27 Jan 1865, in hospital at Annapolis, MD.
• age, 24. Enlisted 30 Aug 1864 at Sterling. Died of chronic diarrhea, 6 Dec 1864, in First Division Hospital;

And the list goes on and on. There are hundreds more on the list – there are just some of the local boys from the village and farms around it. Of course, many of them came home. One, Newman Eldred, lived in the village, and as an old man wrote his chronicle of experiences. His story of Gettysburg gives me chills even thinking about it. Hell has nothing on the sort of thing he went through there.

I'm beginning to think about how I'll structure this whole thing. I think I'll have a graphic timeline that gives significant dates, but that the rest of the book will be vignettes devoted to a series of topics -- such as the Native Americans who preceded us, the treaties that secured the land to become military land grants for Revolutionary War veterans, local inventors, businesses, local celebrities, village traditions, churches, the local geography, farming, local institutions, wars, etc.

If I’m not careful, it’ll be a large tome – there is so much material.

Sharpening My Pencil

I am embarking on a new project.

Last night I got an e-mail from an old friend from back home with an interesting request.

Sue and I had reconnected recently on Facebook and spent some time together at the class reunion (her husband was in my class, although she's a couple of years older) and alumni banquet last month. Growing up together in the same village, we share a lot of memories of that little village (population about 350) and of all the people who lived there while we were children.

The local Baptist Church will be 200 years old next year (the other church, Presbyterian, burned down in the mid-nineties).

Sue was aware of my collection of old postcards of the village in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and read the account of the 3rd of July celebrations there that I posted on my blog earlier in the summer. She mentioned it at church, with the result that the anniversary committee requested that I write an illustrated village history as part of their commemoration!

It is an interesting request of someone who hasn't lived in the village since she went away to college 45 years ago.So, I've got nearly a year to do it (the celebration begins this October and ends with the anniversary itself next October). Time to dig out the diaries, regimental histories and family memoirs and get organized.

Here goes. Maybe now I can determine if the old story about the itinerant carpenter who supposedly worked on the steeple of that church is really true. His name was Brigham Young.

Letter to City Council

To Mayor Mallory, City Manager Dohoney, and Council members Cole, Harris, Crowley, Thomas, and Qualls:

Today I am ashamed of my City Council for doing today something that they could have done weeks ago. When the unions were first asked to take furloughs to save jobs, they might have responded positively had they been told exactly what those furloughs would have bought. Did it not occur to you that asking someone to pay that you had to offer something specific in return for the sacrifice you were asking the unions to make? Doing it today, after many employees have already turned in their equipment, is too little, too late.

However, the real issues have still not been addressed. The profligate spending over the years of this and past City Councils is the root cause of the mess we’re all in. Your inability to face the real problem, that there are too many non-necessities in the budget, is shameful. Your inaction has let this drag on for way too long, and now the citizens are paying the price.

The first duty of government is to provide for the safety of its citizens.

Its duty is not to provide take home cars, bloated administrative staff for Council, duplicate dispatch systems for the Police and Fire Departments, free weekly recycling and trash pickup, separate payroll systems for the City and the Police Department. Its duty is not to be paid salaries for part-time work that most citizens would be thrilled to receive for full-time work. In times of crisis, drastic measures are needed in order that a government can continue to provide basic services – the necessities.

It is important to remember that WANTS do not equal NEEDS.

I am proud of my adopted City of Cincinnati. I am ashamed of its government.

To Council members Berding, Monzel, Bortz and Ghiz:

Thank you for your efforts. I am sorry that your sensible efforts were unsuccessful.

Sincerely,

Our Very Own "Music Man"

Having sung with him in many Pops concerts since I joined the May Festival Chorus in 1981, I can now only sing his praises. While sometimes his concerts were a bit kitschy, and sometimes over the top, they were always energizing and fun.

I will never forget the concert that celebrated his 40th anniversary with the Symphony. He chose the works of his favorite composer, Brahms, and a small group of us sang the lovely Liebeslieder Waltzes as we gathered around him in front of the orchestra. It was one of the high points in my May Festival Chorus career.

I will also never forget a time when I auditioned for him, over 25 years ago. I was terribly nervous and told him so. He reached across the music stand and held my hand while I sang. I didn’t get the gig, but his generosity and kindness to a terrified singer meant more to me than anything else at that moment.

Here’s to a future “Erich Kunzel School for the Creative and Performing Arts!”

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112443937

This NPR link will let you read about Erich Kunzel and hear some of his music.

The Antioch Struggle Vindicated

Today's press release from the American Association of University Professors:

The Near-Death Experience of Antioch College: A Cautionary Tale

for Release: September 1, 2009.

Contact: Anita Levy.

Washington, D.C. — What happens when a university’s corporate management betrays the institution’s core educational mission; when it abandons its key constituencies; when it hides its intentions and plans; and when it manipulates or withholds essential financial information? AAUP’s investigative report on Antioch University provides disturbing and disheartening answers to these questions.

Antioch College, founded in 1852 in Yellow Springs, Ohio, has had a long history as a pioneer in liberal arts education. Significant innovations, subsequently adopted by many other institutions, have included cooperative education, experiential learning, community governance, recruitment of African-American students before and after Brown vs. Board of Education, and the first study abroad program. Through good times and bad, Antioch has produced distinguished graduates such as Coretta Scott King, Stephen Jay Gould, and Eleanor Holmes Norton. It has received top rankings among colleges whose graduates go on to complete the PhD as well as continuing recognition among small liberal arts colleges in the areas of academic challenge, enriching educational experience, active and collaborative learning, and student-faculty interaction.

The Antioch University administration and board of trustees, in suspending the operations of Antioch College and then proceeding to close the institution on June 30, 2008, appears to have decided that the college’s rich history of progressive education and its residential liberal arts setting were luxuries that its 21st century management philosophy could not afford and did not need. Antioch’s closure is thus of concern both to the Antioch community and to everyone interested in high quality liberal arts higher education.

The report of AAUP’s investigative committee analyzes the protracted dissolution of Antioch College in the light of the Association's recommended standards for faculty participation in program development, curricular control, budgetary allocation, declaration of financial exigency, and treatment of faculty under such exigency. The report details the gradual deterioration of faculty governance at Antioch through a series of administrative actions over several decades that led ultimately to the closure of the college. Key managerial decisions made by the administration repeatedly disregarded longstanding principles of faculty consultation and shared governance.

Specifically the report reveals that the Antioch University administration:

• usurped the faculty’s responsibilities by mandating a new curriculum that the faculty neither initiated nor approved;

• failed to consult with the faculty regarding the college’s financial condition prior to the declaration of financial exigency and the process by which university administrators and board members had reached that decision;

• violated essential standards for continuing faculty appointments by issuing a declaration of financial exigency without having considered feasible alternatives;

• failed to provide faculty members the right to examine or challenge the decisions both to declare financial exigency and to close the college;

• failed to provide means for the exchange of information between the Antioch College faculty and the Antioch University administration and trustees;

• systematically reduced the flow of budgetary information to the Antioch College faculty and its governance bodies;

• failed to protect the autonomy of Antioch College and, in fact, significantly undermined it by approving a shift of administrative functions from Antioch College to the university administration without ensuring means for communication or sharing of governance;

During its 156-year history, the college had struggled through many hard times but had been sustained by the strong tradition of its faculty's engagement with enlightened boards, distinguished administrators, eminent alumni, and talented students working together to serve the common good. Fortunately, those devoted to the Antioch tradition have once again taken critical steps toward reopening Antioch College. As announced on June 30, 2009, the governing boards of Antioch University and the college’s alumni have reached agreement on opening a new Antioch College, independent of the university. Reopening is anticipated for fall 2011. Antioch College, it seems, will rise again phoenix-like and survive to continue its tradition of progressive education. But its near demise provides clear and eloquent testimony to the havoc wrought by a board and administration that abandoned their commitment to liberal arts education and to the fundamental principles of shared governance.

AAUP’s report “College and University Government: Antioch University and the Closing of Antioch College” is available on AAUP’s Web site at http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/protect/academicfreedom/investrep/2009/Antioch.htm.