Hamilton County Treasurer: Seth Walsh
Like Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters, current county treasurer Robert Goering, a Republican, is something of a weekday warrior, putting in hours at a local law firm while he’s also on the job for the county.
That might not be a big deal by itself. And Goering does have a lot of experience, having started out after high school opening mail in the office.
But this time around, Goering is facing a sharp, enthusiastic opponent in Democrat Seth Walsh, who wants to bring some changes to the treasurer’s office and make it more active in county affairs. He doesn’t have as much experience as Goering, but he has enough good ideas to make up for that.
Faced with a choice between an office in business-as-usual, autopilot mode and Walsh’s vision of an office that is a key player in boosting economic development and more proactive when it comes to efficient collection of property taxes, we’ll give a shot to the latter.
One big issue we’re impressed with in Walsh’s pitch: He would like to help homeowners in quickly developing neighborhoods deal with the burden of rising property tax bills, circumventing displacement caused by gentrification in places like Over-the-Rhine.
Hamilton County Clerk of Courts: Aftab Pureval
In the race between Republican Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Tracy Winkler and her challenger, P&G attorney Aftab Pureval, we’re again going with the newcomer.
Pureval has put forward some substantive ideas for changes to the clerk of courts office, including an easier and more streamlined process for accessing court records online and a legal self-help clinic that could give those with little access to the county’s legal system a better chance at navigating it.
Beyond that, Pureval brings a fresh energy and the promise to clean out the dusty, cobwebbed corners of the clerk’s office. Recent revelations about Winkler and her subordinates pushing campaign invovlement on county employees via email while on county time definitely raise questions about what’s going on in the office.
Hamilton County Sheriff: Jim Neil
In the race between current Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Neil, a Democrat, and his Republican challenger, former Cincinnati Police Captain Gary Lee, we see a clear choice despite a few misgivings.
Neil has served well as sheriff and deserves a second term. He has done a good job navigating the region’s heroin crisis, even as he deals with a budget that is significantly reduced from previous years. Lee has criticized Neil for releasing some inmates early from the Hamilton County Justice Center, including one who died of a heroin overdose soon after. But Lee would face the same structural issues Neil currently does — namely, a $17 million chunk of funding that has been chipped from the sheriff’s budget over the past decade by the county commission. The Republican challenger has put forth few compelling solutions to this problem.
Meanwhile, Neil has some ideas for ways to cut down on the 10,000 inmates cycling through the justice center every year who are addicted to heroin. He would like to build an opiate detox center in the county jail, which could over time ease the burden caused by repeat drug offenders.
We’re not always crazy about Neil’s politics — his appearance at a March rally for GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump raised more than a few eyebrows. But politics isn’t part of the day-to-day job, which is where Neil has demonstrated he is quite capable.
Hamilton County Coroner: Lakshmi Sammarco
Few Hamilton County officials have felt the brunt of the county commission’s spending reticence more acutely than Coroner Lakshmi Sammarco. Her office has had to deal with an outdated facility that experiences sewage backup from autopsy debris, where workers have to unplug some equipment to use other pieces because the building’s electrical grid is insufficient and where workers are crammed into a space that is far too small for them.
Commissioners had an option to buy a former hospital facility for $1 to convert into a coroner’s office and crime lab. They passed. Admittedly, that conversion would have cost millions — but it’s clear something must be done to update the current lab.
And yet, there have been few if any complaints about the job Sammarco has done while facing such limitations. She has been an aggressive fighter in the battle against heroin as well as a fierce advocate for the county morgue and crime lab. Her opponent, Republican Bret Bruder, says a more fiscally responsible approach is necessary to running the coroner’s office and crime lab. It’s hard to know what this statement means, exactly, when the office’s facilities are already decades too old and very little investment has been made in improving them.
CityBeat Endorses:
• Hillary Clinton for President
• Denise Driehaus, Todd Portune for County Commission
• Hamilton County: Alan Triggs, Seth Walsh, Aftab Pureval, Jim Neil and Lakshmi Sammarco
• Congress and State House: Brigid Kelly, Catherine Ingram and Alicia Reece
This article appears in Nov 2-9, 2016.