Hello all. It’s been a crazy week for Cincinnati politics… and it’s only Tuesday. But no worries if you’ve been too busy on other things (say, several large journalistic projects) to keep up — here’s a quick rundown of some of the big stories around town and beyond.
Let’s start with the Friday night news dump of a series of text messages between Cincinnati City Council members Tamaya Dennard, Greg Landsman, Chris Seelbach, P.G. Sittenfeld and Wendell Young, all Democrats.
Those texts, released by the city after a lawsuit this summer from conservative activists Mark Miller and Brian Shrive of COAST, don’t contain much new substantive information that we don’t already know.
Namely, they show that the five Democrats back in March discussed the pending firing of then-City Manager Harry Black, the pending FC Cincinnati stadium deal and other public business via the texts. Oh yeah, they also traded some gifs and used some colorful language to describe Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley. The exchanges are likely a violation of open meetings laws, since they involved a majority of the city’s law-making body. We’ve known most of this information since this summer, when some of the texts came out — but the newly-released texts also offer a clearer picture of some of the behind-the-scenes dealmaking going on between council members and attempted deals offered by both Black (to avoid being fired) and Cranley (to get at least one of the self-described “gang of five” to go along with Black’s ouster). Phew. Get all that?
One of those potential deals, according to the text messages? Black reportedly offered to prioritize traffic signal timing for the streetcar and support making it free to ride to boost its ridership and performance, according to texts from Seelbach. During its two years in operation, the streetcar has struggled with low ridership and frequent delays. Black also reportedly offered to help support Seelbach’s responsible bidder ordinance, which requires that companies getting certain city contracts offer apprenticeship programs.
Cranley was also in a deal-making mood at the time, at least according to the texts, reaching out to Young, Seelbach and Landsman and asking what each would need to vote for Black’s ouster.
“He claims he’s willing to put anything on the table,” Landsman said in a text. Later, Landsman told the Cincinnati Business Courier that the mayor was simply trying to “determine priorities.”
• More texts are likely forthcoming after Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas Judge Robert Ruehlman yesterday ruled that the city must release to COAST attorney Shrive texts from each of the five council members — even if they weren’t made to a majority of council and don’t involve city business. The city has warned that those texts could contain material that is embarrassing to city officials and “third parties.”
Interestingly, Ruehlman rejected a request from former City Council candidate Derek Bauman to join the lawsuit in order to seek the release of texts from councilman Christopher Smitherman, who was involved in a text group with all nine council members and Black. Texts from Smitherman, three other council members and Cranley will not be released under Ruehlman’s order. In response to records requests for texts covering the time period around Black’s ouster, Cranley has said that he dropped his phone in a hot tub and could not provide them.
There are some political implications at work here — Smitherman has announced he will run for mayor in 2021, and Sittenfeld is said to be strongly considering a run as well. Cranley and COAST are both allies to Smitherman, while Bauman and his attorney are Sittenfeld supporters. The release of the texts of the five progressive councilmembers to Shrive gives him a potentially powerful political weapon to use in the coming mayoral election. Shrive has not yet said which, if any, of the texts he will make public when he gets them.
• In other Cincinnati City Hall news, Mayor John Cranley will give his annual State of the City speech today at 6 p.m. at Music Hall. Catch our coverage right here.
• Apparently, Cincinnati is a great place to be if you’re looking for a job, according to a new study from employment site Glassdoor.com. The Queen City is the fourth-best city in the country for jobs, based on the number of openings, median salary, median home value and job satisfaction ratings compiled by the website. We’re just behind a few of our peer cities on that list: Pittsburgh ranked No. 1, St. Louis was second and Indianapolis was third. Fellow Ohio city Cleveland came in No. 9 on the list, which interestingly, did not include any major coastal cities like San Francisco or New York City — likely due to the high cost of living there. Detroit rounded out the Top 10.
• Ohio has one of the best craft beer economies in the country, new stats from an industry group say. The state’s 225 craft breweries — including more than two dozen in Cincinnati or nearby — create more than $2.6 billion in economic impact, according to the Craft Brewers Association. You can read more about the stats and peruse other states’ rankings here.
• More controversy from a suburban Cincinnati school district: the principal of Kings High School reportedly used a racial slur for African Americans twice, including once to a black student, and was not reprimanded by the district. Each incident resulted in complaints to Kings Local School District Superintendent Tim Ackerman, who says that in both cases, principal Doug Leist used the word to illustrate inappropriate language. Leist used the word the first time days after national attention was focused on the district when a basketball team comprised of Kings students — but not organized by the school — wore jerseys with offensive names for African Americans on the backs. Leist used the word in describing offensive content posted on social media. In a later incident, Leist said the word multiple times while questioning a student about the lyrics of a song involved in a potential dance routine. That student and a parent complained about the incident.
“We’re learning that even using it specifically, there were still people offended by it,” Ackermann told The Cincinnati Enquirer, “and we have to learn from that.”
• The Ohio Elections Commission has rejected a request from Democrat congressional hopeful Aftab Pureval to hold off on an inquiry into his campaign finance practices. The investigation relates to money Pureval is accused of spending on his congressional campaign from his Hamilton County Clerk of Courts campaign fund. That’s against federal election rules and could result in a fine. Pureval is fighting a tough race against incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot for control of the 1st Congressional District, which covers large parts of Hamilton and Warren Counties.
• While Pureval has outraised Chabot in that race, the Republican has had some help from outside groups, especially so-called “dark money” groups. Those are nonprofits that do not have to disclose donors but can only advertise on behalf of issues, not candidates — and super PACS, which also must avoid working with campaigns and supporting candidates explicitly. Super PACS must disclose their donors, but the so-called “dark money” groups can contribute to them, effectively keeping the original donors of the money shielded. House Speaker Paul Ryan’s super PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund and another group called American Action Network have purchased $2.6 million in anti-Pureval or pro-Chabot ads. Meanwhile, Democratic Party-aligned Change Now PAC and nonprofit Ohioans for Economic Opportunity spent almost $650,000 on ads against Chabot. You can read more about how dark money works — and how it has found its way into the race between Chabot and Pureval — here.
This article appears in Oct 17-24, 2018.
