Good morning, all. Let’s cap off this bizarre week with a quick news rundown of all the weirdness.
The standoff between Mayor John Cranley and City Manager Harry Black could be coming to a close soon. Or not.
Cranley and Black have reportedly agreed on a settlement — 18 months pay if Black walks away — but that will require a vote of council. So far, that settlement is one vote short.
A lot happened yesterday in the ongoing battle. There were revelations about a visit to a strip club in multiple media outlets that Black, CPD Chief Eliot Isaac and assistant chiefs Paul Neudigate and David Bailey made while on a trip to Denver two years ago.
Cranley, who says he knew about the incident at the time, claims Black invited City Solicitor Paula Boggs Muething along and bragged about the strip club visit to the two in a cab afterward. Black says the club was simply the closest bar and that the group spent roughly 15 minutes there getting one round of drinks, which they paid for with their own money.
Cranley still wants Black to resign, and Black is still refusing. Cincinnati City Council’s Law and Public Safety Committee today passed a proposal from Cranley that would protect whistle blowers he wants to testify against Black. But it’s unclear what new protections that ordinance would offer employees that don’t already exist under current law. Council couldn't pass that ordinance at a special meeting called by Cranley for 10:45 a.m. because there were not enough council members there for a quorum. Cranley called for that vote yesterday.
After the meeting, Black said that the decision about his tenure is in the hands of the mayor and city council, and told reporters that a city manager "is a human being and should be treated as such."
Cranley and Black have gone back and forth about visits to Black’s office by various city department heads. Cranley says Black is making department heads uncomfortable by asking for letters of support. Black says those department heads are coming to him. It’s a mess.
Meanwhile, the Greater Cincinnati NAACP and other groups are rallying around Black, saying they’ll go so far as legal action if necessary.
Council will have the final say about whether (and how) Black goes. Council member Jeff Pastor introduced a motion today asking for an independent performance review for Black. Council member David Mann released a statement this morning on the situation.
Mann says council doesn’t want to give Black the monetary payment he would be owed under his contract or a larger settlement Black has been negotiating with Cranley. That settlement is for 18 months pay for the city manager if he exits. Cranley’s office says it has agreed to that package, but council doesn’t have the votes to approve it.
The only way for Black to leave cost-free is if he resigns. He shows no sign of doing so.
“Mr. Black could resign at considerable financial sacrifice,” Mann wrote in his statement. “Otherwise, the current dysfunction continues, indefinitely I suppose. My democratic colleagues hold the keys to unlock this impasse. I implore them to help us move beyond the current deadlock.”
• Is a stadium deal in the West End dead after the Board of Education didn’t agree to a land swap with FC Cincinnati by a 5 p.m. Wednesday deadline set by the team? Maybe not. Though some options on roughly $1 million in land in the West End held by FCC expired Wednesday, leading to the team’s “final offer,” some sources with neighborhood groups say FCC officials met with them at the headquarters of one of the community groups yesterday — the day after the deadline — to discuss the community benefits agreement required by the school board. Community coalition West End United released a statement to that effect yesterday. FCC is mum, not confirming the meeting or what may have taken place during it.
The school board says it’s still willing to negotiate, releasing a letter yesterday saying they will vote next week on a resolution making official their asks from the team. FCC wants to build its soccer stadium on land currently occupied by CPS’ Stargel Stadium and needs the board’s sign-off to do so. The board’s official ask will probably include somewhere close to $2 million a year in payments to the school district and a robust, community-led benefits agreement for the neighborhood. CPS said it hadn’t heard anything from the team yesterday.
• The Cincinnati City Center Development Corporation is moving toward selling many of the properties the city tapped it to help develop north of Liberty Street, the Cincinnati Business Courier reports. The city made 3CDC preferred developer on roughly 30 city-owned parcels around Findlay Market in the northern section of the rapidly developing neighborhood. The city instructed the massive nonprofit developer, which has spearheaded hundreds of millions of dollars in redevelopment in southern OTR, to find smaller groups to work on those projects. So far, it has found buyers for roughly two-thirds of those properties, as well as 35 of its own it holds in the neighborhood.
• A state lawmaker engaged in a Twitter battle over gun control yesterday said 18-year-old students should have the right to carry rifles in class. The social media tiff between Ohio State Rep. Niraj Antani, a Republican, and his Democratic challenger Zach Dickerson took place following a demonstration outside the Ohio Statehouse by 300 students advocating for stricter gun laws in the aftermath of the Parkland, Fla. mass shooting.
"I think a lot of elected officials are afraid to give their view; I'm not," Antani wrote. "My view is that gun-free zones don't work and that if you are a law-abiding citizen you should be able to protect yourself."
Dickerson, who asked Antani’s opinion on open carry, tweeted, "Do you think arming teachers is a bad idea? Niraj Antani wants to arm the students too. This is dumb and dangerous policy."
• Speaking of student protests, a scary incident in Mason Wednesday: a 21-year-old was arrested with a loaded weapon after a student walkout over gun laws there. Robert Stoneman was in court yesterday on charges that he brought a deadly weapon onto school grounds. School officials say that school security found Stoneman “acting suspicious” at the school’s community center. The same day, a threatening message was found in a restroom at the school promising “Parkland 2.0.”
