Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
 Kimball Perry’s latest article comes close to mentioning explicitly some examples of Phil Heimlich’s backdoor cronyism, but not because Perry is behaving like a professional reporter: David Pepper is pushing the issues, forcing the Enquirer to print things they have known a long time. Still, Perry frames Pepper’s observations between an introduction and conclusion designed to minimize Pepper’s concerns, giving a boost to Heimlich.
Consider the column’s hook:
The race for Hamilton County commissioner kicks into high gear today when Democratic challenger David Pepper announces a plan to fix a county government that he insists is broken.
Pepper attacked incumbent Republican Commissioner Phil Heimlich for four years of “back door, pay-to-play cronyism” while blasting several of those Heimlich considers his closest friends and advisers - shots that Heimlich called “cruel and unjust.”
The word “insists” in the first paragraph connotes a type of fanaticism on behalf of Pepper—as if he is placing energy into something unlikely. It is designed to discredit the notion. This, coupled with a quote from Heimlich of no substance whatsoever. How, precisely, Pepper’s critique of Heimlich’s cronyism is “cruel” or “unjust” is simply never addressed.
But after doing some Heimlich PR work, Perry had no choice but to write about some of the issues:
Much of the dysfunction, Pepper says, is shown in those who Heimlich trusts with his personal issues and residents’ tax dollars:
Cincinnati Attorney Chris Finney, volunteer head of the Tax Levy Review Committee, created to monitor property taxes that fund special services such as health care for the poor. The wives of Finney, Heimlich and Jeff Eichorn are partners in real estate ventures. Finney also was appointed as a member of the board of Drake Hospital after Heimlich complained about the hospital’s spending and its use of more than $10 million a year from a property tax.
Kimball Perry has known about The Three Centurions (the name of the real estate business) since January, when I sourced several area reporters with details. Instead of breaking the story back then, he ran this fluff piece on Chris Finney and associates. (The article is no longer online with The Enquirer, but it is available through the Google cache. I have taken a screenshot of the cache, in the event something happens to the link above. Read an old letter to Tom Callinan about this here.)
Still, Perry won’t provide too many details. He forgets to mention that the company used to be owned by Heimlich, Finney, and Eichorn, and that they transferred ownership to their wives when people started asking questions, myself included.
Here is how Perry’s campaign flyer column ends:
Michael Schrimpf was hired as a policy analyst by Hamilton County but became Heimlich’s administrative aide when Rob Seddon took a leave of absence to concentrate on Heimlich’s campaign.
Heimlich and his supporters responded by attacking Pepper’s wealthy background as the son of former Procter & Gamble chairman John Pepper.
“Unlike David, I haven’t taken a check from my parents in a long time,” Schrimpf said.
“It doesn’t take a lot of backbone to pick on people who aren’t running for office,” Heimlich said.
Heimlich’s final quote doesn’t quite cohere, but that doesn’t stop his lackey Kimball Perry from printing it anyway. There are just so many ways to respond to this. Firstly, Heimlich has been known to make petty personal attacks himself! Secondly, Pepper is not picking on anyone. Rather, he is indicating a pattern of backdoor cronyism involving Heimlich!
Apparently, however, since Heimlich suggests that one can have a backbone while insulting someone running for office, Schrimpf’s sophomoric jab at Pepper’s family is acceptable. But, again, Perry misses the point. Schrimpf was recently caught on camera by Justin Jeffre, accompanying Phil Heimlich to a campaign event in the middle of the afternoon. If Rob Seddon took administrative leave to work on Heimlich’s campaign, why in the world is Schrimpf carrying Heimlich’s papers at a campaign event while presumably working on the County dime?
But don’t expect any investigative reporting on such issues from Kimball Perry. It doesn’t take a lot of backbone to write for the Enquirer.
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