A guest article by Christopher Smitherman

We continue to see the trend of corporate America running our governments through special interests. This trend is on the federal, state and city levels across our country. This is the biggest issue I see facing American politics. Who’s really running the government? Or who is the government?

Cincinnati City Council has one meeting during their annual summer recess. This meeting happens in August. It is always a very important meeting to watch because this is when council members slide certain items onto the agenda. They do this because citizens think they are on summer recess and even those who regularly watch Council meetings often forget about this one. For example, Jeff Berding (Rules Chairman) said he wanted to change his own Emergency Ordinance rule in order to submit legislation for passage. When elected, Council Member Berding eliminated the option to submit Emergency Ordinances. His intent was to force items to be discussed within committees instead of having Emergency Ordinances initiated during the general Wednesday meetings which causes Council to take an emergency vote without any discussion.

However, this month, there were no committee meetings. Yet Council Member Berding was eager to get his legislative proposals passed now instead of waiting for the next committee meeting (and/or when more citizen eyes would be watching). Therefore, he first proposed to have Council vote to change the rules again back to allowing Emergency Ordinances. Council approved the change and Berding could now avoid discussion about his “emergency” items. The passage of the Emergency Ordinance immediately allowed Mr. Berding to carry 3CDC’s water to the floor of Council thereby avoiding all discussion at committee level. (Remember, Council Member Berding works for the Cincinnati Bengals which is an extension of Mr. Castellini and Mr. Lindner.) Would you like to know what was in the bucket?

Think back to the Fountain Square Deal. City Council voted to turn over Fountain Square and all the revenue from the Fountain Square garage to 3CDC for 40 years. Debates about that deal included discussions regarding the City maintaining control of the public’s access to the Fountain Square space. The deal passed with one dissenting vote, Council Member Smitherman. Steve Leper, representing 3CDC, continuously emphasized that the City government would always have control over Fountain Square via the permit process.

In the cloak of summer, via a change in the Emergency Ordinance rule, Council Member Berding carried in his water bucket the transfer of the Fountain Square permit process from the City to 3CDC. The transfer was approved although Cole and Crowley opposed. Even Bortz and Tarbell, Charter Committee representatives for “good government”, voted for the transfer. Their votes were very disappointing. One cannot tell me that you are a true chaterite, a true libertarian, a true democrat if you accept that the people’s square is now run by a non-profit (private) organization whose board members are overwhelmingly the wealthiest people in the city. Remember, Margaret Buchanan, the president of the Cincinnati Enquirer, is a board member of 3CDC and that is why these kinds of moves in Council will not be reported in the paper of record.

This action is another indication that the City is headed toward a uni-government. The officials you have elected continue to relinquish City authority to private entities for their self-promotion. They will receive their reward when they run for re-election and Margaret Buchanan tells you who to vote in the Enquirer endorsement list. The other reward will be larger campaign contributions from the big boys.

In addition, the August meeting included another Emergency Ordinance vote to sell the Blue Ash airport with no committee discussion. Is this the plan to balance the budget?

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