For the Record 10.30.13

ISSUE NO. 24 • OCT. 30 - NOV. 7, 2013 • POLITICS ISSUE

WHO WILL WIN THE KEYS TO CITY HALL?

POLITICS ISSUE / WEDNESDAY, OCT. 30, 2013 / PAGE 2

What will Cincinnati City Council candidates do for UC? Twenty-two candidates vie for nine seats on city’s governing body; 15 lobby for campus vote P.G. SITTENFELD incumbent Two years ago, I became the youngest person ever elected to Cincinnati City Council, so I feel well in touch with the kind of vibrant, forward-looking city that our college students desire. I am a regular visitor to Bearcat Nation, frequently meeting with and talking to student clubs and classes.

As a Councilmember, I will continue to advance the momentum of Downtown and Uptown; focus on attracting and retaining our talented college graduates and making sure there is a strong job market here for them; and serve as a voice of common sense on our City budget.

UC has become the #HottestCollegeInAmerica and I’m determined to catapult Cincinnati to becoming the #HottestCityInAmerica! You can reach me on Facebook, or via @VotePG on Twitter, and I would be grateful to earn your vote on Nov. 5!

SHAWN BUTLER I was a UC student like all of you not long ago — OK, at least I tell myself it wasn’t that long ago — and my platform focuses on what matters to young people.

I want to create more jobs so that you can work and live in Cincinnati after graduation; I support the Cincinnati Streetcar project that provides you a public transportation option to get you downtown and back. And lastly, I want to continue the progress we’ve seen over the last few years in Cincinnati so that you want to stay in the city after graduation.

For more information about my platform and my campaign, please visit my website at www.butlerforcouncil.com.

MICHELLE DILLINGHAM I believe in, and have spent my life fighting for the values of the Democratic Party including: defending civil rights and voting rights, access to affordable health care, protecting public education, supporting the right to organize and collective bargaining, immigration reform, ensuring food security and protecting the environment. I am a social worker and received my MSW from the University of Cincinnati’s School of Social Work in 2005. I continue to stay connected to the UC community where I serve as Vice Chair for the School of Social Work’s Alumni Board. I also enjoy serving as a Field Instructor for UC’s Social Work Grad program. I had the opportunity to intern for former Vice Mayor David Crowley when I was in the social work program which gave me the opportunity to work on legislation that supported solutions to youth gun violence, affordable housing and environmental justice to protect lowincome communities from poor air quality. Today I work for a regional labor-management fund to tackle industry issues of mutual interest of business and labor partners such as transportation funding, family-supporting wages and workforce development. I want to bring my community building and advocacy experience to city council, and make government work for the neighborhoods.

CHRIS SEELBACH incumbent I have worked hard to make Cincinnati a vibrant urban city competitive with other major cities — a place students will want to live now and after graduation. Under my leadership, we have invested in Cincinnati’s urban center, leading to new development and job creation. Cincinnati now has additional bike lanes and new metro routes to make it easier to commute to all of Cincinnati’s unique communities.

When times got tough, I cut my own pay and restored funds to neighborhood programs. I’m proud that I helped Cincinnati become the largest city to provide an all-renewable electricity supply, which makes us arguably the greenest city.

As the first openly gay man to be elected to any office in Ohio’s four major cities, I have championed LGBT rights by extending partner benefits to all city employees, and creating a liaison between the police and fire departments and the LGBT community.

GREG LANDSMAN Cincinnati is on the verge of a major comeback, but long-term progress is not inevitable. The city needs new and serious leadership to ensure our next decade is our best, and we begin to attract and retain talent and families. As the largest economic driver in the region, we must work closely with UC and its students to ensure Cincinnati the kind of place where graduates want to stay, live, work and raise a family.

I believe this means accelerating neighborhood revitalization, similar to the success we have had in Downtown and Over-theRhine. I’ve spent my career bringing people together to get things done. Now I want to bring that leadership success to city hall.

LAURE QUINLIVAN incumbent After two UC students died in an off-campus fire early this year, I turned the tragedy into a new city program designed to make landlords fix up unsafe rental housing. Call 513-357-7585 to get a free inspection of your apartment by Cincinnati Fire Department. UC student leaders advised the creation of our website that lists all the safe housing that has passed inspection. Check it out at www.

CincinnatiSafeStudentHousing.com. I’ve created more than 500 jobs with entertainment district legislation that has helped open all the new restaurants at U-Square, as well as Taste of Belgium, Ladder 19 and Hangover Easy in Corryville. Do you like healthy inexpensive food? I created the city’s Mobile Food Vending program that now has 40 food trucks. I Chair the Strategic Growth Committee and oversee economic development, green and arts initiatives for our city.

My vision is a “Cleaner, Greener, Smarter” Cincinnati. I want to expand the streetcar to Uptown, and create bike paths and trails everywhere. I am championing the Wasson Way Bike Trail.

My daughter is a freshman at UC! I’m the former Peabody and Emmy Award-winning I-Team Investigative Reporter from Channel 9, now reporting directly to you from city hall.

KEVIN FLYNN I will Stand Up For Cincinnati, making decisions based on what is best for the city, not based on what is best for me or my career. I am a true Cincinnatian and a ‘Double Bearcat’ — McMicken A&S ’83, College of Law ’87. I am a father, husband, and lover of everything about Cincinnati. I am a real estate attorney, a professor at UC College of Law, immediate past President of the Charter Committee; past Chairman of the Board at The Drake Center, and serve on or numerous volunteer boards.

Cincinnati has given me a lot in my life and I must pay back Cincinnati for all that has been given me by serving the city to the best of my ability. I will bring back openness, accountability and transparency to Cincinnati City Council. I have the strength, determination, experience, character and ability to make the tough decisions to bring all of Cincinnati forward to a better and brighter future.

AMY MURRAY I have two sons in high school. I want them to feel that they should not just consider going to college in Cincinnati, but also perhaps stay here to work and enjoy life after college. However, it is up to our elected officials to create the environment that makes young Cincinnatians feel this way.

Are businesses thriving? Can people find jobs? Are our streets safe? Have we cut down our debt and balance our budget, instead of kicking the can down the road to the next generation?

The current Council majority’s policies don’t go far enough in these areas to entice young Cincinnatians to stick around. I want to change that, and we can do better … for my own sons, for UC students and for all residents of our City. That’s why I’m asking for your vote on Nov. 5.

WENDELL YOUNG incumbent I am committed to making Cincinnati an even greater city, a place that offers world-class jobs, opportunities and neighborhoods to live, work and play for all of our residents.

I have consistently worked to make Cincinnati a better, safer, and more appealing place for young people — voting in support of the development taking place in Downtown, Over-the-Rhine, Corryville, Clifton Heights and our other neighborhoods. I have supported the streetcar, and will work to ensure it connects our Downtown to Uptown and UC. As a lifelong Cincinnatian and public servant, I understand how cities work. I know that we must invest to attract the businesses and residents that will provide not only jobs, but also an energetic and livable city.

I have taken on fiscal responsibility, spearheading a plan to share services between our water and sewer departments that will save $68 to $105 million over 10 years. I have taken on health and quality of life issues, leading a task force to eliminate food deserts and increase access to healthy foods and co-chairing a county-wide collaborative to reduce our unacceptably high infant mortality rate.

Cincinnati is on the rise, and I am wholly committed to continuing this great momentum.

POLITICS ISSUE WEDNESDAY, OCT. 30 / PAGE 3

VANESSA WHITE I have devoted years to public service because of my conviction that educational attainment leading to a job and long-term career is key to creating a city that attracts and retains talented young adults. This conviction stems from having reared five children and from my own academic pursuits. As a first-generation college graduate, I’ve earned my B.S. and M.B.A., and am currently working on a doctorate at UC. I was elected to Cincinnati School Board in my first bid for office in 2009. And I served on non-profit boards for youth and the arts. I’ve gained experience balancing budgets and governing with integrity. As a Council member, I’ll lead in two strategic areas. First, I’ll advocate for incentives to businesses that hire residents who are hard to employ. This will help lower Cincinnati’s poverty rate and allow more people to contribute to city revenues. Second, I’ll build stronger partnerships between the city and local schools to ensure all students get an education that leads to career success. Recently, I proposed that UC President Santa Ono be appointed to the School Board to strengthen the pipeline from K-12 to college. That’s the kind of creative leadership I’ll bring to city council.

YVETTE SIMPSON I grew up in Lincoln Heights, and after graduating from Princeton High School became the first member of my family to graduate from college with a degree from Miami University and the University of Cincinnati College of Law. Previously, I practiced law at several firms before developing and directing Miami University’s first pre-law program. Aside from currently serving my first term on council I also work as an attorney at Ulmer & Berne LLP., and I am a member of Xavier University’s Executive MBA Program. On council my primary focus has been on developing Cincinnati’s youth programs, creating better opportunities for small businesses and working to improve each of our unique neighborhoods by ensuring they have the access and resources they need to thrive. Students at UC should vote for me because I believe Cincinnati can become a hub that attracts young people, like UC graduates, if we focus on developing our public transit infrastructure and growing the number of employers we have.

We are home to some large companies, but to be competitive we have to continue to attract new businesses to our city and provide jobs for our talented young people so they will stay and help our city thrive. In addition, I believe that we need to do more to make our city the kind of city where people want to settle down and raise a family. We need to address the problems facing our public school system and take steps to make our neighborhoods safer.

DID NOT RESPOND: ANGELA BEAMON TIM DORNBUSCH KEVIN JOHNSON SAM MALONE CHRISTOPHER SMITHERMAN MELISSA WEGMAN

DAVID MANN

PAMULA THOMAS Council Member Pam Thomas is a lifelong native and first-term Democrat on city council. She is a proud alumnus of the University of Cincinnati.

After graduating, council member Pam Thomas spent 21 years working for the Cincinnati Public School System. She retired this past August. During her first term, council member Pam Thomas has fought to ensure employment opportunities for local college graduates. She has pledged to continue this fight during the next four years in order to end the brain drain and to make Cincinnati a city that young people desire to live and stay in. Council member Pam Thomas is also committed to creating a more transparent government at city hall, by ensuring the citizens of Cincinnati are informed on and have an opportunity to voice their opinions on every major decision that will have an impact on their daily lives. She is also committed to ensuring the basic services of a city government are met, such as the filling of potholes and hiring of police and fire recruit classes to guarantee safe staffing levels for the city.

Council member Pam Thomas is married to Cecil Thomas with whom she has four children and four grandchildren.

The priorities for the next council must be to straighten out the budget, create a better balance between downtown development and meeting pressing neighborhood needs; and taking the steps necessary to bring an end to the phenomenon of our young men killing each other on our streets. We cannot continue to use onetime resources or the sale of valuable city assets to get through yet another budget year.

Spending each year should be limited to revenues for that year.

This forces us to prioritize what we do and achieve the best balance between sustainable resources and the expenditures needed to maintain and improve the quality of life in Cincinnati.

Development in the Banks and Over-the-Rhine has been fantastic. We need to create a 3CDC type development corporation that can bring private, public partnerships to improve neighborhood business districts and save our housing stock. The problems of violence and drugs are destroying many neighborhoods. Young people deserve an education in our public schools that prepares then for alternatives to the drug culture and street violence. They also deserve a community that provides meaningful employment opportunities.

CHARLIE WINBURN

MIKE MOROSKI UC Students should vote for me because my life’s trajectory has very much been dictated by responding to the dreams and aspirations of the youth. If it wasn’t for the students I encountered in my 12 years in the education sector, I never would have ended up here.

The youth have all the ideas, they are not burdened by ideology, they still hope for a better world, and, for these reasons, they inspire me.

I will continue to seek the guidance of young people as a member of city council, and I will continue to strive to make our community one in which they can flourish both professionally and personally.

It is the youth who pushed me to rehab buildings for the poor, to open a coffee shop where homeless people could hang out and feel a part of something, to constantly make myself better.

UC students should vote for me because I am running for those without a voice, those who feel left out of politics. Yes, the impoverished have long been left out of political dealings, but so have the young. It is past time to bring both of these groups into the fold, and I will do just that.

I am Councilman Charlie Winburn, and I am seeking re-election to the Cincinnati City Council. On city council, I serve as the chairperson of the Jobs Creation Committee, while serving as a member of several other committees. My desire is to work to establish policies that will help to improve the quality of life for all Cincinnatians. I have previously served seven years on city council before taking a break required by term-limitations. I have a long history of public service, with 20 years in various administrative [and] management positions in government and with various nonprofit organizations, including my tenure on the Ohio Civil Rights Commission and the United Way. I hold a bachelor’s degree in urban management and a master’s degree in social foundations of education, both from the University of Cincinnati. Additionally, I have completed the urban leaders program at Harvard University. As an alumnus of the University of Cincinnati, I can relate to the struggles of students relative to high education costs. Ultimately this may impact student enrollment due in part to rising costs. Also, I fully support a student’s legal right to vote. Beyond my public service, I am senior pastor of Renew Community Church. My wife Coleen and I reside in College Hill with our three children.

CITY COUNCIL ELECTION RESULTS 2011

Of the top nine vote-getters in 2011, seven are running for re-election ROXANNE QUALLS 38,903

74,427

LAURE QUINLIVAN 28,601

CHRISTOPHER SMITHERMAN 24,981

CHRIS SEELBACH 24,494

CECIL THOMAS 30,405

TOTAL BALLOTS CAST

YVETTE SIMPSON 28,589

CHARLIE WINBURN 30,080

37.7% OF REGISTERED VOTERS

P.G. SITTENFELD 31,673

WENDELL YOUNG 30,526

POLITICS ISSUE WEDNESDAY, OCT. 30 / PAGE 4

City hall veterans face off in race for Cincinnati mayor Vice mayor Roxanne Qualls, former city councilman John Cranley discuss future plans for city

MADISON SCHMIDT CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER

Vice mayor Roxanne Qualls served as mayor in the ’90s before the mayor was directly elected seperate from council.

Q: If elected mayor, what would be your top priority?

A: One, is sit down with the city manager and talk with him and make sure our goals are aligned and our priorities are aligned. Second thing I’m going to do is reconvene the shared services commission. Third thing I’m going to do is call for a leadership summit on guns and street violence, which is going to include a broad section of the community. It will look at not just what can the police do but what do we need to do as a community to respond. And then I’m going to proceed to focus on what I talked a lot about, which is continuing to invest in a strong economy, so looking at the areas of economic development and investments in innovation, as well as investments in places like Centrifuse, in order to support start ups in the city of Cincinnati.

Q: How would you improve public safety?

A: I am committed to making sure we have a recruit class built into the fiscal year 2015 budget. What we can do is we can seek to stabilize the numbers. The new police chief also has an opportunity of doing what chief Craig started and look at how were deploying our personnel and see if there are ways we can take more people from behind desks and put them on the street.

The first thing we have to do is we have to stabilize. The second thing we have to do is determine what are the best ways to respond to some of the safety issues. Because we talked with the chief we all agree we have to maintain the current level we have at minimum. But we also need to look at how do we invest in technology and other things that actually allow those police to engage in modern policing techniques. And the chief has talked about that, both the current chief as well as the former chief. This is not just a matter of bodies it’s a matter of being smart about it.

Q: Why do you deserve UC students’ votes?

A: I would ask for their vote because I’ve spent my career and I also intend when I am mayor to continue to build a city that is a place where they actually will want to live, work, play, raise a family, grow old and retire.

That means we have to attract businesses as well as create the life style and mix-used urban environment increasingly [desired by] young people. [One] that offers them a range a transportation: walking, biking, of course automobile but also public transportation like the street car and ultimately in the future more connected rapid transit throughout the region.

We have to do that to be competitive to keep all those bright young students graduating from the University of Cincinnati here in the city. We also have to do that to compete nationally and locally as a 21st century city.

Q: If elected mayor, what would be your top priority?

A: The biggest priority is always going be grow the economy and grow more jobs and opportunities for the city and continue to see the revitalization of downtown, our neighborhoods, in a way that will grow jobs and opportunities for everyone.

I think it includes the mayor being active and engaged in recruiting businesses here and working with the chambers of commerce to attract people to this area making sure the city is easy for people to do business in. You know I started a business in Price Hill? I know what it’s like to try and invest, deal with the red tape sort of getting things done.

Q: How would you improve public safety?

A: They’ve reduced the police force dramatically. When I got on council there was a thousand cops. We raised it up over six years too 1135 and now its like 940. So we have even less than when we started adding cops. I want to add more cops add more recruitment classes. I don’t think we can afford to go back to 1135. I think we can at least get back to one 1000. I think that would help on campus and certainly be a huge priority of mine. I certainly want our police department to work closely with campus police to make sure the experience there is safe.

The city argues every year over what’s called the General Fund Operating Budget which is about $360 million, so of that fund is about 60 percent but water and sewers is funded separately and road paving is mostly funded separately. I don’t think it’s an unfair portion of the budget. Its been reduced dramatically since I left that’s why the FOP and firefighters have endorsed my campaign among other reasons.

Q: Why do you deserve UC students’ votes?

A: Because I’m going to prioritize jobs and safety. So, I think we want people who go to UC to come out of UC and stay here and have access to job opportunities. My investment focus making the climate good for business, supporting things like I-71 Martin Luther King interchange which will help develop the uptown area.

Focusing on recruiting companies to grow and expand here is going to create more opportunities for students as they come out of college, is number one. Number two, I know that there has been some issues of safety. I will be increasing the police officers on the street working in closer proximity with UC campus security to make sure that everyone’s experience is safe. But I will not pledge to tweet as often as Santa Ono.

MADISON SCHMIDT CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER

Former city councilman John Cranley stepped down from council in 2009 to help run a busisness in Price Hill .

POLITICS ISSUE / WEDNESDAY, OCT. 30, 2013 / PAGE 5

Unique Cincinnati politics result of dynamic past City’s nontraditional history creates indefinable local governance ALEXIS O’BRIEN NEWS EDITOR

No other U.S. city does local politics quite like Cincinnati.

“We do it our way, which we’ve always done,” said Jane Anderson, a University of Cincinnati political science professor.

“And anytime anyone ever proposes changing anything in this city, that’s what citizens say [in response].”

Cincinnati’s governance model subscribes to its own system, one that is nonpartisan, historically dynamic and a hybrid of different organizational systems based on a corporate-style business hierarchy.

Under this corporate type of arrangement, the mayor acts as a company president, the city manager acts as a CEO, the city council acts as a board of trustees and the citizens act as company shareholders.

Cincinnati’s Charter Party — a locally based political party that claims nonpartisanship — put this system into place in 1924, at which time the city’s infamously corrupted government was desperate for reform.

“The Charterites don’t like to call themselves a political party, but they are.

They’re the longest-running municipal party in the country,” said Gene Beaupre, director of government relations at Xavier University. “They modeled Cincinnati after a corporate governance model.”

The system created a nine-member council, mandated nonpartisan municipal elections and implemented preference-ranked voting, which meant the council member with the most votes became the mayor.

“Their motto was, ‘There’s no political way to pave the street,’” Beaupre said.

“You paved the street because it made sense to do it from a management standpoint.”

Since then, the Cincinnati legislative

branch has remained a nine-member council and councilmembers are elected at-large instead of by district, an uncommon characteristic of a large city.

“That tends to reduce the private interest, the more specific interest,” Beaupre said. “It was the intention that, to govern, those who govern look at the city as a whole, not by particular neighborhoods, not by the particular interests of their constituents in one neighborhood.”

Local elections have also remained nonpartisan, but now the mayor is directly elected, which voters have done since 1999.

The governance model evolved from employing a preference-ranked mayoral voting system into one that favored another system in which council members chose the mayor.

“The city manager is still the CEO of the city, but we now have this mayor who’s not only separately elected and not a member of council, but who also has power to control the agenda and

choose the vice-mayor and committee chairs,” Anderson said.

Suggestive of a mayor-council governance system, the mayor has to approve the city budget and play a major role in city manager employment decisions, Anderson said.

An amendment passed in 2012 changed councilmembers’ term length to four years instead of two, starting with the upcoming 2013 election.

“Cincinnati politics work the way they do because our situation has historically been so different and so unique,” Anderson said. “We’ve had this interesting tradition that hasn’t followed everyone else’s pattern of reforming government.”

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE Want more on Cincy politics?

Visit newsrecord.org for a video interview with Jane Anderson

E I LIK E

MIK

“My life's trajectory has been defined by responding to the dreams and aspirations of young people.”

-Mike Moroski

POLITICS ISSUE / WEDNESDAY, OCT. 30, 2013 / PAGE 6

Organizations help make student opinions heard University of Cincinnati Democrats, Republicans discuss upcoming general election AMANDA ADKINS CONTRIBUTOR

Though their stances on issues don’t always align, the University of Cincinnati College Democrats and UC College Republicans share an interest in incorporating student involvement in politics.

Both groups strive to inspire their colleagues to be politically active and to influence our government on national and local levels. The organizations have taken part in helping students register to vote, campaigning for local officials, and hosting speakers to educate students.

“We want people to hear the issues and have a chance to voice their opinion,” said Taylor Stephens, UC College Democrats communication director.“We want people to learn about the issues, challenge them and ask questions so that they will want to vote. I believe all sides need to work together in order to improve our system.”

In preparation for the upcoming election, UC College Republicans have been campaigning for Amy Murray for Cincinnati City Council.

“Republicans don’t tend to do that well in elections,” said Cody Rizzuto, UC College Republicans president

and third-year marketing student.“We’re trying to get more representation in local office. We believe all the candidates are qualified and have good background, but we’re hoping to get more Republican candidates into office for better representation on issues.”

UC College Democrats have been campaigning for mayoral candidate Roxanne Qualls and Greg Landsman for City Council.

“We are not enemies. We just have different ways of solving the same problems, so we need people to get educated and involved in order to find solutions.”

Cody Rizzuto, UC College Republicans president, third-year marketing student

“I currently work on Greg Landsman’s campaign,” said Dayna Clark, UC College Democrats president and fifthyear biology student.“The streetcar is a huge issue people

are concerned with.”

The streetcar — a modern system intended to connect major employment centers — has garnered significant attention and is one of the most prominent topics of discussion.

Clark said Landsman is in support of the streetcar, and that it would cost more economically to halt the project since the policy has already passed; Republicans disagree.

“None of the [four] Republican candidates are in favor of the streetcar, because it will harm Cincinnati economically, and that’s really the biggest issue Cincinnati is facing,” said Chris Pierce, UC College Republicans treasurer and third-year criminal justice student.

Regardless of their disagreements, both groups agree that coming together to figure out the best solution is the key to a successful government.

“We are not enemies,” said Rizzuto.“We just have different ways of solving the same problems, so we need people to get educated and involved in order to find solutions.”

Both organizations are open to all students; UC College Republicans meet 5 p.m. Mondays in Swift Hall Room 800. UC College Democrats meet 6 p.m. Tuesdays in Swift Hall Room 619.

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POLITICS ISSUE WEDNESDAY, OCT. 30 / PAGE 7

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POLITICS ISSUE WEDNESDAY, OCT. 30 / PAGE 8