Todd Zinser - Citizen Watchdog

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Seven oh five here at fifty five care CD talk station.
Happy Friday, Eve to you. Pardon me that came out
of nowhere. I have a cough button, couldn't get to
it in time. But I am looking across the table
at a man that I truly appreciate it, man that
thankfully has too much time in his retirement because he's
got nothing better to do than be the Inspector General
for the Generals Greater of the Cincinnati Residence, City of

(00:38):
Sincinnia Residence. Welcome back to the fifty five care Morning
Carose Morning Show, host of the Citizen Watchdog podcast Get
in Touch with It. Todd Zen's are good to have
you in.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Man, Thanks Brian, good to be here.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
I'm glad it took the time to come in this studio.
It's great having you in and talking with you about
all these things that you follow. So let us start.
We were touch talking about this. Let's stick with the
topic of i'm gun violence. Generally speaking, they had a
ryl Long city manager. She Chief Fiji was there yesterday.
The mayor was there. He didn't have a whole lot

(01:09):
to say, though from what I gathered from the reporting,
you can fill in the details on that, but apparently
red bikes, So we're going to take the red bikes
away from folks tomorrow and Saturday overnight. They did that
over the fourth of July or Independence Day weekend. Apparently
it had some positive impact, or at least it suggested
or they suggested it did. So. I didn't realize bikes

(01:30):
and e scooters were really at the core of the
crime wave going on in the city Cincinnati, But I
suppose when you're trying to come up with solutions, every
little bit counts.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
That's right, every little bit counts. But they've got they've
got big, big problems.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Well, they argued that violent crime and murders or gun
crime specifically were down, at least that's what was reported.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Well, it was what I took away from the news
conference was that, yeah, things are getting better, but they
have a perception problem that the public doesn't perceive that
things are getting better. So they're really battling a bad
perception rather than the bad data.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
Well, you believe if you live in any of the
given neighborhoods in the city and you see it with
your own eyes, and it is widely reported that one
of the bigger problems we've got downtown? Are these roving
gangs of teenagers? I mean it's like cockroaches in the
middle of the night. They all gather. As soon as
you turn the light on, these scurry and multiple different directions.

(02:31):
You can't get them.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Yeah. Well, your friend Jim Kiefer raised a good point
yesterday when I was speaking with them about this Blue
Ash issue where you had these hundreds of kids up there.
How do they get there? And what's the signal? How
do they communicate with each other? To do everybody know
to go to this one?

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Look, now, the easy answer to that one is we
live in an internet society. Now. You know, the old days,
if you wanted to get a whole bunch of people together,
what did you print flyers up? You mailed things to people.
I mean there was no one stop shop for your
causes website like we've got. Now, Hey, we're all going
to eat in Blue Ash and you know, shoot fireworks

(03:09):
for people just to be a nuisance. You know, you
can have a house party in like five seconds. Now
you put it online, house party, It filling the black address.
The next thing, you knowl four hundred people showed up.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Well, the other thing that I noted in the press
conference was Cheryl Long finally did start talking about this
program that they started back in January called AC for Sincy.
And the mayor was on Cincinnati edition last week and
never said a word about Act for Sincy. And it
was launched in January as a holistic approach to reducing

(03:44):
gun violence, and they never said anything about it.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Well, that doesn't make any sense, is that because of marketing,
we need to have this new program because we have
a problem with gun violence, which of course confirms what
everybody out there in the real world suspects. Anyway, Well,
the marketing thing here, you know, the terrible murder of
mister Herringer. Oh yeah, and the response from his widow

(04:12):
she summed it up in three words. It's optics over outcomes, right,
And a lot of the things that this city council
and this mayor are doing are really for optics. And
you can go through program after program, and they put
a little bit of money in all of these programs,

(04:32):
and then when somebody says, what are you doing about this,
they say, we have a program for that. And even
if they funded at like ten thousand or twenty five thousand.
You know, I was at a meeting in bond Hill
about connected communities with the Vice Mayor and Scottie Johnson,
and it was about how we can improve connected communities
if that's even possible. And somebody got up and said, well,

(04:55):
what about property taxes? Our property taxes are too high,
and the Vice mayor said, well, we have a program
for that. They have a Well, no, they don't.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
Have a program. Their program is to help people pay
the Property Act property taxes that they owe in back
taxes their debt. That's what the city has a program for.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
But not to address the broader problem of the property
taxes going through the root exactly, and people who have
to pay them or otherwise end up perhaps losing their property.
They're on the hook for the money they paid it.
So there's no relief for the folks with higher property
tax bills. There's only relief for folks who didn't pay
the property tax bills because they were too high.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
Wow, Okay, so that's problem solved.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
But optics over outcomes is it really sums up this
mayor in this city council.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
But you can't cover up the fact that week after
week after week we have all this hoorific criminal activity
that's going on. I mean, even as little as local
reporting we have, we do hear about it, we do
see it. So you can't hide behind you can't hide
the news from people. And then there's the other component.
You talked to Ken favor of us and say FOP president,

(06:06):
and Ken will tell you that they know, like for example,
enforcing curfew. There is a curfew, Yes, but they don't
bother even dealing with it because they catch the teenager
who's violating curfew, they're not going to be dealt with
by the judicial component of the criminal justice system. The
judges will let them out. Happens all the time, so
much show that it's not even worth issuing a citation.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
Well, there was a question. I couldn't hear it very well.
But I think one of the reporters yesterday at the
news conference was asking about twenty twenty Auburn, the juvenile
center or detention center whatever they call it, and that
the police were being turned away when they tried to
bring people up to twenty twenty.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
Yes, so you know they have a capacity ken. Ken
said that specifically, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
They have a capacity issue there, So what do they
do about it?

Speaker 1 (06:54):
That's a good question. Maybe there isn't a program for that.
They need a program for that, another building, another place
to take I tell.

Speaker 2 (07:02):
You this, five million dollars they want to spend on
a day center for the homeless. That's controversial because there
are existing programs that think they could handle you know,
the requirement or the need. But the city, for some
other reason wants to spend five million on this building.
Maybe they ought to turn the building into a detention center.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
Well I like that idea. I mean, if there's not
room enough to deal with the folks that are violating
the law, then you need a place to put them.
I mean I don't well, I question a prioritization.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
Right exactly, That's exactly right, Brian.

Speaker 1 (07:41):
And without enforcement, without the penalty component. I say this
all the time. The criminal justice system, the deterrence element
is one of the key principles on it. If you
do something in violation of the law, there will be
con sequences. That's a message. It's not only to punish

(08:02):
the person who was dominough to violate the law, but
it's a message to every kid out there or everybody
else out there, this is what's going to happen to you,
and get rid of that, and it's like, well, wait
a second, h nothing's going to happen to me, so
why bother obeying the law?

Speaker 2 (08:16):
That's right, this whole act for sincey, this holistic approach
to reducing gun violence. They had a three million dollar
budget and it went to all of these nonprofits. And
that's what this is all about, external organizations. And there's
no way to measure whether anything they're doing has any

(08:37):
impact on reducing gun violence. But it's they give away
all this money.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
Well and they can say something like we have a
program for that and we have already addressed that and
you know, but yeah, again, this is kind of like USAID.
It's a local versus USA. The money goes out into
the world, and you know, at least on a federal level,
tens of millions of dollars to on various programs around
the globe. We don't know if that work was even done.

(09:04):
No one's following the money, No one knows where it goes.
What the salaries are being paid within these nonprofit organizational structures,
and they all get pretty handsome salaries. Just because you're
nonprofit doesn't mean your CEO isn't making three hundred four
hundred thousand dollars.

Speaker 2 (09:19):
Yet that's exactly right.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
So that's what's happening locally. Then, Oh, we're a non
violence we have a holistic approach to getting kids off
the streets and getting them to play hockey at night
or whatever.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
But when the mayor showed up on the radio program
and started talking about all the things they're doing to
reduce gun violence, he never said a single word about
this act. For Cincy, they have a program where they're
basically paying people not to commit crimes.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
Yeah, maybe we can dive into a few more of
the details for that. And again, why didn't he announce
it out loud early on? If it's such a great
thing for the city of Cincinnati, we'll bring Todd Zinzer back.
We have him for the full hour here in the
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Speaker 3 (11:00):
This is fifty five KRC and iHeartRadio station our iHeartRadio.

Speaker 1 (11:07):
Here's your channel nine, first one and one forecast sunny
day to day. I do have a possible shower of
thunderstorm showing up later this afternoon at some point, maybe
though eighty six of the high clear of a night
time to seventy it's going to be sunny hot NEMA tomorrow,
Isolated rain in the afternoons, a possibility ninety for the
high muggy and seventy one overnight with clear skies, and
a high end ninety one on Saturday with a decent

(11:29):
chance for rain. They say seventy one right now. Let's
get an update on traffic.

Speaker 3 (11:34):
From the u See Health Traffic Center. You See Health
has expert traumacare focusing on prevention, treating injuries, and supporting
long term recovery and rehabilitation. Learn more at you see
health dot com. Traffic is slow this morning, and I
seventy five southbound between Ronald Reagan Highway and Paddock Road.
You're slow seventy five northbound between Buttermilk Pike and Twelfth Street,

(11:55):
and there's a stall seventy five northbound at two seventy
five on the left shoulder. I'm Heather Pasco on fifty
five krc the talk.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
Station seven nineteen to fifty five KRCD Talk Station. Brian
Tommouth with Citizen Watchdog Todd Zenzer get his podcasts and
Watchdog and maybe you become friends of them on Facebook.
He's always pointing posting things related to maybe corruption, fraud,
ways to abuse, inaction, outright stupidity with regard to what
the city of Cincinnati's doing dealing with its relative or

(12:25):
various rather challenges. We were talking about this Act for
Sincy program to or a blueprint for violence production that
says on the cover of the materials achieving change together.
This came out in January. You mentioned, without any fanfare,
without any formal notice, that here were implementing this program.
But as you just got done explaining, it funds a
bunch of non governmental organization outside groups who claim to

(12:48):
have the solution on various levels for the problem with
violence and the system or in err in the system.
What type of if you know, if any, what type
of vetting goes on before any given NGO accepts money
from the city to achieve their purported goal. There's got

(13:09):
to be some presentation to someone, Someone has to add
them to the limitless list of NGOs out there with
their hand hopefully in the cookie jar. So what process
do they go through to find out whether these proposals
are going to have any impact or effect and then
get the award to the exclusion of other NGOs we
already know. There's no follow up on whether the programs

(13:31):
work after the money's awarded, but the lead up, how
do you get on the list of people with their
hand in the cookie jar.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
Well, there's so many of these programs. I've counted so far,
over two hundred NGOs getting money or nonprofits or NGOs
getting money from the city, ranging from you know, fifteen
hundred dollars to a quarter of a million dollars or
actually I think the highest I know of is like

(13:57):
three hundred and twenty five thousand dollars. And there's there
is a program or a process for what they call
leverage support, which is what many of these organizations they
make application for those moneies, and that's that's become an
annual thing and during budget season they all go down
in a congo line and request money from the city council.

Speaker 1 (14:19):
And not all of them get it.

Speaker 2 (14:21):
No, That's what's surprising is how many organizations apply for
this money they don't get it.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
So see, that's always wanted to emphasize that because again
there's always a limitless number of people that want some
money from government. Now the question is how do you
how do you weed through Let's say a thousand groups
show up and there's only you know, one hundred different
one hundred allocations that they have money for. High Who wins.

Speaker 2 (14:44):
That's a good question. The city council. They pick winners
and losers when it comes to that. And the city
manager has an application process for at least leverage support
and probably for all these others. And they tell they
tell the organization what they're looking for, for example, reducing
gun violence, and all of a sudden, all these NGOs

(15:06):
that before now we're worried about climate change or whatever,
are now worried about gun violence. And their proposals they
just switched some keywords in there about how their work
is going to reduce gun violence. Even the Art Academy,
for example, they showed up many at many meetings requesting
money and they've been getting funding for years and years,

(15:29):
but the city council is going to cut them back.
And they made the case that their work at the
Art Academy contributes to a reduction of violence and they
believe that, and all these groups that are working in
this area think that if they do a good job
that violence will be reduced.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
Well, I suppose one could lean on the argument that, well,
if the kids here in an art class for two hours,
then he can't be out committing crime. Air go it
reduces crime.

Speaker 2 (15:59):
Yes, some kind of logic chain like that.

Speaker 1 (16:05):
I'm sorry to laugh. This is so sad and pathetic.
This really doesn't call for laughter.

Speaker 2 (16:11):
Yeah, the normal person or the regular Cincinnatian will have
trouble connecting dance lessons to reducing violence. That's just not
Most people can't connect that in their own minds.

Speaker 1 (16:27):
No, but I think that's a logical and reasonable inability. Yes,
the connection isn't there. So how could people possibly connect
it unless they fall back on the argument that they
just made well the kids in a dace lesson for
a couple hours.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
Yeah. So, the way I looked at it, a lot
of these programs that they're funding, it seems more like
we're trying to help the community kind of thrive or
to live despite all the violence. These types of programs
help them, you know, survive.

Speaker 1 (17:02):
They fuel the economic engine of the city by putting
dollars out there. Two organizations that maybe don't accomplish anything.
At least the money's out there, and presumably those organizations
will spend it on something, even if it's just going
out to dinner at a restaurant.

Speaker 2 (17:16):
That's right, that's that's the government, that's the city government
we have.

Speaker 1 (17:20):
I think we've put hit the nail on the head,
which is exactly what Todd ends Aer done. It does
all the time. I understand we also have a pension problem.
Not as bad as Chicago and Illinois, but we got
a pension problem. We're gonna talk about that with Todd. Zenzer.
Will take a break right now seven twenty five and
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(18:51):
Chanel nine first one to Wether forecasts a sunny day
for the most part, q Isolated showers. Storms are a
possibility later today eighty six for the high it's gonna
be clear and mild over night seventy to low ninety
hour high Tomorrow. It will be also be humid and
a possible isolated shower in the afternoon, clear over. Friday
night muddy as well, with a low seventy one and

(19:13):
decent chance of rain on Saturday. They're saying, and it's
going to go all the way up to ninety one
seventy one degrees. Right now, it is time for traffic
from the.

Speaker 3 (19:21):
U SEE Health Traffic Center. You see Health has expert
traumacare focusing on prevention, treating injuries, and supporting long term
recovery and rehabilitation. Learn more at you see health dot com.
You're heavy in slow in pockets seventy five southbound between
the Ronald Reagan Highway and Paddock Road. Also with the
stall seventy five northbound at two seventy five on the
left shoulder, that will have you a little slow as well.

(19:44):
I'm Heather Pasco on fifty five KRC is the talk station.

Speaker 1 (19:49):
It's seven twenty nine. Bright time was here with Todd
Sinzer and studio going over City of Cincinnati issues. So
we whatever the gun violence and the violence and the
problem generally speaking in the proposal from the city which
basically are funding a bunch of outside non governmental organizations
with zero to very little accountability. Let us move on

(20:11):
over to another area that's been a real problem for
a very long time since they's pension problems underfunded. Is
that a reasonable word to slap on the situation?

Speaker 2 (20:21):
Yes, very much so.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
And for how long has this been festering?

Speaker 2 (20:25):
Well, the pension liability was the subject of a civil complaint,
federal complaint back in twenty fifteen, and there was a
settlement that is now governing the pension liability and they
are required by twenty forty five, so that the settlement
gives them thirty years to get the thing up to

(20:47):
one hundred percent. But the thing is it was settled
in twenty fifteen, so ten years ago, and they look
at the funding ratio, which is how much of the
liability do they need do they need to fix by
a certain date. So they're supposed to be one hundred

(21:08):
percent funded by twenty forty five, right, And when this
when the agreement was finalized, they were at seventy seven
percent that ten years ago.

Speaker 1 (21:20):
There. Ten years ago, seventy seven percent funded.

Speaker 2 (21:23):
This year sixty eight percent.

Speaker 1 (21:25):
Oh, hey, going to the right direction.

Speaker 2 (21:28):
It's gone down every every year.

Speaker 1 (21:31):
And well we'll fix it later. Is that the attitude. Yeah,
this seems like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the social welfare
safety net programs that are all scheduled to be belly
up by a certain date. Well, in Congress never does anything.

Speaker 2 (21:42):
It is exactly the same. So with respect to with
respect to Congress, when it gets when when it gets
to the point where they can't kick the can down
the road anymore, they just they just print the money.

Speaker 1 (21:57):
Print the money, or tell you're not going to get
as much as we promise.

Speaker 2 (21:59):
That's right. Cincinnati can't do that exactly. So the Futures
Commission said the pension liability was the number one concern
in the city and this council, and that was two
years ago. Now that they the or was it two
years or one year the Futures Commission issued its report.

(22:22):
They're not. They have done very little different and it's
not that difficult. So the reason that I talked about
it recently on my podcast is because at the end
of the the last meeting before the summer break, that
the the city manager slipped in the annual report from
the pension from the pension uh outfit and It has

(22:48):
five recommendations in it. Four of them are totally unacceptable,
you know, reduce, reduce benefits. One of them is the
The thing that the Future Commission wants to do is
they want to regionalize the waterworks and monetize that, take
that money, put it into the pension and make the

(23:09):
pension attractive for the state pension system to take it over. Well,
that that's going to do that, No, that's not going
to happen. It's a long shot at best. It requires
a referendum to get rid of the water works. So
the only thing they're left with is to put more
money into the pension fund.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
That's the solution to the problem.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
And if you look at their recommendation, it would require
an extra I mean they're making a contribution now, it's
about I think it's up into sixty million or sixty
four million dollars a year they put into the pension
liability or the pension fund. The pension fund. They have
more people taking out than they have putting in. And
according to this recommendation from the trustees, it would take

(23:56):
whatever the city's putting in now put in an extra
two million dollars every year, year after year, on top
of that, and they are projecting that if the city
does that, it will be one hundred percent by twenty
forty five, like those settlement requires. And why we're looking
at all these other options and all this other stuff,

(24:16):
I don't get that. Just put the money in. It
stays spoll.

Speaker 1 (24:19):
If you take it and put it into the pension system.
That means there's fewer non government organizations out there in
the world that are going to get funded because they
don't have enough money to go around.

Speaker 2 (24:27):
That is my exact concern. We're going to keep spending
money trying to save people and they may not save
the city.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
Well, and the practical and correct me if I'm wrong
on this, The practical effect of that is the worst.
The pension problem is the worst. Are bond rating.

Speaker 2 (24:50):
Well, yes, it has definitely have implications like that, which.

Speaker 1 (24:54):
Means if they ever want to borrow money for a
big project, they're going to pay alf a lot more
money and interest on it.

Speaker 2 (24:58):
Yeah. Well, they have no problem borrowing money, that's for sure.

Speaker 1 (25:02):
Lord Almighty. That's an easy fix, too, Todd, Well, it
really is. It's just like, okay, we must allocate primary
first and foremost. Here's the money we need to put
in the pension system to keep it alive and to
comply with the settlement agreement. We only have a window
of opportunity here and it's quickly running out, and it,
lily is getting worse. So here's the money done, what's

(25:26):
left over right right? Absolutely, and then we'll divide that
up among maybe infrastructure, repairing roads and keeping bridges together,
and the fleet which is falling apart apparently got to
have more money allocated to that and some other issues
we'll talk about with Todd. Censor, Well, do you have
any good news to talk about with what's going on
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Speaker 2 (27:13):
Nine fifty five KRC.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
SHODNA nine says the following about the weather. Sunny sky
is today, maybe a few isolated showers are stormed, possible
later this afternoon eighty six for the high clear of
night seventy tomorrow, high in ninety with humidity and another
chance of isolated rain in the afternoon. Clear skies every night,
muggy in seventy one, and a decent chance of rain
on Saturday. They're saying it's also going to be hot,
going up to ninety one degrees. Seventy one degrees right now,

(27:38):
let's get a traffic updates from.

Speaker 3 (27:41):
The u SEE Health Traffic Center. You See Health has
expert traumacare focusing on prevention, treating injuries, and supporting long
term recovery and rehabilitation. Learn more at you see health
dot com. I'm seeing the fog clearing outs in a
little bit of sunshine this morning. An earlier Stall seventy
five northbounded I two seventy one I is just cleared
from the left shoulders. You moving a bit better here,

(28:03):
but do you have some pockets of heavy traffic like
an I seventy five south one Gaalworth Road to Paddock Road.
I'm Heather Pasco in fifty five krcing the talk.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
Station seven on a Thursday. Brian Thomas here with Citizen
Watchdog todds In's or check out his podcast. Citizen Watchdog
deals with a lot of the issues that we're going
through this morning. City Cincinnati focused issues. We talked earlier
about violence, We talked about the pension problem. We've got
a simple problem to solve. You just need to allocate

(28:32):
the money up front and sufficient quantities that you'll be
able to replenish the pension pursuing to the settlement agreement
from twenty fifteen by calendar year twenty forty five. I mean,
it sounds like you have forever to do this, but
it only gets worse. Still blows my mind now, which
leads me to the question before we get to mismanagement
and lack of accounty, lack of accountability from city leaders

(28:52):
on a variety of other areas, including like the fleet
fifty percent of which I guess is out of service,
maintenance up key prepares. Some of it needs to be replaced.
It's one of the reasons we had problem with snow removal,
fire trucks, all that kind of stuff. That's right so
another simple you know, yeah, gotta take care of it. Maintenance, upkeep,
and replacement is a simple function of government. It's a

(29:15):
known entity. Do you get the impression. And I asked
you this specifically, are they just asleep at the wheel
or are they dealing with something else that's a higher
priority for I mean from from their perspective for the
use of the city taxpayer dollars.

Speaker 2 (29:31):
Yeah. Well, the the agenda that that they carry out
is very progressive, all of these programs for you know,
the social programs, et cetera. They have a financial freedom
blueprint that I'm looking into that is just a variety
of things that they're funding. I think I think I
counted like eleven million dollars going into their financial freedom program.

Speaker 1 (29:54):
What the hell is financial freedom program?

Speaker 2 (29:57):
You It's it's hard to it's hard hard to believe.
But they have, like I don't know, twenty different things
they're working on to promote financial freedom of you know,
various segments of the population. What does that even mean?
Financial freedom? For example, they have appropriated money to give

(30:19):
to kids for savings accounts, right, they do things like that,
and I don't have the list with me, but it's
well wait a minute, I do have the list with me.
I'll give you an example, okay, all right, it's launch
a program to prevent eviction by supporting tenants with legal

(30:40):
services and emergency assistants. They're going to fund that at
a million dollars. That was a couple of years ago. Okay,
So those are those are the kind of things that
they do. They give. It's it. It follows a very
detailed analysis of you know, how the underserved populations be
came underserved, and how they're going to work out of that.

Speaker 1 (31:03):
All right, let me just walk through this logically if
I can. So you're out there in the world, you're
having a problem paying the rent. City of Cincinnati will
give you money to cover the hole you're in, So
you get your rent paid? Yes, then what about next month?
Unless you change that person's circumstance to where they have

(31:26):
a job and can afford to make enough money to
cover rent, then the problem is never going to go away.
You're just constantly providing handouts to folks who are dealing
with that circumstance.

Speaker 2 (31:36):
Right, And I don't really know exactly how they administer
the program, but.

Speaker 1 (31:41):
Oh like going back to the other programs, you don't
know how they administer.

Speaker 2 (31:44):
But they have a lot going on in that regard.
They have a lot going on with the financial freedom,
they have a lot going on with the Green Cincinnati Plan,
they have a lot going on with this alternative to
respond to a response.

Speaker 1 (32:02):
Crisis, rethink the police component.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
And that's all related to this Act for since And
they have all of these things going on, and you
really have to wonder whether any of them are working.
And they don't have the thing that bothers me the
most that there's no oversight in the city whatsoever.

Speaker 1 (32:18):
Right, there's no inspector general.

Speaker 2 (32:21):
Right, they have an internal audit manager, and I think
she's issued some a few good reports, but I also
don't think that the city council reads the reports and
the fleet the fleet audit, the audit of the city's
fleet is a prime example. She issued her audit on
the problems with the fleet in January of twenty four,

(32:43):
a year before this winter storm Blair, and had the
city council read the report or even this, I don't
even know if the city manager reads the report. Maybe
they could have taken care of some of this stuff.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
Well, I'm a little suspect on your conclusion, it is
maybe they could have taken care of this, and any
responsible elected official would have. But going back to their
you know, the settlement of the pension program, I mean
that is a settlement. There is an obligation, legal obligation

(33:19):
to fund it. They didn't do that, and I'm sure
they're all aware of that. So priorities. I think there's
a failure of priorities here on the Council. Seven forty
five one more with Todd Zenzer, with Ivan a few
more of these related issues after I mentioned Affordable imaging services.
Affordable men Imaging dot com is where you find them online.
It's where you get Echo cardogram's, MRIs, CT scans and

(33:41):
ultrasounds for thousands less, I mean thousands of dollars, saving
thousands of dollars for the exact same service hospital imaging
department will charge you, like to say, for a CT
scan five grand and climbing maybe you get a separate
bill for the radiologist report. No, I've done my set
the scans at Affordable Imaging Services four hundred and fifty

(34:02):
with no contrast six hundred with the contrast, and those
low prices come with the Board certified radiology support included,
so I've never had a problem. My doctor has never complained.
The images are again exactly like the hospital, just that
there's low overhead, and by keeping the overhead low, they
passed along these massive savings to you. Jeff, you're out there.
I know it. Every time I mentioned affordable imaging, he

(34:24):
sends me three smiley faces in an email because he
saved thirty one hundred dollars compared to the hospital imaging
department when he got his CT scan. So get it,
get a scan, Get it. Affordable Imaging Services. You have
an exercise, give a right to exercise your choice, So
exercise it five one three seven five three eight thousand,
seven five three eight thousand. Online you'll find them at
Affordable Medimaging dot com.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
Fifty five KRC.

Speaker 1 (34:53):
Chane nine first on one. Forecast sunny skyes today if
you isolated showers and storms may pop up later today.
Eighty six will be our highest mandy overnight with clear
skies ninety to height. Tomorrow it'll also be very humid
and a chance of isolated rain in the afternoon. Clear overnight,
muggy and seventy one and a good chance of rain.
They say for Saturday, it's going all the way up
to ninety one on Saturday. Right now, it's seventy one

(35:14):
in ty for traffic from the.

Speaker 3 (35:17):
U See Health Traffic Center. You See Health has expert
traumacare focusing on prevention, treating injuries, and supporting long term
recovery and rehabilitation. Learn more at you seehealth dot com.
Traffic is heavy and slow. We've got some backups on
I seventy five northbound between Buttermill Pike and Twelfth Street.
It's also slow on I four seventy one northbound between

(35:37):
Bellevue and I seventy one. I'm Heather Pasco on fifty
five krc.

Speaker 2 (35:42):
The talk station.

Speaker 1 (35:50):
Seven fifty fifty five KRCB talk station speaking of crime
in the Greaterston Saidy area. Aaron Winer is going to
He's the Clifton Community Council, also running for council as
a charter Right about the street takeover incident that's going
to take place. After the top of the R News,
then we'll hear from Jay Ratliff, closed out in a
real positive note with our iHeartMedia aviation expert. Nothing positive

(36:13):
on our discussion and all the discussion has been a
wonderfully enlightening one Todd Zenzer in studio. He's our citizen
watchdog going through what I would argue failure of priorities
by the decision making on council and the mayor went
through quite a few of these. You mentioned the sidewalk repair. Yes,
obviously we have a huge infrastructure problem in the city.

(36:34):
I had the railway wave. Money was supposed to generate
sufficient revenue to handle the roads and existing infrastructure. We
still have a pothole problem. I don't know they've ever
repaved Sunset had to get that in there. But sidewalk
repair now is sidewalk repair. This is something that they
allocated money for.

Speaker 2 (36:52):
Yes, they've started a pilot program on sidewalk repair, funded
at one hundred thousand dollars, which and again the way
that the way it works is people calling to complain
about their neighbor's sidewalks, right, and the city goes out
and evaluates and they give it a grade of good, fair,

(37:15):
and condemned. Right, So if you're fair, you need to
fix it, but we're not going to order you to
fix it. But if it's condemned, you're ordered by the
city to fix it.

Speaker 1 (37:26):
The sidewalk is the property owner's responsibility.

Speaker 2 (37:28):
That's that's the way the municipal code reads right now.

Speaker 1 (37:31):
Yes, interesting, even though the property owner didn't build the
sidewalk in the first place, the city built it.

Speaker 2 (37:35):
That's that's right.

Speaker 1 (37:37):
Okay, but you got to pay for it yourself.

Speaker 2 (37:40):
That's right. And so I guess one of the members
of council got complaints or somebody gave her a good
idea to use railway money to fix the sidewalks. So
that's what she wants to do. And then the Vice
mayor jumps in and she joins the UH. She joins
the effort, but for only for the rising fifteen neighborhoods,

(38:01):
So this is going to be limited to the to
seven neighborhoods identified by the UH. The DOTE the Department
of Transportation. And the thing is that that the department
already has a sidewalk repair program and it's they they
you know, they do take care of like the gutters
and the and the curves and things like that, and

(38:24):
the property owner takes care of the sidewalks themselves. So
it's a kind of a joint effort. And if you
go back and look at the list of the four
hundred million dollars in deferred maintenance that the city generated
during the campaign. Although I've never seen four hundred million.
I've seen two hundred and fifty. Residential sidewalks are not

(38:45):
on that list. So we have another four hundred million
dollars worth of infrastructure to take care of. Why would
we add to that by taking on the responsibilities that's right?

Speaker 1 (38:58):
Now, Well, it's the same thing as paying rent for
people who can't pay the rent. Right, Yes, if I
can't pay the rent, I'm sure as hell can't afford
to pay, they have my sidewalk replaced.

Speaker 2 (39:08):
That's right. So it, as you mentioned, it's a matter
of priorities. But it seems to me that we should
be tackling that four hundred million dollars before we take
on additional and it would it would be about two
million dollars if we were to fix If the city
were to fix every condemned sidewalk in the city, which
they say is about seven hundred and fifty a year,

(39:28):
it'd be about two million dollars a year. The average
cost they say for repairing sidewalks is twenty five hundred bucks.

Speaker 1 (39:36):
All right, Let I mean, I guess a couple of
questions on that. They also have hundreds and hundreds of
road miles that they're supposed to be repairing each and
every year. They have the money that's supposed to be
allocated for that, but they don't stay on top of it.
They keep getting further and further behind. So even if
they said, all right, here's two million dollars we're going

(39:57):
to allocate toward repairing the sidewalks, that doesn't mean that
they are actually going to get repaired in any given
calendar year.

Speaker 2 (40:02):
That's right, Just like the extra money that we're going
to get for the rail sale, there's no guarantee that
they're going to have the capacity to spend it. I mean,
the city staff is only so big. They're contracting capabilities
or only so much. They can only do so much
in a period of time, and so the city council
member she wants to come in and add to their workload.

(40:23):
Even the city manager, she wrote a memo about all this,
even she pointed out that, well, you know, if we
do this sidewalk repair program that these council members are
talking about, we're not going to be able to do
the other part of our program or it's going to
impact our ability to do that, but the council members
don't care. They think that we have limited staff resources,

(40:44):
and they just pile it on.

Speaker 1 (40:48):
Todd Zenzer shining a bright light on the I would
argue dysfunction since a city council and the mayor. Well,
I'm not going to solve all these problems today, but
thankfully Todd has been identifying them. It seems to be
that some of them are rather easy to ident or
to fix if they prioritize properly and put aside their
pet projects behind the scenes that they seem to be
more broadly focused on. Todd, You're a blessing to our community.

(41:10):
I can't thank you enough for the work that you
do watching out for these things and reporting regularly on
your Facebook page and your Citizen Watchdog podcast. Folks, bookmark
that one and make sure you check out what Todd
has to say. Todd, I'll look forward to having you
back in studio soon.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
I'd love to be here. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
I know you're going to have another unlimited list of
things to talk about. Seven fifty five fifty five kr
S the talk station we're in here from Aaron Winer
from the Clifton Community Council on the street takeover incident.
He'll join the program after the news, follow by Jay Ratliffe.
I sure hope he can stick around. Still be called
the twelve Day War. I suppose that's what we were
nicknaming it already. Another update at the top of the hour,

(41:46):
the use of military force fifty five Karez the talk station.

Speaker 2 (41:52):
This report is sponsored