Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's definitely.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
It's a good day today to be in Florida day.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
What's good for us? A good story to tell?
Speaker 3 (00:07):
Check in throughout the day. I'm having to do a
good KQ.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Fifty five krc D talk station. Jato sticks right now
at the five KRCD talk station. A very happy Friday
to you. Bron Thomas always pleads to see sitting across
the studio table here inch video Todd zens Er. He's
the Citizen Watchdog and I can't encourage you enough to
subscribe to Todd Zenser's podcast, Citizen Watchdog. You'd be glad
(00:36):
you did. He stays on top of all things going
on in the city of Cincinnati, specifically former Inspector General
for the United States of America. So he's got some
great skills. He knows how to crunch numbers, he knows
how to interpret documents, and he knows when pomises have
been broken. He also knows how to file information request
to insist that our elected officials in the city actually
produce the documents that they're supposed to produce. And of
(00:57):
course we'll let us all know when they haven't done
work that they promised to do. We've got a specific
illustration of that here this morning. Welcome back, Todd Zenzer.
It's great to have you in the studio.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
Yay, thank you, Brian, good to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
I know you were listening to my conversation with Brandon Nixon,
who's running for council. He seems like a pretty decent guy.
But pivoting over to one of the topics we of
course dealt with, and one that's been on everybody's lips,
of course, crime in downtown Cincinnati. We're struggling with a
couple of issues going on here, the optics. I think
(01:28):
from everyone I've talked to, from the chief or from
the the FOP president, to specific police officers, to individuals
like Sarah Herringer and Brandon Nixon who lives in the city.
Of course, I mean, everyone says the crime is terrible,
that they witness it, that they hear it. Sarah talked
about hearing gunfire all the time, so much so that
(01:50):
became sort of jaded about it, just sort of desensitized
to it. Brandon said something along the same lines. I mean,
you can't tell the residents of the city Cincinnati the
crime is not a problem when they're living the real
experience of dealing with crime, property crime, break ins, many
of which aren't even reported to the police.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
But Mary, after that, Barball came out the other day
priority numbers one, two, and three public safety.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
You didn't believe him when he said that, did you?
Speaker 3 (02:17):
No?
Speaker 4 (02:17):
I didn't. And there's two reasons for that, Brian. One is,
just as you were suggesting, look at the real life
experiences of people living living here. But also last year
sometime maybe it was twenty twenty three, when the city
issued its latest green plan. He was interviewed by an
(02:42):
outfit called Governing, which is an online publication, and he
told them that every issue that crosses his desk he've
viewsed through two lenses. First is equity, then climate, and
try to reconcile that with public safety and being first, second,
(03:03):
and third priority. And they don't reconcile.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Well, if we could draw a correlation between the commission
of a crime and our carbon footprint going up, do
you think he might pay closer attention to a Todd.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
That might be the only way to get his attention, Brian.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Well, maybe we can address that in terms of gunfire,
because of course gunfire is going to produce carbon and
other particulate matter that's actual pollutants in going to the environment.
So maybe he should be all over the gun problem
in the cities Cincinnati.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
And I guess the thing that strikes me is that
it's just a rhetoric.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
It's just it's just exactly what does that mean? Yeah,
for one city, one you know, sort of medium sized
city in the Grand United States. I mean, we've we've
done these conversations about global warming, climate change, and our
carbon reduction hasn't done, Jack squat because India and China
keep ramping up more and more every year. How in
the hell is the city of Cincinnati gonna impact the
(04:00):
global climate?
Speaker 4 (04:02):
Yeah, So he went on with governing, and he went
on to say that the in fifty years, the cities
that got these two issues right are the ones that
are going to prosper And I put on my blog
that this guy is in La La Land.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
I mean it's it's really kind of you know, magical
thinking type stuff.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Well, it sounds like magical thinking coming out of some
of these college degrees, the programs for you know, the
yoga lgbt Q yoga or something, and get agree in
that and it doesn't serve anybody's purpose. But they do
talk in this this this jargon that doesn't make any sense. Right,
He's sort of stuck in that loop of spitting out
words that people use all the time. Equity, diversity, climate,
(04:51):
that's substance to that.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
If you read his State of the City speeches and
and things like that, they're lace with all all of
those terms and all of that language.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Okay, So if you're on the West End, which is
dealing with gun violence, and you know people unloading magazines
into crowds, you've heard Corey Bowman talk about that because
he's a West End resident. Talk to the people that
live in the West End. They'll tell you the same thing.
If you're out there and you have a choice when
you move on into November, there are other options out
there beyond mayor aftab Provoll and the current council makeup.
(05:28):
How does the message from aftab Provoll in that State
of the City or that comment back from twenty twenty three.
He views everything through equity and climate lens first and foremost.
How do those words connect with someone who's living this
experience we're talking about. I mean, I think I know
the answer to the question, but more fundamentally, it defies
(05:50):
logic and reason that anybody in the city would vote
for someone given that that's his priorities.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
Yeah, there's no connection between the crime issue and the
issues of climate and equity. They will say, uh, well,
they according to their Green Cincinnati Plan, there are five
different types of equity. Can't I can't repeat them right
now because I don't remember them. But you know, there
there there is a issue with race in the city.
(06:20):
And I think there are underserved neighborhoods certainly, and there
are people that have social needs that the that the
government is going to help with. But if you if
you try to say that a program like Act for Sincy,
where we're we're paying nonprofits to engage with the public
on different, you know, different little community activities, if you
(06:41):
think that is public safety and law enforcement and crime reduction,
people just don't believe that.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Well, I think most everyone will agree, except for the
friends who just literally hate the police and I suppose
don't mind crime in their neighborhood. I wonder how much
that Act for Sincy program, in terms of dollars allocated,
what that would translate into if they spent that money
on additional police officers, lateral hires or future classes. I
mean after the violent beatdown, the mayor came out and
(07:11):
pledged two million dollars to hire additional police officers. Well,
two million dollars is not a whole lot of money
when you're talking about needing one hundred and fifty officers.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
That's right, And therein lies is kind of the lie
Brian because if public safety was the priority, the deficit
of police officers has to be your number one focus,
and you don't see any large attempts or large efforts
(07:42):
to start hiring if it was his first and second
and third priority. If public safety was his first, second
and third priority, then when he came in as as
a mayor, he would have set a full contingent of
police officers as a priority. But instead he hires Iris
Rowley as his consultant.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Right out of the gate, right out of the gate.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
A month after he gets sworn in.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
And for those who don't remember Iris Rolli goes all
the way back to the collaborative agreement, what from two
thousand and one, and she has been an agitator and
an anti police activist, I mean the whole entire time. Yes,
and She's the one that most recently was interfering with
officers doing their job in terms of law Enforcement's on
video doing that on video, Todd, She's on video violating
(08:32):
the law. There is a law against interfering with police business.
Now I know, there's also apparently a law in the
book that's a fourth degree misdemeanor for slapping someone in public.
And so the black community, I guess, came out, at
least leaders within the black community, not that they represent
everybody like Damon Lynch. For example, Irish Rolli, I believe,
was among them, demanding that that man get issued an
(08:54):
rest warrant for misdemeanor fourth degree. The city solicitor forced
the police department to issue that charge, right, don't know
how that works. Maybe you can explain that. So how
about we pivot over and we insist that the city
solicitor forced the police to issue a citation to Iris Rawley.
Wouldn't that make sort of sense under the circumstances.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
Yeah, you know. Unfortunately, the FOP actually filed a complaint
against her for some public comments she made where she
used racial racial terms, and the city solicitor, again, who
looked at that issue, decided that she wasn't on duty,
or it wasn't related to her work with the city
(09:34):
or something like that, And it just shows you how
biased they are and they're going to protect the people
that are supporting them well.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
For whatever reason, Iris Rawley carries a lot of weight
in certain areas of the City of Cincinnati. Those certain
areas are made up of voters.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
You wouldn't want to rub Iris Rawley the wrong way
by following the law or insisting on property decorum. Because
while she might go out in the world and say, listen,
you've got forty six people choose from, don't vote for
this one, this one, this one.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
That's exactly that's a name in it, that's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Yeah, that's a lot of money those non governmental organizations
are soaking up going for the same purpose. More with
Citizen Watchdog Todds in or at eight sixteen right now
fifty five KRCD Talk station, fifty five krc dot com.
Here's your channel nine first one. A lot of forecast
got a mostly the part mostly cloudy, a partly sunny day,
variably cloudy eighty four for the high few clouds over night.
(10:28):
Sixty six got a partly cloudy dat tomorrow eighty six,
partly cloudi overy night sixty two and a high at
eighty on Sunday, no humidity and partly cloudy sky sixty five.
Right now, it's time for traffic.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
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Found seventy one slows a bit above two seventy five
towards fighter stop found seventy five. Break lights continue in
and out of northbound seventy five. Just about back up
to speed through the cut. Chuck Ingram on fifty five KRC,
The Talk Station.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
A twenty Here fifty five KRC The Talk Station, Happy Friday.
Brian Thomas with in studio Todd Zinzer. Citizen Watchdog is
the podcast you got to subscribe to. Todd like the
conversation we're having today. He talks about these kind of
issues all the time, and going back to the crime,
there's been a lot of concern and claims that part
(11:29):
of the problem was the eradication. I was a District five,
right right, okay, And I think Ken Kober even made
this point on my program, but I've heard it elsewhere.
Now this my understanding is, it's the concern about the
elimination of District five or the reality is response times.
If you guys send an officer from District what is
(11:50):
it three all the way over to the formerly District
five area, that's going to take some time. And especially
with a limited number of police officers that are on
duty at any given moment in time, there's a compounding factor.
So is there information out there as to what response
times are? Have they gotten worse since they eliminated District five?
(12:10):
What do you know anything about this?
Speaker 4 (12:12):
Toime? Well, at the beginning of the year, when we
had all these shootings in East and West Price Hill,
and I sent a letter to the city council. One
of the things I asked about was whether they had
done any evaluation of this redistricting, of the consolidation of
these districts. And I was told by one of the
members of city council after the meeting that they had
(12:34):
asked for that and it's coming soon. That was in
January of twenty twenty five, and so when Patrick Herringer
got murdered and we had to beat down downtown and
we had the drive by shooting, I wanted to know, again,
have we looked at the evaluation of the consolidation. So
(12:58):
I put a request in for any kind of evaluation
and I did get a response. It was a thirteen
page PowerPoint presentation and it was dated just a couple
of days ago, and the data inside the inside the
PowerPoint slide deck, they only had two pages of data.
(13:20):
It basically said that things hadn't changed, but they didn't
do an analysis of the geographic area of District five
before and the geographic area of District five after, even
though it had been the district had been changed, and
instead of doing that analysis, they did a citywide analysis
(13:42):
and they did it for the new data is only
only three months. So a year and a half later
we get a report a year and a half after the
promise was made. Yes, that's argue that they're going to
do this and that they eliminate the district. That's right,
and it basically says that it hasn't gotten worse. That
was basically their conclusion. It hasn't gotten worse. With three
(14:03):
months worth of data and it's stale. You can't issue
You shouldn't be issuing a report dated August eighteenth, twenty
twenty five, based on data dated twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
It doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
No, it's not helpful.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
It's apples in orders comparison.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
It's not it's not helpful. You need current data.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
It makes you wonder. I mean, I would like to think,
although I couldn't definitively say that that type of information
from the moment nine to one one is called to
the moment a police officer arrives on the scene. That's
easily accessible information, and it's information. You would think that
the police chief or the police department generally speaking, would
(14:47):
be keeping in essence real time. Yes they do, they do.
I just didn't hand it over to council I or.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Did and and this analysis for example, they spend a
lot of time explaining how complex response time calculations are,
and they don't want to calculate from the minute it
comes into the emergency communications center. They want to count
(15:15):
response time from the time that the police get the
call to go to this.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Well, that's ridiculous because if there is a significant gap
in time between when the call comes in when the
police learn about it. That's a failure in the system
that they should be identifying.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
It's part of the problem. If I'm at home and
I call nine to one one, I don't care whether
the delay has from the between the dispatch and the
police department or because the police officer's got to drive
fifteen minutes to get to my neighborhood.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
That's right, That's exactly right. So this analysis worthless. Yeah,
I wouldn't. It doesn't get a passing grade.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Now you can ball it up and start the fire
with it. Just thing for your grill over the weekend.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
And there's also an error in here that I thought
was very amusing. Even on the two pages of data
that they provided, they get they get the date wrong.
They say that they say that the analysis period is
from August fourteen, twenty twenty three to February ten, twenty
twenty three. Obviously a typo, but kind of kind of sloppy.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Kinda it's illustrative of the value of that Document's eight
twenty five right now more with Todd Zinzer again. Citizen
Watchdog is the podcast you want to follow, So click
on that one. It's eight twenty five. Stick around right back.
This is fifty five krc an iHeartRadio Station Chane nine
first onenty one forecast mostly clouded to partly Sunday today
(16:42):
eighty four of the high. It's going to be a
few clouds overnight sixty six, the low eighty six I
high tomorrow, partly clotty overnight, partly cloudium sixty two, and
then a high of eighty on Sunday with partly clotty
skies sixty five. Time for traffic.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
From the UCUP Traffic Center.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Nearly sixty percent of Americans waiting on an organ transplant
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Between two seventy five and fifer, the lay times have
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(17:18):
through Wachman northbound seventy five already clear through the cut.
Chuck Ingram on fifty five KRC he Talks Station, It's
a twenty nine Friday and a happy one to you.
Always enjoy my conversations. I hope you do too.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
With Todd's ends or our citizen watchdog is he follows
the antics of what goes on in the city of Cincinnati.
As I mentioned, they don't like to see you coming,
do they tie you and your demands for records and
asking for compliance with things that they've promised to us,
and your astute observations about reports that were put out
(17:54):
after you ask for them, pursue it to a records
the man request backdated. Anyway, Let's stick with District five
for a minute, because there's an interesting component to the
eradicate or the elimination of District five, and an observation
you made off air that's worth bringing up. Just having
the presence of District five in its old location, you know,
(18:15):
right there in the heart of it all, with the
cops going in and out, they're established physical presence there. Oh. Look,
there's the police department district right there. That in and
of itself has a profound effect on unimpacting crime and
reducing crime.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
I believe that's the case. Brian, and they had actually
identified two locations for a headquarters. One was in College
Hill and one was in Clifton along Central Parkway at
the bottom of the hill. There was something called the
Pimit Center, which I'm not familiar with, but they they
were going to spend nine million dollars on that, or
(18:52):
fourteen or fifteen million dollars for a new facility in
College Hill. Okay, that got all scrapped.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
It did. And here's the thing that I found interesting
as you were relaying the behind the scenes facts about this.
Seventeen million dollars. That's the number. That's the figure that
the council identified. And you told me that they actually
had bonds issued for that.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
Yeah, they issued bonds back in twenty seventeen, seven million
dollars worth.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
So we got the seven million, Yes, and it was
supposed to go to District five headquarters. Yes, well, we're
paying debt service on the bonds we got.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Right, Well probably, yeah, I haven't.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Where'd the money go? Todd Zinzer?
Speaker 4 (19:27):
Yeah, Well, unfortunately they did have a hill slide on
Columbia Parkway that was an emergency, and I haven't gone
back and looked at how much money they had back then,
but they took that money for the District five headquarters
and they applied it instead to the hillside and then
they never went back and replenished the capital account for the.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Headquarters, so suggesting one they didn't have anything by way
of even a several million dollar rainy day fund that
they could tap into to deal with an emergency like
Columbia Parkway collapsing. They had to take money that they borrowed.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Yes, for the headquarters. They borrowed the money. They didn't
have even the seven million dollars that they borrowed in
the form of issuing bonds.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
Yeah, it was part of some kind of finance plan
for the headquarters. They needed to fill a gap, I guess,
but all of that was scrapped.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
How much money does the city take in in terms
of tax revenue every year? Is their what is their
baseline budget? Well, before the railroad, you know, I GEA,
they've got compound.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
They've got an operating a budget, and they've got a
capital budget, and they're both about a billion dollars one
thousand million. Yeah, and the operating budget has restricted funds
and general funds, and that split about half and half.
I believe, about five hundred thousand general funds, which made
(20:56):
you spend it on whatever you want to spend it on.
In the restricted funds have strings attached to them.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Okay, but that's a sizeable amount of money we're talking
about here. So where is all the money going, todd sindser.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
It's going all over the place. Brian, Well, there's a
lot of money that goes into public safety. They do
spend a lot of money on public safety, police fire ems,
and I think that's part of the problem. I think
the current leadership looks at the amount of money that
they're spending and they think that's enough, when yeah, it's
a lot of money, but obviously it's not enough. And
(21:33):
that's one of their main priorities under the law is
to provide public safety.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
But its bridges infrastructure and public safety.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
Yeah, you know. I even suggested at one of the
budget hearings that they need to go to the solicitor
and say, Okay, tell me all the spending that I
must legally do under the law, under grant assurances, under contracts,
tell me how much all that totals up. And once
you get all that totaled up, then you start using
(22:04):
your money for a discretionary purpose.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Exactly. It's like home economics, yes, exactly, since you got
to pay the electric bill and the mortgage and your
car payment or whatever, the things that are you obligated
to pay first. And if you want to go on vacation,
let's just wait and find out after the obligations are
taken care of, if we have enough money left over
to do that.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
And so they have. They have four big deficits right now.
They have the pension liability, which is about eight hundred
forty million dollars. They've got this backlog of maintenance.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
We'll get to that in the next second.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
That's that's either four hundred or five hundred million. Whatever
campaign rhetoric you want to listen.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
To, I have to have inherited.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
The the you have the eighty million dollars to replenish
the fleet, and now you and this one was staring
us right in the face. The deficit of police officers. Yeah,
that's a lot of money.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
One hundred and fifty short.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
Yeah, So they have these four deficits, and that's what
they need to focus on if.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
They had their priorities in line. But then going back
to twenty twenty three, you know aftabs prior to priorities
are equity and climate. Yes, yeah, doesn't sound like that's
in one of those mandatory things the city needs to
be dealing with. First, Todd z Enser, it's a thirty
five right now, we'll continue with Todd talk a little
bit more about the well, all these subject matters we
(23:26):
can't get move. We are not done the four hundred
million dollars, though. We'll dive on into that, because that
one's got me really going this week. Todds Ensor, he
inherited it. Remember that the roads problem. So eight thirty
five fifty five k Citytoxtation, Okaway fifty five KRC the
talk station.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Cincinnati's original and most authentic Octoberfest has.
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All the time Jenedi w The poecasts variably clienty today
eighty four for the high of nine, partly fidy sky
sixty six, partly fid to tomorrow eighty six of night again,
partla fity with a little sixty two and a nice
eight agree high on Sunday with no humidity and a
few clouds. It's sixty five right now. Let's get an
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From the UCLP Traffic Center.
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Nearly sixty percent of Americans waiting on an organ transplant
are for multicultural communities. Give the gift of life, become
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Fan seventy five Delayed times have dropped under the five
minute mark. Crew Blacklin, shot Ingram and fifty five KR
SEA the talk station.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Hey, thirty nine to fifty five kr CD talk station.
Very Happy Friday to you. By time's to Todd Zinzer,
Citizen Watchdog. It's who he is, and that's the name
of his podcast. I can't encourage you enough to subscribe
to it. A brilliant man. He is former Inspector General
for the United States of America, now self appointed Inspector
General for the Shenanigans. It goes on in and each
and every day in downtown Cincinnati. We've identified some of
(25:00):
those Shenanigans. Let's pivot over to what I believe to
be a recognition of absolute incompetence, and I pointed out
a million times over the years, still on blue in
the face. You know, we elect people to have these
lofty positions, you know, whether they're congressmen or women, senators,
you know at the state or national council, people, mayors, governors.
(25:25):
We elect them, and I think some of us have
the perception that they know exactly what they're doing. And
I keep going back to the guy who thought Guam
was going to capsize, you put another building on it.
That's the quality and caliber of intellect of people we
elect to let to draft legislation or at least claim
to draft legislation over a multitude of areas out here
in the real world that they have absolutely no concept
(25:48):
of how it works. I mean, go ahead and pull
any person who's an elected capacity. Can you explain bitcoin
and blockchain and how that works? And could you sit
down and write legislation? Of course not you know works, No,
I'm not only have an electronics degree. Okay, So okay,
at least have to start with that base observation. They're
not God. They've got to rely on other people to
(26:10):
maybe do something. Fine, They've reached out to the general
public City of Cincinnati as an indication of something along
those lines, at least from my cap perspective. Turning to
the public for health with its growing pothole problem, offering
five thousand dollars to a team that could provide the
best innovative solution to prove the city's road repair system.
So we all know we're behind in road repairs. It's
(26:31):
regularly acknowledged by them. They have a minimum obligation every
year that they never meet of a certain number of
lane miles, which is how you get into the position
we're in, which is four hundred million dollars behind the
eight ball in terms of behind behind road repairs. Tod
am I right on that figure, or Russians.
Speaker 4 (26:48):
Well, it's it's deferred maintenance of the city's infrastructure, and
a very large percentage of that would be the roads.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Okay, and have to have inherited that. And I've made
the point of of points out all the mayors of
the city Cincinnati, going all the way back I think
past the nineteen nineties. The city's been run by Democrats
for that whole period of time, so he personally may
have inherited a problem, but the backlog comes from one
Democrat administration after another, year after year. That's right, okay,
(27:16):
So we got that covered. Now they've asked for help
out here in the real world, if you have, if
you want five thousand dollars, figure out a better way
to fix the potholes. Isn't that just like I said
in acknowledgment, that they don't know what the hell they're.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
Doing, Well, I think it's just all pr But it's
bad PR. Oh, it's terrible. And you know, if I
was in charge of the city's dot their transportation apartment,
those yeah, those guys are they know what they're doing
and they just need the resources to do it, and
(27:49):
they're going to have to. You know, one of the
whole things about the railroad money is whether the city
even has the capacity to spend all that money. Do
they have either the staff on on hand, the trucks.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
On all so much like the police situation, you know,
the solution to the problem, Okay, if the solution right
now with one hundred and fifty fewer officers is to
pay the officers that currently are on the force a
whole bunch of money in overtime. That's to put bodies
on the ground to cover the spaces where we don't
have officers, putting dot folks out on the streets twenty
(28:26):
four to seven to fill potholes and fix roads that
would be the solution to the problem. But you're saying,
probably don't have enough dot folks out there working. Yeah,
and you have the equipment that's all broken down, that's.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
Right, and the material and all that you have to
you have to have all that in order to do
all the maintenance that they are saying that they need
to do. And it's the same thing with the police.
Why are we sitting back on our heels when we've
known for six or seven years that we have a
deficit in police officers.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
And you know what, we could solve that at no time.
Do you see what ice did? What do they do?
Bonuses did there there? Yeah, I have a fifty thousand
dollars signing bonus plus eradication of up to sixty thousand
dollars with the student debt. Now, obviously that will put
a financial strain on an already strained budget in the
City of Cincinnati, but I'm sure they could find some
money to offer bonuses. You could probably fill those hundred
(29:15):
and fifty spots with lateral hires given the benefits that
you get as an officer as well. In despite of
the fact that the pension's underfunded. That's a separate.
Speaker 4 (29:24):
Well, the police pension is.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Okay, okay, glad you brought that up.
Speaker 4 (29:27):
Yeah, the police and fire pensions are doing fine as
far as I can tell. It's the it's the regular
city employees, the people that are out there filling a
potholes that their pension system is underfunded.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
But I guess my only point is if you want
to close the gap in a very short period of time,
it seems to me the dangling carrot of monetary incentive would.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
Do the job.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
So, you know, just as they eliminated, you know, the
headquarters for District five, at the same time they'll give
money to pig Works to for their brick and mortar
facility in East Wallnut Hills. Artworks gets money, we get
a million dollars skate park. So you know, if they
want to tell us that public safety as their first, second,
(30:13):
and third priority, then that's they should make it their first, second,
and third priority.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
That's great. Todd's Inzer, always putting a fine point on it.
Eight forty five fifty five krs the Talk Station. One
more segment with Todd before we break for the weekend.
I hope you can stick around fifty five KRC.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
Ed, that's all right.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
One more look at the weather from Channel nine mostly
cloudy two, partly sunny, eighty four for the high. It's
down to sixty six overnight with a few clouds. Eighty
six are high tomorrow with partly cloudy skies, sixty two overnight,
partly clotting, and another partly clotty day on Sunday eighty
for the high and no humidity. It's sixty seven degrees
and it's time for final traffic chuck.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
From the UCL Tramphings Center.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Nearly sixty percent of Americans waiting on an organ transplant
from multicultural communities give the gift of life. Become an
organ donor or explorer living donation at you see health
dot COM's lasts transplant. Southbound seventy fives continues to run
close to an extra five minutes in it out of Lockland.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Everything else much improved. The last of the slow.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
Traffic on southbound seventy one approaches Red Bank southbound two
seventy five slow. Just submit at the care or proper
shot King ram on fifty five KRC LEAD Talk station.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Eight forty eight fifty five kr C DE Talk station.
Wrap it up a Friday here on a high nose.
Todd's inso Citizen Watchdog in studio again. One more plea
to subscribe to Todd's podcast, Citizen Watchdog. You'd be glad
you did.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
You've been a lifelong West Price sal native. I understand, yes,
born and raised orn Ray, So I'm not going to
give away your age, but you decades, but boils it down.
You've been there decades, seen the neighborhood.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
Change it all over those decades, don't Well, I've been there,
but I also left and came back, and when I returned,
it was really shocked what had happened to this.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
It's amazing what moving away, dude, One isn't because you
were at BC for a long time.
Speaker 4 (32:05):
Yes, and you know it's very comfortable being here, having
you know, grown up here. But there are quality of
life issues all over the place, at least on our
side of town in East Price Sell West Price Hill,
and there's a there's a social contract between the city
government and the people that live here that we are
(32:27):
going to have a quality of life that doesn't involve crime,
and it doesn't involve drug addicts and a litter all
over the streets, and the city's just not just not
doing it.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Well, they're not interested in that. No. And you had
a recent town hall meeting over in uh on the
West Side.
Speaker 4 (32:44):
Yeah, we had a We have a meeting every month,
and this past month we had a new resident show up.
They had just moved from Orlando, Florida, and they lived
they bought a place in West Pryce Sill and they
love the house. It's a very cool street. It's got
a lot of nice homes on it. But she's got
(33:06):
buyer's remorse because of all the quality of life issues.
And she she was very very articulate about her concerns.
She identified Price Hill and West Price Hill. It's like,
this place is beautiful, the homes, it's proximity to downtown.
But we've established all these, for example, social services over
(33:28):
on the west side, and we even had the police
they attend the meeting. They even acknowledge that, yes, there
are people that come to the West Side of Cincinnati
from hundreds of miles around to take advantage of all
the social services that we have in our community. One
of those, for example, there's all along Glomley Avenue. There
(33:51):
are social service providers, so that that results in unhoused
people sleeping in the business uh doorways, and really there's
drug addicts walking up and down the street, panhandlers on
many corners. And that's the way it is, and it
shouldn't be that way. And it wasn't that way when I,
(34:12):
when you and I were growing up.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
The not at all. And you know, I mean that
area around like for example, Elder High School, there's some beautiful,
beautiful homes, all well maintained, the yards were all gorgeous,
and yeah, I mean this this is not a color
of skin type of thing. This is just whether someone
cares and has any concern whatsoever about the residence in
which they live.
Speaker 4 (34:33):
Right, and the city just wants to keep keep moving
forward in the same same game plan.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
Well, and the game plan includes more group homes. This
is taking private residences and sort of moving a bunch
of people in it. That's right on the taxpayer dollar.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
That's right. The people buy these homes.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
Groups, I mean, are these corporate entities that are gathering
up homes And these are both both. It's like the
old slum lord. You know, you have an apartment building, you
turn into section eight housing and then you move back
to New York or run it from wherever city are
out of it.
Speaker 4 (35:07):
And in the case of these group homes, these are
people that have had you know, they've been in the system,
so to speak, for one reason or another, and they're
transitioning back to normal society and they group them in
these homes, and the cities, the neighbors have nothing to
say about it. It falls through the cracks or the
(35:30):
regulations aren't enforced.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
So if I can draw a loose parallel much in
the same way, let's say in the well helled neighborhood
of Hyde Park, where the city council and the mayor
ignored what they wanted by way of zoning changes. The
residents of West Price Hill and other areas where this
is going on, their desires have been overlooked by counsel
(35:56):
and people who were responsible for implementing this group home policy.
No question about it, no questions anybody who is a
home owner in any neighborhood if you know that one
of those homes in your neighborhood is going to be
in essence, it's I don't know if the word transient
is appropriate, but you're talking about temporary residents who do
not own property, have no connection with it, are not
(36:19):
from that given neighborhood, don't have any sort of loyalty
to the neighborhood. It just happens to be the house
where they were parked thanks to government officials.
Speaker 4 (36:27):
That's right. And you know, we know that people need
a second chance and they need to you know, reinsert
themselves into the community. But this seems this seems extreme.
This doesn't seem like there's not much consideration for the
neighborhood or the people that are living in the neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Well, seems extreme. I don't think that's a strong enough
word to use. You have lived there for with the
exception of your time in DC decades. It is extreme,
isn't it.
Speaker 4 (36:59):
Well, yes, it is a extreme. It is extreme for
the West Side. And you know, again, you don't want
to throw people to the side. You just want to
do things within a normal, regulated environment, and I don't
think we have that with these types of transition homes.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
Well, I'm going back to your common and connected communities,
and you know Brandon Nixon's comment earlier, I don't want
connected communities in my neighborhood. I want to be able
to decide the fate of my neighborhood. This is analogous
to that one size fits all, you will accept that
we are going to do what we want to do
and it sucks to be you.
Speaker 4 (37:36):
Yeah. The the other thing that people are concerned about
with the group homes, and not that there's any comparison,
you know, but are are any of these people in
these group homes? Are they other Mordecai blacks? For example?
I mean that guy was a parole or a post release.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
Of this guy who cut his ankle bracelet off and
murdered Patrick Patrick Herringer.
Speaker 4 (38:01):
Yeah, how many? Sarah's put out some data about how
many of those folks are present in the county and
it's pretty shocking how many people are out there.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
You know, maybe we need a registration as sex offenders
have to register so you know where they are.
Speaker 4 (38:21):
That's what I think.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
Okay, well, maybe there's a solution. You don't get five
thousand dollars for coming up with a solution that Todd's
endser work on the potholes, all right, use the extra money, Todd.
It is a pleasure as always having you in studio.
I can't thank you enough for the work that you
do on behalf of the city. It's all done in
good faith. It's all above board. It's all in the
name of keeping our elected officials honest, and you are
(38:42):
a true asset to the residents of the city. Todd,
to keep up the great work and again subscribe to
Citizen watch Dog. You can find the podcast wherever you
get it. We'll have you on again real soon.
Speaker 4 (38:51):
Todd. All right, thank you, Brian.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
I have a wonderful weekend. Eight fifty six. Folks. If
you didn't get a chance to listen early in the program,
Tech Frida, but Dave Hatter, Brandon Nixon, he's running for counts. Well,
he's got enough signatures and he sounds like a really
solid guy. He's been on before. And of course this conversation.
If you five krs dot com share it with your friends.
Show Strecker executive producer. God bless you for all that
you do, and everyone, have a wonderful weekend. Be back
(39:13):
on Monday with Christopher Smithaman a Monday Monday, don't go
away Comback's next news happens fast, stay up to date.
At the top of the hour, you're moving very quickly
at fifty five KRC the talk station.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
This report