Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, let's jump over to the Legacy Retirement Group
dot com phone line and check in with former mayoral
candidate for the City of Columbus.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
It's Joe Motil. Joe, good morning, How are you my friend?
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Hey, good morning, Mike. Appreciate the opportunity absolutely.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Joe is probably one of the only Democrats that will
agree to come on and talk to us on sixth
hand old UTVN. Joe's one of the good guys. He's
a common sense guy. We enjoy getting his perspective. And
you were the first person I thought of, Joe when
I read yesterday that Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther is intending
(00:34):
to run for a fourth term. That is not until
twenty twenty seven, so we're two years out. But he's
got some campaign fundraisers starting to raise some cash. You
ran against him a couple of years. I mean, he
just simply outspent you. And I saw a note from
you saying that we in Columbus cannot survive another term
of Mayor Andy Ginther.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Why is that?
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Yeah, I mean it's I mean, just in the last
eighteen month since he was re elected, you know, our
housing crisis continues to escalate. Regardless of Ginther's policy changes,
homelessness and evictions are continuing to be increased. And you know,
it's funny I have to say this, but just an
hour ago, the Columbus Dispatch released a story and Mayor
(01:18):
Ginther was just one of five finalists for what's called
the twenty twenty five Golden Padlock Award. And it recognizes
the most secretive public agency or official in the United States.
And this is done by an investigative reporters and editors
National Journalism Association. And this is due to Ginther's lying
(01:39):
about the cyber security breach. And you know, he told
reporters that stolen data was released online it was encrypted,
and that it was encrypted or corrupted and unusable. And
then hours later the whistleblower said, no social security numbers,
driver's license, all kinds of things were released in this
and so you'll have to take a look at that
(02:01):
sometime today. But it's sad but true, a little comical.
But you know, we all know what happened with that.
And so as I stated too, I mean, he distorted
the facts regarding the severity of this data breach, and
his whole political career has been just laced with concealing
the truth.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Well, with regard to the data breach, real quick, Joe Moto,
a former candidate for the city of mayoral candidate for
the City of Columbus, he said that the data had
no value. He tried to sweep that under the rug,
Joe and make it go away, and it was far
worse than he ever said. And you know, I don't
know if that's the bigger issue or the fact that
(02:40):
the city was ill prepared to even handle that. We
didn't have the proper funding allocated for the city's IT
department to prevent that sort of cyber attack.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
That to me is the bigger issue.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I mean, lying about it, lying about the severity of
it's one thing, But how about preventing it to.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Start with exactly? You know. And I talked to a
former technology employee with one of our local suburbs who
worked there for over thirty years, and she told me,
she said, the department of Technology in these in you know,
municipal departments, it's probably the least concern of or least
funded of any of the departments within those municipalities. So
(03:19):
I guess it really doesn't surprise me much. And I
could imagine that some of those Department of Technology employees
were probably begging for money, saying, look, you know, you
need to give us more money. This is you know,
this isn't working. Something's going to happen, and sure enough,
this is this is the result of it.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
What was the story You mentioned this briefly a couple
of years ago, there was a campaign staffer that was
being forced to work illegally on his campaign, resulting into
on almost two hundred thousand dollars city paid legal settlement
settlements of this person.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
What's the story of that with that?
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Yeah, you know, and that's interesting too because that actually
came up during my election and it wasn't released until afterwards.
Of course, the fact that this was in the courts
and that this particular woman was an executive assistant to
the mayor and his campaign staff was forcing her to work,
allegedly forcing her to work on this campaign and not
(04:16):
being paid for it, and it resulted in a one
hundred and ninety five thousand dollars city paid legal settlement,
and she actually she's left the city. And but again,
you know, this is just one more thing that happened
during my campaign, along with the fact that Judge Mingo
did not release Ginther's name as the person who spoke
to the to her in regards to the greyhound bus terminal.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Yeah, let's get to that's where does that sit and
give us give us our audience a quick refresher course
on the greyhound bus.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
So, Zach Klein hired Brad Nicodemus, who's the city attorney
at for the City of Whitehall, which is their go
to guy in terms of hiring somebody who's who is
not affiliate with the City of Columbus as an attorney.
Somebody is supposed to be independent. And Nicodemus found that
(05:07):
Ginther did nothing wrong basically, so he was let fore,
you know, no problem, and so you know it just
it continues. It's like, Okay, well, I don't have anything
to worry about. I can continue to do these kind
of things. And that's exactly what he's been doing and
you know, continues to do throughout his career. I mean,
his whole political career is laced with concealing the truth.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
You remember the red Flex red light camera scandal when
he was in.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Council, absolutely, I remember it.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
I mean, he and Zach Klein got away with that.
I mean, they threw John Rafael under the bus in
that situation, and nobody talked about that.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
It was just like nothing to see here.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Rayfield did jail time for that red flex taking the
pay for play paid a play issue with the red
light cameras, which the city no longer has.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
But it goes back to those days, Joe.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Oh, yeah, Well, actually goes clear back to his being
on the school board and there was a data scrubbing
scandal with the school board back when he was there,
and he was the head of a committee. Whistleblower approached
him and said told him what was going on, and
they looked into it for about a couple months and
that was it. And I was brushed under the rug.
(06:15):
And then all of a sudden years later, they find out,
you know, the person was telling the truth and this
was going on, and I think it was Jane Harris
lost her job resigned, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Yeah, it's every turn for Andrew Ginther is just riddled
with lies and deceit. And since you mentioned Zach Klein,
who's more disappointed that Andy's running for governor? You or
Zach er mayor my apologies, mayor?
Speaker 3 (06:41):
You know, I think Klein probably was affecting this. I
honestly wasn't. And but I know Zach Kline is going
to run. I mean, there's no doubt in my mind.
I'd be willing to bet the house on that because
he's raised over eight hundred thousand dollars already and it's
not to run for city attorney again. I doubt if
you're even have an opponent. I'd be shocked if he does.
(07:02):
But and I know several people who have actually sat
down and spoken to Zac, so he's I I would
be shocked if he does not run.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Yeah, it's going to be an interesting couple of years
to watch this campaign unfold.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
And I got to ask you, Joe, are you going
to run again?
Speaker 3 (07:20):
You know, it's like I said, I, I'm kind of
just in a wait and see mode. In politics, you
never say never. And I mean, I can't imagine I
will not let Andy Ginther run unipposed. There's no way
that's not going to happen. The people of the city
of Columbus deserve, you know, somebody to run against him,
and somebody is knowledgeable about what's going on in city government,
(07:42):
not just somebody with a lot of money. He says yeah,
I'm going to put up a you know, run in
a race against Ginther. But you know, we need people
who truly understand and care about the city of Columbus
as opposed to just taking care of the needs of
the rich and powerful. And you know that's it's never
going to change unless we get some But who's more
independent minded? I mean, Zach Klein's a good guy's doing
(08:03):
a good job as city attorney. But you know, once again,
he's part of the machine. And I don't see anybody
as part of the machine going to do, you know,
drastically change things within the city.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
It would begin their two point zero with Zach in there.
There's no doubt about it. And Joe, I appreciate the time.
We'll let you fly. Joe Motill
All right, let's jump over to the Legacy Retirement Group
dot com phone line and check in with former mayoral
candidate for the City of Columbus.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
It's Joe Motil. Joe, good morning, How are you my friend?
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Hey, good morning, Mike. Appreciate the opportunity absolutely.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Joe is probably one of the only Democrats that will
agree to come on and talk to us on sixth
hand old UTVN. Joe's one of the good guys. He's
a common sense guy. We enjoy getting his perspective. And
you were the first person I thought of, Joe when
I read yesterday that Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther is intending
(00:34):
to run for a fourth term. That is not until
twenty twenty seven, so we're two years out. But he's
got some campaign fundraisers starting to raise some cash. You
ran against him a couple of years. I mean, he
just simply outspent you. And I saw a note from
you saying that we in Columbus cannot survive another term
of Mayor Andy Ginther.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Why is that?
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Yeah, I mean it's I mean, just in the last
eighteen month since he was re elected, you know, our
housing crisis continues to escalate. Regardless of Ginther's policy changes,
homelessness and evictions are continuing to be increased. And you know,
it's funny I have to say this, but just an
hour ago, the Columbus Dispatch released a story and Mayor
(01:18):
Ginther was just one of five finalists for what's called
the twenty twenty five Golden Padlock Award. And it recognizes
the most secretive public agency or official in the United States.
And this is done by an investigative reporters and editors
National Journalism Association. And this is due to Ginther's lying
(01:39):
about the cyber security breach. And you know, he told
reporters that stolen data was released online it was encrypted,
and that it was encrypted or corrupted and unusable. And
then hours later the whistleblower said, no social security numbers,
driver's license, all kinds of things were released in this
and so you'll have to take a look at that
(02:01):
sometime today. But it's sad but true, a little comical.
But you know, we all know what happened with that.
And so as I stated too, I mean, he distorted
the facts regarding the severity of this data breach, and
his whole political career has been just laced with concealing
the truth.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Well, with regard to the data breach, real quick, Joe Moto,
a former candidate for the city of mayoral candidate for
the City of Columbus, he said that the data had
no value. He tried to sweep that under the rug,
Joe and make it go away, and it was far
worse than he ever said. And you know, I don't
know if that's the bigger issue or the fact that
(02:40):
the city was ill prepared to even handle that. We
didn't have the proper funding allocated for the city's IT
department to prevent that sort of cyber attack.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
That to me is the bigger issue.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I mean, lying about it, lying about the severity of
it's one thing, But how about preventing it to.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Start with exactly? You know. And I talked to a
former technology employee with one of our local suburbs who
worked there for over thirty years, and she told me,
she said, the department of Technology in these in you know,
municipal departments, it's probably the least concern of or least
funded of any of the departments within those municipalities. So
(03:19):
I guess it really doesn't surprise me much. And I
could imagine that some of those Department of Technology employees
were probably begging for money, saying, look, you know, you
need to give us more money. This is you know,
this isn't working. Something's going to happen, and sure enough,
this is this is the result of it.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
What was the story You mentioned this briefly a couple
of years ago, there was a campaign staffer that was
being forced to work illegally on his campaign, resulting into
on almost two hundred thousand dollars city paid legal settlement
settlements of this person.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
What's the story of that with that?
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Yeah, you know, and that's interesting too because that actually
came up during my election and it wasn't released until afterwards.
Of course, the fact that this was in the courts
and that this particular woman was an executive assistant to
the mayor and his campaign staff was forcing her to work,
allegedly forcing her to work on this campaign and not
(04:16):
being paid for it, and it resulted in a one
hundred and ninety five thousand dollars city paid legal settlement,
and she actually she's left the city. And but again,
you know, this is just one more thing that happened
during my campaign, along with the fact that Judge Mingo
did not release Ginther's name as the person who spoke
to the to her in regards to the greyhound bus terminal.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Yeah, let's get to that's where does that sit and
give us give us our audience a quick refresher course
on the greyhound bus.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
So, Zach Klein hired Brad Nicodemus, who's the city attorney
at for the City of Whitehall, which is their go
to guy in terms of hiring somebody who's who is
not affiliate with the City of Columbus as an attorney.
Somebody is supposed to be independent. And Nicodemus found that
(05:07):
Ginther did nothing wrong basically, so he was let fore,
you know, no problem, and so you know it just
it continues. It's like, Okay, well, I don't have anything
to worry about. I can continue to do these kind
of things. And that's exactly what he's been doing and
you know, continues to do throughout his career. I mean,
his whole political career is laced with concealing the truth.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
You remember the red Flex red light camera scandal when
he was in.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Council, absolutely, I remember it.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
I mean, he and Zach Klein got away with that.
I mean, they threw John Rafael under the bus in
that situation, and nobody talked about that.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
It was just like nothing to see here.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Rayfield did jail time for that red flex taking the
pay for play paid a play issue with the red
light cameras, which the city no longer has.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
But it goes back to those days, Joe.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Oh, yeah, Well, actually goes clear back to his being
on the school board and there was a data scrubbing
scandal with the school board back when he was there,
and he was the head of a committee. Whistleblower approached
him and said told him what was going on, and
they looked into it for about a couple months and
that was it. And I was brushed under the rug.
(06:15):
And then all of a sudden years later, they find out,
you know, the person was telling the truth and this
was going on, and I think it was Jane Harris
lost her job resigned, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Yeah, it's every turn for Andrew Ginther is just riddled
with lies and deceit. And since you mentioned Zach Klein,
who's more disappointed that Andy's running for governor? You or
Zach er mayor my apologies, mayor?
Speaker 3 (06:41):
You know, I think Klein probably was affecting this. I
honestly wasn't. And but I know Zach Kline is going
to run. I mean, there's no doubt in my mind.
I'd be willing to bet the house on that because
he's raised over eight hundred thousand dollars already and it's
not to run for city attorney again. I doubt if
you're even have an opponent. I'd be shocked if he does.
(07:02):
But and I know several people who have actually sat
down and spoken to Zac, so he's I I would
be shocked if he does not run.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Yeah, it's going to be an interesting couple of years
to watch this campaign unfold.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
And I got to ask you, Joe, are you going
to run again?
Speaker 3 (07:20):
You know, it's like I said, I, I'm kind of
just in a wait and see mode. In politics, you
never say never. And I mean, I can't imagine I
will not let Andy Ginther run unipposed. There's no way
that's not going to happen. The people of the city
of Columbus deserve, you know, somebody to run against him,
and somebody is knowledgeable about what's going on in city government,
(07:42):
not just somebody with a lot of money. He says yeah,
I'm going to put up a you know, run in
a race against Ginther. But you know, we need people
who truly understand and care about the city of Columbus
as opposed to just taking care of the needs of
the rich and powerful. And you know that's it's never
going to change unless we get some But who's more
independent minded? I mean, Zach Klein's a good guy's doing
(08:03):
a good job as city attorney. But you know, once again,
he's part of the machine. And I don't see anybody
as part of the machine going to do, you know,
drastically change things within the city.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
It would begin their two point zero with Zach in there.
There's no doubt about it. And Joe, I appreciate the time.
We'll let you fly. Joe Motill
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