League of Women Voters of Ohio Education Fund
Hamilton County, OH November 2, 2004 Election
	Todd Brian Portune Answers Questions Candidate for Commissioner; County of Hamilton; 4 Year Term Starting 1/2/05

The questions were prepared by the LWV Cincinnati Area and asked of all candidates for this office.

Read the answers from all candidates.

Questions & Answers

3. What do you see as the two most pressing issues you would address if elected? What plans do you have relative to those issues?

The principal issue affecting Hamilton County is the population flight and loss of high paying jobs. Next to that, the deficiencies in our public safety infrastructure stands out. People are leaving Hamilton County because of housing choices and quality of life issues, including the environment, features of public health and taxes. While I have kept property tax requests down by over $100 Million and introduced initiatives to address the other issues much more must be done. Accordingly I have proposed an aggressive plan to ReBuild Hamilton County and you can access it in its entirety at http://www.ToddPortune.com. Meanwhile we have made improvements to our emergency communications system, emergency management system, County HazMat, SWAT and Urban Search and Rescue all in ways that earned praise from the White House and that enable local jurisdictions to make investments in hiring more police officers, firefighters and emergency medical personnel, and to properly train and equip these Firsat responders.

4. What role do you see for public transit in the long-range plans for Hamilton County? What plans do you have to promote a more balanced transportation system in Hamilton County?

We cannot grow or be attractive to people or business without a viable public transit system. I support expanding transit out the eastern corridor first using existing rail infrastructure as an integral part of the system and then expanding west, linking both to the Transit Center downtown (see http://www.easterncorridor.org). Meanwhile we must reform SORTA and Metro; implement the bus portion of Metro Moves to get cross county connections and augment our service for the disabled with improved Access service and with accessible Taxi service.

5. What should be the county's role in encouraging local governments to work together?

The county can and must take the lead role in bringing communities together. My opponent still wants to pit city against suburb but we will never grow or develop that way. Instead we must insist that all communities work together for a common goal just as we have done by collaborating on creating Ohio's first state of the art Regional Emergency Operations Center that is enhancing our Homeland Security preparedness and did so in a way that is saving taxpayers significant money. Cooperation brings about a better product at a savings to taxpayers.

6. What can Hamilton County and the region do to meet the new 8-hour ozone standard for clean air?

A primary role is to use the county's resources and leverage through environmental services and the solid waste management district to support alternative fuel usage and to replace the ineffective e-check program with a more effective one that targets the true offenders. We also need to fashion cooperative solutions with business and energy providers that reduce noxious emissions.

7. Should government resources be used to support economic and socially diverse residential neighborhoods? Give specific examples to support your views.

Government supported housing that is affordable safe and accessible requires cooperation amongst the public providers, private sector and individual users. We cannot allow a situation to develop where individual communities can take positions that result on other communities being negatively impacted - we are all in this together. There is presently little incentive for people to do the right thing. A program with time limitations should be developed that also places an emphasis on home ownership coupoled with strict code enforcement to ensure that neighborhoods suffer no ill effects.