Candidate for
Council Member; City of Cincinnati

I believe the top three issues that Council needs to focus on are crime, economic development, and neighborhood quality of life. These three issues are so interconnected, we will never be able to substantially improve our City and increase our population base until we begin to make progress in these areas.

I envision a City where neighborhoods are clean and safe, the downtown is vibrant and diverse, the City government's financial situation is healthy and sustainable, and the government inspires confidence with performance-driven and accountable service. I will continue to work proactively with my peers on Council, the City Administration and neighborhood activists in order to meet these goals. There is much work to be done, but here are some examples of my progress to date:

• I have been a strong advocate of increasing police visibility, and successfully passed a budget that will bring over 60 additional officers to our streets during the next two years.

• I worked with Councilwoman Laketa Cole to create a new coordinated Youth Violence and Gun Intervention Initiative headquartered at the Community Police Partnering Center to bring a comprehensive approach to crime on our streets.

• I have worked closely with Councilmember Leslie Ghiz, Sheriff Si Leis, and now the County Commissioners, to solve both the short-term and long-term jail crisis.

• Council approved my Chronic Nuisance Property Ordinance that targets landlords whose buildings have excessive police calls for service. Once a threshold has been met, the landlord is required to pay for all future police runs to that property.

• I co-authored a motion that allocated additional funding to demolish blighted buildings that are hotspots for neighborhood drug dealing and criminal activity.

• I passed a motion restructuring the City demolition process for nuisance properties. The new method will cut City processing time from thirty days down to two.

• I have worked with Keep Cincinnati Beautiful to locate funding to re-establish the Safe and Clean Fund for grants supporting neighborhood capital projects.

• I worked with Councilmember Chris Bortz in taking the lead to create the Banks Working Group (BWG). I have remained very involved with efforts with the BWG to reach terms on a Master Development Agreement to finally break ground on The Banks.

• Along with leaders in the business community, Chris Bortz and I also started the GO (Growth + Opportunity) Cincinnati Initiative, to create a long-overdue strategic plan for our City, and are working with the Chamber of Commerce and others on creation of a Shared Civic Agenda.

• I worked with Councilwoman Laketa Cole to create a new Youth Employment and Workforce Development strategy that will leverage the recommendations of the GO (Growth + Opportunity) Cincinnati Initiative and support programs that give young people job skills and a path for a hopeful future.

• My "City Hall Works" initiative will ensure that citizens' tax dollars are being spent efficiently and effectively. Working with a consultant, the advisory committee reviewed government operations and made recommendations to the City Manager and Council to improve the structure of government and service delivery.

• I sponsored new legislation requiring that the City Manager undergo annual performance evaluations. I helped draft the performance measures that will guide the City Manager and Department Heads, making them accountable to citizens.

• I authored the City's "paygo" policy that states that any Council directed funding outside of the budget process must stipulate an offsetting cut.

• I passed a law that ensures that the City will never again spend more than it expects to bring in during a given year. The new policy ensures that the City will first build up our reserves to a minimum standard before spending year-end unexpected revenues. Additionally, once the City reserves meet the new threshold, any additional spending by Council is restricted to one time non-recurring expenditures that will not increase future operating costs.