One Person - The Right Person - Can Make All the Difference

By Todd B. Portune

Count on it.

That's one of the best reasons why I am asking you to return me to one more term as Your County Commissioner.

As I look back on my service as Your county commissioner I can point to multiple times where I have been the one commissioner who consistently, year in and year out, has persevered and worked against all odds time and time again to get the elusive second vote necessary for the county to act where it was desperately needed to act.

Here is one Top-10 list of examples:

1. Lowering the cost of prescription medicine

With hundreds of thousands of county citizens without health insurance I fought to help provide a prescription medication discount card available to everyone in the county. A no-brainer, you would think + right?

Hardly. Despite the need and despite the availability of a program to the county at no cost to the county the initial reaction by commissioners was No.

Did I stop there? The answer to that is also No. Instead I continued to raise the issue; to reintroduce the measure to Commissioners and finally, after two years of effort, I persuaded other commissioners to say Yes.

Today, all Hamilton County residents qualify for a prescription medication Rx Discount Card and since its adoption over 25,000 county residents have saved an average of 25% on their prescription medicine + over $2.5 Million since adoption of the program two years ago.

2. Sparking $40 Million in housing rehab

Hamilton county suffers from low home ownership; housing foreclosures; tax delinquent and blighted real estate; the combined effect of which reduces property value; diminishes quality of life; causes magnets for criminal activity and drives away people and jobs.

I saw the problem and proposed a fix - a county program designed to reduce the cost of borrowing money for property rehab projects. Doing so would work to leverage private investment and plant the seeds for countywide property renovation.

Despite the obvious need, and another seeming no-brainer, the reaction from those who needed to support the program + my fellow commissioners county Treasurer Rob Goering said no.

Did I stop there? The answer to that is also No. Instead I continued to raise the issue; to reintroduce the measure to Commissioners and finally, after two years of effort, I successfully persuaded other commissioners and Treasurer Goering to say Yes.

Today, the county Home Improvement Program, HIP, remains strong. Since its inception the program has leveraged over $40 Million in private money fixing up the aging housing stock in 46 of the 49 county villages, cities and townships. Over 2500 contractors got work from the program creating over one thousand new jobs. 75% of the loan recipients are middle class county homeowners to whom every penny saved through this program equals dollars saved to help pay for a child's education; a parent's health care; or more money for retirement. The program has generated another half a million annually in new property tax receipts stemming from an increase in property values and another $5 million in sales tax receipts from the sale of goods and materials used in the renovations.

But HIP hasn't stopped there. Today it forms the backbone of a new county initiative being developed jointly with the City of Cincinnati and with the Cincinnati Area Board of Realtors and Real Estate Investors Association of Hamilton County to spark a massive county wide rebuilding and property rehabbing program. Named in honor of the late Cincinnati Vice Mayor David Crowley, the Crowley 14x program has a goal of redeveloping 100 homes in each of the 100 defined neighborhood communities of the county, generating 100 jobs in each. That's 10,000 new jobs and 10,000 rebuilt homes improving property values and generating new revenues.

3. Making public safety improvements priorities

You would think in a county largely controlled by self-proclaimed "law and order" office holders that supporting public safety would be a no-brainer. But in the topsy-turvey world of Hamilton County, you would be wrong.

When I arrived the county was served by an Emergency warning system, managed by the Emergency Management Agency, that was so deficient, over 15% of the populated area of the county received no warning service at all during periods of emergency. In my second week in office, I proposed to fix up the broken down county system and to create a first rate EMA but, [you guessed it], the other commissioners said no. After the terror attacks on 9-11 I reintroduced the proposal but, amazingly, the others still said no.

Still, I fought on. In 2002 I created the county Homeland Security Commission that identified over $53 Million of gaps in what the county needed to be prepared and then went out and helped secure federal grants that, today, have funded all of the fixes required in those gaps and secured an additional $10 million in new emergency equipment.

That wasn't enough, however, and I pressed on and partnered with the city to fund and construct the regional Operations Center that is one of only about three of its kind in America. This shared emergency center is open during all emergencies and large scale events and is the backbone of police, fire and EMS service during every regional event.

Through all of this, I remained focused on the need for emergency warning and pressed on + finally after over ten years of never saying never, Hamilton County is now providing emergency warning service to 100% of the populated areas in the county with a combined siren and reverse messaging system that calls over 330,000 telephones in the county with recorded emergency messages of warning, or notice, or alert. The system is used for Amber alerts as well as other emergency uses.

4. Delivering the promise of "The Banks"

In 2007 when I became President of the County Commission, The Banks remained the biggest and worst joke foisted on the region. Over 8 years of wrangling between city and county officials failed to produce any movement on the long-promised and never delivered project. As President of the Board,I was committed to changing all of that.

I vowed to make "The Banks" a priority for the county and in five months did what no other county leader had done in eight years prior. I inked a deal with the city and the developer. And six months later, the deal was memorialized through a unanimous vote of the county commission and city council.

Today, The Banks is open, and vibrantly alive and well. 100% of all of the residential housing built there is occupied. Eleven new exciting entertainment venues, clubs and restaurants are open and full almost every night of the week. The county partnered with the city and city park board in building the first phase of a phenomenal riverfront park; And the project, to date, has leveraged less than $30 Million in local public spending into over $800 Million of new private investment and state and federal grants, creating a project that has had a one-time economic impact of over $600 Million; an annual economic impact of close to $200 Million and created over 1400 jobs with 95% of the jobs going to tri-state employees.

And that's just Phase I with Phase II having just begun.

This was all made possible because of fiscal controls I introduced in connection with riverfront spending that resulted in the Great American Ballpark baseball stadium for the Reds being built On Time and Under Budget + in stark contrast to the Bengals stadium that was neither.

5. Fighting for an Operational Port and LandBank

For Hamilton County to have a vibrant and economically healthy future the county must be in a position to fight for and to successfully secure the next Big Wave of commerce. I recognized this when he became President of the Board in 2007 and immediately began to push for a reformation of the county Port Authority; for the creation of a county LandBank; and to reposition the county's transportation agenda toward one that would bring support a regional, multi-modal transportation infrastructure that was built upon sound fiscal practices.

In two years, against great odds, this partnership with the city of Cincinnati and with my fellow Commissioners produced: 1) A reformed regional transit authority that had voting membership from Clermont, Butler and Warren counties to guarantee a regional focus and a mission to create a true multi-modal regional transportation system; and 2) a reformed Port Authority that was given the powers to continue Brownfield reclamation; to pursue regional economic development projects and to oversee the newly created landbank; and the tools to operate like a real port when dealing with the Ohio River transit community of barges and river terminal facilities; and 3) a County Land Reclamation Corporation commonly referred to as a LandBank with the tools to quickly gain control over blighted real estate and either develop it itself or direct it into the hands of people or entities that will.

The net result is the county is now poised to launch the single largest economic development and transformational economic initiative in over 100 years + and one that will provide the foundation for the next 100 years.

6. Leading the expansion of two convention centers

Looking back today it is hard to recall that there was once great debate over the value of having a convention center that could capture the majority of convention business in the country. But the fact is in 2002 expansion of the Duke Center [then known as the Albert Sabin Center] was very much in doubt + especially when the city of Cincinnati was calling on business and political leaders to "Mothball" the project.

Of course I refused to do so and instead stood firm and tackled the fight head on at great personal political risk. I did so, of course, because it was the right thing to do. Because so many jobs are created because of the visitors that come to a region staying in hotels, eating at restaurants and buying gods while here + all of which support the kind of start up jobs that we need to keep meeting the challenges of a slow economy and of a metro area with too much unemployment.

I prepared the funding plan; met with suburban, state and city leadership; championed the issue in the media to educate the public, and almost single-handedly with sheer force of will persuaded first on, and then others, to support the project and get it done.

The selling point? I proposed a funding vehicle that would also fund expansion of the county's second convention center in Sharonville when that Center needed to be expanded .

Today we have two vibrant centers with a much improved Sharonville expanded center having just opened in April 2012 and serving as the Anchor for Sharonville's Northern Lights business district revitalization initiative under Mayor Virgil Lovitt's lead. Both Centers are fulfilling their promise. They are boosting a tourism and visitor trade that is bringing more revenues into the county than ever before and bucking the trend of revenue sources being in decline + this one, in contrast, growing and providing the support for other investments to be successfully made, [such as in the Regional Tourism Network working to land, among other things, the 2012 World Choir Games]

7. Delivering on the promise of criminal justice reform

The Hamilton County Criminal Justice Commission was a joint initiative of Commissioner David Pepper and me in 2007. The Commission's work included establishing a "Re-Entry Committee" lead by North College Hill Mayor Dan Brooks and attorney Stephen Johnson Grove.

In June 2010 after I was re-appointed President of the Board of County Commissioners and I immediately asserted that the Reentry Committee must produce actionable recommendations that could be funded by the Commissioners for 2011.

The Committee did, recommending the creation of a new Reentry Department in the county. I saw to its funding and continuation in a bipartisan manner with support from other county offices + in particular the county Prosecutor and Courts and Corrections.

Successfully reassimilating an inmate who has completed his or her debt to society back into being a productive member of our community is in all of our best interests. Not only do we return a citizen to full citizenship status but it saves jail space, reduces crime and it works.

Today our ReEntry Department is fully operational and is placing former inmates into productive roles all around the county. It is reducing jail overcrowding and reducing crime.

8. A vibrant County is also a healthy County

I understand that successful leadership means that all people must feel represented. That all opinions are valid. And that the best way to lead is to listen. That by listening you then, and only then, have an awareness of what the pulse of the community is.

A scandal has existed in Hamilton County for decades that is costing the lives of newborn babies all over Hamilton County. More babies die before their first birthday in Hamilton County than the national average y 30%. And when you look at some of our more vulnerable infants in households that present the same issues of poverty and unemployment within the African American and Appalachian American populations, that rate skyrockets to three times the national average.

I have challenged health care professionals and civic and political leadership and said that in a community as wealthy as ours those numbers are unacceptable. As a consequence the city and county formed an initiative focused on maternal and infant health and infant mortality reduction to reduce our rates across the board to below the national average within five years.

Over the past year I continued and leveraged county investments to make certain that we succeed. Today a new partnership involving UC Health and Cincinnati Children's Medical Center has raised millions of dollars toward the goal of infant mortality rate reduction. Because of this dedication to the issue success is within our grasp and with it, saving the lives of countless babies all over the county.

9. Making sure the County Safety Net is preserved

The global recession has had a disastrous effect on the Hamilton County safety net that helps people and families in need. Over the past five years federal and state support for Hamilton County Job & Family Services had been reduced by over 50%. At the same time the caseload of families and people the county serves has increased by 40% due to rising rates of unemployment and joblessness.

Over the past year I demanded that the county make increasing the resources available to JFS a priority. While President of the County Family and Children First Council, I convened a summit of service providers and developed a plan to address the most egregious areas of gaps in county support caused by the loss of revenues.

During the county budget process; during the sizing of the county levies; and during a period when surplus revenues in the county indigent care levy where identified, I also raised the issue of providing more resources to JFS to augment their budget and to help in meeting the greater demands they faced.

On four separate occasions the other commissioners refused to help. Finally, on the fifth try, Commissioners Monzel and Hartmann agreed and made available over $2 Million to JFS to assist in meeting its obligations. By constantly drawing attention to the need and making the case for the support, JFS finally realized additional help and the county families in need of help are receiving it.

10. Honoring promises made

I was raised by schoolteachers who abided by time honored and tested principles. Do unto others.... ; Honor God , country and family; be honest, trustworthy and reliable; and keep your promises. This last principle has been on full display in each of my 12 years as commissioner as more and more people pressure the commissioners to break the promise to voters made in 1996 concerning the Property tax Rollback [PTR] and the stadium deal.

Never mind that I have been one of the most visible and active critics of the stadium deal and the massive give-away of tax dollars to sports millionaires by the Commissioners back in 1996. I have done everything I can, and still am, to reform a deal the Wall Street Journal labeled "the most generous in all of professional sport."

Nonetheless, a promise was made to voters by the commissioners to reduce their property taxes by 30% of the total sales taxes raised in the year prior from the stadium fund. That way property tax payers, who shoulder an unfair share of the cost of public services, would get some reprieve. In addition the measure was designed to assist homeowners in keeping their homes out of foreclosure and for owners on fixed incomes + mainly our senior citizens, to be able to afford the homes they own and often times raised their children in.

For twelve years in a row I honored that promise and voted for a full PTR despite heavy pressure and criticism not to do so.

I have led on the issue of preserving the stadium fund by forcing the teams and their customers to do their part. We need to keep commissioners on board who will challenge the teams to do more. Otherwise all we'll get is more costs borne by taxpayers and less performance from the teams.

So, can one person truly make a difference? You bet. It is the way the world has always worked.

Here in Hamilton County it is the way I work. Stay in touch. Stay focused. Stay local. With your help I will be able to be your County Commissioner to make sure we keep on getting things done the right way and in the best way for ALL of the People of Hamilton County.