Candidate for
Council Member; City of Cincinnati

I am running to bring a new energy and a fresh perspective to City Council.

My background and experience is very different from anyone on the current council and anyone else running. I'm an experienced investigative reporter, the mother of a toddler and a teenager, and a new small business owner.

People have trusted me for more than 13 years to investigate important issues as the I-Team Reporter. I have experience watching over taxpayer money, asking tough questions on behalf of citizens, and bringing about positive changes. These are great skills for a City Council member.

I am the oldest of six children and grew up in a small town outside of Toledo. I attended Miami University and studied abroad in Luxembourg, as did my husband.

My husband, Greg Ruthman, is a native Cincinnatian. Greg is an art teacher.

Greg and I live in Mt. Lookout with our 2 year old son and a 15 year old daughter. The teenager is enrolled in a Cincinnati Public School, so I have a vested interest in the continued improvement of CPS.

Since leaving the I-Team in 2007, I've had my own business producing videos and consulting. As a small business owner in the City, I see ways we can be more business-friendly, as well as more inclusive of minority and female-owned companies.

Take the experience and tenacity of an investigative reporter and combine it with my passion for the city and you have someone ready to do what it takes to move our city forward.

Below are some of my I-Team stories and the results they produced for citizens.

Waste of Taxpayer Money Investigations

Stadium-building investigation 1999 + 2001 uncovered County's inflated minority & female contract numbers, failure to pay prevailing wage to workers, crony contracts and mismanagement causing cost overruns.

• Prevailing wage stories prompted State investigation and workers ultimately got paid.
• Baptist Ministers Conference and NAACP demanded action and Hamilton County created Minority and Female Business Office.
• Hamilton County improved management practices constructing Great American Ballpark, which came in on time and under budget.

City Parties with Taxpayer Money stories showed Newport, KY officials celebrating their re-elections with taxpayer money and Lawrenceburg, IN officials spending tax money on Christmas parties, gifts and alcohol.

• Resulted in KY state audit which found faulted Newport
• Newport changed policy, no longer uses tax dollars for parties
• Lawrenceburg, IN stopped buying booze with taxpayer funds

• Community packed public meetings, Bd fired PR consultant.

• Superintendent resigned shortly after the stories aired
• School Board changed policy, now use education funds properly

• Senior Engineer forced to resign, two others disciplined.

Fort Washington Way Safety. Cars and Trucks were overturning daily, rounding a sudden sharp curve in the highway which was not adequately marked.

• After our investigation the City put up huge blinking warning signs and rumble strips to slow traffic before dangerous curve.

• The Archbishop plead guilty to failing to report crimes.
• Cincinnati Catholics began grassroots effort for changes.
• The Archbishop fired his Personnel Director after I-Team stories.

Visions of Vine Street Documentaries and reports from 2001-2007 showed how and why Vine Street deteriorated and offered ten solutions to fix it.

• Mayor Charlie Luken made Vine Street his #1 priority.
• City adopted several solutions including creating a Housing Court Neighborhood Pride Center, and having Police Walking a Beat.
• Kroger invested $2 million to renovate its Vine St. store
• 3CDC formed in 2004 and focused on Vine Street and OTR
• Vine Street has New Homeowners and Businesses owners who have invested more than $50 million dollars in Gateway Quarter.
• Serious Crime in OTR is down more than 30%

• Dozens of people donated their own money to sponsor benches and flower pots for Ohio's side the bridge, including me.
• Politicians David Pepper and Mark Mallory got OKI funds for more improvements.
• City dropped the ball by cutting citizens out of the process and getting no public input on the design, awarding no-bid "emergency" contract to company that overcharged City for everything. Result--$500,000 tax dollars wasted. Laure believes continued citizen input would have resulted in design twice as good, for half the cost.

Rothenburg School replacement. Laure exposed the CPS plan to destroy a city block of historic buildings to build a school in OTR in location opposed by the community.

• Following the I-Team report, CPS agreed to the community's alternate plan to renovate historic Rothenburg for the school.
• I-Team story saved a block of historic properties, now sold to a developer with plans to revitalize the block.