Good morning, all. I’d like to have us all start today with this gif, which is perhaps the most appropriate representation of how you’re going to feel when you read about the latest drama at City Hall (if you haven’t already). Buckle up. There’s some bumpy news ahead.
Yesterday, five members of Cincinnati City Council turned over a series of group texts in which they discuss City Manager Harry Black and Mayor John Cranley. Among the revelations in those texts? Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld revealing he wanted to ask Black to seek therapy. Councilman Wendell Young busting out a Carlton gif and calling Cranley “a little sucker.” The five — Democrats Chris Seelbach, Greg Landsman, Tamaya Dennard plus Sittenfeld and Young — discussing the substance of two public statements they would release regarding their continued support for Black.
That, according to a lawsuit from conservative group Coalition Opposing Additional Spending and Taxes, or COAST, is a violation of Ohio’s Open Meetings Act because the five council members represented a majority and their conversation was actually legally a meeting. COAST filed a lawsuit last week (something COAST does often) seeking the text messages and other correspondence between the council members, thus their release yesterday.
But wait. It all gets weirder. In response to media requests for his own texts about the situation with the city manager sent in early March, Mayor John Cranley’s office said he had dropped his phone in a hot tub and that any texts the mayor sent before that time were not available. Cranley’s folks later corrected themselves — the mayor, they said, dropped his phone in a hot tub during a visit to his gym in February, not March, leaving open the possibility the texts still exist. Got all that?
• Also yesterday, City Manager Black released a memo suggesting that Cranley may have promised a development deal to a campaign donor and that his campaign manager was lobbying on behalf of another developer for a deal with the city. The memo is a follow-up on more general comments Black made previously as his standoff with the mayor intensified about concerns that Cranley is too involved in the city’s economic development deals. Cranley has vehemently denied Black’s accusations.
• As if there’s not enough going on at City Hall, we heard all about problems with the city’s 911 call center during an emergency Cincinnati City Council meeting Tuesday. During that meeting, we learned a number of things about the situation around the tragic death of Kyle Plush, the 16-year-old who got trapped in his van and died in the parking lot of Seven Hills School. The most dramatic moment came when Plush’s family left council chambers angrily after some poorly worded comments by Councilman Wendell Young, but the rest of the meeting contained some very interesting information. You can read about all the revelations in our story here. Spoilers: Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac couldn’t confirm officers dispatched to Plush’s call left their cars during their 11 minute search for him. Limitations to the city’s technology when it comes to cell phone location mean your Uber driver has a better shot at finding you than a dispatcher does. Three former call center employees who are in one way or another involved in lawsuits with the city are leveling accusations of long-running mismanagement at the ECC. Plus more. Phew.
• Back to weird things happening. Someone stole a rare Blue Morpho African Butterfly from Krohn Conservatory and police are investigating. What else can you say about that? Don’t steal rare creatures you jerks.
• The Cincinnati Reds have fired manager Bryan Price after losing 15 of their last 18 games. This would have been his fifth season with the Reds. Jim Riggleman, who has been with the team six years, will be the interim manager. The team also let go pitching coach Mack Jenkins.
• Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune is recovering well from surgery to remove a tumor in his left leg. As part of the surgery, the leg had to be amputated above the knee, but Portune says he’s already bouncing back.
“The operation went textbook, and I am recovering far quicker than I thought,” he wrote in a statement released yesterday. Portune has indicated he'll be back to work as soon as possible, and may request that some county commission meetings be held off-site so he can attend.
• A federal court has blocked an Ohio law passed last year that prohibited Planned Parenthood from receiving state money through the Ohio Health Department mostly used to screen for cancer and sexually transmitted diseases because the group provides abortions. The Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling yesterday that said the law was unconstitutional. Republican Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office says it is mulling an appeal of the ruling. DeWine is running for governor on a conservative, pro-life platform.
• Speaking of the governor’s race, let’s head over the Democratic primary side and see what’s going on ther… hooo boy. Things are weird. Former U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who has been running neck and neck with presumed frontrunner and former U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau head Richard Cordray, acknowledged this week that he took $20,000 from a Syrian group that supports dictator Bashar al-Assad. Initially, the gubernatorial candidate did not disclose where that payment came from, but amended his campaign finance filings this week after an ethics complaint filed Tuesday by a Cordray supporter. The Syria Solidarity Movement, which has a number of posts on its website defending Assad, paid Kucinich for speaking at a conference last year held by the European Centre for the Study of Extremism. At least two Assad supporters also spoke at that event. Kucinich says the event was simply a peace conference and that the group who paid him is a civil rights group. It’s not the first time Kucinich has been tied to Assad — he met with the Syrian leader last year. Assad’s regime has undertaken brutal crackdowns on dissent in the country and is believed by many in the international community of being responsible for deadly chemical weapons attacks.
