Reprinted from Cincinnati.com, The Enquirer, Politics Extra 8/22/2020
PX column: After sneak attack tax, local Ohio lawmakers agree quirky law needs fixing
Greater Cincinnati state lawmakers are calling for a higher degree of accountability as Hamilton County parks leaders continue to refuse to take responsibility for their sneaky attempt to levy a tax this year.
Brigid Kelly and Tom Brinkman, state representatives from Cincinnati’s East Side, told Politics Extra that they are separately working on potential legislation that would bust up the power of public boards like the one that oversees Great Parks.
“You have to be able to hold somebody accountable, and it really has to come down to an elected group,” said Brinkman, a Republican from Mount Lookout.
Kelly, a Hyde Park Democrat, is exploring a possible change to a 103-year-old law that gives a county probate judge complete authority to appoint all members of a county parks board. A parks board is the only known county-level board in which all of its members are appointed by one elected official
Meanwhile, Brinkman is considering revisiting a bill he introduced in 2018 calling for elected officials to have the final say on whether any local board can levy a tax.
The parks board is among a handful of local boards that has the power to put a levy on the ballot without first seeking elected officials’ approval. The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, SORTA and The Port also can levy their own tax, but at least multiple elected officials make appointments to those boards.
House Majority Leader Bill Seitz, a Green Township Republican, said he first wants to hear from the Ohio Association of Probate Judges to gauge whether lawmakers should make changes.
“I’m not unwilling to revisit the issue, but I’d like to remind everybody that it is an 88-county deal,” Seitz said.
Any legislative action likely wouldn’t happen until at least next year.
No one is saying the Great Parks board is corrupt. Winkler and Seitz both believe parks leaders learned their lesson from the surprise vote in July to put a levy on the November ballot. They commended the parks board for reversing the decision this month and scrapping the levy for this year.
Ginger Warner is the only person on the five-member parks board who bears no responsibility. She was absent from both votes in July, but Warner was present at the Aug. 5 board meeting and supported reversing the levy decision. Chairman Marcus Thompson, Buck Niehoff, Joe Seta and Bill Burwinkel all voted in favor of putting the levy on the ballot and then also supported revoking it.
Curiously, there remains little explanation as to why Great Parks CEO Todd Palmeter increased a lobbyist’s contract by 70 percent some 3½ weeks before the board initially voted on July 6 to pursue a levy.
If the parks are in such a budget crunch, why did it increase Downtown-based Government Strategies Group’s contract from $5,000 to $8,500 a month?
The contract “was increased for the expansion of services related to comprehensive planning for Great Parks including increased communications with the Great Parks CEO and GSG staff related to comprehensive planning,” Palmeter said in an email.
Private companies would be so proud of the corporate-speak response. But this is the public’s business.
Great Parks officials have already said they’re going for a levy in 2021. It’s why accountability and reform are critical. These problems can’t happen again.
Friends – I have worked my entire political career to keep taxes low and government small. Period.
That’s why I am part of broad coalition to gather enough signatures to get this issue on the ballot, for an up or down vote, by the citizens of Hamilton County.
A taxpayer lawsuit has been threatened against the city of Cincinnati over the $200,000 donation from the Cincinnati Board of Park Commissioners toward the park levy initiative.
Minutes from 8/20/15 meeting
That taxpayer is Tom Brinkman Jr., a Republican member of the Ohio House of Representatives from Mount Lookout, who has acted as a spokesman and chairman of the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes, better known as COAST.
Brinkman sent a letter Wednesday to City Solicitor Paula Boggs Muething. He called the Park Board donation “an abuse of corporate powers and/or misapplication of funds within the government of the City of Cincinnati.”
Ohio law creates a provision for any taxpayer to challenge its government for such reasons.
The donation by the Park Board came to light on Monday, after The Enquirer uncovered the donation in a review of public board meeting minutes.
Under Ohio law, a donation to a political campaign would be illegal if the donation were made with public funds. However, park department and board officials have said the donation is legal because it was taken from a private endowment given to the Park Board and does not constitute public money.
Park Board President Otto Budig issued a statement on Wednesday that reiterated that the money was not given to the levy campaign for Issue 22, but to a 501(c)4 nonprofit called Great Parks Great Neighborhoods, incorporated by former Mayor Charlie Luken.
Brinkman quoted a section of the Charter of the City of Cincinnati – Article XIII, Section 3 – that he believes prohibits the board to spend any money toward a levy campaign.
“Notwithstanding anything in this Charter to the contrary, no monies of the City of Cincinnati or any of its Boards or Commissions, from any source whatsoever, or funds of any other entity disbursed by the City or any of its office, campaign committee or any candidate for any public office, political action committee, or political party, or may be expended for the purpose of advocating the election or defeat of any candidate for any public office, or for the passage or defeat of any ballot issue,” the section reads.
Muething said her office has set out to explore the facts of the situation at hand and will review the action by the park board.
“We have to take time to look at the statements of the letter and investigative if there is truth to the allegation,” Muething said.
A call for comment to Budig was not returned Wednesday night.
Ohio law requires that a taxpayer give the municipality or county government the chance to act first. In this case, Muething would need to file an injunction on the city itself, in court, to reverse the action.
“I hereby request that you, as City Solicitor, make application to a court of competent jurisdiction for an order of injunction … as well as the recovery of such funds on behalf of the City of Cincinnati,” Brinkman wrote.
If not, Brinkman’s attorney Curt Hartman said his client is prepared to file a lawsuit in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court.
Hartman, who has his own practice Amelia but is of counsel to the Finney Law Firm in Union Township, has brought similar taxpayer lawsuits against local governments, including two from Brinkman and one from Cincinnati City Councilman Chris Smitherman, prior to Smitherman’s current term on council. The Finney firm is led by Chris Finney, another COAST leader.
In Brinkman challenged the “validity of the mayor receiving any additional payment characterized as an ‘automobile allowance,'” Hartman said. That case, filed when Mark Mallory will stay mayor, was dismissed when John Cranley took office because said he didn’t plan to take such an allowance.
Brinkman also challenged the “validity to the parking lease agreement when the city manager entered into an agreement that contained language different than that authorized by the city council,” Hartman said. That case was also eventually dismissed, although the parking plan was eventually dismantled by Cranley.
As an organization, COAST has been successful in the past when suing the city. Cincinnati settled half a dozen pending lawsuits with COAST by paying the anti-tax group $675,000 in January 2014.
COAST has announced its opposition to the parks levy.
The Board of Park Commissioners has its last regular public board meeting before the Nov. 3 election at 9:15 a.m. Thursday at its office at 905 Eden Park Drive.
