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Our interviews with more than two dozen Cincinnati City Council candidates continues.

Over the next two weeks on Cincinnati Edition, we’ve invited all of the candidates on the show.

A transcript of this conversation is below.

This episode was transcribed using a combination of AI speech recognition and human editors and has been lightly edited for clarity. It may contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting in print.

Guests:

• Aaron Weiner
• Raffel Prophett
• Audricia Brooks

Ways to listen to this show:

• Tune in live at noon ET M-F. Call 513-419-7100 or email talk@wvxu.org to have your voice heard on today’s topic.
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From more than two dozen candidates, Cincinnati voters will choose just nine for Cincinnati City Council. We've invited all of the candidates for one-on-one interviews, and those continue today. I'm joined now by Aaron Weiner. He's endorsed by the Charter Committee, and he's a Clifton resident. Aaron, thanks for joining me. So to start out with Aaron, tell us briefly why you are running for council, and tell us a little bit about yourself.

Aaron Weiner: So great. So I'm a lifelong Cincinnatian and born and bred fourth generation, like you said, I live in Clifton. This summer, I celebrated my 25th year in real estate. So I've been in real estate 25 years. I'll tell you what, it's hard not to fall in love with Cincinnati coming to the streets every day, showing clients houses. And that's given me a passion for real estate and for development. And honestly, development and housing is in the news, in discussion in the city, and I want to use my real estate experience to address some of some of these, these issues, and be the intelligent room voice in the room because of my experience. You know, I sit on College Hill's development board as an advisory board member. I've seen what's possible in neighborhoods, with development, with affordable housing, and with really economic growth in the neighborhoods. And it's really ignited my passion to bring this work to other neighborhoods and use this experience. And I feel a true public servant, and this is really sort of why I feel a true public servant is someone who has made their way in the world and wants to give back, and that's where I am.

Well, you've said a lot of things I want to follow up on, but one of the one of the things I want to address first is there are a lot of people in in Clifton, in your neighborhood and other parts of the city, who are worried about crime. And of course, there's been national attention recently on the city's crime rates and criticism of how city leaders have responded in Clifton, where you live, some residents were upset this summer about crime, crime outside of Hookah Bar on Ludlow. How do you think City Council should work to reduce crime and address the public perception and concerns about public safety?

Aaron Weiner: Well, that's a two prong question. As far as I'm concerned, I think the first prong question is sort of the word hits home on Clifton, and you know the issue with with the Hookah bar was going on for a very long time. I mean, we it was a scourge in the neighborhood. Over two years, we had gone to council, and Council's legal and city legal to to address this issue. It just now got addressed, you know, two years later. So I would say, let's be proactive when you hear of an issue and not just do it. One was close to the election, so I think that's, that's the first the first thing, let's be proactive. Let's listen to people when they're telling you that you have a problem. The next thing is, you know, we're down 200 police officers. I mean, you've heard that more than than once, right? I think we need to continue to hire and train the new police officers, and I know we're doing that. We've got the lateral class and we've got the class coming, but we need to empower the police and encourage them to do community based policing, where they're actually walking, walk the neighborhoods, visible in the neighborhoods and out in the neighborhood. And in policing, this is going to also going to sound sort of rudimentary, but the look of the neighborhood sometimes contributes to how you feel safe. You know, if a neighborhood's riddled with with graffiti, it just doesn't feel safe. If it's if there's trash out there, it just doesn't feel safe. We need to crack down on these things, because, believe it or not, it does make a difference, and it also makes a difference in who buys in the neighborhood, who invests in the neighborhood, who chooses to leave the neighborhood. Do businesses decide to leave because of it, so we need to enforce these issues. And again, I think overall, the overreaching result will be, we'll have less perception of crime.

You talk about, about increasing police and those sorts of things, but you also talked, you said about wanting to be proactive, is, are those the areas you want to be proactive? Is there something else that you think should have been done to be proactive at the time when the Hookah Bar issue first came up.

Aaron Weiner: I think we actually, I mean, we, I think we had enough proof that there was a relationship between the Hookah bar and the outlying street parties. I think we had enough proof, and it kept being put back on us that it was incumbent upon us to prove the issue. And really it's, it's kind of, we've already done it. It's kind of your job. So I feel like, I feel like, I feel like it's just like taking the lead when you're given the lead.

City Council voted to add an additional $5.4 million to public safety. Do you think that was a good move, and what solutions would you put forward there?

Aaron Weiner: So I do think it's a good move, and I do certainly acknowledge the efforts that are being done, and I appreciate it, as long as the money is spent judiciously, right, and it's really spent to solve the problem and not and not used to do things that aren't policing, I have developed my own plan for public safety, which I'm happy to go into if you'd like me to Sure.

First of all, you say, spend it judiciously. Is that, is that addressed in this plan?

Aaron Weiner: Yeah, it is. I mean, I think it's sort of sort of recruiting and retention things that that sort of address what I talked about before, but I've developed what's called a recruiting and retention plan. The first prong is does involve signing bonuses, retention bonuses. We have, we have a lot of police officers that are getting close to retirement, or maybe in the middle of that point, let's, let's find a way to incentivize them to stay a little longer while we work through this, this staffing crisis. So that's the first that's the first prong, evaluating salaries. The second prong does involve my industry. I do have to use my industry somehow. You know, it's not, it's illegal, to make our police officers live in the city, right? But let's, instead, let's, let's give them incentives to me move into our city, live in our cities, and how I want to do that is through a down payment assistance program. So let's say you save $7,500 we'll match that up to $7,500 all of a sudden you have $15,000 to put down on a house, right? That's that's a huge incentive. I mean, for people who are who maybe already are in the forest or who maybe want to come work for us, the second prong to that is a rental statement. So obviously, not everyone wants to buy a house right away. Rents are expensive. We talked about that quite a bit, right? So let's work with town properties and uptown properties and gaslight properties. Can they give us a break if we bring our officers into the city, and this is also going to be contingent upon them having to do at least one or two hours of week of community service in these neighborhoods. Okay? So that's that, I think, that will attract younger, younger staff as well. But this is a long term effect, because, number one, what it does is it brings police officers into the city, so you have visibility. They're in the neighborhoods, right? It brings leadership into the neighborhoods, right? So all of a sudden you have people look up to, people that you can, you can bond with. But lastly, which is, I think, also a byproduct. It brings trust. It builds trust, right? Because all of a sudden you've got this person that's not this police officer, but they're also your neighbor, so you you got this bond. So it's hard to be indifferent when someone's your neighbor, right? So I think it's just a long term effect.

I'm talking with Charter candidate for Cincinnati City Council, Aaron Weiner, and later in the show, I'll talk with Raffel ProphetT and Audricia Brooks. But we are not taking questions today in the effort to save a little bit of time, city council has instituted new curfew rules citywide, and city administration implemented restrictions on red bikes and food trucks downtown. Do you think these rules are necessary? Will they be effective?

Aaron Weiner: So I was okay with the the curfew I was I was a teenager once, and I certainly know things don't good. Things don't happen after midnight anyway, or in the evening. So I was okay with that. I felt that the red bike situation was a little bit of overreach. I didn't quite understand why that was even going to work. And I just, I thought was overreach. I did not like that. With respect to the food trucks, I do not, I'm not sure if they voted on that yet. I don't think that's that's a good option. We can't be in a situation, in a city where we say we want to build businesses, incubate businesses, and then thwart businesses, and I think it is specifically impacts black and brown businesses, which is something that I don't think we should do. So I would not be would not be supportive of that.

You've talked a lot about housing. You talked about your real estate work. You've talked about wanting to incentivize people to live in the city by, you know, police officers, by giving them help with a down payment, and all of those sorts of things. Let's talk about the city's goal to add housing, because part of the problem is there. There aren't always places that people may want to live in the city, and there's no place for them to live. They're talking about adding a little more than 700 housing units recently, a goal of 3000 next year. What do you think about that?

Aaron Weiner: So I mean, I definitely do believe that we, one of the things I want to work on is housing across all all levels, part. But part of that is that I think there is already building going on. I think we do acknowledge that if you, if you look, if you're downtown, if you're in Walnut Hills, on my way here, I pass them on Hyde Park. So there is building going on. But I definitely think that we do need to find ways to build, but be smart about what. Where is it? I mean, certainly, my particular niche in terms of affordable housing is actually not. Is, is to work with naturally occurring affordable housing and working with ways of properties that are underutilized or vacant or already affordable. And how do we incentivize these large. These, these landlords to keep the rent slow, either through tax breaks, working with the county, or repair grants. Where, I think the big miss in in housing is sort of my age group. And I think, you know, I'm 56 I think the baby boomers and the Gen Xers. The reason why the housing prices are so high is because we're staying in our houses longer. We're living longer, right? So there's nowhere for us to go. I live in my neighborhood in Clifton. There's maybe 40 houses, maybe three people with kids, yet there's two schools right there, Fairview and Cairns. What would happen if we had a place to go? Wouldn't that be great for the school? So I think, I think if we can think of a way to sort of address that, that age group put us there hasn't been something downtown that really was like a condo building or a townhouse building that in that enough of that that really attracts us to want to move. But I think if we can work on sort of that segment as well. That would open up the housing market quite a bit.

Although you have to convince people they want to leave those houses.

Aaron Weiner: Well, right. But, I mean, I think it's just finding that that right, that right product. I mean, the Polk building downtown was done that was probably 25 years ago. The McAlpin done the same time. We haven't really seen things like that in a long time, in my opinion. So let's, let's do that. Let's bring us, bring us downtown, or find something in our neighborhoods to do, and that'll open up the housing market in that arena.

Time's moving quickly, so I want to get to a couple questions before we're done in the last term the mayor and city council all were Democrats. How do you think that dynamic has played out? And how would you work with fellow council members if you're elected.

Aaron Weiner: I'll tell you what I mean. I think balance of power is is good, right? I mean, and we can't be a party and certainly a place that respects diversity, non habit. So I definitely, I feel like balance of balance of power is good. You know, in my own industry, I work with people of differing opinions all the time. Every day, you know you have a buyer, you have a seller, you have two agents with different personalities, but in the end, you have to get to, you have to get to yes, and I've been doing that my entire career, and it's basically, it's focusing on common goal, which is, in my case, let's, let's get the deal done. But in council, what do we? What? What's our, what's our end goal, what's our, what's our common objective, and who do we serve? And I think getting to the community guests that way.

Councils face accusations of not listening to the community on issues like Connected Communities zoning in 2024 the Hyde Park Square development in 2025. How would you balance community input with desired add housing?

Aaron Weiner: Well, again, I will say that for the record. Again, we are seeing housing so i i and we are seeing it without drama attached to it. So I definitely think I want to go on the record with with saying that. I think we need to look at these two issues as a learning experience and is a growing experience. And what it's telling me is that it showed us, you know, what people's breaking points were, What? What? When enough is enough, when too much is too much, and how do we, how do we deal with that? I think, in terms of moving forward, let's focus on one or two pain points that we can't, we can't get past. And let's, let's work on those and not get caught in the minutia. Let's try to come to common ground so that we can get to get things done, you know, in an initial, initial like Hyde Park that presents itself again, maybe we do a Charette study. That's something that that maybe Does, does more, more more in depth, more deep, you know, something like connected communities. You know, let's, let's work on messaging. Let's make sure to get the messaging is done. Well, you know, if it's something that gets too in the weeds, maybe we put it in on the ballot. I don't know, but it's a lesson to learn.

In about a minute that we have left if elected. What do you plan to introduce and accomplish during the next two years on council?

Aaron Weiner: I really do want to dive deep into this, this recruiting, retention programs. I think it does provide a long term solution, and I think it does address some of the issues that we see with policing, with trust, and I think that's one way to do it. So I really do want, want to make that my, my pet project. I want to, I want to expand it to fire teachers and social workers at some point. Because, again, I feel like it's it's that bringing leadership into the city in which the long term effect and then just naturally occurring affordable housing. Let's work on that my niche.

Thanks to Aaron Weiner, he's running for Cincinnati City Council, endorsed by the Charter party. Up next, I'll be talking with candidate Raffel Prophett. This is Cincinnati Edition.

Raffel Prophett is a former Cincinnati Fire District Chief. He ran for mayor in 2021. Now he's running for Cincinnati City Council. Raffel Prophett joins me now. To start out, tell us a little bit about yourself and why you're running for council.

Raffel Prophett: Maryann, thanks for having me and so I've I'm a lifelong Cincinnati and educated Cincinnati Public Schools. Attended the college at University Cincinnati, master's degree from Xavier. I served 32 years on the fire department, also 32 years at a military National Guard Reserve. My wife and I built our home here. We raised our kids here, and Cincinnati has given me so much, I want to extend that opportunity to families and especially young folks

With the Federal Stimulus now depleted, the city is facing projected budget deficit over the next few years. What do you think city council needs to do to ensure financial stability?

Raffel Prophett: Well, obviously we're going to have to take a deep dive look at how we're going to basically meet the budget demand. And so obviously I would look at being equal, equitable, and how we possibly have to slash the city, but has to be across every every department. It's going to be a challenge.

Do you think it has to be equal across all departments?

Raffel Prophett: Well, I think it should be. I mean, in the in terms of fairness. Now, if we have an instance and where something is much more critical, especially when you're talking about safety, yeah, that may maybe outweigh others, but I think it should be across the board, and even even cut across the board, if that's what's required.

So you're talking about sort of making that equal frequently police and fire are places that those cuts are different, or more money goes to those departments having served as a firefighter. What do you think how should those departments be looked at?

Raffel Prophett: And again, you know, you know, in your right, I believe public safety is about two thirds of the budget right. And so if it's necessary in terms of cuts right, everyone should share in the burden of that right, even public safety. And that doesn't mean that we're going to put people's lives in danger, but we have to meet our budget demand.

Well, there are neighbors who are worried about crime. There's also been national attention on the city's crime rate and criticism of how city leaders have responded. How do you think Cincinnati City Council should work to reduce crime, especially if you're talking about some cuts and also address. Is the public perception and concern about safety in the city?

Raffel Prophett: Well, we're going to have to be more strategic. And let me tell you one of the things that I did when I was on the fire department. I helped lead an effort to establish a Public Safety Academy to provide the opportunities for our kids in high school to become cops and firefighters. That was seven years ago that still has not been realized. Just imagine that we would have had a Public Safety Academy in several of the high schools that would have poured into those kids poured into those schools, back into the neighborhoods. That would have made us all safer. I've also proposed, when I was as a president of MLK coalition, that we re established, or rebirth, the Human Relations Commission, not only dealing in terms of what issues of different communities, race and ethnicity, but also getting at those issues that are still plaguing our community in terms of crime, safety, health and those, those issues having that bridge between city hall in the community and so those Are two strategic opportunities that that we have to make us all safer.

The city faced a lot of criticism. There was a winter storm this year. There were some people that were trapped on their streets for days and days and days, and the the city didn't get out there to get those. Some of those streets cleaned. The response time was slow. As as you look to the future, how would you help the city prepare for major weather events and sort of take care of the whole city?

Raffel Prophett: And again, that's being strategic. And I want to talk about later, if we have time, why we're not being as strategic as we need to be. Now. You have to talk about and I'm not, I'm not ready in in terms of public services, in terms of what the what the fleet looks like in terms of snow removal, but I do know that a a city like Milwaukee invest a lot more into snow removal than a city like Atlanta, and so there's going to be some risk assessment made in terms of how much we're going to fund in terms of our snow removal equipment based on what our winter patterns are. So I don't know what that information on, but I'm sure that there are some risks that we take, and if we get 100 years snow emergency, then we're probably not going to be able to deal with that in a timely manner.

So let's talk a little bit, though, about even as your time as a firefighter, did you ever find that you were had to go out and make a call, and it was the stormy weather, and you couldn't get through. No, we always got through. 100% of the fire trucks get through. We get through 100% of the time. You said you wanted to talk a little more about being strategic. Why don't you define that? What do you mean by being strategic, and what would you like to see?

Raffel Prophett: Yeah. So. Maryann, 25 years ago, our system of government changed from a manager Council, former government to a stronger mayor. And since that since that time, our government has become less strategic, because now it has been based on whatever, whoever that mayor's agenda was, and I can tell you, can prove this, the first mayor, when it was enacted in 2001 focus was the creation of three CDC. The second mayor's focus was on the banks, the development of the banks. The third mayor's focus was on our soccer stadium, FC Cincinnati, and continuing the development of OTR and so. But we used to Cincinnati's harm Harmar Hallmark, I should say, of planning, where we had the plan of 1925 the plan in 1948 the plan of 1980 phase A and phase B, and then we had a plan 2012 we spent three years developing that plan, and there's no obligation to see it through, and that's why we're less strategic.

So you think that that plan, you should go back to that plan from 2012 or there should be a new plan?

Raffel Prophett: There should be a plan. And that's the point. We don't have a plan. And so maybe, you know, 212 maybe, or 2012 needs to be tweaked. But I do think that we must be more strategic. It must go through several administrations, not just one, through one council to the next, because we're talking about a plan that really addresses the vision of the city for at least a decade, with council members being elected every two years.

Though, how do you do that? To come up with a plan that there the next council won't want to change?

Raffel Prophett: We did it for 75 years we had planned Cincinnati was basically developed on strategic plans.

City Council voted to add an additional 5.4 million to public safety. Do you agree that was a good move? We talked about the budget. I'm sort of getting back to that. Or what solutions would you put forward in that regard?

Raffel Prophett: Well, I'm, you know, I don't have all the data. I don't have access to the data. It seems to be a knee jerk, right? I think some of the money went to more ambassadors or three CDC, I think it's probably going to be more towards the central business district and OTR. That's what my gut tells me. I'm really not that read in, I don't know the information that was based on why the we fund, we felt the need to fund a public safety additional 5 million, you know, right before an election that may have. Something to do with it as well, but it seemed a bit knee jerk.

City council instituted new curfew rules citywide, and the city administration's implemented restrictions on red bike and food trucks downtown. Do you think these rules are necessary? Are they effective?

Raffel Prophett: I don't know the data, but I know historically, curfews don't work. And I think I read somewhere that I don't think any of those kids basically have shown up in any other centers. So not your curfews work. Now, what would you do instead? What's the issue? Was curfew was the perception that kids at night were committing crime, right? Wasn't that the issue? Yeah, where's the data on that? I don't know if that's true. I don't have that data, and so I would make decisions based on information. Now, food trucks, Red Bank bikes, I know that those food trucks, I'm sure that those vendors are being harmed in terms of their income. So what's the data showing that that actually will mitigate, mitigate crime. So I'm not sure. I don't I don't have the data.

So you're saying you don't know what your decision, your thoughts, you know if you were on council.

Raffel Prophett: My gut tells me, how does curfews make us safer? Because the research says they don't. Food trucks. How does taking shutting down food trucks earlier? How does that make us safer. I don't have that information, and it hasn't been communicated that it does. And so my The question was, would I support that? And I said, I don't know, because I don't have the information.

Council has faced accusations of not listening to the community on issues like connected communities, zoning reform in 2024 certainly we've all heard about the Hyde Park square square development in 2025 if you're a member of Cincinnati city council, how would you balance that kind of community input with still a desire to add needed housing in the community?

Raffel Prophett: Maryann, and it goes back to that plan again, right? That plan, that plan 2012 three years, had huge community engagement. And so it's not something that community engagement starts on a particular process, that's a value system, that's something that that city hall must instill or must execute in every process, especially when you're talking about community development, that's not something that that occurs on a whim, that's something that is shaped and developed. When we had this comprehensive plan, all of these community stakeholders were involved. So again, not being strategic, I think, is why we have these problems. Communities just don't feel engaged, involved in a planning process.

So am I hearing you say that if there was more strategic planning, you would not only like want just council to work on it, you'd want to bring this out to the communities and have a lot of people engaged in helping develop this. What are you saying there?

Raffel Prophett: Yes, exactly you said it. That's right. Community engagement. Again, that is the history of urban planning in Cincinnati. It's civic engagement.

In this last term, the mayor and city council seats have all been held by Democrats. How do you think this particular dynamic has played out? And if you were on council, how would you work with fellow council members if elected? Not everybody agrees. Not even all in the same party agree.

Raffel Prophett: Yeah, well, and again, I'm looking at this last 25 years, because I really think that our roles have not been clearly defined. They still haven't. When we first started in 2001 under, I believe in Luke, his first term, you know, there was an uneasiness on how you really manage that under Mallory, I think there was a lot more sort of cooperation, collaboration, right, in terms of what the banks, because they were able to get that strategic plan planning going when Roxanne Qualls was the vice mayor, who helped in that. Now, when Cranley became mayor, there was a lot of distension among if you remember, the Gang of Five that was all about basically thinking, believing that Mayor Cranley had some overreach going on and said Now, with this, this administration and current mayor, there's sort of some group think that everybody's kind of marching the same beat, and so in it, not just because they're of the same party, but because, I think that they wanted to project, certainly a different image than was presented in The last administration. If I'm on council again, my focus is going to be an establishment of a strategic plan and how we move forward to meet the vision of the city.

How do you convince other council members on this strategic plan idea? You've talked about it a lot. I think that's the it sounds to me like that's really a large basis of your campaign and something you really want to focus on. You say it hasn't been done over the past several years. How do you convince a council that that has to be one of the first things that happened?

Raffel Prophett: That's what our charter says, and it's been, it's been done that way since 1925 the stronger Mayor we got to that is giving the mayor more powers administratively, right in terms of assigning committee chairs, but also. The set the agenda as well having a veto power, but he or she is not the executor. It's still the city manager. And so really talking to my colleagues, and let's look historically, how has this city been shaped and developed? It was through strategic planning.

So you're just going to keep telling them that until they agree.

Raffel Prophett: Well, I think we have to talk about it, we have to sit down and just, I mean, talk about it. It's, it's either we believe it or we don't. What? How are we going to move forward as a government, having the right relationships in order to move us forward? And I think we've just been struggling the last 25 years.

You ran for mayor in 2021 why this time did you pick Council?

Raffel Prophett: I was encouraged to run Victoria parks. Who decided not to run were both military veterans. She knows the heart I have, and she thought that I would be best served living out her legacy in terms of, you know, taking care of affordable housing and meeting the needs of family and children. So I was encouraged to run

If you had to pick and I think I know the answer, but it's on our list. I'm going to ask it, what do you feel is the most important issue facing the city?

Raffel Prophett: Yep, yep, yep, yep, strategic planning. That's right, we got and we have to really, really all sort of agree on the relationships of how City Hall is going to work, Mayor, council, city manager's role, how is it going to work, and so that we can move the city forward and in a much more collaborative way?

Final question, and you have a minute or two here to answer this, and it's similar to some of these others, so I'm gonna ask you to broaden out that answer just a little bit. If elected, what do you plan to introduce and accomplish during the next two years on council. And I know strategic planning is a huge part of that, but if you could even expand on that, and what you hope maybe is in some of that strategic planning.

Raffel Prophett: Well, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go off the cuff on strategic planning. One thing is I would get is the Public Safety Academy. That's something we've been working for for like, almost 10 years, and establishing a partnership with Cincinnati Public Schools, in which we need to be joined at the hip the city and CPS, we must be joined at the hip in all efforts. But getting that Public Safety Academy. And another thing, an effort that we had MLK Coalition for the last two, almost three years, is reinvigorating the Human Relations Commission. I think that's going to be very important moving our city forward.

So you're on the MLK Coalition. What role do you think that the human relations coalition would play?

Raffel Prophett: Well, the Human Relations Commission, that's, that's what it was called in 1965 when it was created. It was a bridge between, primarily, then the African American community and City Hall, and it was dealing with all of these different disparities. And so that's that's really the role with would play. We may call it something different, but that's, would it be a bridge between city hall and underserved communities.

Thank you so much for being here. I've been talking with Cincinnati City Council candidate Raffel Prophett , and up next, we will talk with candidate Audricia Brooks. This is Cincinnati Edition.

North Avondale resident, Audricia Brooks, was worried she wouldn't be able to stay in her home. That's because of spiking property taxes. Families all across the region are facing these issues now. She's running for Cincinnati City Council. Well, tell us a little bit about yourself. Why you're running.

Audricia Brooks: I am a native of Cincinnati. I am Cincinnati born and bred. I am a product of the Cincinnati Public Schools. My children have all gone here to public schools. I am married. I have eight children. My husband is a retired educator. He's a teacher. So I have strong roots in the community. I grew up in the West End, in the Lincoln courts, so I know how critical and how valued having stable housing is because it was much better than what we had moved from. And I decided to run because I want to be a part of the answer. I want to be able to do more right now. I'm an adopt a spot captain, which means I pick up litter in my community, and that's something that I can do, and I do that on my own. But imagine, with more knowledge, being more deeply immersed in the process, and also having some authority, what we could accomplish for the citizens of Cincinnati to make things better. And so as a nurse, I am a nurse practitioner. I worked as a primary care provider at the Cincinnati VA Medical Center for almost 30 years. And thank you for your service for any veterans or veteran families that are listening. And as a nurse, I'm a communicator, and I'm someone who's concerned about health and wellness and looking at things holistically. And I think I bring that with me as part of the approach to looking at some of the issues in Cincinnati.

Audricia Brooks: Did the property tax issue is that sort of did that propel you to this? Or had you been thinking about that before?

Audricia Brooks: Well, actually, I've been thinking about this for a while, but I was a federal employee, and so I could not run, but the property tax was something that incentivized me absolutely, and I'm dealing now with a issue that's very close to me for affordable housing, and right now I am so angry and pissed off about it that It's really hard for me to calm my head down for this interview, because I have a family member who's facing eviction because the affordable housing that was presented to us a year ago as of what four days ago, is no longer affordable, and she's facing eviction as well. So I have had issues with the taxes, with the property and not being able to pay them, and now I have a family member also who is looking at housing. So yes, this is something that's close to me, and I'm a fighter. I don't like confrontation, but when I'm forced to, you know, I come out with the big guns in full force because I'm an advocate, and as a nurse, I'm an advocate, and I'm just an advocate for those who were downtrodden. And what's happening with her at Victory Vista apartments is shameful. It is shameful that the developers come into our community and promise us affordable housing, and then to treat our elders this way is brazen and obnoxious, and it cannot be tolerated.

What do you think can be done? What would you like to do to help with affordable housing?

Audricia Brooks: Well, what I would like to do is see to it that there is transparency in the process and that affordable housing isn't necessarily concentrated in one particular area, and that we don't blame people for being poor. And say, well, because you're poor or you don't make this income, you know you can't live here, and you know it wouldn't be right for you to live right next door or down the street from someone else who worked hard, and their families worked hard, and you know, they've done all of this, and we have to change our thinking in that regard, every community should have integrated in its development or the processes that they're doing when we're developing housing to include different strata of housing that's available for those who have different incomes.

Council has faced accusations of not listening to the community on issues like connected communities and zoning reform in 2024 the Hyde Park Square development this year in 2025 if you are a member of Cincinnati city council, how would you balance community input with the desire to add housing?

Audricia Brooks: I think it's critical that we listen to our communities. There are very vibrant and active community councils all over Cincinnati, and I think that that's. The boots on the ground are, and that people do have real solutions, and if we listen and incorporate that, they don't have the resources that we would have for all of the, I guess, the nitty gritty, but they may have a solution. And you're in the forefront, you may have an answer, and we need to listen to that in North Avondale, we do have a planning and a steering committee, and that committee has been very vibrant and very active in what want, what we want, developed in that community. And I think that we should be heard. I was appalled that what happened in Hyde Park, I mean, shocked that that that happened, that it seemed like the city was not listening to the to the residents, and we have community councils, and we need to incorporate them, and not down the road. We all need to be sitting at the table with the stakeholders, and for those for developing and have Community Benefit Agreements so that the community decides with the developers, how is this going to benefit our community? And that should be legally binding, and should be something that happens further in the beginning of the process, rather than later on.

There are people throughout Cincinnati who are worried about crime. There's also been national attention on the city's crime rate and criticism about how city leaders have responded to some of that. How do you think City Council should work to reduce crime and address the public perception and concern about safety?

Audricia Brooks: Well, I think our media plays a big part in that. I think that if we are constantly regurgitating those evil images of people getting stomped and kicked and and that you know on our media that that's something that does not ensure the public that this is a safe place to be. And I think that our young people in our Cincinnati Public schools are doing some wonderful things. I was at Schroeder, and they had a podcast very similar to this one. I was very impressed with the students, with what they did, how they processed the podcast, and all of my interactions with them. And I know in the media, usually graduation time, we will take pictures of the graduates and post them on the news. How about focus on Cincinnati? How about focus on our youth? How about having a little segment on the news periodically, like the national news, they do, eye on America. How about doing something like that, where we focus on something that our young people are doing because they're doing some exciting things. They're good people, but what's highlighted is the bad part, and we can help do that.

I will defend the work that WVXU does, and I think we try to cover a wide variety of topics there, but as a city council member, you're not going to be able to influence TV stations or radio stations for that matter, about what to cover. Is there something that the city could do in particular to help deal with that perception of crime all on its own, not necessarily counting on the media?

Audricia Brooks: I think one of the things that city can do is help to boost our program where we employ young people to help that be a little bit more robust. I would like to see the development of environmental deputies, is what I call them, and those young people would be assigned or employed to help clean the litter in the city. I think that that would help instill civic pride. If you have pride about where you are and what you're doing, you're less likely to participate in activities that might defame it. So I am an adoptive spot Captain myself in my neighborhood, and with the environmental deputies, they would have the ability to cite people who are littering, and for those who can't pay their fines, have them volunteer and do community service to also clean up the community.

City Council voted to add an additional $5.4 million to public safety. Do you agree with that move, and what solutions would you put forward?

Audricia Brooks: If the fire department is part of that public safety, yeah, I would definitely agree on it. I think that, you know, we can't continue to be robust with our development and our housing and not have a system in place to protect it. So if we're built building houses and our fire departments are old and aging, and we really don't have the equipment. We don't have a way to fix our trucks or have delayed times when those trucks are down. So that's part of public safety. So if we're building we got to be more robust with our fire department, which is part of the safety

We did look into this, and the money went strictly to the police department, not the fire department. So are you saying we're if you were on council, you would want that money spread more, more across both departments?

Audricia Brooks: Absolutely, Many of the fire departments in the city of Cincinnati are old and outdated, and actually there is a fire. Fire Department was right behind my house, and they recently built another facility down the street, so I know how old and antiquated it was. I could actually hear the calls when they came in. That'd be loud, yes, and I could have met them at the site, because, you know, I was hearing the calls at that time. But yeah, we do need, we do need to pay more attention and to make our fire department more robust.

City council instituted new curfew rules citywide, and the city administration implemented restrictions on red bikes and food trucks downtown. Do you think these rules are necessary. Have they been effective?

Audricia Brooks: I don't think that necessarily. I can't address the fact of whether or not they were effective. I know that it did affect the small business owners and those who were had businesses there downtown, and I think that that was unfortunate for them. I think that the larger picture was not looked at in its totality when that decision was made, and it may have been like a knee jerk response for a short period of time, but definitely not anything for the long run.

The federal stimulus money, as we all know, is now depleted and the city is facing projected budget deficits over the next few years. What do you think city council needs to do to ensure financial stability.

Audricia Brooks: I think with the earnings tax, I think that that was on the ballot a couple of years ago, and we were looking at those resources to fund housing, affordable housing, I think that we're in a place where we do need to revisit that earnings tax. And I know when you start talking about taxes, people get a little squeamish, but it is the taxes that that provides us with the base for us to provide services to our citizens. So that would be something that I would, I would be in favor of.

So let's think back to last winter, it was pretty stormy, and we had a pretty big storm where a lot of streets didn't get cleared of city faced a lot of criticism for response time in some areas. I think there were some people that it took a week before their street was plowed. How would you help prepare the city for major weather events?

Audricia Brooks: It's not just that particular thing, or we're looking at the workforce and those who are employed, it may have been a staffing issue as well as equipment. So if equipment was the issue, then we need to be looking forward to make sure that we have the equipment that we need. And if staffing is issue, then we need to make sure that we are have staffing for the city of Cincinnati, for for those departments to do the work, because we don't have staff, doesn't matter whether we have equipment, they're not going to be able to get there.

Just a reminder, I'm talking with Cincinnati City Council candidate Audricia Brooks, in the last term the mayor and the city council, they've all been Democrats. How do you think that dynamic has played out? And how would you work with fellow council members if you're elected?

Audricia Brooks: I believe in majority rule with minority representation, and I think that we should be nonpartisan when it comes to the things that affect our citizens. I know that there was a Republican who made a significant difference in the process by which we petition in order to get on the ballot. That person was not a Democrat, but it made a difference in how we're operationalizing democracy here in the city. And so I can't say that we should be all Republican. We should be all Democrat, but I do support ranked choice voting, and that is something that I think would make a difference, because it will make our voting process more representative of those who are in our population.

People have talked about that for years. The city had proportional representation a number of years ago, I remember doing a talk show about it, trying to bring it back, I think probably 25 years ago, and it's never happened. What do you think you could do to convince people that's the way to go?

Audricia Brooks: Well, I am. Actually, I started a couple of years ago, kind of doing talks in the community and making sure that people are informed. And we presented this topic to North Avondale. I work very closely with Dan zivang, and he's like a rank choice guru, and I'm support rank the vote Ohio. And if you want to know more about that, you can check that website so that you will know, but you would have the option once that happens. To rank your vote so you There are nine of us running for city council, you will be able to rank your first choice, your second choice, your third choice, and your and your votes are not wasted. I really don't have time in this forum to go through all of the particulars of that, but what would be nice about that is, if you wanted me for your candidates, you get a chance to not just cast a vote next to my name, but you could rank me first, and I'd like you to do that anyway.

What do you think is the most important issue facing the city coming up in the next two, four years?

Audricia Brooks: You know, I have to say this affordable housing at this point, because people need to have sustainable incomes, and they need to have a place to stay, where they feel safe, where we can thrive and not just survive in this city. So I do believe that affordable housing is a big part of that 20 seconds.

If elected, what do you plan to introduce and accomplish during two years on council in 20 seconds.

Audricia Brooks: I'd like to have ranked choice voting. I'd like to have community benefits. I would like to have environmental deputies deputized to help keep our great city of Cincinnati clean.

Thank you so much for being here. Audricia Brooks is running for Cincinnati City Council. Listen all this week and next for more candidate interviews, you'll find them archived on our website.