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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:

• Dale Mallory
• Stephan Pryor
• Brian Ennix

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.
• Catch the replay on 91.7 WVXU and 88.5 WMUB at 8 p.m. ET M-F.
• Listen on-demand. Audio for this segment will be uploaded to this page by 4 p.m. ET., or subscribe to our podcast.

Dale Mallory may be a familiar name to you. He's one of the 27 candidates running for Cincinnati City Council this year, but he's also a former state representative and brother of former Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory. I'm Becca Costello filling in for Lucy May today. Today on Cincinnati Edition, we'll ask him about the balance of power between the mayor and city council and the state legislature, and we'll talk to two other candidates for city council, plus you can catch all of our other candidate interviews on wvxu.org. Dale Mallory, welcome to the show.

Dale Mallory: Thank you. Pleasure to be here.

Yeah, thanks so much for coming in. In the interest of time, we're not taking questions from listeners today. So first, Dale, tell us briefly about who you are and why you've decided to run for city council this year.

Dale Mallory: Okay, I'm Dale Mallory. I'm a lifelong resident of the West End. I'm also a precinct executive and ward chair for the Democratic Party. I'm retired from General Electric Aircraft Engines, 25 years and eight years state representative, and former chair of the brownfields committee, Vice Chair of Transportation under Governor Strickland. And you know, well, since I left the state house, I've worked on 4H initiative and agricultural initiatives in the community, but that's what I currently do.

Okay. Well, right now, the mayor and every current city council member are all Democrats. That hasn't been true historically, and that could change this election. So how do you think this dynamic has played out? And then, especially as someone who has worked in the state legislature, you have experience working with people from other parties. How would you approach working with other political parties if you're elected to council?

Dale Mallory: Well, for one, as a state representative, I worked on and focused on some issues that I tried to connect with the City of Cincinnati, and everything was kind of territorial, you know, and I've been watching ever since, and it's still there, but we miss out on a lot of the funding due to that lack of communication. So it kind of takes a group effort. When we brought Cincinnati back from the riots, we collaborated with with people we didn't agree with, you know, a federal, county, state, but we got Cincinnati back on track. What I see now is people do things to the best of their ability. And if you don't know the politics beyond city hall, if you don't know how it connects, you know, then it works against you. I was, you know, thankful and fortunate enough to have a father who was a state representative that showed us how the state connects to the city. And you mentioned my little brother Mark, when he was mayor, I was state rep at the same time. And we didn't, you know, get together at the dinner table or anything, but, but we kind of, you know, worked in collaboration, and it worked. But in City Hall, there's certain structure, there's certain things that I look for to see if it is, you know, if it's functioning, I guess, in the best way of good government and some of those things they need help with. Okay, you know, you never, you never criticize anybody. And you know, my father taught us that you just, you know, try to get in there and see what you can do to help.

Obviously, when, when you were at that time you're describing on the state legislature and your brother was in the mayor's office, there's a pretty close connection there between city hall and state lawmaking. That doesn't always exist. And so, you know, there are times that city government is at odds with state government over various issues. You know, how do you see that relationship between city council and the state legislature? And how would you improve that relationship?

Dale Mallory: I'll tell you. I've looked for signs, and if it's there, I can't see it. And the problem is, is that the state has a surplus of funds. They have a ton of money. But if you, if you play politics, you know, they're not gonna, they're not gonna give you anything, and we miss out on a lot of their funding. So I kind of see where, you know, I guess somebody has turned to the citizens and tried to extract it from them, you know. And all this goes back to, you know, local government funds. If, you know, if a person digs back in their memory, you know? Oh, they cut local government funds, and everything slid downhill ever since. But the bottom line is to reestablish that communication between the state and the city and then talk to the county at the same time, too. You bring everybody to the table and and it doesn't always happen in a press conference. You know, the thing about asking somebody for funding that doesn't like you is that when it comes you don't get any recognition, you don't get any attention and, and I don't desire that, you know, I don't think it's necessary, as long as it gets done. You know, that's, that's, I guess, the goal.

Following up on, you know, we talked about relationships between the city and the state, and obviously you have kind of a foot in both of those worlds, or have had historically. But also looking at the relationship between city council and the mayor. You know, in in recent years, Cincinnati moved towards this stronger mayor form of government. How do you think that relationship has played out with council? Would you like to see any changes in that working relationship between the mayor and city council?

Dale Mallory: Well, you know, my you know, not that I want to dwell on it, but my brother Mark was elected under the strong mayor system. But I noticed that as soon as this mayor took office, they kind of clipped his wings and took some of his powers from him. And I didn't understand that part, but it seems like they, you know, they vote together, they do things together, but then they've made mistakes and and you have to look at leadership, you know, you have to minimize your mistakes. And you know, things like the Hyde Park situation, you know, that was, I don't, I don't really know how to look at that. You know, I've never really seen anybody repeal their own legislation that kind of, you know, I still don't understand it.

Well, we'll come back to that question coming up soon on in this interview. First, I want to clarify when you say, you know, in response to this question, that they've made mistakes. What do you mean by they? Is that city council?

Dale Mallory: Well, they could have done better and can do better with communication to the public and and when I look at these different pockets, and I understand the structure of the city, you know, the Community Councils are licensed to conduct the business of the community with the city, okay, but then there are a lot of people that don't participate in that. But we live in the, you know, social media, electronic age to where you you have to kind of move with it. And you say, well, if those people aren't attending the meetings, then let's try to get to them at home. It would be nice to see a communication system to just hear from the common, from the common person. You know, when I worked at General Electric Aircraft Engines. We used to have brainstorm meetings where we would all come in and brainstorm on something brain, use the flip chart, and you know, you stay on one subject, and you go back. I think that if we use a method like that with the general public, it would help with the communication to find out what the higher priorities are. But I don't think that kind of communication is being reached out to or established. And I like to see some of that.

And then another quick clarification on this before we move on to development and other issues. You know, when asked about the stronger mayor system, you mentioned former Mayor Mallory and and then said, you know, when he got into office that they clipped his wings. Were you referring to Mayor Mallory?

Dale Mallory: No, no, that's right, to the current mayor. Mark handled that very well. He had experience from Columbus. You know, when he came in, I saw what he did. He established the right people in the right committees. You know, there was a set structure. But when the current mayor came in, I'm trying to remember what they what they did. They took away one of his powers and and I thought that was strange, because we voted, you know, on a strong mayor system, and, and I didn't, there's just some things that I see that I don't, I don't understand.

It's possible you may be referring to the pocket veto.

Dale Mallory: That's right, that's what it was, the pocket veto.

And just to clarify, that was an initiative that current Mayor Pureval spearheaded. He proposed that change.

Dale Mallory: I just, you know, if you have a system established under a strong mayor, I just, I didn't understand it. So I'm glad you made it clear to me. But you know, I'm sure there are plenty other people didn't either. But you know, we just, we just need, you know, clarity. You need more clarity. I mean, if I can get confused on that, I would hate to imagine the other people. Yeah, I told you I didn't know what it did. It just looked a little different.

It is a complicated system of local government we have here. That's true. Just a reminder, I'm speaking with Cincinnati City Council candidate Dale Mallory. Later in this show, we'll talk to Stephan Pryor and Brian Ennix, this is Cincinnati Edition. Now we've talked about development here. I want to first talk about crime a little bit. It's been such a big topic in Cincinnati this summer, neighbors are worried about crime. There's been some national attention on the city and criticism of how city leaders have responded to certain high profile incidents. How do you think City Council should work to both reduce crime but also address the public perception of crime and public safety?

Dale Mallory: Well, I've said it before. I'll say it again. We have one of the best protection centers in the state up on Radcliffe this this center controls the artemis cameras, the cameras on the highway and, you know, and they use all kinds of techniques, license plate readers, just all kinds of things. But I always, always, kind of advocated for us to work closely, more closely with the protection center. But it takes a collaboration in law enforcement. And, you know, in law enforcement is a little territorial too. So it becomes a sensitive issue when the state highway patrol came in, and Mark brought them in to cover the highways so the police could do more in the city. I remember that, and I'm recalling this from my memory, from what I've seen. And I guess it worked okay. But as a state rep, I used to meet with the lieutenant of the highway patrol, and we talked about the relationship between the police and highway patrol, and it pretty much, you know, was kind of non existent in between. And I was informed that they didn't even operate on the same radio band, so they couldn't talk to each other. Anyhow, so you have things like that, you know, that can help, but that's not all to it. The people have to take ownership. You shouldn't allow people to do things in your city, especially outsiders coming into our city, you know, to do things that affect us, and then people coming from outside of our city to tell us how to straighten it out. You know, Cincinnati is a special place. You know, we're known for inventions. We're known for, you know, all kinds of firsts, and we have smart people here. And what you do is you rely on them, you know, to determine what we need. You don't have to have, you know, National Guard on each corner to feel safe. That's insane. I would rather have somebody I know who can tell me what's going on there, or, you know, and if it's better, you know, policing and it needs to be talked about. But you can't just stand around and play to the to the video, play to the public or play to what somebody said over here. You know you have to be smarter.

Let's go a little bit deeper on this issue. Something that you've campaigned on is efforts to increase youth empowerment --that's a phrase that we seen on your platform. So City Council approved new curfew rules this summer, part of the $5.4 million they approved for public safety includes $200,000 for youth outreach workers. How do you feel about the city's efforts on youth engagement and such, so far? And what would you do differently?

Dale Mallory: Things happen so quickly. We wake up every day and look on the news. You know, hey, food truck drivers. You know, they're out at 10 o'clock. You know, you wake up. Hey, West End, guess what? You got a curfew center in Seven Hills when it was initially at Lincoln Center. Okay, I remember that because I was president of West End Community Council, and I'm just saying that it has to be thought out a lot better. Has to be planned. As far as a curfew center, you know, you should have the parental engagement before you even open the center. You have to figure out how to reach those parents, because they're trying to kind of vilify and punish parents when they haven't even talked to them. So this is an issue of communication. You know, when you take political office, people will always dislike you. You know, you won't always be loved by the public. I learned that when my father was in office. And you know, and that's not important, you know, if you're afraid of criticism, then don't run for office. You know, people criticize our family forever, but we continue to do the best job that we can. But, you know, but you have to talk to those people. You have to, you have to confront them. You have to, you know, face the dragon.

Let's move on to development. We've talked about it a little bit already, but the current council has faced some criticism of not listening to the community issues like Connected Communities back in 2024 the Hyde Park Square development, which you mentioned today. So as a member of city council, how would you balance that and listening to the community but also encouraging development and adding housing?

Dale Mallory: Well, it's like I said, you know, for one that communication, because a person in office cannot say, well, I'm just listening to the community councils, and I'm not listening to you. You know that's convenient, and it sounds good, but it doesn't work. As far as housing development, you know, I was chair of the brownfields environmental development committee, and we took contaminated sites and turned them into productive properties. One of my major issues now is lead abatement. You know, just because we don't talk about it doesn't mean it's gone away. All of those old buildings have lead paint inside and out. I noticed when they demolished buildings, you know, as former chair of that committee, you're supposed to spray them down with water. You're supposed to spray that building down with water as you do that, and I've seen people not do that. The lot that it becomes is a contaminated lot, and those can be remediated. You can do it a couple of ways. You can plant sunflowers that extract lead from the soil, but that lead abatement. And then the lead abatement in apartments, if we have an aggressive lead abatement program, it increases housing overnight, okay, overnight to take contaminated soil, contaminated properties, and remediate them, but it also puts those people to work, and the people who do that work, they make like $45 an hour. And so it works all the way around. And then even the companies that do that work, they benefit, you know, they employ these people with everything works hand in hand when it comes to environmental cleanup, and that's one of my focuses. So that's, that's one of the major thing I'm going to push. And from what I understand, and somebody can prove me wrong, I was told that. I was told by somebody, you know that? I know that I trust that there was funding for lead abatement available, and the city did not apply for it in August, and now, you know that funding. I don't know if it's gone away or not, but I plan to pursue that.

Okay, I'm not sure about that specific situation.

Dale Mallory: I was just, you know, I put the feelers out there. If I'm wrong, somebody correct me. But if there's funding, let's get it.

Unfortunately, we're out of time. Dale Mallory, thank you. Thank you so much for joining me. Dale Mallory is running for Cincinnati City Council. Up next, I talk with candidate Stephan Pryor. This is Cincinnati Edition.

This is Cincinnati edition on WVXU, I'm Becca Costello, filling in for Lucy May. Stephan Pryor is an Over-the-Rhine resident running for Cincinnati City Council, and he joins me now. Thank you so much, Stephan.

Stephan Pryor: How you doing, Rebecca?

Becca, nobody calls me Rebecca. That's fine. We'll make an exception for you, Stephan. Alright. Thank you so much for coming. So first, can you just tell us briefly about yourself and why you're running for city council?

Stephan Pryor: Well, my name is Stephan Pryor, raised and born in Over-the-Rhine community Mount Auburn slash. My father is Aaron "The Hawk" Pryor, boxing lightwelterweight champion of the world, two time champ Hall of Famer. I had a boxing career of 13 wins, one loss, seven knockouts -- my professional career. I had to fall back as you get headaches, so I said, hold up. Let me stop and move on to another future. And a community activist, I like to be straightforward with things and tell it how it is, the truth. And I ran for state representative last year in district 24. Numbers did great now, and I'm here now for city council race.

Alright. Well, we're going to dig into a lot of issues today in the short amount of time we have, but I want to start with property taxes. Lowering property taxes is something that you have campaigned on. How would you accomplish that for Cincinnatians?

Stephan Pryor: Well, come together with some of the candidates, the candidates and whoever's in office, and talk with them about lowering property tax, like Mark Jeffreys, he came up with a $50 million property tax task force to help residents from Price Hill, Mount Auburn, Clifton and different neighborhoods, Walnut Hills, to help lower property tax. And he came up with a task force, and he actually had a $50 million budget to help out with taxes, but he terminated it.

Well, let me interject there, because I think what you're referring to is there was a property tax task force that came out with recommendations about a year ago. And at the beginning of that task force, Jeffreys did propose the possibility of using the $50 million comes from money that the city has set aside to deal with fallout from this lawsuit about workers paying city payroll taxes while they work from home during the pandemic. That was an idea, but that never played out. And so there was never a budget specifically for that task force. So I think that's what you're referring to. I just want to be clear on the details.

Stephan Pryor: I'm referring to that. But basically they could, they can keep the money. They could have kept that money.

The city has kept the money. And they're saving it for that purpose. Is the reason it wasn't used for property taxes.

Stephan Pryor: No they actually use it for something else. That's what Mark Jeffreys told me. He used it for something else, towards something else. So okay, they could have helped with that. And I follow. I go to City Hall all the time. I see you down there. We're there at the same time, right? I see what's going on, so I pay attention what's going on. He told me they terminate that, and they using that $50 million towards something else, another project, but not helping the citizens.

So how would you accomplish lowering property taxes for residents?

Stephan Pryor: Well, help the citizens. You had to have funds stuff like that. They gave ARP funds. They used that money for pickleball. They could have used that to help lower property taxes. It's a lot of funds there. And the general funds, you just got this cannabis revenue just came in, they just put that into the general funds. The general funds could have helped people with property taxes just rising high off these tax abatements. I pay attention. Becca, I pay attention.

Let's dig into the budget a little more. As you know, because you pay attention, the federal stimulus the city had for the last few years, that's now depleted and the city is facing projected budget deficits for the next few years. So what do you think city council needs to do to make sure that we can continue to pay for basic city services and things like property tax relief?

Stephan Pryor: Stop spending. They spending too much money on unnecessary things, pet projects. They keep giving money to 3CDC to Port, wasting taxpayer dollars, not helping the people. Even the city, the city workers losing pension. Can't get enough pension in it's a lot of things going on down at city hall we need to pay attention to, and nobody's not.

What are some examples of things -- you mentioned a few organizations that have gotten money from the city -- but any specific projects that you think you know, what would you would not have voted for if you were on council?

Stephan Pryor: Receivership.

What do you mean by that?

Stephan Pryor: Receivership is basically, if you don't own a property and you can't you don't have funds to fix it up, they put you in receivership, take it to court and take your property, and once they take your property, give it to a nonprofit organization. And once they do that, the nonprofit organization comes in, he put it on the stock market and make a profit. I get eliminate that, let people have a fair chance to fix their home up, not, not take them out their own home, push them out their own home, or their own property. And that's the key. I'll get rid of that.

And that's a budget savings effort?

Stephan Pryor: It's a whole lot of savings. It's helping people. It's helping people. See, you can use that money to help people. You've given up land. I mean taking land and giving it to a receiver. It'll help that person.

What other budget pet projects, you know, if the if the idea is to stop spending on things that you see as not valid to spend on. What are some specific examples of that?

Stephan Pryor: Well, you said pet projects.

You said pet projects.

Stephan Pryor: But you repeated that, pet projects. Well, basically these organizations that come down and, you know, receive funds from the city for these organizations out in the community trying to do work. Eliminate some of that. Okay, eliminate some of them programs, if you're not doing the work, we need someone to look over the funds. Look over what you're doing in the community, like a foreman. You have a foreman. Look over a job. They have no formans, looking over how they money getting dished out. And that's why get rid of some of them stuff. Them programs.

Okay, are there specific ones you're considering or?

Stephan Pryor: Well it's a lot of them. It's a list of them. You said it, pet projects, it's a lot of them, and they're not doing the work in the community. That's why you see a lot of stuff going on in the community.

Okay, let's look at -- also related to the budget -- of course, it touches really every part of city services. But there was some criticism this year about the winter storm and some response time. How would you help prepare the city for major weather events if you were elected to city council?

Stephan Pryor: Well, you want to be ahead, ahead of time. You want to be ahead of it. If you see a lot of things going on, like the snow removal, I mean, they should have been on that day, a day in advance. You know, they got even, how can I say advance, just the future we live in here. They even got things that actually, can actually melt the snow before even touch the ground, concrete. So not concrete black top. You can put any type of device up under the black top. The melt the ice that's hitting the black top. So it's a lot of the gadgets out here. We're in the future now, but we're not looking towards the future. They just doing it right now, you know. And go back to a question. You just said something about the budget. What about this medical bill? They supposed to eliminate the medical debt relief, right? What did that come from, Becca, if you know?

Originally it was, it was ARPA money, and then I think it was maybe reallocated from some previous ARPA funds that were deemed ineligible for that purpose.

Stephan Pryor: Okay, okay, so the cities, do they get credit for saying, well, we paid your bills, the city out there at the forum saying we paid your bills. So that's not true. The city didn't pay the bills. Someone else paid the bills, the debts, for the medical.

I think I see what you're saying. It's a matter of perspective, I suppose, but the city did approve spending money for that purpose. Okay, going back to the winter storm and the technology, I think, I think what's interesting about that is, you know, any any new initiative or any new technology will cost money. And as you know, we're talking about the cities is kind of on the edge of a budget crisis. So you know, if your goal is to explore new technologies and things like that, how would you pay for that?

Stephan Pryor: Well, say it again, stop some of these spending, stop suspending, stop spending, unnecessary spending. You can buy those future technologies. We way behind 10 years, way 15 years, way behind. So if we stop the spinning, we can afford these type of new technologies for any type of storm to hit our way. New plows. We in the future now. You know, we stuck. We stuck right now. So stop spending.

All right. Well, let's move to talk about crime. Obviously, that's been a hot topic in Cincinnati this year, but it's something that can affect residents all year round, not just in the summer months. There's been some national attention on the city's crime rates this year, some criticism of how leaders have responded, especially to some of these high profile incidents like that, the bar fight earlier this summer. How do you think city council should not just work to reduce crime, which, of course, is everyone's goal, but also address this public perception of crime and the concerns people have about public safety.

Stephan Pryor: Well, again, they spent what? Four point -- they gave Jeff Cramerding gave up $2 million to the police officers just to walk the beat. We barely saw police officer walking the beat. Then he gave up $5.4 million to the police department for for cameras, 190,000 to Lighthouse curfew, then another center for curfew. All that is like fabrication that was going on in the community, it's not like you're giving up free money and you don't see no results.

So that money was just approved. I will say it's just approved a couple of weeks ago.

Stephan Pryor: Correct, correct. But we don't see the work. If someone give you money already in advance, you need to do the work in advance too, not just wait till the money is available. So if you get all that money, you need to be on the streets ASAP. I mean, that'll help crime. You know, centers the Lighthouse don't need no curfew center the Lighthouse there the house kids, anyway. So how? Where's the data show that these curfews are actually working. No data at all. So, like the bar fight, you call it a bar fight. Well, that's on Fourth Street. Why the food trucks got a curfew that don't make sense. Food trucks ain't have nothing to do with this fight. See, it's a lot of stuff you adding on to something don't even call for, you know, a curfew. Then you put a curfew on food trucks 11 o'clock. How do you supposed to make a living? That's not right.

So you you have a criticism of policies that are currently in place and things that council has done recently. What are things that you would do, though, proactively, if you were elected to council? What would you propose differently to address crime and public safety perception?

Stephan Pryor: What would I do is actually get these youth, youth employment. Okay? Youth employment. Jobs equal less crime. Youth employment. They keep saying, Bring CCY back. That's back in the days. Bring another program back then. Healthy Youth. Healthy Youth. You got 24 rec centers throughout throughout Cincinnati. Why not start basketball leagues up to help these kids to stay off the streets. They always want to be a basketball player, baseball, soccer start leagues up with these different rec centers keep these youth busy doing something productive that can help them, you know, mental and physical. And once you do that, guess what? Less crime. Then they get taught, how about youth work and youth employment? So that's what I would do, tackle that area. Because I used to be a youth. I used to be a boxer, so I know what it takes. I'm in the gym all day, working out. I'm tired at the end of the day. I don't got time out in the streets to go do crying, you know? So I would do that.

On that note, one of the things that council did this year was clarify curfew rules citywide, institute a special curfew district downtown and in parts of Over-the-Rhine. Do you think that curfew rule is effective? Is that something that you support?

Stephan Pryor: No, it's not effective at all. Just spoke about that. It's not effective just giving out money and just now money like candy.

Well, the curfew centers, I think, is one part of that that the city has contracted with Lighthouse and Seven Hills to operate the curfew centers. But just the concept of a curfew in general, you're saying you don't support a curfew?

Stephan Pryor: I don't support a curfew. No. Youth need to actually have some engagement with police officers, because why? Police officers and youth will always bump heads. Where's the respect for each other? You know, I don't like the police. Police get mad at the youth. It's back and forth. What about youth engagement with police officers, understanding they feel what they do? What about where's the love at? You know, always say, I love you that you can do about it. But where's the love at, with the community, not not to bump heads off a curfew. You telling me to go in the house, and I'm 17, 18 year old, 16 year old, you know? I mean, so they'll bump heads all the time, you know? So I think they need to have some type of engagement with officers and the youth and let them know the officers there to help you, to love you, to be there for you. And that's the that's what's going on in the world we living in now. We bumping heads with each other, with hatred. We in a world right now, we got to come together and start loving each other, no matter the race. We got to come together. And nobody's not. So that's my, that's my, my goal to actually helping people bridge that gap from violence and anger. That's what it is. Ain't no babies hungry. About a food security that one of the council members came up with?

Food insecurity?

Stephan Pryor: No, no. Babies ain't hungry. That's something.

You're saying there's not a food insecurity issue in the city?

Stephan Pryor: They got the Freestore.You got a lot of food banks. You got a lot of people donating food croakers. Food. Krogers don't eat food. You got a lot of centers feeding food. You got Seven Hills Neighborhood House. They giving out food to the community. That's not true. It's just giving out free money to different things. It's dishing out money. Stop the spending. That's what you getting.

Becca, we got just a couple of minutes left, so I want to quickly address development. Obviously, there was some criticism of council for issues like the Connected Community zoning reform the Hyde Park Square development this year. So as a member of city council, how would you balance the desires and public feedback from the community, but also encourage development and add housing?

Stephan Pryor: Well, I encourage development. Basically tax abatement. These tax abatements, I will break tax abatements down to for these developers of five years, five years only, a tax abatement. That's how we'll do that. Break that down, tax abatement. You said something about the community. Repeal the zoning in all communities. If they can do it in one community, let's repeal all the zoning they did in all the communities so they won't have something like in Hyde Park. About the development going in, they said, No, you ain't having this over here. You see, they fought for it. They came down City Hall and got it kudos to Hyde Park.

So you'd like to repeal Connected Communities, just to be clear, right?

Stephan Pryor: Repeal it. You know, it's hurting the communities.

We have just a little bit of time left. If you could do this in just about 30 seconds, if elected, what would you introduce and accomplish during the two years on council?

Stephan Pryor: Well, what I would do and accomplish is help job creation, job creation, like I said, less crime, youth employment, fair housing, fair housing, fair justice and fixing that Western Hill Viaduct Bridge, advocate for that. It's crumbling. It's been like that over 20 plus years. Many city council members say they're gonna fix it. Never did it. They sale of the railroad funds supposed to fix old infrastructure. That is an old infrastructure that need to be fixed ASAP. That's something I will advocate for the people, because that bridge is something important. You got over 50,000 cars that travel over that street. I mean, that bridge daily. And you telling me an incident might happen off something crumbling that they had the money to fix. They need to fix that bridge. And I would advocate for that, okay, and the senior citizens too, also.

Alright, I have to cut you off there. I'm so sorry. We're out of time. That's Stephan Pryor. He's running for one of the nine seats on Cincinnati City Council. Thank you so much for joining me, Stephan. Up next, we will talk with candidate Brian Ennix.

This is Cincinnati Edition on WVXU, I'm Becca Costello. Brian Ennix is a write in candidate for Cincinnati City Council who wants to increase wages for young people and cap rent in the city. He's here to tell us more about why he's running for city council, Brian, thank you so much for coming in. Welcome to the show. So I want to have you start by just telling us a little bit about yourself and why you decided to run for this office.

Brian Ennix: Well, I'm 63 years old, long time resident of Hamilton County. I'm three children, 15 grand and three great grand, and I have a lot invested. My parents ran a bail bonding business here in Cincinnati. My grandmother is Louise Shropshire. You know, she wrote the song We Shall Overcome. Wow, yeah. I have a lot to try to stand up too, so, but my main thing is that I went out and I spoke with a lot of people while I'm campaigning. The homeless is one in general, they were saying that the important thing is that they need safety. They don't even have safety down there in a homeless camp. And I think that's the big, important reason for me running is safety. I've had some dealings with crime also, you know, so I think that's a big issue, because I think everybody should be safe across Hamilton County,

Okay, well, public safety is certainly a big topic. We'll get to that in just a minute. But first, I want to start with something that you have campaigned on. You talk about this desire for the city to work more closely with schools. So how would you approach a stronger partnership with Cincinnati Public Schools, and what are some of the specific issues you'd like to work with CPS on?

Brian Ennix: Well, I wanted to start something like the Young Entrepreneur Center. Instead of having children out in the street selling water, lemonade. They have a center, maybe with some of the centers that they have that they're closing up, they can repurpose. They come in three times a day with their goods, T-shirts, bracelets, drinks, whatever they want to do. Three times a week, half the money goes to them. The other half goes into an account for them, you know. So it helps them, inspires them to do different things. Is open to all the children in Hamilton County, so it gets them off the street, you know, gives them something to think about, and then also encourages, I want to get a program where it encourages the kids to come to school and excel. So we give them some benefits, like maybe some gift cards for perfect attendance, or they start academics. You know, we give them another gift card or a bond in education, you know, something to inspire them to come.

You mentioned that one of the ways you could do this is with centers that are closing. What did you mean by that? What centers?

Brian Ennix: Well, the centers that we're not using, as far as the centers that we're using for the kids curfew centers, okay, be repurposed, instead of just going empty and money being thrown away.

You're referring to Seven Hills and Lighthouse. Yes. Okay, okay. You know we can. Those are, just to clarify my understanding. Those are, those are existing organizations that are also using those buildings for other purposes. So not not empty when they're not being used for curfew centers.

Brian Ennix: Right, but on the days they could in those areas, for the young entrepreneurs, the days you're not using it, maybe we could collaborate with them to use them for those times, because only three times a week, it gives them a center to start their own business. It, you know, and they would be there with their parent, one parent, you know, keep business organized for them.

I want to ask you, too, so you're a certified write-in candidate, so that means your name will not appear on the ballot. So if voters want to vote for you, they'll have to write your name in. I'm curious, how are you approaching this campaign and getting your name out there and understanding what the needs in the city are?

Brian Ennix: Well, I've been going to different areas in the city asking questions and posting them on my site, campaign site, so people see the interviews and the topics that I talk to my constituents about and and I'm walking the beat. And I've put a couple of songs together for my campaign. So I've got those. I have them out there also, so and just doing the work I need to do, and speak to people, to be honest about it, because we do need to change. We need more cohesion between the different communities in Hamilton County.

You mentioned at the beginning, talking to some of the homeless population about their concerns. You know, as you're going around through the city, what are some of the concerns you're hearing from people that are telling you that this is, this is what I want to see city council address.

Brian Ennix: Well, it's safety is a big thing and but it's homelessness, and I think the city could do a little bit more about homelessness, because we can repurpose some of these schools, make them efficiency apartments and put solar on them. Zoo has been existing for solar for years. Why can we do this? Give people a place to stay at an economical price, and it would generate money for the city, because they're not paying utilities, and the city's not paying utilities because of solar. So it's all coming back.

Well, let's talk about public safety. Obviously, crime has been a big topic in Cincinnati this year. There's been some national attention because of some viral incidents that happened, and some criticism locally and nationally about how city officials have responded to that. So what would you do differently? You know, how do you think city council should balance this obviously reducing crime as much as possible, but then also taking seriously this public perception of public safety?

Brian Ennix: I think the city's response is not quick enough when it comes to situations and when it comes to investigating, it doesn't go in depth enough so people feel like they're not being listened to, and then it caused a barrier between the police the citizens, because they feel like you know, you're not respecting me, you're not coming in time, and anything can happen. Because I've been a part of that. This is part of the reason that, you know, you're running for this safety, because everybody needs a place. I became a stay off the grass dad, you know, you had three kids and 15 grands. This is my, you know, my place of peace. And they don't want that disturbed. Elderlies, you know, this is their last stage. So I'm with helping the elderly, the children and you know, along with women, that that's their rights to do whatever they want to do with their body, you know. So I'm kind of like about it. So I'm going nonpartisan, because it's not a left or right, it's just the right thing to do.

Get a little more specific. You know, you mentioned that the city should respond more quickly to big incidents like this fight that was put on social media. And you know that there's, there's need to help the residents. But what would that look like? You know, practically, if you were in city council, what would you propose to do differently about public safety compared to what's happening right now.

Brian Ennix: Well, the incident happened downtown. I would just call it a ballroom brawl, because this is what happens when you give individuals that can't take alcohol and control themselves. This happens. So I would have taken everybody to jail, let them sit and, and, you know, get it off their chest and gave them a fine and send them home, because that's what happens. This is just one of those things that happen when you drink too much, you have too many people in one place, and it's been blown out of proportion. Now, I do think that incident with the young lady was kind of out of place, but with the gentleman and and all that is just a brawl.

So back to the question, though, what would you do differently on public safety compared to, you know, what's happening right now with this current city administration and city council?

Brian Ennix: I mean, I don't want to say I would stop, you know, selling alcohol at a certain time, because that would cut down on it too. But people need to be accountable for their actions. If you know you're drinking too much, quit drinking.

Okay, now that's that's a personal accountability thing for residents of Cincinnati, that's not something that city council could control. So what would city council do?

Brian Ennix: They would have to stop the sale of alcohol at certain time.

Okay, earlier than currently, right?

Brian Ennix: Okay. It's just like cutting back on the food on the food trucks. You know, we don't want to make anything happen, we have to stay in control. So this is the way they can control it, by cutting down the time of selling alcohol in the city.

So you mentioned the food trucks, that is something as well as a curfew for youth that was put in place. That was a city council initiative. The food trucks and restrictions on Red Bike downtown and Over-the-Rhine is something the city administration put forward. It sounds like are you you agree with those initiatives? Is that something you think has been effective?

Brian Ennix: Well, if you have people living downtown, and they need a space, also that, just like, stay off the grass, dad, they want peace, so you have to cut things down. When no traffic can come in, they have a time to rest. But if you have a food truck, you've got the bikes going on. It's consistent movement. Nothing's at peace. You know, it's constantly going on. I understand people have to make a living, but you have to respect each other's space also. And this is what I think Cincinnati has got away from respecting everybody's space.

So you think that these initiatives are a way to kind of cut down on the chaos and make it easier to for the police to kind of patrol? I want to move on to a couple of different topics as time goes by really quickly, so we'll try to cover as much as we can. But right now, the mayor and all city council seats are currently held by Democrats. How do you think this dynamic has played out with this kind of one party rule in recent years? And if you're obviously that could change with this election. So if you're elected to city council, how would you work with fellow council members who maybe have different party politics than you do?

Brian Ennix: Well with anybody, you just have to sit down and find what we meet and work from there. You know, we just have to find a common space that we agree on and work out from there. But, I mean, we can all work together. That's we're here for, is nine people on council. We have to work together and make it happen, because it's for the people. It's not just it's not us, and that we feel is for the city.

Development has been a huge issue for the city this year, Council's faced some criticism, being accused of not listening to the community. We're talking about things like Connected Communities, which was the big zoning reform effort last year. This year, of course, Hyde Park Square development, which is a specific project, but has garnered attention and kind of opinions from across the city. So if you were elected to city council, how would you balance these issues? So you've got to listen to the community and balance community input, but also, you know, encourage development and add housing to the city. And how would you deal with that?

Brian Ennix: Well, like Hyde Park, I used to go to Withrow at one time, and it's a certain way they want their community to be. And if that's where the citizens of that community would like their community be. We have to make that adjustment for them. They've been there a long time. That's what's wrong with Cincinnati. Now we quit listening to the people. We start thinking about growing now we've outgrown ourself. It's gotten so bad that the people live here can't even enjoy the city because wages are so short and you're paying just as much for utilities are you as you are for rent. So how can you almost can't even eat? So I would go as far as taking the buildings, rehabbing them, making efficiencies using solar, because we're cut down on the utility bill and the money that the city has repurposed the building for goes back into the city, because this is theirs. They can always balance the rent, because it's their building, and there's no utilities involved, so except for water, and you can charge that to the tenant. You know, along with a subsidized rent, we've had to cap the rent find a new way to make sure people can have a place to stay. Everybody needs a place to stay. The homeless even said it's winter time coming where they going to go?

What were you referring to? Specific buildings that you think the city should should repurpose for housing?

Brian Ennix: Well, anything that they're trying to sell to outside investors, okay, we need it.

Okay, talking about the city budget briefly, we've got, obviously, federal stimulus propped up the city budget for the last few years, but that's run out now, and now the city is facing projected budget deficits. So how do you think city council could ensure financial stability?

Brian Ennix: By the same thing I was speaking of, as far as taking repurpose some buildings and making them green friendly, still can be affordable, and some of these green spaces that we can we can make a place where we can grow on vegetables. In each community, you have a spot like that where we can grow vegetables so we can stop the, you know, the food, the food, I forgot what it's called desert. The food desert, yeah, you know, because then on top of that, you can get some of the restaurants to invest in it also, because they can get the produce for their business. I mean, we have to learn how to maintain ourselves, because we just, it's just getting it's just getting so out of hand. I don't know.

What what do you think is the most important issue facing the city right now?

Brian Ennix: It's homelessness and crime. It's an equal it's equal thing.

Okay, in just about a few seconds here, maybe 30 seconds, what if you were elected? What would you plan to introduce and accomplish in the next two years on council?

Brian Ennix: I would definitely make sure that we would have more homes for the homeless and make sure we have more as far as mental help for the homeless so they can transition out of that, because some of them don't like to leave from where they're at.

I'm so sorry. I've got to cut you off, but we're out of time. Brian Ennix is running for Cincinnati City Council, Brian, thank you so much for joining us. You can tune in all this week and next for more candidate interviews, find them all archived on our website. That's wvxu.org This is Cincinnati Edition on WVXU. Our producer is Selena reder. The associate producer is Harper Carlton and Carlos Lopez Cornu is our technical director today. I'm Becca Costello, filling in for Lucy May. Thank you for listening.