Our interviews with more than two dozen Cincinnati City Council candidates continues.
Over two weeks on Cincinnati Edition, we’ve invited all of the candidates on the show.
Guests:
- Christopher Smitherman
- Jerry Corbett
- Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney
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.
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The Hamilton County Republican Party welcomed Christopher Smitherman into the council race, encouraging him to run as a Republican, but the former vice mayor is running as an independent. This is Cincinnati edition on WVXU I'm Becca Costello, filling in for Lucy May. Today, what propelled Smitherman back into the race, and we talk to the current vice mayor, as well as newcomer Jerry Corbett. Christopher Smitherman welcome to the show. Tell us a little bit about yourself and why did you decide to run to return to city council.
Christopher Smitherman: I'm a dad of five kids. I live in North Avondale. I'm a small business owner. I am a widower, and I got back in the race, just like I think many citizens, I have very serious concerns about the direction of the city, and I feel like I have experience that I can add to this body to help move Cincinnati forward. So that got me back in the race and I would say a personal note is I have a 17-year-old daughter who doesn't need me as much now, and so I haven't had the time to do it, and so now I have the time.
Understandable. You have said in previous interviews that part of what prompted your return because that you did make that decision pretty close to the deadline to submit your signatures, and that part of that decision, you've said was this viral bar fight, and the kind of the city response to that over the summer, as well as kind of increased crime rates, you've been critical of how the city responded to that incident. So what would you have done differently? And then looking forward, how should Cincinnati City Council both reduce crime as much as they can and also respond to a public perception of a lack of public safety?
Christopher Smitherman: One I would have shown kindness to the victims. I think that's very important. I certainly would not have said that anybody was begging for what occurred to them. No one deserved to be treated the way they were treated. And so, you know, as I talk to people all over the country, I even have clients as a financial planner. I'm a small business owner. I remember talking to a client who was in Kenya asking me what is happening in Cincinnati. So, you know, with the internet, this is national, it's it's global, and we have to be very, very cognizant of that when you're one of the nine members of council. So for me, it was just how we were treating the victims, how, you know, the messaging saying we need to arrest white people, you know, I've got one in the chamber. You know, you have 48 hours to respond. That was something also that was very concerning from the press conferences that were happening. You know, I graduated from the school for Creative and Performing Arts, and I was talking to one of your colleagues. I just didn't grow up with that kind of notion, or that kind of feeling around race in class. And I think that's very, you know, a big shout out to Cincinnati Public Schools. I think I went to one of the best that that Cincinnati has to offer. Still today, I learned a lot there. And so my dad had a had a had a had a slogan in my home. He would say, every black person isn't your friend, and every white person is your enemy. And so this notion that race and class and all these things were being interjected when we had real human tragedy that I thought that City Council could have taken the time to say, Holly being punched in your face, you didn't deserve that. I thought it was misogyny, and I think that it was just too much. And that was one of many reasons that I said, Hey, I want to, I want to get back in here and try to offer some common sense and experience to the council.
And Holly, of course, referring to the woman who was portrayed in that viral video that was on social media as the woman who was punched and unconscious on the ground. Just for context for our listeners, so you know, you talk about that, the city official should have shown more kindness and empathy toward the victims. What about looking forward when we're talking about crime and the effort to reduce crime? I don't think anybody you know would disagree that crime reduction is an important strategy to have. But how would you do that differently than who's currently at City Hall?
Christopher Smitherman: Well, when I was working as the vice mayor, former vice mayor of the city, we met every two weeks with every law enforcement person we could in one meeting. We brought everybody together. We put the criminals, sometimes their photos, because many times the people who are doing these crimes they're doing they're the same ones doing the same thing. So we know who they are. It's a very small number. Number of people in Cincinnati, meaning, if we could get about 100 people off the street, we would make tremendous progress in the area of managing crime. But here are some creative things that I would do. One I would make sure I brought back that meeting that's important, that we have this cooperation with the county, with our federal prosecutors, with probation, with the Urban League, with the Cincinnati NAACP. You know, we have to deal with reentry. Any, anybody that we would think should be at that table to deal with crime in a holistic way. But something creative I would do was really talk to ask me about changing some of the work schedule. So if we're going to do road repair, let's look at our hot spots, and let's do those road repairs between 11 and three o'clock in the morning when we know we've got a hot spot or change around when we're picking up our trash. Bad guys, bad Ladies, don't like light. They don't like activity, and so you want to push it out and make it more uncomfortable for them. So there are lots of ways, I think, creative ways, that we can get at some of this, but focusing on the small number of people that are doing it, and then getting cooperation from our judges. So you can't have a gun go down to a judge and then be released in a day. So we also have to deal with the prosecution, the arrest, the prosecution, and then the judge in the sentence.
So what kind of relationship do you think the city should have with county officials, so specifically, the judges and the county prosecutor's office? And one quick clarification, I guess too, when you say if someone is arrested with a gun and goes before a judge. I assume you mean an illegal gun, someone who is not legally allowed to possess a weapon. Okay? So just thinking about that, that relationship, it can be contentious at times. I feel like there is a lot of finger pointing across different jurisdictions, because crime is not something that the city by itself can address, of course. So how would you work with the folks at the county level to kind of improve that relationship and make progress.
Christopher Smitherman: So I chaired Law and Public Safety for four years, and I did that meaning I had the sheriff on speed dial. I remember calling Sheriff Neil saying, hey, we need some extra patrols. For example, in bond Hill, we've got people speeding through the business district. Would you help bring some cooperation around that work with the police department so everybody knew what was happening for the for the most part, this is just about making sure that you keep lines of communication open, that you're having open meetings, meaning you want to, you want to meet with your sheriff. You want to meet with your federal prosecutor. You want to meet with the Hamilton County prosecutor, and you want to make sure the coroner. You want to meet with the coroner. You just want to, for one other example, meet with the University of Cincinnati emergency teams. Because I have to tell you our murder rates, we'd have 58 murders to date, but the number of people that have been shot who would have died otherwise because of UCS medical teams. And so we would also make sure that we were meeting with those medical teams, because sometimes, when they we got to the UC emergency room, they needed support, because the chaos would come right into the emergency room. It didn't end on the street. And so making sure that we have this holistic perspective about what's happening around this, and making sure those lines of communication remain open. I don't think that's happening right now. So one last example, I would have accepted the help from the Governor, Mike DeWine, and I would have said, if the governor is saying, I'm going to bring in assets, I see a spike in crime. We know that our personnel, 930 officers, are below where we need to be. We know we have 200 officers that are in drop, which is crisis. I mean, that is really serious. Our retention is really important. Now, I would have brought in the governor and said, Hey, how can you help us and make sure that those assets were there at the beginning of the summer, so the work that we need to do right now. In conclusion, we should already be talking about what is our plan for next summer? It's not something you do right before the summer. It's what you do throughout the winter, and then you're ready to go with your team.
One clarification when the governor did offer some support to the city of Cincinnati, after some of these viral incidents and lots of news coverage, the city officials did accept some of that support. Did not accept all of it again. Just some context there. I'm speaking with Cincinnati City Council candidate Christopher Smitherman. Later in the show, I talk with Jerry Corbett and Jan Michelle lemon Kearney. This is Cincinnati edition. So moving on to some other important issues here. When you were on city council, previously, you served alongside elected Democrats, elected Republicans, you served as an independent. Now, though the mayor and all nine city council members are endorsed Democrats. How do you think that dynamic has played out.
Christopher Smitherman: So David Mann and Betsy Mann have endorsed my candidacy for city council. Well, if he's listening, I want to give a context. He said he's voting for Democrats. He wants a majority of Democrats on council, but he believes in the diversity of thought.
And this is former mayor and council member.
Christopher Smitherman: Yes, he was a Democrat, David Mann, and so he acknowledged that he'd like to see Charterites. He'd like to see independents. He'd like to see Republicans, just not in a majority, and that those voices are incredibly important when you're governing. So my my perspective is working with my colleagues. So I'm not afraid of the dirty word right now of compromise. So where I agree with my Democratic colleagues, I'm going to sign off and say, I agree with this, even if people who supported me don't like it. Because the goal here is to move the city of Cincinnati forward. And so you have to keep in mind, you know, when you're elected and you're running every two years, which is the reality, you have to keep putting Cincinnati in front of you, and not the next election. And so I've lived long enough, I've served long enough to know, bring the grandstanding down after an election, and focus and govern, which is very different than when you're running for office.
As mentioned in the intro here, you were invited to seek the GOP endorsement. I think they would have been happy to endorse your candidacy for this race, but you've chosen to run as an independent. So why is that?
Christopher Smitherman: Well, because the issues that are I'm passionate about, I think most of the country right now, if you look at what's happening at the board of elections, there are people that are saying, I was a Democrat, now I'm an independent, or I was a Republican, and now I'm an independent, and there's a reason for that. People are feeling that they're disenfranchised from the two major parties at this time, I've always run as an independent, except one time, which was I ran as a charter, right? But even as I ran as a charter, right, I was an independent charter, right? Like Jim Tarbell, was a libertarian running under the charter piece, or Marion Spencer was a Democrat, or Bobby stern under the charter committee. But I've always been an independent, and then when I didn't run as a charter, right, I've always run as an as an independent, and I just think it gives me, it empowers me to listen to both sides and do the best public policy for the city. And independents tend, you know, the two party system. They love us during the election, but they don't necessarily, if they're listening, don't necessarily want us to win, but because they like the two party system. But I think independents bring that unique perspective, that we're able to listen to both sides and then and then push forward with the be st public policy.
Perfect. Let's, let's move on to development quickly. You served on the Cincinnati Planning Commission for several years, and in the time since you left office, council has faced some accusations of not listening to the community. We're talking about issues like connected community zoning reform last summer, the Hyde Park Square development this summer. So as a member of city council, how would you balance community input but also encourage development and add housing, which I think everyone agrees the city does need more housing.
Christopher Smitherman: So let me give a shout out to the planning department. They are absolutely phenomenal. They are truly professionals, and know what they're doing. We just think, in this case with Hyde Park, use that as an example. I think that council probably missed the opportunity to communicate what was going on. But we have to be careful about variances. So if we do a zoning and we say it's 84 feet, or it's 54 feet, or it's 30 feet, which in this case, I think it was 5453 feet. Don't hold me to that public and they were saying, Hey, we're trying to go 84 feet. That's a problem. And so you have to explain to people who are living in Hyde Park why you're trying to pass a variance. And so you have to be very cautious, because we're all getting in a room, and we're deciding what the rules are, and then at the minutes, and in the last minute, you're saying we're going to change the rule, I would have voted no on that. And I also would have voted no on the connect communities for the same reason, lack of communication, lack of clarity for each of these neighborhoods.
Let's cover one question very quickly, maybe about 30 to 45 seconds. So the city is facing projected budget deficits. There's no longer federal stimulus to prop up those the city budget. What do you think city council needs to do to make sure the city is on a solid financial ground.
Christopher Smitherman: Zero based budgeting. Start from the beginning. Focus on what we are in the business of doing, basic services, police, fire, sanitation, fixing, roads, snow removal, those kind of basic things, and then everything else is just gravy. And so some of these things, you know, aren't sexy, but when we have a snowstorm like we had before, and we don't have the performance that we should have had, like my child trying to get to get to Seton high school was a dynamic, and it was because side streets weren't weren't plowed out. The bottom line is, focus on the basics. Will it? Do those well first and then everything else are gravy. So I think we have to make sure we're doing a better job of prioritizing the the the little money that the city has.
And then again, briefly, but if you are elected, what do you plan specifically to introduce and accomplish during the next two years on council?
Christopher Smitherman: So one of the things that I'm concerned about is, this is a big topic, but it's our police chief and how the police chief is terminated. And so what I've what I've seen right now is the personalities of saying, I want a police chief that has the independence to make decisions, big decisions, and not fear reprisal on their job. And so Issue five, I support, but what I'd like to see is City Council have to confirm, like we do, the city manager the termination of a fire chief or a police chief that that that comes back through council for a decision, which I think will actually take some of the political part out of it and allow that administrator to make some some better decisions for us. And I think the other part is just governing with common sense and experience with civility. I've lived long enough I'm now a grandfather. Let me announce that my son, oldest son, had a had a pet, and his wife had a chat a child. And I think I just bring a unique perspective of of civility and common sense and being willing to take chances on things that other people might not want to do.
Okay. Christopher Smitherman, thank you for joining me. He is running as an independent for Cincinnati City Council. Up next, I talk with Jerry Corbett, this is Cincinnati Edition.
This is Cincinnati Edition on WVXU. I'm Becca Costello, filling in for Lucy May Mount Washington resident Jerry Corbett joins me now to discuss his campaign for city council. Jerry, welcome. So first, just introduce yourself and tell our listeners why you decided to run for a seat on Cincinnati City Council.
Jerry Corbett: Okay, I'm Jerry Corbett. I am a lifelong Cincinnati and I grew up on the west side of Cincinnati. I was raised in little neighborhood of Riverside along the river in between, kind of tucked in between Sedamsville and Saylor Park. And I moved around a little bit and lived in different neighborhoods, and I currently live in Mount Washington. I'm a retired Greater Cincinnati Water Works employee. I worked there full time for nearly 31 years. I went back about a year after my retirement and worked part time for three years, just providing training for our infrastructure. And I, while I worked at the water works, I was able to identify and implement some cost saving measures, and I was able. To do this in a cost effective manner and at the same time provide efficiency and increase productivity. And one of the motivating factors for me running for city council is I see the opportunity to do the same thing for a lot of the city departments.
Perfect. Well, I do want to start with a budget? So yeah, let's start there. Given your experience working for Greater Cincinnati Water Works, of course, the city budget as a whole is facing some projected budget deficits over the next few years. Federal Stimulus is no longer available to help with that. So you know, what specifically do you think the city could do to reduce inefficiencies and kind of ensure financial stability?
Jerry Corbett: One of the first things they need to do is start looking at our basic core services and start doing better planning. They when I work for the water works. The Water Works is funded through the Enterprise Fund, which is separate than the general fund. So we, we did our own operating budget, and I was on that, on the budget team for that, and we also did our, our capital improvement programs, and we, we prioritized our our projects, and we put money away, and we had a program for replacement and preventive maintenance. And what the city, from what I see, what they fail to do is plan ahead, and a lot of a lot of what they do is wait until something happens and then try to find emergency funds, and just like this past winter with the snow removal or what just happened recently, where, with the incident in downtown, where instead of planning ahead for these things, they wind up finding a bunch of money and throwing it at It, throwing the money at the problem at one time instead of planning ahead. It's a lot cheaper to do these things in in increments than it is to just do it all at one time.
Something else specifically you've said in your campaign is that the city could save money by not outsourcing as much and doing more work in house. Can you give some examples of where you see that change could take place?
Jerry Corbett: Yeah, and a lot of times, by the by not providing the employees in the departments with the equipment they need, they wind up hiring contractors or consultants to do the work instead of being prepared, having the equipment available, and giving the employees, empowering the employees to do the work themselves. We have a lot of talented people in the city of Cincinnati, and their talents aren't being utilized to the best extent. And I know this, and I think I have a different perspective than the others on council and that I worked from the from inside, and I see a lot of opportunities to improve efficiency and performance and cost.
Let's talk briefly about development, economic development and community engagement. Of course, it's been a big topic this year and last year, as well, council faced some criticism, folks claiming they're not listening to the community on issues like connected communities, which was the big zoning reform effort last year, and then, of course, a Hyde Park Square development that was proposed this year. So if you're elected to City Council, how would you balance that, listening to both the community input, but also encouraging economic development and adding housing?
Jerry Corbett: Yeah, I think that was a big mistake by ignoring the community input. I I know there is a need for affordable housing, but I don't think the project in Hyde Park really addressed affordable housing. It was going to increase housing, but at a high cost, I want one of the major things that that needs to be done, there's a lot of money that is is sitting there right now that the Port Authority has control over, and the Port Authority is does a lot of affordable housing project, but they're also preoccupied with a lot of other projects, and like, what well, developments in industrial and other other avenues, instead of just residential and there's, there are opportunities, and You know, the connected communities plan has some good aspects to it, and it would work for some communities, but I don't think it works. You can say it's a one size fits all approach, because Cincinnati is pretty unique in that it's, it's a not really big geographically, it's seven. 78 square miles, and there's 52 unique neighborhoods, and you have to, I appreciate the uniqueness of each neighborhood. And then in order to do to come in and put in a development the size of what they were doing in Hyde Park, you really need to get the buy into the community in order to make that work. But there are a lot of other opportunities for affordable housing, and there's a lot of vacant buildings in the city of Cincinnati, and you know, and there's a lot of places that are are just waiting for redevelopment, and the west side of Cincinnati is one of them, where there's 1000s of vacancies and abandoned buildings, and I would like to see other people, other agencies, have the opportunity to be able to use those funds and possibly get people in those neighborhoods, definitely in the city of Cincinnati, to to to help redevelop and refurbish some of these properties.
I'm speaking with Cincinnati City Council candidate Jerry Corbett. Let's move on and talk about crime. Obviously, that's another big issue that the council candidates are having to address this election cycle. Folks are worried about crime. There's been some national attention on the city because of some high profile incidents and some criticism of how current city leaders have responded. How do you think City Council should work to reduce crime and address this public perception question as well?
Jerry Corbett: Yeah, the public perception is a problem, and I think city council did the citizens of Cincinnati a disservice by sitting by idly and allowing some from inside but a lot of outside forces to come in here and use what happened downtown this past summer for political purposes. It was it painted Cincinnati in an unnecessarily bad light, and they, I think they should have responded quicker, and we and it was, I mean, it's no coincidence that the Vice President's brother is running for mayor and a senator from Cleveland came down who makes his house in suburban Cleveland and criticized the city of Cincinnati, when the city of Cleveland has the highest homicide rate of any city in the state of Ohio. So one of the things I would like to see done is when they put the collaborative agreement in place. And I think it was in 2002 that there was a real focus. And a lot of that agreement centered around community problem oriented policing. And that kind of, when the when the oversight left that kind of fell by the wayside also, and I think it's, it's something that we really need to focus on, and that is, I think the city could hire more mental health workers to work alongside the Police. They have some mental health workers that are that they hire, but they respond to non violent calls, and they are teamed up with some another mental health worker, and they do like welfare checks and things like that. The City of Columbus uses the community problem oriented policing miss and they've shown pretty good success with that. The City of Columbus has about 1/3 fewer officers the ratio of police to residents than the city of Cincinnati does, and they have about 40% fewer homicides than the city of Cincinnati. So just just throwing money at a problem isn't always the solution. You have to look at the methods that you're using. I mean, Cleveland has, Cleveland has the highest ratio of police officers to residents in the state of Ohio, and they have the highest homicide rate also.
Well, you something you brought up earlier in the conversation as well. I want to ask about city council, pretty recently, voted to add an additional $5.4 million to public safety, most of that going to specifically the police department, but some other programs as well. Do you agree with that move? And if not, how would you have approached that?
Jerry Corbett: Well, and this is another problem I have with with counsel. And it's not just this one, it's it's the ones in the past is, I don't know that they look at this and analyze it, they they approach it where they react instead. To being proactive. Couple two years ago, they were told that there was going to be a severe shortage of police. And if that is really the problem, then there should have been something in place before something like that happening happens and you wind up with bad publicity. So you want to, want to save face and throw money at the situation. I think there's a different way of approaching it. And if I was on council, I would recommend starting to look at a different way to police. And one of the things like I'd mentioned before, is to hire more mental health workers and enlist and go to the root cause of what the problem is. And each neighborhood doesn't have the same crime problem there may be there they could have the same level of crime, but it's different, and the reasons behind it are different. And one of the things that Columbus does is they enlist not only mental health workers, but they enlist social service agencies and others and drug dependency, people that work on drug dependency and try to try to get to the root cause of that and be out in the community more and interact with the community more.
Let's, talk just very briefly about this next question. So you say you've you're a Democrat, you are not one of the endorsed candidates for this race, but that you are a Democrat. I am, right now, the mayor and all nine council members are Democrats. You know, do you think that's a good system to have one party in control at one time? And how would you work with fellow council members, you know, if you were elected, but say, also an independent or a Republican candidate were also elected. How would you work with them?
Jerry Corbett: I would work with anybody that has the best interest in the city of Cincinnati. At heart, I am a Democrat, and I am also a lifelong I mean, I've been living in Cincinnati my whole life. I've been a Democrat my whole life, and I worked for as a UAW member before I started with the city, I was in the steel workers for a short time. I worked in the city public unions. I didn't seek the endorsement of the Democratic Party, and I didn't seek the endorsement of any labor union or outside contractor or developer, because I don't want to be influenced. I want my decisions to be based off of what's best for the city of Cincinnati and its citizens. And there are times where I question whether there's political motivation behind it, and whether or not there's it's the best interest for the people that live in the city of Cincinnati.
Let's get as specific as we can in these last 30 seconds or so, if you were elected, what would you plan to introduce and hopefully accomplish while on city council?
Jerry Corbett: I would plan to accomplish. I would plan to introduce more data driven budgeting, so that you could use the office of data analytics and do more predictive maintenance and make the city in the government run more efficiently. Two other things that I would like to introduce, two other things that I want to focus on. Is mental health, that's a severe problem in the country, and it's not going to get any better, and and I think we need to focus on that, and affordable housing also,
That's Jerry Corbett. He's running for one of the nine seats on Cincinnati City Council. Thank you so much for joining me. Jerry. Up next I talk with Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Kearney. This is Cincinnati Edition.
You're tuned in to Cincinnati Edition on WVXU. You I'm Becca Costello. Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney was appointed to Cincinnati City Council in 2020. She went on to win the most votes in the 2021 election, and then Mayor Aftab Pureval tapped her as the vice mayor. She's a fixture in the North Avondale community, and she joins me now. Welcome back to the show. So first, just tell us a little bit about yourself. Why have you decided to run for real? Run for re-election?
Jan-Michele Kearney: Well, I was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. I grew up in Avondale, went to Rockdale Elementary, went to Walnut Hills High School. So I'm a proud product of Cincinnati Public Schools. I'm a mom. My children are 21 and 28 can't believe they've grown up like that. I'm married. I'm an entrepreneur. I own the Cincinnati Herald newspaper. I'm an attorney. I went to Harvard Law School and also a realtor.
All right, and why did you decide to run for city council again?
Jan-Michele Kearney: Well, you know, I thought I would never want to be in public service. In terms of being in politics, I always liked working behind the scenes. I did a lot of community work, and love that. But I was asked to take a seat that was vacant in 2020 I was kind of thinking, No, but, you know, I had just read a book by Stacey Abrams, you know, leaning from the outside, and she said, or leading from the outside, and she said, You know, when you're asked to serve, have the audacity to say yes. And she said, a lot of people, especially women, always think they don't have enough you know, we don't have enough education, we don't have enough experience, we don't have enough money. And she said, You have enough right where you are. And so I thought about that, and thought about my parents saying, you know, serve your city. And so I went ahead and said yes, and I was appointed, and I'm really honored to serve, and I love it.
Well let's jump in and talk about development first, obviously, a big topic. Council has faced some accusations this year and last year about not listening to the community on issues like connected communities, which was the zoning reform last year the Hyde Park Square development. This year, you voted against both measures, both on the Planning Commission, which you serve on, and on city council. As a member of city council, you know, how do you balance that community input with a desire to both add housing and also encourage development?
Jan-Michele Kearney: So let me start by just saying I am for development. All of our residents that I've talked to are for development. Everybody wants safe, thriving neighborhoods. They want thriving business districts. They want more housing, especially affordable housing and really mixed income housing. And so everybody really has the same goal, but people want to say in what happens in their neighborhood. And so when I got on council, Kevin Flynn's community engagement ordinance was sitting there on my desk, and a lot of people like Sue Wilkie and Peter Hames, Jean Nightingale, lots of folks had worked really hard on it, and so we passed that, and I realized being in community council meetings that often developers and communities were pitted against each other, and it shouldn't be that way. It should be that you know, we're all working together, and part of that is having developers to come early, talk about their concept, get feedback, and everybody agreeing to work together and compromise. I can tell you, the Walnut Hills community that has a lot of development, has a really good process for having developers come early, talk to the community, get feedback, and they do a lot of really good work there. And so I was, you know, talking to the business people there and the community council people, Catherine Gardet, Mona Jenkins, Samantha Miller, and I said, you all need to take your show on the road and show other communities how to do this. And really, we need to have a policy that helps, because I know it's expensive. And so when developers come and then they have to change their plans late in the game, it costs a lot of money, and I can see the pushback. But community members also like Hyde Park, they're like, We want development, but that project was just too big. Connected Communities. There's a lot of good in that, in terms of increasing more housing with businesses on. On transit corridors. We need that, but that it just went through really quickly before we had a chance to talk about accessibility, affordability, environmental concerns, infrastructure and neighborhood, look and feel, which is why we started Scotty and I start Scottie Johnson and I started making connected communities better to get more feedback. And that's that's an ongoing process. We're still working on that to see what we can do in those areas. But a lot of people complained that they weren't necessarily against connected communities and making it easier to develop in those areas. But it happened so quickly that there were a lot of things, a lot of issues we had not addressed, and so we are addressing those now well.
So let me follow up on this. You mentioned the community engagement policy, which is something that something that started before your time on council, but you kind of spearheaded the end of that process. The city did kind of establish and publish a new community engagement policy over the last couple of years. But something I'm hearing from both current and current council members and those running for council is that they think the city needs a new community engagement policy. So you know, how do you feel about that? Do you think the city needs to kind of start from scratch on this? Scratch on this?
Jan-Michele Kearney: Not starting from scratch. So what happened with the community engagement ordinance is that we ended up extending the Office of Planning, Department of Planning, to the Department of Planning and Community Engagement. And so the policy dealt more. The policy that's in place deals more with how one engages with the city and with city departments and with city commissions. And so what's missing still is, how does a community engage with developers, and how does a developer engage with the community so that they're not coming together as enemies, they're coming together as really, as partners. And how do we how do we develop our communities, how do we make them better? Working together? As I said, Walnut Hills really does a good job. College Hill does a great job with this as well. Some communities are at odds with developers, and some are working well with them. And so we need to really take the model where it's working to see what they're doing that's making it work. And a big part of it is that there's early engagement, this early engagement, and also an understanding that we don't get everything we want. You know, everybody's got to compromise. And so, so that's a big part of it. And you know that that's our motto in Cincinnati, junk, that you want stronger together. And so we need to really keep that in mind as we work with people who might seem like they're at opposite ends of the spectrum, which really they're not. We all have that same goal. Everybody wants the city to grow. Everybody wants thriving neighborhoods, and so it's a matter of, how do we get there together?
Well, let's move on and talk about another big issue in the city right now, which is crime and public safety. Something city council did pretty recently was vote to add an additional $5.4 million towards public safety, most of that went towards the police department. I can see you rolling your eyes,
Jan-Michele Kearney: No, not because of the police department,
I understand, I understand. You did vote against that measure. So the question is, can you explain your opposition to that specific plan, you know, and what you would have wanted to see differently in that?
Jan-Michele Kearney: Yeah, there were things in the plan that were fine. For example, our police chief said that they need $500,000 and I thought, great for for overtime, for overtime over time, for overtime, visibility, PVO and police visibility overtime. Okay, so all we have all these acronyms for everything and so and so. We said, Do you need or want more than that? And she said, No, we need $500,000 but in that ordinance, there's 1.2 million. So why are we putting an extra $700,000 where it's not needed? Because we need that money elsewhere. We also have $880,000 for downtown ambassadors. And so I said to our finance department, what? What is that for? And they said it's to walk people to their cars. I think we can do more with $880,000 than walking people to their cars.
It is, I'll say specifically goes towards the three CDC downtown Ambassadors Program. So not a new program that the city is establishing.
Jan-Michele Kearney: Right.
Just to clarify that.
Jan-Michele Kearney: And so here's the thing. We have neighborhoods who are saying, well, is any of this money coming to us? I mean, we have issues too. There have been shootings in price Hill, for example, there have been shootings in Avondale, Winton hills. What are we doing to help those neighborhoods to be safer? You know, I'm going to talk about adv ance peace. I mean, Don't roll your eyes at that.
Explain briefly what that is for folks who aren't familiar.
Jan-Michele Kearney: So in cities where gun violence, especially gun homicides, have decreased significantly, they've used programs. And let me just start by saying, I think several people before me have said the same thing, there's certain hot spots where this happens. It's not like there's shootings all over the place, you know, in every neighborhood, on every street, but we do have some hot spots where we have to deal with the shootings and the gun homicides. And while gun shootings are down, gun homicides are really not down. And with our young people, shootings and homicides have increased now the numbers are way down from like 2022 And so when you look at the numbers, now, they look better, but they're still with with certain populations, you know, those under 18. For example, we've had more gun homicides this year than last year in 2024, versus 2023 we've had the same amount of gun homicides altogether, 63 each year. And so we do have an issue that we have to be honest about and address it. And in cities where gun homicides have really decreased, they've not only had wrap around services, you know, we have achieving change together. We have the hospital intervention program, which is great, but they also have a program where they deal with the active shooters. They actually deal with that small group of people who are wreaking a lot of havoc in the city, and a lot of it is really retaliatory gun violence. And so those are that's a small group of people. We can't just push them aside. We can't arrest our way out of this. We can't police our way out of this. We have to actually deal with that small group. And so advanced peace is one of those programs that actually deals with active shooters and changes their lives so that they're no longer in that lifestyle, and it really decreases gun violence, because you take, you know, small group of people who are out there shooting and and then you're like, No, how about this? How about a different way of life? And you have to deal with with some of the issues that they've had, some of the trauma that they've had and also show them a better way and give them incentives to actually turn their lives around. It's very important to do that, and that has decreased in cities across the country where you see a big decrease in gun homicides. That's where that's happened well. So the program I'm talking about, it's called advanced peace. There's several, but this one really works well, and we've talked so much to the people who've started it and who are, who are implementing it across the country, but it only deals with it deals with people from Cincinnati. You have to be from the streets of Cincinnati. They're not outsiders who can come in and be credible messengers to people in Cincinnati. It has to be people who are from the streets of Cincinnati, who've been in that lifestyle and now see a better way and can help others.
With such a short amount of time. So I want to move on quickly and talk a little bit about the city budget. The city is facing budget deficits projected over the next few years. How can City Council ensure financial stability?
Jan-Michele Kearney: So we, we have done a good job about, I think, balancing our budget. You know, we are, we are funding our human services organization, organizations for for example, when I first got on council, my first no vote, where I stood by myself was when they wanted to cut human services in the fourth quarter. It was during covid, and they said they don't need the money, but they really did, and so I voted no for that. Now we're really good about, you know, our 1.5% which funds, Human Services Organization. Also, I started boots on the ground fund, and that helps these grassroots organizations that are doing a lot of work in our neighborhoods. We also have safe and clean Fund, which helps not only with litter, but also with cleaning up crime. And so we have found money, and I should say affordable housing. You know, this is the first this council is the first time that we've had a dedicated ongoing resource for affordable housing. We find that in the budget. So as we balance the budget, we're looking at infrastructure. For example, luckily, we pass the sale of the railway, and each year, the last two years, we've gotten more money than we even thought we would get from that, and that's really good. We've had good investments, and that money goes to infrastructure in the city. So now we have money to actually pave the roads, as opposed to just filling potholes. When you pave the roads, you're not going to get potholes for at least five years. It's not an every year thing, and so it makes it much better. Also, we've talked about, again, Scotty and I and Victoria about equitable spending. We talk about our rising 15 neighborhoods, and those are the neighborhoods that really need more investment. And so the budget looks at how we can be equitable, how we can make sure that investments go to those neighborhoods that in the past have been ignored.
So that's a good transition, because you mentioned this rising 15 policy with Scottie Johnson and council member Victoria Parks, who is not running for re election, by the way, this year, you know the all of the all of the elected Democrats are endorsed. Or, excuse me, elected council members are endorsed Democrats, including you. However, when there have been split votes on council, you often see this six three, with the sort of minority being you and the two aforementioned council members, including on this rising 15 issue. You know, do you see clear factions on council, you know, even among the Democrats? And how do you try to enact change from this minority position?
Jan-Michele Kearney: Yeah, so, you know, one thing I can say, even though we're all Democrats, we don't think alike, and so, and that's not a bad thing. I mean, it's actually good to have opposing views and to challenge each other, and we do that. I think Scotty, Victoria and I maybe have similar life experiences. We've been here longer. We've been in the neighborhoods longer, you know, we've we've lived in areas. Is, you know, where we can see a lot that happens. You know, people who need, who need housing. You know where crime is happening. You know, I unfortunately, have been to a lot of murder scenes. You know, talked to a lot of parents, of of, you know, children who have been killed and and family members. And so I think having that, and Scotty was a police officers. So I think having that lived experience makes us see things a little differently. You know, it's not just about giving people food and then you know they're going to stop shooting. I mean, you really have to do more than that, and we also have to be intentional about addressing the actual problems that we have. And I think, I think living that experience makes us understand certain things that maybe our council people disagree on, not to say they're not. I'm not criticizing them, because I think everybody's working hard and and accomplishing a lot. We've, for example, we've built more affordable housing with this council than we have with with any other council. And so we have, we have a really good, hard working, dedicated Council. We just don't agree on everything. And so it's a matter of, you know, like, like, all politics, getting those votes, and you've got to count to five, and so that's sometimes difficult, but, you know, I never give up the fight. So we are still pushing forward, and I think that's really important. And I think the people Cincinnati need to know we never give up.
Well, we are out of time. Vice Mayor Jan- Michele Lemon Kearney is running for re-election on City Council. Thank you for joining us.