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:
- Liz Keating
- Don Driehaus
- Jeff Cramerding
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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When Liz Keating was appointed to take PG Sittenfeld's seat on city council in late 2020, she was continuing a family legacy in politics. She won her first election to the seat less than a year later as the only Republican, but lost her next election in 2023. So will she get a second chance in this year's election? This is Cincinnati Edition on WVXU I'm Becca Costello filling in for Lucy May. Republican. Liz Keating joins me now. Welcome back to the show. Liz, just first tell us a little bit about yourself, and why did you decide to run for city council again?
Liz Keating: Absolutely. So my name is Liz Keating, as Becca said, I was on council from 2020 finished at the beginning of 2024, and you know, I've spent the last two years working for the almost two years off of Council, working at the Cincinnati Regional Chamber, really focused on pushing for child care and child care resources at the state and federal level, also working with our state and federal leaders to get more resources down in the Cincinnati region and help grow our region. I'm also a mom of two kids, four and six, and so we've been out and about in the community, and more and more during that time, I continued to hear from residents and business owners who were extremely frustrated as crime continues to go up, lots of crime in different neighborhoods, challenges of residents needing to get trash pickup because that wasn't happening, and they weren't hearing back from anybody on city council. Schools can't even get, you know, the snow plow to be able to reopen, to get kids back in school. And people were calling me to get help because they were getting no response from Council. And you shouldn't have to know somebody who knows somebody to actually get basic services in the city of Cincinnati. And as this kind of continued to pick up, you know, the timeline to get back in the race was continuing to get shorter and shorter. And I just realized how many people are fed up, how frustrated I was. And, you know, I just love this city way too much to see it continue to decline. And I want to make a change. And I want to go back and get back to those basic services. I want to fight crime, fight the causes of crime. I want to make sure that we are actually paving our roads and filling the potholes, and eliminate eliminating litter, plowing the snow when it snows, so we can get kids back in school, taking care of those basic foundations of local government.
Now, you joined this race pretty close to the deadline. So was there something that specifically prompted you to do that? You know, obviously you had a lot of time to consider whether to run for council again. So why decide so late?
Liz Keating: It really was just more and more people reaching out and people being fed up. And we looked at the calendar, and there was one week left to the filing deadline. And, you know, life short, you don't want to have regrets. And like I said, I just love the city too much, and I am beyond frustrated to see the direction that it's headed. And I think a lot of other people were too, because we collected 1700 signatures in five days. I think that speaks volumes of how frustrated people are, and I've continued to hear it out on the campaign trail. And that's why we're working our tails off and working to get back to get things back in order and put the city in back better direction.
So as we mentioned, you were the last Republican to serve on council. You were, of course, also endorsed by the charter committee the last couple of elections, but two years ago, Democrats won all nine seats. So how do you think that dynamic has played out, and if you were to be reelected? Obviously, you have experience working as the only Republican with eight Democrats. But moving forward, you know, how would you work with council members, other council members who are elected?
Liz Keating: Absolutely, I don't think the dynamic has worked out well at all. I think that's why there's people frustrated. I think that's why we're seeing so many challenges, and just the fundamentals of local government not working. And I think the number one thing that I'm seeing it's not that this council agrees on everything, because they do have disagreements. But what you see is you have people who come in and give speeches as to why they're voting yes, and you have people coming in and give speeches as to why they're voting no, and they have no productive debate and all that. What that means is that you're having no collaboration. You're not working to make amendments to make legislation any better, and all that is doing is just alienating so many people in the community who are beyond frustrated and we're not taking care of those fundamentals. You have to have that productive debate and continue to strive to make things better. And I'm just not seeing that. I think that is a failure with this council, and that's why I want to go back. And I've proven that I that I can do that, that I can work with an entire legislative body that's the opposite of me, and continue to, even if I'm voting no on something at the end of the day, still offering amendments and get amendments passed to make that legislation a little bit better. And that's my goal. Is to continue to do that, continue to push for accountability and get better at those basic services that local government needs to do.
Well, zoning reform has been a major topic of debate over the last three years that partly started with some legislation that you introduced, along with council member or council member, Reggie Harris, eventually co signed that legislation. This was the density ordinance that was a big controversial fight, kind of a precursor to the Connected Communities reform of 2024 and then, of course, the Hyde Park Square development project this year. You are a Hyde Park resident, so you have, I think, a unique perspective on that as well. So what have you learned about this difficult process of balancing community input with encouraging development? And especially, I think all the candidates would agree the city needs more housing. So how do you strike the right balance there?
Liz Keating: I think you need to look at the way the city has approached development in our urban core, it has been very proactive, it has been strategic, it has been intentional, and it has respect to the historic architecture of downtown like you would never even fathom the city trying to put a big box of apartments in the empty parking lot next to music hall. But the complete opposite is true. When you go into these neighborhoods and it's very last minute, it's very reactive, and it's all or nothing. And I think we saw that play out in High Park as well. And it goes again to where you got council members who gave speeches as to why they were voting yes, and council members who were giving speeches as to why they were voting no, but they had no productive debate. And and what could have happened is slow that down and say, hey, you know what the community is actually saying, We want development. We need a facelift in this square. We need we've got retail spaces that are damaged from all the flooding that we've had. You know, we're fine with more housing we just built. You know, the Skyler right across from t he firehouse, and there's townhouses being built. On the north and south side of the square, there is development housing being built. They're fine with it, because it fits. And if council would have just slowed down or sent it back to administration said, Hey, what is possible if we do bring it down two levels? Because if you actually did that, we could be in a place right now where we are moving forward with dozens of new units and moving forward with new retail spaces and fixed fixed up areas where that were damaged in in the flood, but instead, because of Council's failure to actually have that productive debate, we have zero new housing. We have a bunch of empty storefronts that is damaging to all those small businesses that are there. Now, you have completely eroded public trust, and then their speeches when they repealed it, were pointing fingers and blaming residents, which has burned bridges even more you've cost developers significant amount of time and money, residents significant amount of time and money. And I think that council has actually set us back much further in our in our quest to get more housing than they would have if they actually had collaborated and looked for compromises that work for everybody going forward. I think, I honestly think I was a huge, huge failure. And we are. We have taken significant steps back. And you've got to be able to have that productive debate and do this in partnership. You've got to look at the long term and not just two feet in front of you, going all or nothing every single time.
As a quick follow up to that, when you were on council, you at times, spoke with some concern about the way that council has approached development, and in some ways, I think, in your perspective, changed the rules on developers. You know, in terms of, well, we have this idea of, you know, we want to prioritize housing XYZ, but then when it gets to council, they might make a different decision. Do you see any of that at play here? You know, we've heard some concerns from Mayor Pureval and some council members that this has had kind of a chilling effect on development in the city. Is that something that you see could be a concern?
Liz Keating: Absolutely, and that's why we need to go to the model that's happening in the urban core throughout all these neighborhoods. Because any developer that's coming in in the urban core, you really don't one, you don't see a lot of pushback from from residents, because it is proactive, it is strategic, it is intentional, and it again, respects the historic heritage of of the areas in our urban core. And developers know what they're getting into, what to expect, and what they can expect for these projects, but also, because the city is so proactive, the city is then working to attract the investment of what they want in those areas, but in the neighborhoods, that's the complete opposite. And so then, yes, the the goal posts keep being moved on these projects in the neighborhood, which again costs a lot of money on on one side for the developer, raising the cost of housing and then erodes the public trust for the residents in the neighborhood. You've got to take that proactive approach to attract the kind of investment that we want, that everyone welcomes, because at the end of the day, you're going to net far more housing in the long run than if we continue the approach that's that's happening now.
You're listening to Cincinnati Edition. I'm speaking with Cincinnati City Council candidate Liz Keating. Later in the show, I talk with council member Jeff Cramerding and candidate Don Driehaus. You mentioned crime. I want to move on to that. Obviously, it's a huge topic of concern for voters. We've heard concerns from some business owners downtown about crime and public safety and attracting folks maybe not wanting to visit as often as you mentioned. You've spent the last couple of years working with the Regional Chamber. How do you think this issue has affected businesses and business owners? Is that an important part of this equation?
Liz Keating: Absolutely. I mean, you can pretty much in the news almost. I feel like on a weekly basis, maybe somebody can fact check me on that. But restaurants are closing right and left, particularly in OTR, and that's been happening in the last couple years as crime has continued to rise down at the Banks, those restaurants are hurting. I believe, collectively, over the last couple of years, they're down 10s of millions of dollars in sales, you know, and even in our neighborhoods, you're you're seeing people out less and spending less at these businesses because they are concerned about their safety, and all we are hearing from Council is that, but our numbers are going down. I want to see our council members that are never satisfied until that crime number is at zero, that are constantly working every single day to get creative and finding ways to bring that number to zero. Because if we can't support our small businesses, we can't support those paychecks going home to support our families. We are not going to keep residents. We are not going to keep businesses. We are not going to have revenue coming back in. We cannot just say, you know, everything's fine. The numbers are going down. You have to keep working at it. And I think it shows with a number of businesses and restaurants that are closing that crime is not okay right now, and people don't feel safe.
So how would you do that differently? You know, there's kind of these two issues here. One is that any amount of crime is unacceptable, according to probably most candidates. Are all candidates in this in this race. But then there's also this public perception of safety, and that's important as well. What would you do differently on council compared to what's happening right now in terms of practically, how do you address those issues?
Liz Keating: Yeah, so I'll talk about the main street task force that I led when I was on council. There were shootings on weekly basis on Main Street between central and liberty. We partnered with many different departments within the city. We worked with parking enforcement to change the requirements so we could move cars along where we were seeing a lot of drug dealing. We worked with the health department to shut down illegal food vendors. We worked with Uber to geo fence the area to have passenger pick up and drop off in a different area so that we could continue to keep traffic moving. We worked with the landlords. There were 26 empty storefronts in that stretch. We worked with the landlords to be able to fill those empty storefronts with startups to give them a chance to test their concept of their business. Maybe grow their business, which again, creates revenue for the city, but it fills those storefronts so that you can create more life there. It's like the broken window theory. But then I also went down with city administration at 2am on Saturday night to go see how is this working? Talk to residents, talk to business owners. How do you like these changes? Are you seeing a difference? And as we saw numbers come down, we continue to work on it every single day, and you don't see that happening right now. You've got to be strategic. You got to do it in collaboration, and you've got to wake up every single day to keep working on that. And right now we just don't see that happening
Related to this. City Administration recently implemented some restrictions on food trucks downtown and in parts of over the Rhine you know, we've also talked about some concerns about business owners downtown and the effect of public safety there. But do you think these restrictions have been necessary? Have they been effective? And what concerns might you have about that?
Liz Keating: No, we should never be penalizing small businesses because the city can't handle crime. I just think that is absolutely absurd. We need to be supporting these small businesses if we want to attract businesses, if we want to attract residents, you need to have these amenities. You need to have these opportunities to create a business, to bring revenue in, to be able to get a paycheck home, to support your families, to say, hey, you know what? Things aren't safe, you can't operate as a business. Is a huge, huge problem, and we never saw Council actually put to put a committee right when that decision was made, to say and have a public discussion about, you know, is this a good idea or not? They've waited way too many weeks to be able to respond to it, and you've got to be able to act right away. We cannot be penalizing small businesses when the city, when city council, can't handle the crime, the rising crime.
This is a big issue to discuss in just about a minute, but I'm going to ask you to do it anyway. The city budget is facing significant challenges, some projected deficits over the next few years. What do you think city council needs to do to ensure financial stability?
Liz Keating: I think you got to focus on different efficiencies. You know, some of the things that we worked on when I was there, you know, upgrading routing technology for your trucks so that you save money on fuel and depreciation and labor as you go about collecting trash or filling potholes, or you gotta, you gotta get creative and work from with a business mindset on those little things, because that's where you're going to save money. Which investments here are going to have a big return later on to be able to save that money, and also you get there needs to be much more fiscal discipline, like I was on council when they got rid of the property tax. Rollback, so increasing costs for residents, but then they spent all that new revenue on new programs, rather than using that money to balance the budget. And we need a voice that is on council to call that out and to ensure fiscal discipline so that we can get the budget back on track and be prepared for long term in the future.
Another unfair question here in about 30 seconds or less, if you were elected to another term, what would you plan to introduce and accomplish during those two years?
Liz Keating: Number one, it's fighting crime and fighting the causes of crime. And we, when we talk about fighting the causes of crime, it's things like child care and enhancing our rec centers and our workforce development. And it's getting back to the basic services we need to be excellent delivery in filling our potholes, in paving our roads and eliminating the litter, taking care of city property with overgrown weeds, the way that residents are expected to do, plowing the snow when we have big snowfall, so schools can stay open and people can can get to work and do what they need to do. It's taking care of those fundamentals that are critical for local government.
Liz Keating, thank you so much for joining me. She's a Republican running for Cincinnati City Council. Up next, I talk with Charter candidate Don Driehaus. This is Cincinnati Edition.
You're tuned into Cincinnati Edition on WVXU. I'm Becca Costello, filling in for Lucy May. The Driehaus name is a familiar one in Cincinnati. Now, Don Driehaus is running with the Charter committee endorsement and a proposal to merge city and county government. Don welcome to the show. I am happy that we have such a Price Hill show today. I live in Price Hill. You live in Price Hill, and so does our next guest, Jeff Cramerding. So happy Price Hill Day to everyone. Can you first just tell us briefly about yourself? Why did you decide to run for a seat on city council?
Don Driehaus: Well, I'm a 45 year resident of the city proper. I've lived on the west side in Price Hill probably 42 of those years married to my wife, Cindy, who for 40 years, we've lived in in the neighborhood. I ran for city council 30 years ago, in 1995 at the time, I was 36 years old. I was really busy then, and kids were growing and, you know, I was active. And after that, I kind of raised my family and ran a business, ran my business, and now, all these years later, 30 years later, you know, it's time to give back. I feel it's, you know, as an activist, somebody that's been active in the community for years and active in the city, as well as a business owner, I think it's time to give back to the community and give back to the city.
Well, let's start with crime, obviously a big, complicated issue that matters a lot of voters. So if you were elected, how would you both work to reduce crime as well as address this issue of public perception of safety, obviously in neighborhoods like your own, in Price Hill, but across the city as well.
Don Driehaus: The crime, the number one issue, public safety and everything that goes with it. You know, I think we need to really look at the calls for service. What's driving the calls for service? And I think many times we talk about the police force. You know, the police bears the burden of dealing with all these issues. The calls for service are also impacting the fire department, the Health Department and other city agencies up in price Hill, I mean, and I don't want to be too West Side specific, but I work with the Community Action Team, the Safety Action Team. I've been doing it for 16 years. You get out in the street, you clean up the streets, you work with the police, you work with the local district, you see where the issues are, and you're also going to have certain places in situations that need to be addressed, and they're chronic, they're not, you know, one offs. I think we need to be looking much more at the place based model I took Sara training, and I think we need to be really looking at the blocks in the neighborhoods that need more attention, we need more police officers. That's the simple solution. But you know, it's going to take four to five years, through attrition, because of all the retirements, to have our recruiting classes actually replace that and or bringing in outside officers. So it's going to take time and money to do that. In the meantime, though we do have the technology and the ability to track the calls for service, I think we need to look more at the fire department. The fire runs over in my district, over a 50 day period, was over 178 calls for service, mainly for man down or fentanyl overdoses. That's significant, and usually you need a police compliment to go with that. When that happens, each call for service is approximately $1,800 a call, and that came to me from the Quick Response Team from the county, so I didn't just pull that number out of thin air, and that's an expensive venture, if you're using that in just a one firehouse for a 50 day period. That's serious calls for service. So what can we do to track the calls for service to see what's driving these excessive police and fire runs? How can we minimize the police and fire runs? And, you know, let's start dealing with it. And one of the issues driving this is obviously the drug issue. I mean, it's the opiate issue. And we're always looking at the supply side. You know, for 50 years, we've been fighting a war on drugs in this country. And, you know, I don't know, sometimes I think drugs have won. And the on the other hand, we need to look at the demand side. And there was a great book written called Dreamland. I don't know if you're familiar with it, but even referenced our neighborhood, since we live in our neighborhood, but the whole opiate epidemic that kind of started rolling through this country and impacted us dramatically in the Ohio Valley, you know, really percolated 15 years ago, and it's still with us. It's still happening, and we need to address the issues that involve, you know, people that are chronically addicted. I mean, ultimately these, this halfway house approach just doesn't work completely. There are good, you know, the quick response idea works for a portion of the community. There are, there are people that are positively impacted by the services rendered. Yet we have too many, too many people, literally in the streets, homeless or just living in trap houses that are driving these calls. And we know where they are. We know what's going on. We need to figure out a way to deal with it, and that may be on just the city, we may need to be working with the county, which I am working with. We're meeting with QRT and the people in the county that are running that program and also the state. There's different, there's different, you know, transitional housing programs coming down from the state that are in essence unregulated here in the city proper. These all need to be overseen and over overlooked. And so I think you need to look at the calls of service, and then I hear the word root cause. It's like, well, what's the root cause? One of the biggest root causes is drug abuse, and so how do we deal with it? And it's been an ongoing issue for a while. I think we need to be a little more proactive in dealing with the street issues.
So you mentioned working more closely with the with the county government. I think you've advocated for a combined city and county government. Now, even if we're talking on a much, much lower level of just greater collaboration between the city and county historically, that's been easier said than done. Sure, how would you go about accomplishing that giant task?
Don Driehaus: I think I might have made the mistake of using the term unigov at some point, and in theory, it's great. See, I think the issue here is we talk about statistics, and the city of Cincinnati is 310,000 people, where Columbus, Indianapolis, the state capitals, you know, respectively, they're uni go. So you have a lot of combined services, so you have much larger population, so their percentages look better than ours, but as if we were Hamilton County, our percentages kind of fall in line with Franklin and that, you know, the counties over in Indiana.
Percentages of what?
Don Driehaus: Percentages of crime, poverty, everything else, the rates, but because we are, you know, we're the fifth oldest city in the country, from my reading, we were incorporated back in 1830 so thank you. Thank you Cincinnati and our forebears the you know, we have to deal with the city proper. Now, recently, we've had some more positive interaction with county services. And I do work with the sheriff's department, actually, because we've been talking with the sheriff about, you know how she's got a pod downtown of how to deal with some of these hard cases when it comes to back to drugs, right? But she's actually working proactively with us in the city to say, hey, why don't you come down see what we're doing, see how we can work with you, to work with with county resources, to deal with the city. Recently, also, I mean, we're seeing a few more patrols on the major boulevards that kind of intersect between county and city. I mean, Hamilton Avenue, Harrison Avenue, Glenway. These are all, you know, heavily trafficked streets, River Road, you know, it's a simple task of just cooperating and saying, Yeah, we can use, we need a little more emphasis in certain neighborhoods in the city of Cincinnati, the county can help, you know, work with traffic regulation on some of the major boulevards. These are simple solutions, and also the state of Ohio working on the highways.
Well, let's, let's also talk about a related issue, which is the city budget. You know, of course, the city is facing some projected budget deficits over the next few years. The City no longer has federal stimulus to fill a deficit and rely on that for some services. So how do you think the City Council could ensure financial stability over the next few years?
Don Driehaus: Well, you need to go into the budget itself and really look at how we're doing our accounting and in seeing how we're going to deal with these shortfalls. And yes, there will be shortfalls. So who's impacted? How's it impacted? You know, I am not an expert on the city budget, though. I did work with public finance in my in my career. You know, what do we need to do with infrastructure? We got the railroad money, which is in a fund now that's meant for infrastructure. So how can you set apart part of the budget and say, Okay, we've got an annuity, in essence, in place. It's going to spin off so much money a year for capital needs for, you know, the Jan-Michele is talking about sidewalks, which is fine, you know, it's like, okay, well, let's define that in a real way. Let's define if it's equipment versus personnel versus operational budget. And then let's turn around and say, How can we look at this over here, and how's that going to offset some of our the pressure we're having with personnel, with with operations. I was actually the Chair of the Housing Authority 20 years back, and there was always that question of, you know, property versus personnel, and you need, it's a it's a bit of a juggling act, but it can be managed, but you've got to stay with it. It's not something Well, we're going to have a budget right now. We'll walk the other way and go the other way. It's like you've got to consistently be in the middle of it. You need to understand the accounting, you need to understand the the sources of finance, and you need to decide what your priorities are. And I guess that's, you know, it's a vague way of saying you're gonna need about you're gonna need to keep your budget intact.
Let's move on to talk about another major issue in this election, which is zoning reform and economic development. The Charter Committee, which has endorsed you, has a platform of repealing connected communities. You know, what would you want to replace that with if you were elected to council?
Don Driehaus: Form based zoning, something that's a little more structural, something a little more geared toward the neighborhoods where, you know, just a blanket zoning exemption seems to be a broad brush approach without any real design. I think we can do a much better job of going into neighborhoods and working with the community councils, working with the neighborhoods and the development corporations in a cooperative effort to come back and say, Hey, what are we doing to you know, deal with, let's say we want single family homes here. We need, we got rental property here. It's already zoned this way. Let's, let's make it all work together and see if we can have better flow when it comes to the zoning itself. I've had the good fortune of being actively engaged with price. So will up in my neighborhood, and I'm always being cautioned to be less West Side centric. That's where I'm up. That's where we operate. But right now, we're focusing on four business nodes on the west side, Warsaw Avenue for parts of West Eighth Street and Glenway, and you're working with private capital. We're working with the Development Corporation and the Community Council, and hopefully private business owners that are going to come in and help redevelop some of these nodes, which are at this point need to be addressed. How do you attract capital into into any neighborhood? Well, you need to have safe neighborhoods. You have to have the streets have to be paved. We need to pick up the litter. It's curb appeal is huge for this but you know, we're working in the neighborhood, and I've been around this city now for the last three months, and I hear a lot of neighborhoods where you have conflict between the Development Corporation and the neighborhood and the Community Council. And I think we have the good fortune in Price Hill to have a cooperative effort going, and that's a big piece of this. Instead of infighting, going pointing fingers and going after each other, maybe we need to start working on constructive solutions to,new construction and remodeling.
Now you you are a Democrat, but you've been endorsed by the Charter committee. You're running with four other candidates endorsed by the Charter committee. Right now, Council is entirely endorsed Democrats, as well as the mayor. How do you think that dynamic has played out? And then, if you were elected to council, how would you work with folks who may have different political ideology than you?
Don Driehaus: I think when you get nine people under the same roof, you're going to have different ideas and different opinions. And that's human nature. I work very closely with Jan-Michele. Jan-Michele has been wonderful to work with on the west side and and I work with Scotty Johnson pretty well, and I know the other council people. So it's not like, you know, there's antagonism here. What I do believe, unfortunately, is an at large council eventually starts to hover downtown. They're going to be more downtown centric. It's hard to get away from city hall. It's hard to get out to 52 neighborhoods. That's what we've done. I see the difference right now in this campaign is We're campaigning more like old school Democrats. I mean, I the shoe leather where we've gone, what we're doing this summer. We've been everywhere, and we're listening and we're out in the neighborhoods. I think the local party has become the corporate party. They're they're downtown, and it's human again, that's human nature. There's nothing. It's just what it is we need to get out of our comfort zone. We can't just keep saying we're going to work in the neighborhoods but continue to focus on downtown. You need to do both, and we can, and we will. And I think the Charter committee this year has fielded candidates that are very active in community councils. I'm on the West Price Hill Community Council. Laketa is on the Bond Hill Community Council. Dawn Johnson is the President over in North Avondale. So you've got a very active community activist to understand neighborhood issues. And I think that's what we're bringing to the table this year. Is the charter committee.
In about 45 seconds, if you can, if you are elected to City Council, what specifically would you introduce and try to accomplish during that two year term?
Don Driehaus: Oh, neighborhood development and a focus on just meeting basic services. Again. That sounds cliche, but it's like, hey, we don't need trash in the streets. Let's pick it up. Let's pave the roads. Let's do what the city is supposed to be doing. And obviously, public safety. I mean, in every neighborhood, there's different concerns, but public safety comes up in almost every neighborhood, and it's, again, it's not just policing, it's perception. So what can we do to have clean, walkable neighborhoods your kids are comfortable walking to school? That's what we need. And how do we change that perception? Well, you got to work. And I look at this as a situation where this really isn't a career move for me. I'm 66 I'm looking to get out into the communities and do what we can to address the needs that involve individual families and how they operate within the neighborhoods.
Don Driehaus, thank you so much for joining me. Don is one of the candidates for Cincinnati City Council. Up next, I speak with council member Jeff Cramerding, this is Cincinnati Edition.
Welcome back to Cincinnati Edition on WVXU. I'm Becca Costello filling in for Lucy May. Jeff Cramerding has served two terms on Cincinnati City Council, and now he's running for a third. He's an endorsed Democrat, and as I mentioned earlier, a Price Hill resident. As am I the Price Hill love continues this show. Council member, Cramerding, welcome back. Just introduce yourself to our audience and let us know why you decided to run for another term on city council.
Jeff Cramerding: Well, my name is Jeff Cramerding. My civic involvement did begin in my neighborhood, price Hill. I started with the Community Council at the about the same time as your earlier guest, Don Driehaus and his sister Denise Driehaus. So we all got involved in Price Hill. It's been more than 25 years that I've been active in the neighborhood. Was a founder of Price Hill Will. It's been a labor of love. It's a neighbor with a lot of challenges in my work in price sell, and, you know, more and more civic activity eventually. You know, running for council, I think we've accomplished a lot. I'm very proud of the work of this council. I think we've got more work to do, and I'm excited and hope to serve another two years.
Well, you currently serve as chair of the budget and finance committee on council. You're also somewhat known as a budget nerd. I hope you take that not as an insult. So you know, maybe better than most, some of the challenges the city is facing over the next couple of years with budget deficits, no longer having federal stimulus to help with the budget. So what specifically do you think the city needs to do over the next couple of years to make sure the financial stability remains?
Jeff Cramerding: We need to focus on basic city services. And this is, you know, a message I'm always delivering to my colleagues from the point of view of cities, that, you know, our revenue has been very good over the last couple years, the earnings tax has been very high. We've been very fortunate. It's allowed us to transition off of the federal stimulus dollars, which we're not relying on this right now.
You mean the earnings tax, income or the revenue?
Jeff Cramerding: Yeah, the tax itself is high. Yeah, the revenue from the earnings tax has been higher. Revenues have been very high. We've transitioned off of the federal stimulus dollars, which we were using those to operate, to balance our budget. So our budget is balanced, but it's, you know, the situation, the budget is thin, so we need to always focus on basic city services, police, fire, trash, roads and parks and recreation, and really take care of those essential city services first.
Do you think the city should ask voters to consider an income tax increase?
Jeff Cramerding: The Cincinnati Futures Commission, made of labor, business and civic leaders, had a number of recommendations. They did propose a modest earnings tax increase. I think that's something that voters should consider as we move forward, if we're going to keep our level of services this high, it's definitely something that should be one of the options.
So related to the budget, something specific I want to ask about is the criticism the city faced earlier this year with that major winter storm in early January, there were some concerns about lack of some streets never plowed, lack of response time or slow response time to plow other streets. This is something that you've worked on while on council. So how would you help the city prepare for major weather events in the future?
Jeff Cramerding: First, we have to acknowledge that that was not the city's best moment. As the storm progressed day after day. I think our systems broke down, as I said, and that's not, that's not a good situation. So as a council we put, you know, over $10 million of fleet into new vehicles, into the Fleet Service garage, which is a big problem. So we know that there's a lot of breakdowns around there, and the manager made some personnel changes as well. So I think that will all lead to a more responsive effort. I think we'll do better as far as snow. Should we have another snow event? And you know, the same trucks and personnel are doing litter and potholes, so I expect to see improvements in those areas as well.
Can you say more about the personnel changes the city manager made?
Jeff Cramerding: Yeah, I mean the the the public works director retired, we brought in a new public works director from Toledo. We're still to be battle tested, but all the signs I've seen have been very positive.
Well, another big issue here, and again, not to focus all on the criticism, but there's been a lot of criticism of this current Council, of accusations of not listening to the community on issues like the. Connected community zoning reform in 2024 of course, the Hyde Park Square development of this year. I think what's interesting about your history on council is that you opposed the density Ordinance of 2023 that was supported by council member Liz Keating and council member Reggie Harris. But then a year later, we're one of the sponsors of the Connected Communities zoning reform. So how did your perspective and not to say that those ordinances were the same. But how did your perspective on zoning reform change? And do you still support your support for that legislation?
Jeff Cramerding: Yeah, I think that the was called the density ordinance. You know, we as a council sort of arrived in the middle of it. I don't think it was as thought through as it should have been. I voted against it. Failed. We started anew with Connected Communities. We did a lot of engagement. I was much more convinced that that zoning reform was necessary and a piece of the puzzle, and that's the reason I supported it. We did a lot of community engagement. We did a lot of listening. There was definitely some opposition, especially among some community councils, from that. I still think it's the right thing to do. I think we need it to spur development in neighborhoods like mine, in price Hill and in other neighborhoods that need housing and development.
Related to this issue. Is some concern in the community about historic preservation. This is an issue you yourself have been pretty vocal about on City Council also supported Connected Communities, which some folks have some concerns about related to historic preservation. How are these two issues connected? And how do you balance, you know, preserving historic buildings and also historic charm, but also encouraging development?
Jeff Cramerding: Yeah, I think I am a big supporter of adaptive reuse. So when I talk about housing and economic development, it's certainly maintaining the historical integrity of our neighborhoods. I think I have 100% voting record when it comes to preservation issues. There's the Schulte Mansion in Price Hill, which I thought should have been saved by I ultimately lost that vote. There's Hoffman School in Evanston. I think it was the lone vote to give the Terrace Plaza downtown preservation status. You can do development and do preservation at the same time, and that's critical in an issue like Cincinnati. I'm just looking at the number of schools we have in the West End and other areas that are great example where we could have adaptive reuse and have housing in these historic structures.
The other big factor in this is community engagement. I think that was especially the case during the Hyde Park Square development, which obviously that topic has not concluded that is still moving forward in what format. We're not quite sure yet. But how do you think the city needs to approach community engagement on development deals in the future? Do you think there needs to be a new policy? You know, how involved should City Council be in that?
Jeff Cramerding: I think there should be a standard policy for the city. I think it should be, by and large, the same across neighborhoods of developers and communities know what to expect, so there's consistency, and I think we need to strive for getting as many people involved in this conversation as possible. As I said, I've been involved in my community council for 30 years, but you have to say that Community Councils are often older and whiter and wealthier than the rest of the city and and I think getting as many people involved in these conversations important, especially young people. I mean, we're hearing young people about we often hear from young people about the need for housing. They want housing. They don't feel like there's as many opportunities as there should be. When it comes the actual conversations about these developments, often you don't see young people in the room. So how do you change that? I think having a consistent housing policy, excuse me, a consistent communication policy that says there's going to be two hearings on next night, get the word out, use our Department of Community Planning to get the word out, get new people in the room is critical.
Do you think that the role of community councils right now, it's kind of an advisory role, I suppose, is maybe a good way to put it, but there's no, you know, actual power for Community Councils. Do you think that they should have more power or more say? Or do you think maybe there's an oversized influence on city council, given what you said about the kind of demographics of most Community Councils?
Jeff Cramerding: I think a community and I've always said this, I think a Community Council earns its influence. If a Community Council is doing good work, getting people in, you see a packed room. You see engaged residents. You see diverse residents, like, oh, this Community Council is engaged. If you walk in and you see, you know, a small number of people, a few people who are, you know, very strong personalities, which happens in Community Council that are just trying to dominate the neighborhood and really don't want diverse voices. You know, that's a problem. So I think it just varies depending on the Community Council and they they they earn their influence.
I'm talking with city council member Jeff Cramerding, who is running for re election. Let's move on and talk about crime. That's been a big concern, crime and public safety as well. Most recently, City Council voted to add an additional $5.4 million towards public safety efforts, mostly to the Cincinnati police department. You were one of the authors of that legislation, so why? Why organize it in the way that you did? And decide? Which priorities you wanted to focus on?
Jeff Cramerding: What happened at fourth and Elm was unfortunate. And as I've said repeatedly, it was referring to the fight that went viral on social media, the fight at fourth and Elm, the brawl. And it was it was polarized, and that was unfortunate. Was polarized, and it was racialized. So I condemned that. But the city found itself in that situation where we had to react, we had to act a refrain that we consistently heard in those days, that we were not giving the police the support necessary to do their jobs. I don't think that was accurate, but we put more money on the table for overtime so everybody knows it's there. I think it's also a challenge to the police chief and the manager. You know, there's some, there's there's some challenges to getting police to do overtime, but I think visibility is essential there, so it was a challenge, and importantly, that money just wasn't restricted for downtown was across the city, so there was money for lights, for cameras, for technology, as well as police overtime, so that we want to make sure the neighborhoods and downtown downtown have the resources that they need.
Specifically in that legislation, Council put $1.2 million towards public visibility over time for Cincinnati police officers, that's quite a bit more than the police department asked for. That's been criticized by some, including other candidates in this race. Why make that choice?
Jeff Cramerding: I think it was first of all, we want to make sure that everyone knows the resources are there, which is so important. So people say you're not giving the police the resources. That is clearly not true. Secondly, I think you're, you know, you're challenging the police chief and the police department. We need these patrols. The money's there. We expect these patrols. We need these patrols. And that can be part of the conversation moving forward. Because I do think that a visible, engaged Police Department is critically important.
There's also this kind of balance between addressing crime and public safety in the short term, with things like police, public visibility patrols, that kind of thing, but also addressing the root causes of crime, especially poverty, which is a huge issue in the city. So this money is really focused only on the short term. You know? Why make that choices? Are there ways that you could have addressed the more root causes of crime with this money instead?
Jeff Cramerding: Yeah, you have to address crime on a spectrum. And this was absolutely a short term measure. I totally concede that. Always said this was a short term measure to address a problem this summer. I am very proud of Council's record on long term root causes. I mean, we could, we could list the programs that this Council's invested in, you know, you know, there's boots on the ground there, there's safe and clean neighborhoods. There's a myriad of programs. I'll address it long term. I think where there is a gap is in the medium term, like this corner has been a problem for years now. What resources can we bring to bear as a city on it to address crime over 1,2,3 years? We know where there's hot spots. We know there's a recurring so I think that we do need to focus on the medium term, really get back to problem oriented policing and have more medium term solutions to really bring crime down and make neighborhoods feel safer.
Speaking of looking geographically as well, you know, obviously a lot of focus has been on downtown, Over the Rhine, the Banks, and to be fair, most of the increase in crime over the summer has been in those areas, especially violent crime, although most of the increase has been led by property crime. You know, this funding is kind of mostly focused on those areas in the urban core. You know, that's that's garnered some criticism from other neighborhoods that feel they want more public safety support. You know, what's your response to that?
Jeff Cramerding: The police overtime money definitely is citywide. I definitely hear from district three, which is the West Side, Westwood and Price Hill. I hope that those resources are used. You know, as I said, this is providing resources to the police department. Also a challenge. You know, we need more visibility. You know, areas along glenway and Warsaw in price Hill, parts of Westwood, those are very and there's certainly other areas as well as well as walking in Mount Auburn, this past weekend, heard from residents there. There are areas where we need to increase police presence. So this money is part of the short term solution, and really focusing on quality of life teams and addressing the medium term problems, really focusing on these hot pots, hot spots, with the police department, with our other city resources, well, buildings, inspections, all the resources that the city can bring to bear.
Really quickly. I want to ask when you first, your first term on council, just one of nine council members was not a Democrat, it was Republican, Liz Keating, who we spoke to earlier in this segment, and now on your current term, it is, it is all nine Democrats. How do you think that has played out, and do you think that should potentially change for future councils?
Jeff Cramerding: Yeah, I, first of all, I'm very proud to be running with my slate of Democrats. Were a great group. I hope everyone gets elected. This has been a very good Council. I'm proud to work with them. We've had a lot of disagreements. Sometimes it's portrayed as having nine Democrats. We're all getting along. We've had very vigorous debates, including on the budget, which was past seven too. And you know, I respect this, those dissenting votes. So we have heard a lot, a lot of disagreements. It is, it is a perception problem that with nine Democrats, there is a sense that, you know, we are too homogenous, that we're not fighting that's just not accurate.
Thank you so much to all the candidates for joining me today, including Republican Liz Keating, Charter committee candidate Don Driehaus and now Jeff Cramerding, endorsed Democrat running for a third term.