BY WALT SCHAEFER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
COLUMBIA TOWNSHIP -- As news spread Wednesday that former township Trustee and Administrator Jim Harmon faces a possible 3 1/2-year prison term, reaction ranged from shock to support for the longtime leader.
"I just can't believe what I read today. I can't believe that (theft in office and tampering with records) was happening in our township," said Charlie Garner, who with his brother, Eddie, own the Plainville Barber Shop.
Mr. Harmon; his daughter, former township Clerk Debra Huff; and son-in-law Jeff Huff, former maintenance superintendent, have each entered guilty pleas to those charges, Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph Deters said Tuesday.
"I really find it hard to believe he is guilty after all he has done for this township," Mr. Garner said. "He is responsible for the Kroger store coming into Plainville (on Wooster Pike), all of the (commercial) development around (the) Ridge Road and Highland Avenue (area along Interstate 71)."
He credited the former administrator with leading the effort to create the joint fire district combining the Fairfax and Madison Place fire departments and a joint paramedic service joining Fairfax, Mariemont and Madison Place.
"He did so much good for this township, this just shocks me," Mr. Garner said. "We just wouldn't have the businesses we have today without what he did."
Former Fairfax Mayor and Councilman Ted Shannon, a longtime friend of Mr. Harmon, said he is "sorry to see this happen."
"Jim is an excellent person," he said. "This is not an intentional act to deceive anybody. As Mr. Deters said, there are checks and balances. The trustees were not doing their jobs. . . . They did not want to be involved. They let him do their work."
Outspoken township resident Laura Thurn said she was not shocked by the charges, but expected them after reading a scathing state auditor's report released this year.
"I'm happy it's done. It should have happened (before this) instead of waiting so long. I'm glad there are severe penalties involved because this is a serious abuse of the public trust," Ms. Thurn said. "Now, I hope, we can move on."
Ken Finke, a resident of the Ridgewood area of the township and owner of the IGA supermarket in Pleasant Ridge, said some residents have known an investigation was being conducted and said it now appears the township was being operated while "the right hand did not know what the left hand was doing."
Mr. Finke said his neighborhood has been trying to persuade trustees to improve the sewer system there for years. Now, after learning Mr. Harmon and his relatives have admitted to taking about $210,000 in taxpayer money, "it's no wonder why there has been no money there for us," he said.
"I have an attitude about this kind of thing. I've caught shoplifters in my store . . . and (urged) they go to jail. . . . This is stealing money from me, too. That's not OK. He should go to jail."
