Thursday, May 20, 1999
Lebanon recall leaves sour taste for many
BY RICHELLE THOMPSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON — The city's unprecedented recall of a member of city council a year ago made history, but some do not think it made a difference.
Most of the recall's most vocal supporters and oppo nents say the May 26 recall election has not improved relations on city council.
“Everything's worse,” said Jim Klei, a Lebanon resident who worked weekends last spring circulating petitions for the recall election. “Nobody has any direction or vision. They're all just running their own agendas.”
Critics say council may have changed faces, but it didn't change course. The finger-pointing, name-calling and turf wars from a year ago still thrive today, they say.
“Things are not the way I would ideally like for them to be,” said Councilman Jack Hedges, who paid for a news paper ad supporting the recall. Since then, he has slipped from power and is often excluded from much of council's behind-the-scenes politicking. “My biggest regret is that Lebanon got a black eye out of it — and shouldn't have. It deserves better.”
Like a civil war, the recall pitched neighbors against one another and polarized a community considered by outsiders as a quaint, historic destination for antiques shopping, not a tempest of controversy.
When voters removed
Mary Ann Cole from council and put John McComb in her place, the campaign earned a spot among the most expensive elections in Warren County, with both sides spending nearly $18,500 for a position that paid $1,200 annually. The recall was the city's first in its 196-year history.
Mr. McComb did not respond to written and in-person requests for an interview. Council members Amy Brewer, Joe McKenzie and Jim Reinhard did not return repeated phone calls.
“When it all shakes out, and it'll be another couple of months, people will really realize what happened,” said Mayor James Mills, who opposed the recall. He declined to elaborate.
Councilman Mark Flick, who donated to Mrs. Cole's campaign, said most of the inner turmoil on council has dissipated. He pointed to the
development of a long-range plan as one of council's accomplishments in the past year.
“The group works differently,” he said. “It's not better. It's just different. The old group would have worked OK.”
A shift of power on city council became apparent in 1997 when Mr. Flick beat veteran Councilwoman Deana Bayes. Mr. Flick, Mr. Mills, Mrs. Cole and Michael Coyan, who has since resigned, had similar concerns: They worried that a proposed telecommunications system budgeted at $5 million would spiral out of financial control and burden taxpayers. They also questioned the job performance of then-City Manager Richard Hayward.
A group of residents led by Cathy Mick formed People for a Brighter Future and gathered signatures to recall Mrs. Cole, the only one of the new “group of four” voting bloc who legally could be recalled. State law says council members cannot be recalled in the first year of a term — the case with Messrs. Coyan, Mills and Flick.
Supporters of the recall movement said they had two objectives — protecting the telecommunications system and Mr. Hayward. They recruited Mr. McComb to run, and he and his wife, Kathi, bankrolled more than half of the pro-recall campaign.
Mrs. Mick, Mr. Klei and other top supporters of the recall celebrated when nearly 60 percent of voters ousted Mrs. Cole.
But with Mr. McComb's vote, the telecommunications system was approved, 5-1, six weeks after the recall. Mr. Flick voted against the measure. The first group of residents hooked up to city-owned cable two months ago, and the price of the total project rose to $7 million.
In November, Mr. Hayward resigned from the position he had held for 11 years. Speculation among city officials has been that council members pressured Mr. Hayward to leave. Mr. Hayward declined to comment.
“Our aim was to retain telecommunications and the city manager. Of course, only one of those came true, and I'm very disappointed,” said Mary Agnes Phenix, a recall supporter who donated $300 to the cause. ""I think the recall was necessary in order to save the electric department of Lebanon. But the council we put in did not follow what we had hoped.”
Downtown business owner Joan Townsend was more strident.
“I think this council has done exactly what they accused the old coun cil of doing,” said Ms. Townsend, a recall opponent. “Things are worse.”
Mrs. Mick was treasurer of the pro-recall group. Her spring of 1998 was consumed with campaigning, and along with her husband, Jim, she donated $450 to People for a Brighter Future. Mrs. Mick said she doesn't regret the recall because she considers the telecommunications system integral to the city's future.
But “Mr. McComb is different than I expected,” she said. “If I had to do this over again, I don't know if I would support him.”
Only one of the top six contributors to the pro-recall group said the present council was doing a better job serving the city.
Richard Peck, a $1,000 donor, said council is on the right track.
“I still think (the recall) was what the city needed,” he said.
Marvin Young, who donated $550, declined to comment.
Another active campaigner, John Gambill, enthusiastically endorsed the current council.
“With every council, there are always issues of the day that dominate the headlines, but this council is focused and much more positive,” he said.
Mr. Gambill, a real estate agent, also is part-owner of Go Concepts, a local computer company that landed the city contract last summer to provide high-speed Internet access through the telecommunications system.
He said his financial interest in the telecommunications system was separate from his support of the special election.
“I thought then, and I think now, that (the recall) was needed to provide a better council,” he said.
Council could see some new faces this fall, with three seats — those of Messrs. McComb, McKenzie and Hedges — up for election. Mr. Hedges said he has not decided whether to run again.
A shake-up would suit Gene Simpkins, a resident who donated $1,000 to oppose the recall.
Right now, “Lebanon deserves whatever this council gives them. Residents haven't been involved, and they voted for the recall,” he said.
Mr. Hedges said the question of the recall boils down to one question: “Is the city better off?”
His answer: “I think the public has to be the judge of that. I'm sure the city is much better off in some ways. I'm sure in other ways, the city is not better off. History will judge how good it was.”
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