Thursday, December 16, 1999
Turf battle pits activist, community
Avondale sues over task force
BY EARNEST WINSTON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
An Avondale community activist has until 1 p.m. todayto raise $650 to stay out of jail.
Tom Jones was fined $650 by Judge John O'Connor of Hamilton County Common Pleas Court because he violated a preliminary injunction barring him from doing business as the Avondale Public Safety Task Force Inc. Mr. Jones has since changed the task force's name to Community Public Safety Advocate Group.
The Avondale Community Council said in a lawsuit filed against Mr. Jones and the task force that he led businesses and residents to believe the task force was a part of the community council because Avondale was in its name.
Mr. Jones' attempt to stay out of jail is just the latest event in a battle with the council.
The council sued Mr. Jones in July. It said he incorporated the task force without council's permission and that he is raising funds from private and corporate citizens under the authority of the council, but not turning over the money. Mr. Jones said he created the task force while he was a member of the council. Bernadette Watson, president of the community council, has said the task force was created by the council.
Mr. Jones, chairman of the task force, which fights crime, drugs and blight in Avondale, countersued in August.
Bailey Turner, who served as president of the council in the 1960s, said the bickering is dividing the community and further tarnishing the reputa tion of Avondale.
“The ones who follow (Tom) Jones will have a bad feeling toward the ones who follow the Avondale Community Council forever,” Mr. Turner said.
Gloria Morgan, a former president of the East Price Hill Community Council during the 1980s and '90s, said she is watching the dispute in Avondale closely but stressed that she has not taken sides.
“My concern with this is what actual control does a community council have. Can a community council rule out another group in the neighborhood?” she asked.
“The question is who owns crime. We all own crime. We all need to fight crime. And to say that another organization cannot fight crime sends the wrong message,” Ms. Morgan said.
Community councils serve as sounding boards for community issues, said Gina Ruf
fin Moore, spokeswoman for Cincinnati City Manager John Shirey. Most of the city's 52 neighborhoods have a voluntary community council, which can receive funding from the city for neighborhood improvements.
Mr. Jones said the task force was created because the council was not taking action on problems in Avondale, a once-booming neighborhood. Now drug dealers frequent Burnet Avenue, which was once a thriving business district.
Avondale is Cincinnati's fourth-largest neighborhood, with more than 18,000 residents — about 92 percent African-American, more than 77 percent who rent and more than 40 percent at or below the poverty level.
It ranks among neighborhoods with the most crimes reported. But major crimes dropped there by 7.6 percent in the first quarter of 1999, compared with the same time last year.
Mr. Jones said the task force is partly responsible for getting demolished three abandoned houses where drugs were used and sold, installing a camera at Burnet and Northern avenues to tape crime and fighting for safe housing conditions for seniors.
"Very disheartening'
He said the council's lawsuit could have far-reaching effects.
“They're asking for more or less supreme control over nonprofit organizations in a community,” said Mr. Jones, who owns a copying and print ing business in Avondale, where he operates the task force.
“They want to dictate to those organizations where you can solicit funds from.”
Gloria Miles, president of the resident council at the Beechwood senior community in Avondale, said residents think that the dispute should have been resolved by now.
“The feeling is if you have a business person in the community who is willing to work with the residents of the community, the community council should be more than happy to cooperate with them,” she said. “It's been very disheartening. This has really divided our community.”
Permission disputed
Mr. Jones said the task force was incorporated in March. However, Cincinnati lawyer Arthur Church, who is representing the council, said Mr. Jones never had permission from the council to incorporate the task force. He did so, Mr. Church said, “to compete with the community council.
“It would be in Jones' best interest if he would simply come to us and say "I made a mistake' ... and we would work something out,” Mr. Church said.
Mr. Jones says he did nothing wrong and the dispute is about control.
Mr. Jones resigned as treasurer of the community council in July to run the task force. “Is this the price you have to pay to do community work?”
He said the lawsuit has distracted the council. A hot line, which generated 400 complaints from residents to help identify criminal activity, has been shut down because it could no longer be funded.
Grant on hold
And a $20,000 grant approved for the task force by city council has been put on hold until the administration looks into legal issues, said Ron Mosby, chief of staff for Councilman Charlie Winburn. The community council is asking that it be awarded the $20,000.
Mr. Jones said the task force has been operating on financial support from Children's Hospital Medical Center, the Ronald McDonald House, Burnet Avenue Business Owners, local churches and residents, as well as an unsecured $10,000 loan from Fifth Third Bank.
Mr. Church said the work Mr. Jones is doing is causing confusion with traditional donors to the council. He said the community council has lost trust in Mr. Jones, though it is open to a settlement.
Carleton Maddox, senior community development analyst for the city's Department of Neighborhood Services, said turf wars between community councils and other neighborhood groups are not unusual.
“(But) it's unusual for it to reach the level of legal litigation like this one has,” Mr. Maddox said about the current dispute in Avondale.
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