Friday, April 14, 2000
Commissioners may reopen pilings debate
BY Dan Klepal
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The issue over whether Hamilton County commissioners violated the Sunshine Law by agreeing to give the city $2 million for the pilings along Fort Washington Way may be resolved by a “do over.”
Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas Nurre asked assistant prosecutor Carl Stitch whether he would talk to the commissioners about holding public debate and then revoting on whether to make the contribution for Fort Washington Way.
The money will help the city pay for the foundation for a future top covering the highway, allow ing people to walk from downtown to the attractions along the riverfront.
Cincinnati lawyer Tim Mara sued the county, alleging commissioners agreed to give the money to the city in a closed-door session.
Mr. Mara says that is a violation of state law, which allows such sessions for limited purposes such as personnel matters, litigation or property acquisition.
Commissioners acknowledge discussing the issue Jan. 31 for nearly two hours, then announced later in the day they would make the contribution to the city. Commissioners have said they started out by negotiating with the city to buy a piece of land for the $2 million, but when that deal fell through they decided to contribute the money.
Two days later, they made the decision official by voting on it in a public meeting.
“The violation deprived the public of the opportunity to hear the debate that led up to the decision,” Mr. Mara said. “If officials are allowed to decide issues in private than vote on them in public, the Sunshine Law has no meaning.
“When they approved the donation, there was no debate and the deliberations had long since ended. It was nothing more than a sham.”
Mr. Stitch argued that it would be impossible to talk about buying the property without also talking about the alternative — in this case, just giving the $2 million to the city.
Several other aspects of Mr. Mara's lawsuit will be argued later, including the county's guarantee to the Bengals of a minimum number of ticket sales and giving up rights to some of the land surrounding Paul Brown Stadium.
Those issues were put on hold because of a separate lawsuit raising the same issues, filed last week by Cincinnati lawyer Ken Lawson. The county asked Judge Nurre on Thursday to combine the two lawsuits.
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