Friday, September 29, 2000

County rivals spar on radio

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By Dan Klepal
The Cincinnati Enquirer

        Radio airwaves were buzzing Thursday as Hamilton County Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus and Cincinnati Councilman Todd Portune sparred for about an hour on The Lincoln Ware Show on WDBZ-AM, “The Buzz.”

        The two men are running for Mr. Bedinghaus' seat on the county commission. Their race has been hotly contested, and that continued Thursday.

Hamilton County Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus and Cincinnati Councilman Todd Portune sparred on The Lincoln Ware Show Thursday. (Enquirer photo) | ZOOM |

        Most of the hour was spent talking about riverfront development — specifically the overruns at Paul Brown Stadium and alleged overages on Fort Washington Way reconstruction. Minority hiring, at the stadium project and on the city's $314 million highway project, also was a hot topic.

        The tone was set after the initial, on-air introductions at the African-American radio station. Mr. Bedinghaus said it was his first trip to the station, leading Mr. Portune to reply: “We should all welcome Bob to the neighborhood. I think the neighborhood could have benefited if you'd made a few more visits.”

        And so it went for an hour.

        Mr. Portune blasted the commissioner for what Mr. Portune called wasteful spending on the football stadium and for the county's decision to hide the overruns from the public for six months while receiving updates on the problems in closed-door meetings.

        Mr. Bedinghaus shot back that the councilman is part of a do-nothing government and, if elected, would paralyze the county government.

        “At least we do our business in front of the public,” Mr. Portune said. “It would be nice to watch the county do business, but they do their work behind closed doors.”

        Mr. Bedinghaus said the city has seen its share of trouble, too. He said the minority participation rate on the Fort Washington Way project falls short of the percentages at the football stadium.

        The county set a goal of awarding 15 percent of the contracts at the stadium to businesses owned by minorities or women. The final percentage has not been figured, but it will likely be below 10 percent after the overruns are calculated.

        “The city has done a poorer job on Fort Washington Way than the county has done on Paul Brown Stadium,” Mr. Bedinghaus said. “We came into the stadium project with clean hands and good hearts. But we were not willing to go back to the failed policies of affirmative action.”

        Mr. Portune said he wasn't happy with the minority participation on Fort Washington Way, but blamed the failure on Ohio Department of Transportation policies.

        Even the callers had an edge.

        When one caller, identified only as Catherine, asked about the lease given to Bengals' owner Mike Brown, Mr. Bedinghaus started to say he didn't write the lease. The caller then interrupted him and said: “I think Mike Brown wrote that contract.”

        The candidates squared off again Thursday evening, in a much more structured debate where the topics ranged from welfare reform to the Western Hamilton County Collaborative Plan, from creating an expanded Port Authority to regional transit.

        More than 50 people attended the later debate, at the Mercantile Library downtown.

        The candidates will square off in another debate today at noon, at the University Club downtown.

       

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