Transmittal of “12-point Transparency Agenda,” to the mayor and city council

/in

 

 

Transparency Agenda for Cincinnati

You can never be too demanding when it comes to government transparency. It is just the nature of the beast for the government to keep as much information “non-public” (i.e., secret) as possible. Cincinnati seems  to be particularly bad but I do not have a frame of reference at this point except the federal government.

The Ohio Open Records law is very different from the federal Freedom of Information Act. And the city’s practices for administering the open records law is more substandard than anything I experienced in the federal government. So, reforming the way the city handles records requests is at the top of the “Transparency Agenda.”

At the outset of the budget process, when members of city council submitted their individual “Budget Recommendations,” I decided to submit my own budget recommendation.  At the April 7, 2025 meeting of the Budget and Finance Committee, I claimed my “2 minutes” of the public comment period to read my transparency agenda into the record. I considered it a budget recomemendation because any government reform requires money.

I followed up by sending the agenda to the mayor and city council via email. I did not receive a response from anyone.

I also discuss the transparency agenda in Episode 20 of the podcast.

Letter to the Cincinnati Southern Railway Trust re publicly broadcasting board meetings March 22, 2025

/in

 

We all have to do what we can to oversee the $1.6 billion CSR Trustfund. That includes not only how the city uses the trustfund proceeds but also how well the funds are being invested and how well the board members are carrying out their fiduciary obligations.

An annual lease payment, at its true market rate, would have been so much easier. No politics. But now we have to keep our collective heads on a swivel to protect our $1.6 billion from those would try to improperly benefit from the trustfund. Believe me, they are out there.

The good news is that we are collaborating with an experienced investment advisor with a particular expertise in public investment. He has been tracking the actions of CSR Trust board and its investment advisors and has agreed to help us.

In the meantime, at the March board meeting, we asked the board to publicly broadcast their meetings.

 

Zinser Ltr to CSR Board 5.22.25

 

 

Letter to the mayor and city council concerning the Hyde Park Square development issue March 8, 2025

/in

 

The Hyde Park Square issue has the potential to change the way the city does business when it comes to engaging the neighborhoods on proposed zoning ordinances. Hours and hours of public input with the planning staff conferences; the Planning Commission; and finally with the city council, were essentailly ignored by the majority of the council.  If you attended the planning commission meeting, it definitely seemed that the fix was in. Three of the members of the commission didn’t even show up for the meeting.

Fortunately, Vice-mayor  Kearney and Councilmember Johnson listened and heard the citizen voices that came, not just from Hyde Park residents, but also neighborhoods from across the city. So, at least two members had respect for the voices of the neighborhood residents.

The reason the issue has the potential to change how the city does business is because after council approved the zoning change, 18,000 Cincinnati voters, more than twice the number of signatures required, signed a petition to put the issue on the ballot for the November 2025 election.  The voters of  Cincinnati will decide. If Cincinnati voters overturn the zone change, it will send the strongest message possible to future city councils that voices of the neighborhoods require respect.

Zinser Letter re Hyde Park Square 3.8.25

Email to the mayor and city council concerning a spate of 6 or 7 shooting in Price Hill over News Year’s 2025 weekend.

/in

 

 

As I mentioned in my email to city hall, there were so many shootings over the New Year’s weekend, it was difficult to come up with an exact count.  The reports from the various news outlets were reporting on the incidents but the shootings were all in close proximity to each other in the East and West Price Hill neighborhoods. So, it was difficult to distinguish the incidents from one another based on the descriptions provided by the media.

I  had a phone call with Amber Kassem, the President of the East Price Hill Improvement Association, trying to figure it out but we were still not 100% sure of the number of shootings.

I received only one response from city hall to my email. Councilmember Ana Albi responded with what I thought was pretty much a “canned response,” mostly about gun control. She said nothing about what I included in my letter.

Obviously, city hall did not get the message on News Years. Six months later, in the summer of 2025, Cincinnati is beset by shootings and murders and the city administration is looking completely ill-prepared and ineffective in fulfilling its public safety responsibilities.

 

Email re shootings in Price Hill 1.4.25

Response from Ana Albi to Zinser email re Shootings in Price Hill

 

 

 

Observations emailed to Cincinnati’s Internal Audit Manager 12.26.24

/in

 

 

Basically, “Citizen Watchdog” is an ongoing examination of  the “oversight environment” concerning Cincinnati government. How is the city ensuring the effectiveness and efficiency of the city’s administration? What is the city doing to prevent and detect fraud, waste and abuse with respect to the city’s programs and operations? That is what this Citizen Watchdog project is all about.

As an early step, I examined the city’s internal audit operation. I discus the results of my examination in Episode 7 of the podcast. I was not encouraged. I decided to write a letter to the Internal Audit Manager with my observations. I offered to meet with her and discuss my observations but I have not heard back from her.

I also applied for a position on the city’s “Internal Audit Committee.” It is a mayoral appointment. I did not hear back about that either. The whole thing was kind of disappointing.

Yahoo Mail – Observations about Cincinnati’s Internal Audit 12.26.24

Yahoo Mail – Internal Audit Committee application

 

Complaint filed with the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) concerning Congressman Landsman’s failure to comply with the STOCK Act 9.23.24

/in

Landsman OCE complaint 9.23.24

The news media in Washington DC published reports about Members of Congress who were delinquent in reporting their stock transactions, as required by the STOCK  Act. Mr. Landsman was at the top of the list. He failed to comply with the STOCK Act for practically his entire first term, nearly 2 years and more than 80 stock trades.

I knew about the STOCK Act because Congress had also applied the law to certain members of the Executive Branch, including my position. The law is very clear about the disclosure requirements.

Rule 23(1) of the House of Representatives includes the following provision, “A Member, Delegate, Resident Commissioner, officer, or employee of the House shall behave at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House.”

“Creditably” means in a manner deserving of praise or approval.

I submitted a complaint because I thought the facts showed egregious conduct by Mr. Landsman. In addition to not reflecting “creditably” on the House, he brought disprepute on himself and his Congressional District.

The Enquirer published an Op-Ed that I submitted about Mr. Landsman’s lack of compliance with the STOCK Act.

Opinion_ Landsman violates STOCK Act by not disclosing stock trades