Fall 2016 Local Election Preview
Get a breakdown of the local election issues and candidates before going to the polls.
Shownotes:
Read the transcript
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Confluence Cast presented by Columbus Underground. We are a weekly Columbus-centric podcast focusing on the civics, lifestyle, entertainment, and people of our city. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. This week, we have a very last-minute local election rundown for you. I sat down with Lauren Sega, Columbus Underground's politics reporter, to talk about the bond and levy issues and a few of the larger local races. You can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Enjoy the interview. Sitting down here with Lauren Sega, politics and restaurant news reporter for Columbus Underground. Lauren, how are you? Great. How are you? Good. We are sitting here just a couple of days before the fall election. Ugh. It is the presidential election. We are not really going to focus on presidential politics today. We are going to focus on the local Columbus issues that are on the ballot. There are four bond issues, one school bond issue, and a CODA levy. Lots of money that people want us to give up and give to them. Lauren, can you sort of walk us through, first of all, the four city bond issues? Issues one, two, three, and four. Okay.
And basic- actually, what is a bond? W- like, what are they asking for? Like, I've seen people on the internet complaining that if all of these pass, their property taxes will go up by hundreds of dollars a year. Is that true? Potentially, yes. Okay. The bond issues are more like the voters giving the city the ability to take the money if they need it, if the situation calls for it.
Okay. It's more like insurance than anything else. Okay. We had talked a little bit before. It's almost like a dad co-signing on a teenager's credit card and saying, "Don't ever use this." Right.
But if you gotta use it, if you're in a situation where you need to use it, here, here this is. It basically improves the city's credit. Uh-huh. Which offers them a lower insurance rate, which means if the city sells $900 million in bonds next year, you know, saving just 1% can save millions of dollars.
Right. So the city bond issues, issue one is public safety and health, issue two recreation and parks, issue three public services, and issue four public utilities. All of those bond issues are asking for... Is it basically that the city is asking its citizens to say, yes, it's okay to sell more bonds? Yes. Okay. And, um, it's a total of $950 million.
For all four? Yes. If all four pass. Uh-huh.
And is it assumed that all four will? Like, does it always pass? Yes, and I believe that the city actually hasn't even collected on this in, I don't know, some of them like 80 or 100 years or something like that. S- so it's basically that the city comes and says, "We want the ability to do this, but we're probably not ever going to utilize it." Mm-hmm.
Okay. So what is the impact for a homeowner if it does pass and they don't do anything with it? Is there literally zero impact? Yeah, there's no change. And basically, it's that the city intends to issue a bond or rather sell a bond, and then it's just going to pay it back over a period of time. 16 years, I think, is what each bond issue is for, and that doesn't affect property taxes insurance at all. Right.
Got it. That doesn't affect property taxes at all. Talk about the school levy. The schools want more money. Yeah. Um, I talked with Dan Good. Superintendent Dan Good. And he's basically telling everybody to forget about the distrust and-
Okay ... when I spoke with Dan Good, he had like several things to say. Okay. One was mostly addressing the kind of population that they deal with, which is it's in an urban setting. It's different from what suburban schools-
Okay. So what did he say about that? Because what he's talking about is the student population, right? Right. Okay. 90% of them live in poverty.
Okay. Uh, 7,000 of them speak English as a second language. Okay. And he said that 13,000... They are 13,000 students underfunded by the state due to a state funding cap.
Okay. And- Is it simply because of the size of the district then? Well, the, the problem is he said that when a crummy charter school shuts down-
Uh-huh ... all those children are displaced. They filter into the public school system. Right. And there's no funding following them.
Right, because that funding has already been allotted- Mm-hmm ... to the charter school for those kids. Right.
Okay. But there is sort of a trust gap, right? There is the data rigging scandal- Mm-hmm ... a couple of years ago. I believe that the levy issue three years ago primarily failed because, uh, it was at the same time that Coleman was sort of trying to give the city more control over Columbus City Schools, and the general population was like, "Nah, no. We're not gonna do that." That's why they went for the smaller levy this time.
Okay. 'Cause there were four up to be on the ballot. They were different amounts. One was, I think, like over eight mills. You're saying four options. Yes.
Okay. Um, and they went with the lowest option and, and Dan said that was because of those trust, trust issues because the last levy failed and they want... They felt like they needed to build up the public's confidence in the school system- Okay ... before they, you know, try to do new projects like build new buildings and, and things like that.
What are the consequences for them if the levy fails? I guess they wouldn't be expanding the programs that they've already been starting. Dan wasn't really very clear about- Okay ... exactly how it would affect them negatively.
That was a question you asked. Right. Mm-hmm. And so was it one of those things where they came back and just said, "Uh, let's not talk about that"?
Pretty much. They- Okay ... they're in the mindset that, like, they want it to pass, and they're operating based on the, the possibility that it will, so. Right. They're assuming that everything's going to be just fine because that's sort of what you have to do in that situation.
Mm-hmm. Okay. But yeah, the reason why, uh, the student population was such, like, a big part of- His talk was because a big part of the levy would hire almost 300 new nurses, um, nurse practitioners, social workers- Okay
... which are going to deal specifically with these populations. Okay. Well, and I know they've launched a program with Nationwide Children's Hospital to have clinics in some of the schools that are, that have populations that need access to medical care. It's sad that we're sort of in a time where it's assumed that you get your medical care at school, but for some of these kids, that's just, that is truly the situation that they're in. Right, which is why they want more nurse practitioners who can not just put Band-Aids on stuff, but- Right
... diagnose and prescribe treatment. Right. And what about COTA? COTA. Yeah, it's actually a levy renewal, so nothing's changing. Well, something could change. It could not pass, right?
Yes. And if it does, so let- Curtis was pretty clear, like either it passes or everything that we've done with the budget that we've had over the past 10 years will go away- Okay
... because they can only sustain that based on the budget that we've allowed them to have since 2006. Somewhere there was an article floating around, and I'm not sure if it was underground or not, where it said you either pass this COTA levy or you wait an hour and a half for the bus always. Yeah, I wrote that. There you go. Was it an hour and a half? Is that the, the prediction that they made?
Well, since the last levy passed, bus waits, waiting times- Mm-hmm ... um, have gone from, yeah, hour, hour and a half to like 15 minutes in some- Okay
... on some routes. They've also done the C Bus. Right. Is that funded by the levy? 'Cause I kn- there's also the C Bus, the circulator is the only free bus that we have. Right. Paid for slightly by private dollars.
Okay. Well, then they, they also did the, the GREAT. They did the Groveport-Rickenbacker Employee Access Transportation. Or GREAT. Yes. And that will go away.
Yeah. And so who, what community does that serve? That goes from Groveport to Rickenbacker, basically. Mm-hmm. So provides transportation for employees.
Who would have had to walk a mile- Okay ... basically to their, you know, industry parks. I see. And so it would be really bad if that didn't pass.
Pretty much, yeah. And they're planning for the future based on this budget as well. Okay. So they're trying to move away from the hub and spoke transportation system that most- Explain that a little bit.
So right now, to get anywhere, you go downtown and then you go out from there. Mm-hmm. What they wanna do is eliminate that, have different transfer points. So that everybody doesn't have to come down to Broad and High and then go somewhere else.
Right. Go west to eventually go east or whatever. Right. Right. So is there any growth with it? Like, does this give us anything or does it simply maintain the programs and the, the continued path that we're on? They will keep growing and planning. I know that they're trying to convert their entire fleet into CNG tank.
Okay. So those are the ... We've talked about the money issues. We've, uh, we've got issue one, two, three, and four, which are the bond issues, 57, which is the school issue, Columbus City School issue, and then the bond renewal for, uh, COTA is issue 60. Have you done any reporting on the prosecutor's race? No. You haven't? No.
Have you seen any of the debates? Yes. Tell me about them. Ron O'Brien, the incumbent Franklin County prosecutor. Yes. He is running a campaign based mostly on the fact that he has more experience.
Which he ha- I mean, he's been there for like 20 years, right? Yeah. Okay. He definitely has more experience. There's no denying that.
Right. Klein is coming from the other side, wanting more activism, I guess- Okay ... in the position.
Zach, we should, for clarity, Zach Klein is the current Columbus City Council President, also the Democrat running. What do you mean by activism? Well, he's accused O'Brien of failing to prosecute people of his party. Okay. Failing to prosecute Republicans? Yes.
Okay. He's also kind of been a rallying support on the side of, uh, People's Justice Project activists- Mm-hmm ... and, um, their fight to get an independent investigation into the deaths of Tyree and Henry.
Mm-hmm. I don't know if that's a political tactic of his. Okay. Uh, but-
Well, at one point they took over a city council meeting, and I think that maybe he just doesn't want a city council meeting taken over again. Um, but it is interesting that he's the one who sort of has aligned himself, given that he's running for prosecutor. Right. What is Ron O'Brien's office stance on all that? I mean, are they, they're in- They've been wholly silent.
Okay. 'Cause they are investigating as well. Right. Or at least they say they are, right? They have said about a private investigation that it's almost impossible-
Okay ... to ask for an independent investigation into these deaths because there is no state agency, no federal agency. There's no mechanism for it. No.
What is, like when someone says, "I want an independent investigation," it's like- From whom? That, what does that mean? Who-
Right? Like who, I'm sorry, who do you want to like step in and do this? We have a court. That's like saying like, "I want somebody other than a judge or jury to send someone to jail." Like, there is no mechanism for that. Right. So does Klein infer that like something different should be happening? Right, exact- That's why I'm saying it might be just a political tactic because-
Right ... what is his plan for an independent investigation should he, should he win as prosecutor and- What do you think he would say to that? I don't know what he could say because it is true. You know, no state agency or federal agency has the resources or the people to investigate every single police-involved shooting. It just doesn't-
Right ... exist. Well, but this one is the Tyree King- Case is a special one in that it was a kid at 7:30 at night with a fake gun in an alleyway who was being chased. Right.
And the Justice Department does do investigations into things like that. I don't know what Ron O'Brien could do. And just, like, you certainly don't want your elected prosecutor, when things get tough, to just throw up their arms and be like, "I can't handle this." And that's sort of what... I guess I don't know what people are asking for, basically. Like, you want an independent investigation that's in concert with what's happening with the prosecutor's office. It's a terrible thing that happened, obviously, but what do you... how do, how would you like to solve that? What are the consequences for possible negative actions that you wanna see? So yeah. But on the other side, O'Brien is accusing Klein of politicizing, basically, the whole position. Absolutely. Mm-hmm.
Well, and what's interesting is Ron O'Brien has said this was his l- the last time he was going to run. And it's not difficult to look at the landscape politically nationally and say that Klein, to an extent, is running this time because Zach Klein is taking advantage of timing by running this time. Oh, that's clear by how he's kind of calling O'Brien out for not denouncing Trump. Right. So talk about the two Franklin County Commissioner races that are coming up on Tuesday. Okay, so we have John O'Grady, uh, the incumbent, uh-
The Democrat. Yes, facing Whitney Smith, the odd Republican candidate. The Republican. Sort of. Yeah.
Whitney Smith, who listeners to this podcast will remember, was interviewed for our first episode. Uh, she came in and spoke on Issue One. At the time, she was running for a state representative seat, also for the Republican Party. She then switched the office that she was running for. She is now running against John O'Grady as the Republican. She also just filed a complaint against Donald Trump with the Federal Election Commission for him riding on a helicopter with the President of Mexico. Why she has any standing to do that, I have no idea, but I suppose anybody can file any complaint that they want. I... It's just unclear to me. I have m- met Whitney Smith. She's very good, and she's very sort of good at staying on message. It's just sor- it's unclear to me what it is that she's doing. She's an interesting candidate for sure. She... I think she has a weird approach to a Republican. Yeah. It... What's so confusing is she's not a Republican. Right.
She's a Republican simply because the party structure in Columbus, to me, the Republican Party structure in Columbus seems to be so weak that anybody who says that they're a Republican can be endorsed by that party. And so it sort of gives you the opportunity to rise up because there's, because that column has to be filled, at least in non-city elections. What's interesting is the city is so... You know, when we have a race for council or for mayor, you're not gonna see an R or a D next to people's name because our city charter states that we don't do that, that it's not necessarily a party structure. But for offices like, you know, representatives at the State House or Franklin County Commissioner, you are gonna see that R or a D, and so that column has to be filled. Hence, Whitney Smith. So she's running against O'Grady. And they hate each other. Yeah. He's got a small smear, I guess, on him for the dog shelter thing. Nobody likes dead dogs.
Right. So what happened, for those that aren't familiar with the issue? An outbreak of distemper- Mm-hmm ... hit the Franklin County Dog Shelter. One dog was diagnosed with it.
It's a terrible disease- Right ... that kills dogs quickly. It's fatal, yeah.
Right. Highly contagious. Should probably be quarantined if you have this. Right. But they waited several days before quarantining.
Okay. And they waited almost a week before telling anybody about it. Okay. And in the meantime, they had various adoption events, taking a bunch of dogs out to meet the public, who had their dogs, you know, the, the dogs they already had, and-
Right. Possibly infecting other dogs. What does John O'Grady have to do with this, though? His office oversees the Franklin County Dog Shelter. Mm-hmm. There was no protocol in place-
O- ... to deal with this effectively. Okay. And also, just the lack of transparency w- made people raise their eyebrows.
Of, like, not telling people. Well, and then they killed a whole bunch of dogs. Right. Right, hmm. And so what's the other Franklin County Commissioner race? So then we have Kevin Boyce, our current state representative, versus Terry Boyd, who ran for mayor unsuccessfully.
Oh, yes. So Kevin Boyce, who famously beat out Paula Brooks in the primary, who was the incumbent, is now facing off against Terry Boyd, who unsuccessfully ran for mayor. Very unsuccessfully, because again, back to the sort of party affiliation for city ballots, there is no R column that has to be filled in any Columbus city election. You know, he didn't even make it past the primary for that election, correct? Right. It ended up being Zach Scott and Ginther. Mm-hmm.
What's been going down there? I feel like Boyce is gonna win. Okay. Just because...
Because of the strength of the Democratic Party- Yeah ... in Columbus, Ohio. Yeah.
Right. He has some pretty good experience. You know, he was councilman for eight years. Went to the State House. This is sort of... He is a career politician. Right.
As much as he doesn't, you know- He's primed for this ... nobody ever wants to be called that, but, you know, he is. All I've heard from Boyd is that he kinda wants to make it an entrepreneurial position.
Yeah. Yeah, he basically wants to make the position a, a business. But what does that mean? It's an administrative role. Yeah, I don't know. Because, I mean, they're, they're both talking the same line of build on the city's improvement.
Right Make those improvements count for everybody. Boyce's one weakness would be when he was treasurer- Mm-hmm ... for those three years.
City treasurer. Yeah. Mm-hmm. One of his deputies did prison time-
Okay ... for bribery. Okay. And a state report said that it was due to weaknesses in his office.
To those that can't see you, you are doing air quotes for "weaknesses." Yes. Um, tell us about the Franklin County Recorder's race. We got Danny O'Connor, the Democrat-endorsed candidate.
Okay. And then Daphne Hawk, who arguably has a lot more experience, too. Mm-hmm. Well, she held this office before. Yeah.
Right. 2011 to 2013. She was in real estate for 30 years, which is relevant. 'Cause the Recorder's office handles real estate records. Mm-hmm. Real estate records, living wills, powers of attorney-
Right ... military documents. And then she was recorder. When she was recorder, she cut the office's budget by, like, a quarter million dollars and digitized all the records. Not only does she have experience, but she did kind of a good job at it. And then we have O'Connor, who is, I think he's, like, 28, 29. Mm-hmm. So younger than the amount of s- experience she's had in real estate.
Mm-hmm. That's the summation- Got it ... of their, their run right there.
Got it. Give us, as much as you're able, sort of a rundown of the local judges races. Columbusites will pick five judges. Four of the races are actually incumbents versus challengers. There's only one race where there are two newbies. Okay. So Richard Frye, Kim Cocroft, Michael Holbrook, and Kim Brown are the incumbents, and they are all favored by the Columbus Bar Association.
Okay. They're most likely going to win. Okay. Like we said earlier-
If you're gonna pick a judge, you kinda want the lawyers to tell you who to pick. Right. You trust the lawyer. But- In this rare case, you trust the lawyer.
So running against Richard Frye is Don Kline. And then against Cocroft, we have Lauren Dolan. And then against Michael Holbrook is Krista Pennington. And against Kim Brown, we have Jim Reese. Great. The non-incumbent race- Mm-hmm
... is between Jeffrey Brown and Stephanie Hannah. And who's favored there by the Bar Association? Right now it's a really close race. It's 52% to 48% in Stephanie Hannah's favor. Hmm. Lauren, thank you so much for your time today. Thank you for listening to the Confluence Cast presented by Columbus Underground. Again, you can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Please rate, subscribe, share this episode of the Confluence Cast with your friends, your family, your contacts, your enemies, your favorite politician. If you're interested in sponsoring the Confluence Cast, get in touch with us. We can be reached by email at info@theconfluencecast.com. Our theme music was composed by Benji Robinson. Big thank you to Lauren Sega for her time and expertise today. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. Have a good week, and don't forget to vote.
Transcript3,736 words
Tim Fulton Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Confluence Cast presented by Columbus Underground. We are a weekly Columbus-centric podcast focusing on the civics, lifestyle, entertainment, and people of our city. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. This week, we have a very last-minute local election rundown for you. I sat down with Lauren Sega, Columbus Underground's politics reporter, to talk about the bond and levy issues and a few of the larger local races. You can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Enjoy the interview. Sitting down here with Lauren Sega, politics and restaurant news reporter for Columbus Underground. Lauren, how are you?
Lauren Sega Great. How are you?
Tim Fulton Good. We are sitting here just a couple of days before the fall election. Ugh. It is the presidential election. We are not really going to focus on presidential politics today. We are going to focus on the local Columbus issues that are on the ballot. There are four bond issues, one school bond issue, and a CODA levy. Lots of money that people want us to give up and give to them. Lauren, can you sort of walk us through, first of all, the four city bond issues? Issues one, two, three, and four.
Lauren Sega Okay.
Tim Fulton And basic- actually, what is a bond? W- like, what are they asking for? Like, I've seen people on the internet complaining that if all of these pass, their property taxes will go up by hundreds of dollars a year. Is that true?
Lauren Sega Potentially, yes.
Tim Fulton Okay.
Lauren Sega The bond issues are more like the voters giving the city the ability to take the money if they need it, if the situation calls for it.
Tim Fulton Okay.
Lauren Sega It's more like insurance than anything else.
Tim Fulton Okay. We had talked a little bit before. It's almost like a dad co-signing on a teenager's credit card and saying, "Don't ever use this."
Lauren Sega Right.
Tim Fulton But if you gotta use it, if you're in a situation where you need to use it, here, here this is.
Lauren Sega It basically improves the city's credit.
Tim Fulton Uh-huh.
Lauren Sega Which offers them a lower insurance rate, which means if the city sells $900 million in bonds next year, you know, saving just 1% can save millions of dollars.
Tim Fulton Right. So the city bond issues, issue one is public safety and health, issue two recreation and parks, issue three public services, and issue four public utilities. All of those bond issues are asking for... Is it basically that the city is asking its citizens to say, yes, it's okay to sell more bonds?
Lauren Sega Yes.
Tim Fulton Okay.
Lauren Sega And, um, it's a total of $950 million.
Tim Fulton For all four?
Lauren Sega Yes.
Tim Fulton If all four pass.
Lauren Sega Uh-huh.
Tim Fulton And is it assumed that all four will? Like, does it always pass?
Lauren Sega Yes, and I believe that the city actually hasn't even collected on this in, I don't know, some of them like 80 or 100 years or something like that.
Tim Fulton S- so it's basically that the city comes and says, "We want the ability to do this, but we're probably not ever going to utilize it."
Lauren Sega Mm-hmm.
Tim Fulton Okay. So what is the impact for a homeowner if it does pass and they don't do anything with it? Is there literally zero impact?
Lauren Sega Yeah, there's no change.
Tim Fulton And basically, it's that the city intends to issue a bond or rather sell a bond, and then it's just going to pay it back over a period of time. 16 years, I think, is what each bond issue is for, and that doesn't affect property taxes insurance at all.
Lauren Sega Right.
Tim Fulton Got it. That doesn't affect property taxes at all. Talk about the school levy. The schools want more money.
Lauren Sega Yeah. Um, I talked with Dan Good.
Tim Fulton Superintendent Dan Good.
Lauren Sega And he's basically telling everybody to forget about the distrust and-
Tim Fulton Okay
Lauren Sega ... when I spoke with Dan Good, he had like several things to say.
Tim Fulton Okay.
Lauren Sega One was mostly addressing the kind of population that they deal with, which is it's in an urban setting. It's different from what suburban schools-
Tim Fulton Okay. So what did he say about that? Because what he's talking about is the student population, right?
Lauren Sega Right.
Tim Fulton Okay.
Lauren Sega 90% of them live in poverty.
Tim Fulton Okay.
Lauren Sega Uh, 7,000 of them speak English as a second language.
Tim Fulton Okay.
Lauren Sega And he said that 13,000... They are 13,000 students underfunded by the state due to a state funding cap.
Tim Fulton Okay.
Lauren Sega And-
Tim Fulton Is it simply because of the size of the district then?
Lauren Sega Well, the, the problem is he said that when a crummy charter school shuts down-
Tim Fulton Uh-huh
Lauren Sega ... all those children are displaced. They filter into the public school system.
Tim Fulton Right.
Lauren Sega And there's no funding following them.
Tim Fulton Right, because that funding has already been allotted-
Lauren Sega Mm-hmm
Tim Fulton ... to the charter school for those kids.
Lauren Sega Right.
Tim Fulton Okay. But there is sort of a trust gap, right? There is the data rigging scandal-
Lauren Sega Mm-hmm
Tim Fulton ... a couple of years ago. I believe that the levy issue three years ago primarily failed because, uh, it was at the same time that Coleman was sort of trying to give the city more control over Columbus City Schools, and the general population was like, "Nah, no. We're not gonna do that."
Lauren Sega That's why they went for the smaller levy this time.
Tim Fulton Okay.
Lauren Sega 'Cause there were four up to be on the ballot. They were different amounts. One was, I think, like over eight mills.
Tim Fulton You're saying four options.
Lauren Sega Yes.
Tim Fulton Okay.
Lauren Sega Um, and they went with the lowest option and, and Dan said that was because of those trust, trust issues because the last levy failed and they want... They felt like they needed to build up the public's confidence in the school system-
Tim Fulton Okay
Lauren Sega ... before they, you know, try to do new projects like build new buildings and, and things like that.
Tim Fulton What are the consequences for them if the levy fails?
Lauren Sega I guess they wouldn't be expanding the programs that they've already been starting. Dan wasn't really very clear about-
Tim Fulton Okay
Lauren Sega ... exactly how it would affect them negatively.
Tim Fulton That was a question you asked.
Lauren Sega Right.
Tim Fulton Right.
Lauren Sega Mm-hmm.
Tim Fulton And so was it one of those things where they came back and just said, "Uh, let's not talk about that"?
Lauren Sega Pretty much. They-
Tim Fulton Okay
Lauren Sega ... they're in the mindset that, like, they want it to pass, and they're operating based on the, the possibility that it will, so.
Tim Fulton Right. They're assuming that everything's going to be just fine because that's sort of what you have to do in that situation.
Lauren Sega Mm-hmm.
Tim Fulton Okay.
Lauren Sega But yeah, the reason why, uh, the student population was such, like, a big part of- His talk was because a big part of the levy would hire almost 300 new nurses, um, nurse practitioners, social workers-
Tim Fulton Okay
Lauren Sega ... which are going to deal specifically with these populations.
Tim Fulton Okay. Well, and I know they've launched a program with Nationwide Children's Hospital to have clinics in some of the schools that are, that have populations that need access to medical care. It's sad that we're sort of in a time where it's assumed that you get your medical care at school, but for some of these kids, that's just, that is truly the situation that they're in.
Lauren Sega Right, which is why they want more nurse practitioners who can not just put Band-Aids on stuff, but-
Tim Fulton Right
Lauren Sega ... diagnose and prescribe treatment.
Tim Fulton Right. And what about COTA?
Lauren Sega COTA. Yeah, it's actually a levy renewal, so nothing's changing.
Tim Fulton Well, something could change. It could not pass, right?
Lauren Sega Yes.
Tim Fulton And if it does, so let-
Lauren Sega Curtis was pretty clear, like either it passes or everything that we've done with the budget that we've had over the past 10 years will go away-
Tim Fulton Okay
Lauren Sega ... because they can only sustain that based on the budget that we've allowed them to have since 2006.
Tim Fulton Somewhere there was an article floating around, and I'm not sure if it was underground or not, where it said you either pass this COTA levy or you wait an hour and a half for the bus always.
Lauren Sega Yeah, I wrote that.
Tim Fulton There you go. Was it an hour and a half? Is that the, the prediction that they made?
Lauren Sega Well, since the last levy passed, bus waits, waiting times-
Tim Fulton Mm-hmm
Lauren Sega ... um, have gone from, yeah, hour, hour and a half to like 15 minutes in some-
Tim Fulton Okay
Lauren Sega ... on some routes. They've also done the C Bus.
Tim Fulton Right. Is that funded by the levy? 'Cause I kn- there's also the C Bus, the circulator is the only free bus that we have.
Lauren Sega Right.
Tim Fulton Paid for slightly by private dollars.
Lauren Sega Okay. Well, then they, they also did the, the GREAT. They did the Groveport-Rickenbacker Employee Access Transportation.
Tim Fulton Or GREAT.
Lauren Sega Yes.
Tim Fulton And that will go away.
Lauren Sega Yeah.
Tim Fulton And so who, what community does that serve? That goes from Groveport to Rickenbacker, basically.
Lauren Sega Mm-hmm.
Tim Fulton So provides transportation for employees.
Lauren Sega Who would have had to walk a mile-
Tim Fulton Okay
Lauren Sega ... basically to their, you know, industry parks.
Tim Fulton I see. And so it would be really bad if that didn't pass.
Lauren Sega Pretty much, yeah. And they're planning for the future based on this budget as well.
Tim Fulton Okay.
Lauren Sega So they're trying to move away from the hub and spoke transportation system that most-
Tim Fulton Explain that a little bit.
Lauren Sega So right now, to get anywhere, you go downtown and then you go out from there.
Tim Fulton Mm-hmm.
Lauren Sega What they wanna do is eliminate that, have different transfer points.
Tim Fulton So that everybody doesn't have to come down to Broad and High and then go somewhere else.
Lauren Sega Right.
Tim Fulton Right.
Lauren Sega Go west to eventually go east or whatever.
Tim Fulton Right. Right. So is there any growth with it? Like, does this give us anything or does it simply maintain the programs and the, the continued path that we're on?
Lauren Sega They will keep growing and planning. I know that they're trying to convert their entire fleet into CNG tank.
Tim Fulton Okay. So those are the ... We've talked about the money issues. We've, uh, we've got issue one, two, three, and four, which are the bond issues, 57, which is the school issue, Columbus City School issue, and then the bond renewal for, uh, COTA is issue 60. Have you done any reporting on the prosecutor's race?
Lauren Sega No.
Tim Fulton You haven't?
Lauren Sega No.
Tim Fulton Have you seen any of the debates?
Lauren Sega Yes.
Tim Fulton Tell me about them. Ron O'Brien, the incumbent Franklin County prosecutor.
Lauren Sega Yes. He is running a campaign based mostly on the fact that he has more experience.
Tim Fulton Which he ha- I mean, he's been there for like 20 years, right?
Lauren Sega Yeah.
Tim Fulton Okay.
Lauren Sega He definitely has more experience. There's no denying that.
Tim Fulton Right.
Lauren Sega Klein is coming from the other side, wanting more activism, I guess-
Tim Fulton Okay
Lauren Sega ... in the position.
Tim Fulton Zach, we should, for clarity, Zach Klein is the current Columbus City Council President, also the Democrat running. What do you mean by activism?
Lauren Sega Well, he's accused O'Brien of failing to prosecute people of his party.
Tim Fulton Okay. Failing to prosecute Republicans?
Lauren Sega Yes.
Tim Fulton Okay.
Lauren Sega He's also kind of been a rallying support on the side of, uh, People's Justice Project activists-
Tim Fulton Mm-hmm
Lauren Sega ... and, um, their fight to get an independent investigation into the deaths of Tyree and Henry.
Tim Fulton Mm-hmm.
Lauren Sega I don't know if that's a political tactic of his.
Tim Fulton Okay.
Lauren Sega Uh, but-
Tim Fulton Well, at one point they took over a city council meeting, and I think that maybe he just doesn't want a city council meeting taken over again. Um, but it is interesting that he's the one who sort of has aligned himself, given that he's running for prosecutor.
Lauren Sega Right.
Tim Fulton What is Ron O'Brien's office stance on all that? I mean, are they, they're in-
Lauren Sega They've been wholly silent.
Tim Fulton Okay. 'Cause they are investigating as well.
Lauren Sega Right.
Tim Fulton Or at least they say they are, right?
Lauren Sega They have said about a private investigation that it's almost impossible-
Tim Fulton Okay
Lauren Sega ... to ask for an independent investigation into these deaths because there is no state agency, no federal agency.
Tim Fulton There's no mechanism for it.
Lauren Sega No.
Tim Fulton What is, like when someone says, "I want an independent investigation," it's like-
Lauren Sega From whom?
Tim Fulton That, what does that mean?
Lauren Sega Who-
Tim Fulton Right? Like who, I'm sorry, who do you want to like step in and do this? We have a court. That's like saying like, "I want somebody other than a judge or jury to send someone to jail." Like, there is no mechanism for that.
Lauren Sega Right.
Tim Fulton So does Klein infer that like something different should be happening?
Lauren Sega Right, exact- That's why I'm saying it might be just a political tactic because-
Tim Fulton Right
Lauren Sega ... what is his plan for an independent investigation should he, should he win as prosecutor and-
Tim Fulton What do you think he would say to that?
Lauren Sega I don't know what he could say because it is true. You know, no state agency or federal agency has the resources or the people to investigate every single police-involved shooting. It just doesn't-
Tim Fulton Right
Lauren Sega ... exist.
Tim Fulton Well, but this one is the Tyree King- Case is a special one in that it was a kid at 7:30 at night with a fake gun in an alleyway who was being chased.
Lauren Sega Right.
Tim Fulton And the Justice Department does do investigations into things like that. I don't know what Ron O'Brien could do. And just, like, you certainly don't want your elected prosecutor, when things get tough, to just throw up their arms and be like, "I can't handle this." And that's sort of what... I guess I don't know what people are asking for, basically. Like, you want an independent investigation that's in concert with what's happening with the prosecutor's office. It's a terrible thing that happened, obviously, but what do you... how do, how would you like to solve that? What are the consequences for possible negative actions that you wanna see? So yeah.
Lauren Sega But on the other side, O'Brien is accusing Klein of politicizing, basically, the whole position.
Tim Fulton Absolutely.
Lauren Sega Mm-hmm.
Tim Fulton Well, and what's interesting is Ron O'Brien has said this was his l- the last time he was going to run. And it's not difficult to look at the landscape politically nationally and say that Klein, to an extent, is running this time because Zach Klein is taking advantage of timing by running this time.
Lauren Sega Oh, that's clear by how he's kind of calling O'Brien out for not denouncing Trump.
Tim Fulton Right. So talk about the two Franklin County Commissioner races that are coming up on Tuesday.
Lauren Sega Okay, so we have John O'Grady, uh, the incumbent, uh-
Tim Fulton The Democrat.
Lauren Sega Yes, facing Whitney Smith, the odd Republican candidate.
Tim Fulton The Republican. Sort of.
Lauren Sega Yeah.
Tim Fulton Whitney Smith, who listeners to this podcast will remember, was interviewed for our first episode. Uh, she came in and spoke on Issue One. At the time, she was running for a state representative seat, also for the Republican Party. She then switched the office that she was running for. She is now running against John O'Grady as the Republican. She also just filed a complaint against Donald Trump with the Federal Election Commission for him riding on a helicopter with the President of Mexico. Why she has any standing to do that, I have no idea, but I suppose anybody can file any complaint that they want. I... It's just unclear to me. I have m- met Whitney Smith. She's very good, and she's very sort of good at staying on message. It's just sor- it's unclear to me what it is that she's doing.
Lauren Sega She's an interesting candidate for sure. She... I think she has a weird approach to a Republican.
Tim Fulton Yeah. It... What's so confusing is she's not a Republican.
Lauren Sega Right.
Tim Fulton She's a Republican simply because the party structure in Columbus, to me, the Republican Party structure in Columbus seems to be so weak that anybody who says that they're a Republican can be endorsed by that party. And so it sort of gives you the opportunity to rise up because there's, because that column has to be filled, at least in non-city elections. What's interesting is the city is so... You know, when we have a race for council or for mayor, you're not gonna see an R or a D next to people's name because our city charter states that we don't do that, that it's not necessarily a party structure. But for offices like, you know, representatives at the State House or Franklin County Commissioner, you are gonna see that R or a D, and so that column has to be filled. Hence, Whitney Smith.
Lauren Sega So she's running against O'Grady.
Tim Fulton And they hate each other.
Lauren Sega Yeah. He's got a small smear, I guess, on him for the dog shelter thing. Nobody likes dead dogs.
Tim Fulton Right. So what happened, for those that aren't familiar with the issue?
Lauren Sega An outbreak of distemper-
Tim Fulton Mm-hmm
Lauren Sega ... hit the Franklin County Dog Shelter. One dog was diagnosed with it.
Tim Fulton It's a terrible disease-
Lauren Sega Right
Tim Fulton ... that kills dogs quickly.
Lauren Sega It's fatal, yeah.
Tim Fulton Right.
Lauren Sega Highly contagious. Should probably be quarantined if you have this.
Tim Fulton Right.
Lauren Sega But they waited several days before quarantining.
Tim Fulton Okay.
Lauren Sega And they waited almost a week before telling anybody about it.
Tim Fulton Okay.
Lauren Sega And in the meantime, they had various adoption events, taking a bunch of dogs out to meet the public, who had their dogs, you know, the, the dogs they already had, and-
Tim Fulton Right. Possibly infecting other dogs. What does John O'Grady have to do with this, though?
Lauren Sega His office oversees the Franklin County Dog Shelter.
Tim Fulton Mm-hmm.
Lauren Sega There was no protocol in place-
Tim Fulton O-
Lauren Sega ... to deal with this effectively.
Tim Fulton Okay.
Lauren Sega And also, just the lack of transparency w- made people raise their eyebrows.
Tim Fulton Of, like, not telling people. Well, and then they killed a whole bunch of dogs.
Lauren Sega Right.
Tim Fulton Right, hmm. And so what's the other Franklin County Commissioner race?
Lauren Sega So then we have Kevin Boyce, our current state representative, versus Terry Boyd, who ran for mayor unsuccessfully.
Tim Fulton Oh, yes. So Kevin Boyce, who famously beat out Paula Brooks in the primary, who was the incumbent, is now facing off against Terry Boyd, who unsuccessfully ran for mayor. Very unsuccessfully, because again, back to the sort of party affiliation for city ballots, there is no R column that has to be filled in any Columbus city election. You know, he didn't even make it past the primary for that election, correct?
Lauren Sega Right.
Tim Fulton It ended up being Zach Scott and Ginther.
Lauren Sega Mm-hmm.
Tim Fulton What's been going down there?
Lauren Sega I feel like Boyce is gonna win.
Tim Fulton Okay.
Lauren Sega Just because...
Tim Fulton Because of the strength of the Democratic Party-
Lauren Sega Yeah
Tim Fulton ... in Columbus, Ohio.
Lauren Sega Yeah.
Tim Fulton Right.
Lauren Sega He has some pretty good experience. You know, he was councilman for eight years.
Tim Fulton Went to the State House. This is sort of... He is a career politician.
Lauren Sega Right.
Tim Fulton As much as he doesn't, you know-
Lauren Sega He's primed for this
Tim Fulton ... nobody ever wants to be called that, but, you know, he is.
Lauren Sega All I've heard from Boyd is that he kinda wants to make it an entrepreneurial position.
Tim Fulton Yeah.
Lauren Sega Yeah, he basically wants to make the position a, a business.
Tim Fulton But what does that mean? It's an administrative role.
Lauren Sega Yeah, I don't know. Because, I mean, they're, they're both talking the same line of build on the city's improvement.
Tim Fulton Right
Lauren Sega Make those improvements count for everybody. Boyce's one weakness would be when he was treasurer-
Tim Fulton Mm-hmm
Lauren Sega ... for those three years.
Tim Fulton City treasurer.
Lauren Sega Yeah.
Tim Fulton Mm-hmm.
Lauren Sega One of his deputies did prison time-
Tim Fulton Okay
Lauren Sega ... for bribery.
Tim Fulton Okay.
Lauren Sega And a state report said that it was due to weaknesses in his office.
Tim Fulton To those that can't see you, you are doing air quotes for "weaknesses."
Lauren Sega Yes.
Tim Fulton Um, tell us about the Franklin County Recorder's race.
Lauren Sega We got Danny O'Connor, the Democrat-endorsed candidate.
Tim Fulton Okay.
Lauren Sega And then Daphne Hawk, who arguably has a lot more experience, too.
Tim Fulton Mm-hmm. Well, she held this office before.
Lauren Sega Yeah.
Tim Fulton Right.
Lauren Sega 2011 to 2013. She was in real estate for 30 years, which is relevant.
Tim Fulton 'Cause the Recorder's office handles real estate records.
Lauren Sega Mm-hmm. Real estate records, living wills, powers of attorney-
Tim Fulton Right
Lauren Sega ... military documents. And then she was recorder. When she was recorder, she cut the office's budget by, like, a quarter million dollars and digitized all the records. Not only does she have experience, but she did kind of a good job at it. And then we have O'Connor, who is, I think he's, like, 28, 29.
Tim Fulton Mm-hmm.
Lauren Sega So younger than the amount of s- experience she's had in real estate.
Tim Fulton Mm-hmm.
Lauren Sega That's the summation-
Tim Fulton Got it
Lauren Sega ... of their, their run right there.
Tim Fulton Got it. Give us, as much as you're able, sort of a rundown of the local judges races.
Lauren Sega Columbusites will pick five judges. Four of the races are actually incumbents versus challengers. There's only one race where there are two newbies.
Tim Fulton Okay.
Lauren Sega So Richard Frye, Kim Cocroft, Michael Holbrook, and Kim Brown are the incumbents, and they are all favored by the Columbus Bar Association.
Tim Fulton Okay.
Lauren Sega They're most likely going to win.
Tim Fulton Okay.
Lauren Sega Like we said earlier-
Tim Fulton If you're gonna pick a judge, you kinda want the lawyers to tell you who to pick.
Lauren Sega Right.
Tim Fulton Right.
Lauren Sega You trust the lawyer. But-
Tim Fulton In this rare case, you trust the lawyer.
Lauren Sega So running against Richard Frye is Don Kline. And then against Cocroft, we have Lauren Dolan. And then against Michael Holbrook is Krista Pennington. And against Kim Brown, we have Jim Reese.
Tim Fulton Great.
Lauren Sega The non-incumbent race-
Tim Fulton Mm-hmm
Lauren Sega ... is between Jeffrey Brown and Stephanie Hannah.
Tim Fulton And who's favored there by the Bar Association?
Lauren Sega Right now it's a really close race. It's 52% to 48% in Stephanie Hannah's favor.
Tim Fulton Hmm. Lauren, thank you so much for your time today. Thank you for listening to the Confluence Cast presented by Columbus Underground. Again, you can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Please rate, subscribe, share this episode of the Confluence Cast with your friends, your family, your contacts, your enemies, your favorite politician. If you're interested in sponsoring the Confluence Cast, get in touch with us. We can be reached by email at info@theconfluencecast.com. Our theme music was composed by Benji Robinson. Big thank you to Lauren Sega for her time and expertise today. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. Have a good week, and don't forget to vote.