Latest / Brian Thomas / Todd Zinser - Citizen Watchdog

Transcript

Todd Zinser - Citizen Watchdog · Brian Thomas

0:07
Speaker 1: Just I have seven O six here fifty five ker
0:09
Speaker 1: Ce Detalk station. Very Happy Friday Eve to him he
0:13
Speaker 1: had extra special in studios. Citizen watchdog TODDS. Zenser, former
0:16
Speaker 1: Inspector General from the United States of America, is keenly
0:20
Speaker 1: interested in what I always like to jokingly refer to
0:23
Speaker 1: as shenanigans going on in the city of downtown Cincinnati.
0:26
Speaker 1: Of course, he follows the figures, follows the money, finds
0:28
Speaker 1: out where money is being allocated, most notably those pesky
0:31
Speaker 1: NGOs that seem to suck up a lot of cash
0:33
Speaker 1: and then don't provide information about what they've actually done
0:35
Speaker 1: with it. So I'm suggesting maybe that those handouts of
0:38
Speaker 1: money rewards for political favoritism. And a little bird told
0:42
Speaker 1: me over the break there, and I was looking for
0:44
Speaker 1: facts or information surrounding why. And this is not related
0:47
Speaker 1: to a conversation we're having with Todd Zenzer, but good
0:49
Speaker 1: to see again, Todd Zenzer, thank you for coming in
0:52
Speaker 1: the dismissal of the murder case against Elwood Jones after
0:56
Speaker 1: having been convicted and affirmed on appeal through the state
0:59
Speaker 1: level all the way through the federal level. Wondering why
1:02
Speaker 1: it is that Connie Pillach and Judge Wendy Cross decided
1:05
Speaker 1: we were going to ditch this, Wendy Cross issuing an
1:08
Speaker 1: order saying he was entitled to retrial, follow by Connie
1:11
Speaker 1: Pillage saying no, we're dismissing all charges against them. He's
1:14
Speaker 1: been released. He is obviously guilty. Look at what Joe
1:17
Speaker 1: Deeters had to say about it, former prosecutor apparently at
1:22
Speaker 1: the press conference doing this. Iris Rawley was there. So
1:25
Speaker 1: I was looking for a political reality of why would
1:27
Speaker 1: they go through all the trouble to dismiss the charges
1:30
Speaker 1: against this murderer clearly guilty without question, and basically having
1:35
Speaker 1: Pillage lie to her constituents, the Hamilton County voters who
1:41
Speaker 1: put her in office, distorted the evidence, distorted the underlying
1:44
Speaker 1: record yesterday in the press conference. Maybe that's it, Scott
1:48
Speaker 1: iris Rawley's fingerprints on it. I'll let you decide. Moving over,
1:52
Speaker 1: Thank you Todd Zenzer for the work that you do
1:54
Speaker 1: on behalf of the taxpayers of the city Cincinnati. Right
1:56
Speaker 1: out of the gate man, what you show, it's really frightening.
2:00
Speaker 1: Let's start with the mayor. Okay, Now, last time you
2:02
Speaker 1: were on the show, you pointed out that their a
2:04
Speaker 1: have to have provoal is a board member? Now you
2:08
Speaker 1: found it. It's on several organizations. Am I right on
2:11
Speaker 1: that too?
2:12
Speaker 2: So far that I found okay?
2:14
Speaker 1: And under the ethical rules of being a mayor that
2:17
Speaker 1: governed the mayor's office, is he an obligated to report
2:21
Speaker 1: where his you know, these board memberships just as a
2:24
Speaker 1: matter of public disclosure.
2:26
Speaker 2: Yeah. The financial disclosures that the Ohio Ethics Commission requires
2:31
Speaker 2: has a section where you have to disclose any other
2:35
Speaker 2: organizations where you have a fiduciary role, which board members
2:39
Speaker 2: absolutely have a fiduciary role. And so I actually looked
2:44
Speaker 2: at his financial disclosures in connection with those repossessions to
2:48
Speaker 2: see what.
2:49
Speaker 1: Is all the car repossessions.
2:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I got those, and when I was looking
2:54
Speaker 2: at the forums, this section on fiduciary does not contain
2:59
Speaker 2: the his board membership for Centrifus. And I had three
3:05
Speaker 2: years of disclosure and none of those are reporting his
3:08
Speaker 2: board membership of Centrifus, which I had already found. And
3:13
Speaker 2: then there's a second nonprofit that he is a board
3:19
Speaker 2: member for and they also get money from the city.
3:22
Speaker 2: They get about fifty thousand dollars a year an outfit
3:25
Speaker 2: called Compass and Centrifews has gotten between two hundred and
3:30
Speaker 2: two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year.
3:32
Speaker 1: No, okay, I just referenced the NGOs that get money
3:38
Speaker 1: and the question marks swirling around whether or not we
3:41
Speaker 1: get any return for the money they're given. But we
3:43
Speaker 1: all know that money is given to a variety of
3:46
Speaker 1: different non governmental organizations from the city coffers. He sits
3:51
Speaker 1: on two boards of directors for independent companies, the ones
3:55
Speaker 1: that you just mentioned that receive those types of outs
4:00
Speaker 1: from the city taxpayers. Yes, how I mean that is
4:04
Speaker 1: that is a conflict of interest? Well, I believe I
4:07
Speaker 1: mean establish this. Let's point out that does mayor have
4:10
Speaker 1: to have purwalls have some or any say in where
4:14
Speaker 1: these funds are handed to whom these funds are given
4:18
Speaker 1: or handed out. I know the city managers integrally involved
4:21
Speaker 1: in that. We've been down this process before. But the
4:23
Speaker 1: mayor does have some authority over that, right.
4:26
Speaker 2: Yes, if you look at the authorities of the mayor
4:28
Speaker 2: and the authorities of the city manager, they the I
4:31
Speaker 2: have a memo that from the former solicitor that basically
4:35
Speaker 2: says that the mayor and the city manager share the
4:40
Speaker 2: responsibility of formulating the budget, so he's involved in formulating
4:45
Speaker 2: a budget in general that has all of these leverage
4:49
Speaker 2: support payments is what they are. Grants is what they
4:51
Speaker 2: call it. And then there's a process, and I've criticized
4:56
Speaker 2: the city council for this to their face. Yeah, where
5:01
Speaker 2: the city council members and the mayor will recommend additions
5:08
Speaker 2: to whatever the city manager is recommending for these leverage
5:12
Speaker 2: support recipients. The city council members and the mayor can
5:15
Speaker 2: actually propose adding or subtracting from those amounts. And there's
5:21
Speaker 2: one year, for example, where the mayor himself inserts himself
5:26
Speaker 2: in the leverage support for centrifuse, where he adds twenty
5:31
Speaker 2: five thousand dollars to the grant level that the city
5:35
Speaker 2: manager had already recommended. And he is sitting on.
5:38
Speaker 1: Their board, on the board effectively voting money or directing money.
5:42
Speaker 1: This isn't even a vote, This doesn't require since a
5:44
Speaker 1: council approval majority or otherwise does it.
5:47
Speaker 2: Well, it's part of the overall budget, so yeah, they
5:49
Speaker 2: vote on it. Oh, they don't have to vote, well,
5:52
Speaker 2: I guess they do vote on the overall budgets oh yes.
5:54
Speaker 1: So they effectively stamp of approval. They wait, they make
6:01
Speaker 1: a list of ones that they want to get money,
6:02
Speaker 1: these different various NGOs. So city council is involved in
6:05
Speaker 1: that process along with the city manager. And then after
6:08
Speaker 1: they do that, oh wait a second, I want to
6:10
Speaker 1: add this company on the list of recipients, in this
6:14
Speaker 1: particular case, twenty five thousand dollars to a company that
6:16
Speaker 1: he sits on the board of directors. So they add that.
6:20
Speaker 1: The council later approves the budget. That's correct, which it
6:23
Speaker 1: contains the additions that they didn't recommend in the first place.
6:26
Speaker 2: That's correct.
6:27
Speaker 1: So he has complete control and authority over this type
6:29
Speaker 1: of addition. It sounds like, now they could have reject
6:31
Speaker 1: the budget based upon the addition of that one NGO,
6:34
Speaker 1: but they clearly didn't.
6:35
Speaker 2: That's right.
6:36
Speaker 1: That is I mean, that's an open and shutcase of
6:39
Speaker 1: conflict of interest.
6:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's kind of an ethics one on one thing.
6:42
Speaker 1: I mean purely. That's why I really wanted to focus
6:44
Speaker 1: on where the authority lies. Who has the authority to
6:48
Speaker 1: ensure that you know, he well this, So what do
6:52
Speaker 1: you take in response to this, I guess supposedly or
6:55
Speaker 1: I suppose to. The first quick question is what action
6:58
Speaker 1: can be taken? I mean, first of all, he isn't
7:00
Speaker 1: complying with his obligations on the disclosures that's right, Is
7:04
Speaker 1: that actionable? Does that mean? Is it subjected to exposure
7:09
Speaker 1: to a penalty or a fine or public right, the
7:12
Speaker 1: condemnation or anything.
7:14
Speaker 2: All of that would fall under the jurisdiction of the
7:17
Speaker 2: Ohio Ethics Commission, and so you know they have they
7:21
Speaker 2: have ways to enforce their rules. And whether or not
7:28
Speaker 2: mister Purval becomes subject to those enforcement efforts is a
7:34
Speaker 2: different question.
7:35
Speaker 1: Well, that requires someone to bring it to the Ethics
7:37
Speaker 1: boards attention by way of a formal request or complaint.
7:41
Speaker 2: That would that would be the start of the process.
7:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, is that like a crisp any kind of
7:46
Speaker 1: thing or no.
7:48
Speaker 2: Any any citizen can file a complaint with.
7:51
Speaker 1: The including a citizen watch talk.
7:52
Speaker 2: Yeah they could, he could.
7:55
Speaker 1: I'm looking at Utah's insert.
7:57
Speaker 2: Just asking I see that brain.
7:59
Speaker 1: I know, I just ask him for the listening audience.
8:03
Speaker 1: So I don't know where to go with that. One
8:07
Speaker 1: is calling ethical vote.
8:09
Speaker 2: Well, I've well, first of all, I have I have
8:12
Speaker 2: raised this issue to the city council in public comments
8:15
Speaker 2: about how screwy this system is where they make recommendations
8:20
Speaker 2: on top of the city manager. And so I told
8:24
Speaker 2: him one time, I said, the least you could do
8:28
Speaker 2: is when you send your memos in with these requests,
8:31
Speaker 2: the least you could do is have a little attestation
8:34
Speaker 2: at the bottom of the memo saying that you do
8:36
Speaker 2: not have a conflict of interest with any of these organizations.
8:40
Speaker 2: So I made that recommendations earlier this year, or that
8:44
Speaker 2: recommendation earlier this year. We'll see whether they do that.
8:46
Speaker 2: But there's no there's no oversight of any of this
8:51
Speaker 2: NGO spending.
8:53
Speaker 1: They they well, I suppose there theoretically could be oversight
8:58
Speaker 1: if he accurately filled out his finiancial disclosure forms, because
9:02
Speaker 1: then the information will be public and it will be incumbent,
9:04
Speaker 1: perhaps arguably on the city council members when these requests
9:07
Speaker 1: are made to look at the disclosures to find out
9:10
Speaker 1: if he has any connection with the money of the
9:12
Speaker 1: organizations that are getting money. If he's not there, he
9:15
Speaker 1: has no connection. One could logically conclude, that is if
9:18
Speaker 1: he's being honest with his financial disclosure forms. But here
9:21
Speaker 1: we have a situa where he's not taking away the
9:24
Speaker 1: ability of anybody to check whether this is an ethical violation.
9:27
Speaker 2: That's right on papal enter Todd Zinzer on paper right
9:30
Speaker 2: now with the financial disclosures, no indication that he sits
9:34
Speaker 2: on the board of Centrifuse, But I have confirmation from
9:37
Speaker 2: the CEO of Centrifus that he is sitting on the board.
9:41
Speaker 1: Fine pivoting over to the other entity where he did
9:44
Speaker 1: disclose he was a board member, they too received money
9:47
Speaker 1: as well, which negates my point about the city council
9:51
Speaker 1: actually doing its job and checking into these things on
9:53
Speaker 1: its own. Yes.
9:55
Speaker 2: Well, here's another thing, Brian early On, I asked for
9:59
Speaker 2: the financial disclosure forms. They that the officials in Cincinnati
10:04
Speaker 2: file with the city, that there's a separate financial disclosure
10:08
Speaker 2: that they file with the city. So I requested those
10:11
Speaker 2: and the city did not give them give me any
10:14
Speaker 2: of them.
10:15
Speaker 1: Did they provide you with an explanation of why that
10:17
Speaker 1: information was not forthcoming?
10:18
Speaker 2: Todds censer, Well, I can't remember exactly what they say,
10:22
Speaker 2: but they don't give a lot of explanation on public
10:25
Speaker 2: records requests. When they deny it, it just says it's overbroad
10:28
Speaker 2: or we don't do research for you, or you know,
10:31
Speaker 2: excuses like that it's a problem. This public disclosure or
10:35
Speaker 2: this public records request process for the city is terrible.
10:39
Speaker 1: Which is how it always ends up in court. Yes,
10:42
Speaker 1: and how they always end up losing in court. Yes,
10:44
Speaker 1: and how that money that they went and fought in
10:46
Speaker 1: court was coming from the taxpayer of the City of Cincinnati.
10:48
Speaker 1: Litigation is expensive.
10:50
Speaker 2: Yes, but their first instinct is to withhold, and somehow
10:55
Speaker 2: we've got to turn that around. Their first instinct should
10:58
Speaker 2: be to disclose the records.
11:00
Speaker 1: He recently had an opportunity to turn things around, but
11:02
Speaker 1: one in four voters in the sea just showed up
11:04
Speaker 1: and we know what we got out of that with Yes, sir, massive, massive,
11:08
Speaker 1: But let's do it all over again more with todds Inzer.
11:11
Speaker 1: We've got lots more Shenanigans. Call out right coming up
11:14
Speaker 1: at seven sixteen right now. Todds Ens are in studio.
11:18
Speaker 1: Citizen Watchdog's name of the podcast. He is a citizen Watchdog.
11:21
Speaker 1: You can follo him on Facebook. You can listen to
11:24
Speaker 1: the podcast produced by Joe Strecker. Of course todds Ends
11:28
Speaker 1: you would mentioned and I don't want to let it
11:30
Speaker 1: go without following up on it. I think the board
11:36
Speaker 1: membership that after parvol is involved with here, I think
11:39
Speaker 1: is a greater and more problematic problem than after Pervoll's
11:43
Speaker 1: personal expense issues. But he didn't pay his monthly car payment,
11:50
Speaker 1: resulting in the repossession of his automobile. They actually repossessed it,
11:53
Speaker 1: that's my understanding. Yes, that was widely reported, and he
11:56
Speaker 1: even had a press conference following day saying, ah, ye
11:59
Speaker 1: I was an oversight.
12:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was interviewed. I can't remember who interviewed him,
12:03
Speaker 2: But he did make public statements that there was a
12:05
Speaker 2: problem with his auto pay.
12:07
Speaker 1: Right auto pay, So you set up and it makes
12:09
Speaker 1: an automatic payment. Fine, I'll acknowledge, and I'll just go
12:12
Speaker 1: ahead and admit fine, he has auto pay. But he
12:15
Speaker 1: didn't say, no, my car was not repossessed. I mean,
12:17
Speaker 1: that's that's an admission of fact right there, right, Okay,
12:22
Speaker 1: With that in mind, who out there really truly believes
12:26
Speaker 1: that he didn't get multiple notices in advance before his
12:29
Speaker 1: car was actually towed away. I mean, nobody wants tow
12:31
Speaker 1: away a car if it was mere oversight. Oh, I'm sorry.
12:34
Speaker 1: Here's the money from last month, and by the way,
12:36
Speaker 1: here's my payment for this month. Great, we don't have
12:39
Speaker 1: to get a tow truck out there. Yeah.
12:42
Speaker 2: People I spoke to didn't find it credible.
12:45
Speaker 1: So incredible, not believable. Right, Maybe one could characterize that
12:50
Speaker 1: as a lie, if we want to go so far
12:51
Speaker 1: as to put a pejorative term on it.
12:54
Speaker 2: You could say that, Okay, all right, So here's here's
12:59
Speaker 2: the thing about it.
12:59
Speaker 1: Look the ethical picture here in total, So we're moving
13:02
Speaker 1: from one ethical problem to another. Lying to the constituents
13:06
Speaker 1: to me is an ethical breach.
13:08
Speaker 2: Well, just on the financial disclosures and his failure to
13:13
Speaker 2: comply with the rules.
13:14
Speaker 1: There.
13:14
Speaker 2: What happens is, let's say there's somebody else who has
13:17
Speaker 2: to file financial disclosures who haven't done that. It gets
13:20
Speaker 2: caught up in some kind of a gratuity issue or
13:22
Speaker 2: bribery issue, and you're not going to be able to
13:26
Speaker 2: punish him for any of those disclosure problems because all
13:29
Speaker 2: he has to do is point to the mayor and
13:31
Speaker 2: say he's he's not complying, why should I comply? So
13:35
Speaker 2: that's one issue.
13:36
Speaker 1: The other issue point.
13:38
Speaker 2: The other issue is that it shows everybody that we're
13:42
Speaker 2: operating in a catch me. If you can operation, which
13:46
Speaker 2: is very common where the people heading up these public
13:49
Speaker 2: agencies they don't follow the rules and when they're caught,
13:52
Speaker 2: they say, oh, I'm sorry, I just we won't do
13:55
Speaker 2: it again. And that's that's the kind of culture that
13:58
Speaker 2: seems to be at play here in Cincinnati.
14:01
Speaker 1: Which is why you're such a thorn on their side.
14:02
Speaker 1: There's so many catch me if you can things going
14:06
Speaker 1: on out there, and you seem to be the only
14:08
Speaker 1: one that's even interested in getting to the bottom of
14:10
Speaker 1: how they are getting away with it or holding them
14:12
Speaker 1: accountable for violating the rule.
14:15
Speaker 2: I really criticize the City council for that because that's
14:20
Speaker 2: their job. Their job is to oversee the administration. And
14:23
Speaker 2: for example, on this eight million dollars settlement, not one
14:28
Speaker 2: member of city council ask the solicitor, how did you
14:31
Speaker 2: arrive at eight million dollars? How did you arrive at
14:35
Speaker 2: twelve or thirteen thousand dollars for each of the members
14:38
Speaker 2: of the class.
14:39
Speaker 1: This is the settlement for the curfew violation arrests.
14:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, for the law for the civil rights lawsuit that
14:45
Speaker 2: was filed. Yes, and they're not doing The city Council
14:50
Speaker 2: does not do any oversight that I can see right now.
14:53
Speaker 2: All they do is spend money. That's basically what they do.
14:57
Speaker 1: Well, using your disclosure rule as an illustration, if you
15:05
Speaker 1: don't know the rules, you're probably not going to comply
15:09
Speaker 1: with them. Is it possible, Todd zendser, that the folks
15:12
Speaker 1: that have been elected to the Cincinni City Council just
15:15
Speaker 1: really don't know what they're doing insofar as they have
15:18
Speaker 1: that responsibility for oversight.
15:20
Speaker 2: Well, thereby law they must take an ethics course going
15:25
Speaker 2: going into their term of office. But in the case
15:29
Speaker 2: of the mayor, I didn't bring up with me today,
15:31
Speaker 2: but he actually signed a code of conduct that talks
15:36
Speaker 2: about he has to know the conflict of interest rules,
15:39
Speaker 2: he has to go to ethics training every year, and
15:43
Speaker 2: he has to agree not to retaliate against anybody that's
15:47
Speaker 2: blowing a whistle.
15:48
Speaker 1: Okay, and then at some point there should be a
15:50
Speaker 1: failure to abide by the foregoing result in some consequence.
15:55
Speaker 1: What might that consequence be? I know you said you
15:57
Speaker 1: can report somebody to the ethics board, which probably has
16:00
Speaker 1: been done if I mean, I'm just saying it out loud,
16:02
Speaker 1: so I'm probably has been done. Or refer to the
16:04
Speaker 1: prosecutor's office or whatever. But is there any accountability in
16:07
Speaker 1: that ethics mandate or edict that he issued.
16:10
Speaker 2: No, it's just it's just to him signing that he
16:13
Speaker 2: will do do all that.
16:14
Speaker 1: All right. See folks seven twenty five fifty five k
16:19
Speaker 1: c DE talk station. We'll find out where in the
16:21
Speaker 1: hell is that Repy Thursday, to you Brian Thomas with
16:23
Speaker 1: Citizen Watchdog. Todd's Inzer and studio for the hour, one
16:27
Speaker 1: revelation after another, and Todd, you know, I I commented
16:30
Speaker 1: to you off the brick. I cannot thank you enough
16:32
Speaker 1: for the work that you're doing. It's got you. You're
16:34
Speaker 1: fighting this Sissophian challenge to you know, right, the wrongs
16:39
Speaker 1: that are going on each and every day, and you're
16:40
Speaker 1: met with such resistance at every single turn. You didn't
16:45
Speaker 1: follow all of these rules. You were derelicting your duty
16:48
Speaker 1: from way back to this point in time. You ask
16:50
Speaker 1: for the information, they resist giving you the information. And
16:53
Speaker 1: then when you when you pully fully pull the carpet
16:57
Speaker 1: out from under them or reveal the facts and information,
17:00
Speaker 1: then they just say, whoops, I'm sorry, that's right, and
17:02
Speaker 1: continue to do it in all other areas of government. Right.
17:06
Speaker 2: So the first red flag to me was when I
17:08
Speaker 2: first started looking at the city. I looked at their
17:11
Speaker 2: internal audit operation and on their website it said that
17:15
Speaker 2: they do a risk assessment every six months or twice
17:18
Speaker 2: a year. So I asked to see that. I put
17:20
Speaker 2: a record's request in to see it, and they come
17:22
Speaker 2: back and they say, oh, well, we don't do that.
17:25
Speaker 2: We don't have the resources to do a risk assessment,
17:28
Speaker 2: which means that they haven't done any work to see
17:31
Speaker 2: what's on the horizon that could hurt the city. That's
17:36
Speaker 2: the purpose of the risk assessment is to find out
17:39
Speaker 2: where your weaknesses are that you have to work on
17:42
Speaker 2: to protect the city.
17:44
Speaker 1: So spending what I would argue is a small amount
17:46
Speaker 1: of money to protect the financial future of the City
17:49
Speaker 1: of Cincinnati generally speaking, has gone by the wayside because
17:51
Speaker 1: they claim they don't have enough money to do that
17:54
Speaker 1: while giving away money to outside organizations, some of whom
17:58
Speaker 1: Mayoraburvall sits on the board directors. Yeah, okay, great, So.
18:02
Speaker 2: That was a big red flag for me because it
18:04
Speaker 2: doesn't really cost any money. All they have to do
18:06
Speaker 2: is go to each department head ask what are your
18:10
Speaker 2: biggest challenges? What are your biggest concerns? You ask the
18:13
Speaker 2: department heads what risks do you face to complete your work?
18:18
Speaker 2: And you ask each department head, they give you the answer,
18:22
Speaker 2: You write it down, you issue the report. That's a
18:24
Speaker 2: risk assessment.
18:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, that doesn't sound it sounds like a job responsibility
18:27
Speaker 1: that should be done on a day to day activity
18:29
Speaker 1: kind of thing. That isn't no additional allocation fun absolutely Wow. Okay,
18:35
Speaker 1: you quite revealing. Todds Ends are moving over to railway money.
18:38
Speaker 1: We were promised millions and millions of dollars were rolling
18:41
Speaker 1: on in and the one limitation they have on using
18:43
Speaker 1: railway money allegedly is existing infrastructure. But you've run into
18:47
Speaker 1: some problems with all of that, todds Ends, or explain
18:49
Speaker 1: that to my listening audience.
18:50
Speaker 2: Well, most recently, in fact, I just sent a letter
18:53
Speaker 2: to the board yesterday because of this report on Local
18:57
Speaker 2: twelve that they haven't they haven't spent a thirty million
19:01
Speaker 2: dollars that they're getting for infrastructure work. And the reason
19:07
Speaker 2: I wrote to the board is because back in February
19:12
Speaker 2: I went to a board meeting and I asked them,
19:15
Speaker 2: what are you going to do with the city isn't
19:17
Speaker 2: able to spend the money that you disperse to them.
19:21
Speaker 2: It's sitting there in the city coffers doing nothing. Why
19:26
Speaker 2: don't you make them justify their request and keep that
19:31
Speaker 2: money in the trust fund until the city actually needs
19:35
Speaker 2: the money?
19:36
Speaker 1: Okay? And when you say their request, who is the
19:39
Speaker 1: they that you're referring to that has the request. I
19:45
Speaker 1: just kind of want to get I want to have
19:46
Speaker 1: clear understanding of this how this works.
19:48
Speaker 2: The city gets an automatic disbursement now every quarter of
19:53
Speaker 2: the railway money, okay, So it goes into the city
19:56
Speaker 2: coffers and it's.
19:58
Speaker 1: In a separate pile trust fund sort of kind oh
20:01
Speaker 1: you give me the John decide of suspicion on that.
20:03
Speaker 2: No, it just goes through the city. They have an account,
20:07
Speaker 2: they have a line item for it, but they're not
20:09
Speaker 2: spending it, all right, and so the I can't recall
20:15
Speaker 2: your question, Ryan.
20:16
Speaker 1: So the money requests, where is that coming from? That
20:20
Speaker 1: it has not been dispersed, it's still sitting in the
20:22
Speaker 1: city coffers. Well, the.
20:25
Speaker 2: Projects that they plan the fund with that money aren't
20:29
Speaker 2: off the ground. They're not incurring any cost yet, so
20:32
Speaker 2: that money's just sitting there.
20:33
Speaker 1: Okay, So let's say repaving some road requires a construction
20:38
Speaker 1: crew or an allocation of city construction crew resources. Either
20:43
Speaker 1: an independent contractor is going to do the work or
20:45
Speaker 1: the city itself is going to do the work. Right, Yes,
20:47
Speaker 1: So they're standing there, presumably waiting for money so they
20:50
Speaker 1: can start work on the project.
20:52
Speaker 2: Well, they've got they've already got capital funds that they're
20:55
Speaker 2: using that are in the budget, and then this extra
20:59
Speaker 2: money they've got got projects in mind to use. The
21:02
Speaker 2: railroad money for those projects. And it's those projects that
21:07
Speaker 2: aren't getting off the ground, and it's the money that's
21:09
Speaker 2: not being spent, the money to repave the roads. They've
21:13
Speaker 2: got money to repave the roads, and the railroad money
21:16
Speaker 2: is a supplement to all those moneys.
21:18
Speaker 1: Right. That was the joke behind everything, because money's fungible. Yes,
21:22
Speaker 1: they have all the tax dollars that come in and
21:24
Speaker 1: a separate source of revenue we'll just call it. It's
21:27
Speaker 1: like tax dollars is railroad money that's going to the
21:29
Speaker 1: same pot. That just gives more money to handle, money
21:33
Speaker 1: to handle the responsibility that the original taxpayer should have done.
21:37
Speaker 1: So that gives them an extra thirty million dollars to
21:39
Speaker 1: play with, right, thirty million dollars to play with it.
21:42
Speaker 1: Now they can say no, we're getting railroad, We're getting
21:44
Speaker 1: road repair from that thirty million dollars that the railroad produced,
21:49
Speaker 1: because that's existing infrastructure. But that takes the weight off
21:52
Speaker 1: the budget by thirty million dollars for them to go
21:54
Speaker 1: out and fund some goofy, brand new projects.
21:57
Speaker 2: Hot. That's exactly right.
21:58
Speaker 1: That's how it's working.
22:00
Speaker 2: As far as I can tell.
22:01
Speaker 1: Yes, have they identified the road projects that have yet
22:07
Speaker 1: to be funded that aren't being done right now? That
22:09
Speaker 1: you were referring to a moment ago, I mean, I mean,
22:11
Speaker 1: are you if you looked at them when you say, yeah,
22:13
Speaker 1: that's existing infrastructure. What are we being denied because of
22:17
Speaker 1: this sort of hold on the fund distribution?
22:20
Speaker 2: Well, it's just a matter of the city doesn't have
22:23
Speaker 2: the infrastructure or the processes and the manpower and the
22:27
Speaker 2: contracting to get all this money working. So it's just
22:31
Speaker 2: sitting there until the city can get its act together
22:34
Speaker 2: in terms of you know, the bidding of contracts and
22:39
Speaker 2: purchasing of materials, and it's it's all in the it's
22:43
Speaker 2: all in the queue, and they haven't actually spent the
22:46
Speaker 2: money yet.
22:48
Speaker 1: Because they don't have the resources to do their job.
22:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, they they they don't. They don't have the infrastructure
22:55
Speaker 2: in the city to spend all that.
22:57
Speaker 1: That's like your foyer request. Yes, yes, for documents. They
23:00
Speaker 1: have a legal allegation to produce them. I'm sorry, we
23:02
Speaker 1: don't have the resources to comply with the law. Well,
23:04
Speaker 1: that's a really convenient way of getting around the law,
23:06
Speaker 1: isn't it, Todd.
23:07
Speaker 2: Right, So what I've been saying is that they they
23:10
Speaker 2: turned back money every year from the capital account that
23:14
Speaker 2: they have not been able to spend because of their
23:18
Speaker 2: bad processes and things like that. So they already can't
23:21
Speaker 2: spend the infrastructure money that they had in the general fund.
23:26
Speaker 2: And then you're going to layer railroad money on top
23:29
Speaker 2: of that, and they don't have the infrastructure to spend
23:31
Speaker 2: that either. And that was a big argument of ours
23:34
Speaker 2: for why we shouldn't be selling a railroad.
23:39
Speaker 1: Jeez, this gets worse the longer this conversation goes. Todd,
23:46
Speaker 1: I just am really struggling with trying to find some
23:49
Speaker 1: positive and there apparently there are none.
23:51
Speaker 2: Well, they did pay Sunset, Brian.
23:53
Speaker 1: They paved Sunset. I know they had money for that
23:56
Speaker 1: after all these many many years decades even yeah, thanks
23:59
Speaker 1: for that, and you no longer have me to be
24:01
Speaker 1: able to complain about that. I still have the gift
24:03
Speaker 1: that keeps on giving along the complaint lines the street car.
24:07
Speaker 1: Maybe Todd knows something about maybe a new leg of
24:09
Speaker 1: the street car, because there's been a lot of rumblings
24:10
Speaker 1: about that one going on seven thirty seven right now,
24:12
Speaker 1: if you five KRC DE talk station imported cars, whether
24:15
Speaker 1: they're from Asia or Europe, Chuck Ingram, fifty five KRC
24:18
Speaker 1: deep Talk station seven forty comes up with seven forty two.
24:23
Speaker 1: Fifty five KRCD Talk Station Brian Thomas with citizen Watchdog
24:26
Speaker 1: Todd Zenzer. I stick with the parameters of this budget.
24:28
Speaker 1: I think I personally was a little confused because I
24:30
Speaker 1: was thinking, like the federal government's budget this sticking with
24:34
Speaker 1: the thirty million dollars. So the Railroad Trustee Board allocates
24:40
Speaker 1: the proceeds and gives the city a sincenty the thirty
24:42
Speaker 1: million dollars. Yes, the city has budgeted certain programs during
24:47
Speaker 1: the budgeting process for the prior year where that money
24:49
Speaker 1: is going to go, as you've explained it, based upon
24:53
Speaker 1: their inability to get these projects off the ground, issuing RFPs,
24:57
Speaker 1: going through the process of you know, selecting contras, actors, whatever.
25:00
Speaker 1: They don't have the resources to do that. So the
25:02
Speaker 1: money remains unspent. Yes, moving into the next county year.
25:06
Speaker 1: The federal government, in the way their budget process works, it's
25:09
Speaker 1: use it or lose it.
25:10
Speaker 2: That's absolutely correct.
25:11
Speaker 1: You have to spend the money during that fiscal year,
25:14
Speaker 1: that's right. That's not the case for the city. No,
25:16
Speaker 1: that's not so the money remains in the account. Yes.
25:20
Speaker 1: Is the city under an obligation in the following year,
25:23
Speaker 1: the new budget to honor the commitments made under the
25:27
Speaker 1: prior year budget to do those certain projects that were identified,
25:30
Speaker 1: or is it can they start from scratch?
25:32
Speaker 2: Well that's a good question, Brian. I think they can
25:35
Speaker 2: basically move that money to whatever projects are the priority
25:39
Speaker 2: at the moment. And what I suggested to the board
25:41
Speaker 2: this week.
25:43
Speaker 1: The trustees that monitor the investment from the railroad sale.
25:47
Speaker 1: That board, not one of the ones after have pro
25:50
Speaker 1: ball sitting on sorry head to make.
25:51
Speaker 2: This is this is the railroad the Railroad board. What
25:55
Speaker 2: I suggested this week is that they adopt a draw
25:59
Speaker 2: down system like the Federal Highway Administration has where the
26:03
Speaker 2: states come in and they draw down money from the
26:06
Speaker 2: federal government account as they need it. They don't get
26:10
Speaker 2: all this money up front. They have to put claims
26:13
Speaker 2: into the federal government to draw down money from their account.
26:16
Speaker 1: It's like an attorney working off a retainer. Yes, you
26:19
Speaker 1: get a lump sum upfront, you can only draw money
26:21
Speaker 1: after you've done the hour's work.
26:22
Speaker 2: Right, So what I suggested to the board in a
26:25
Speaker 2: letter this week is that they adopt a draw down
26:28
Speaker 2: system where the city has to come and make specific
26:32
Speaker 2: requests for specific sums of money for specific projects, and
26:37
Speaker 2: that's when the board can transfer money to them.
26:40
Speaker 1: Because the issue is not ripe for transfer of money
26:43
Speaker 1: until they have a set in stone project that's right,
26:47
Speaker 1: funding parameters.
26:49
Speaker 2: Until they have something they're going to spend that money
26:51
Speaker 2: on in a timely way. That money should stay in
26:54
Speaker 2: the trust fund earning returns.
26:57
Speaker 1: Or earning Yeah, that's the other that's the benefit from that.
27:00
Speaker 1: Notal does that make them? You know, you pay money
27:03
Speaker 1: only for projects that are actually working and being accomplished,
27:07
Speaker 1: but you continue to earn interest.
27:08
Speaker 2: Right, the money should either be working on the infrastructure
27:11
Speaker 2: or working by earning gains in the trust fund.
27:15
Speaker 1: Have you heard back from the board on that concept.
27:17
Speaker 2: No, I just sent the letter the other day.
27:19
Speaker 1: Okay, do they you think they have the ability to
27:22
Speaker 1: implement a drawdown procedure along those lines.
27:24
Speaker 2: Absolutely, that's my read of it anyway.
27:26
Speaker 1: All right, So this isn't intruding on Cincinnati Council's authority
27:31
Speaker 1: to choose projects or to pick where to allocate where
27:34
Speaker 1: the funds go. It just merely is demonstrating to the
27:37
Speaker 1: board who's got the money, that there is a specific
27:40
Speaker 1: project the money is going to. Right.
27:42
Speaker 2: So the board has some very good lawyers that are
27:45
Speaker 2: sitting on the board. So I don't want to tell them,
27:47
Speaker 2: you know, legally what they can and cannot do, but
27:50
Speaker 2: they should. They have a fiduciary duty to make sure
27:53
Speaker 2: that they are earning the maximum amount they can earn
27:56
Speaker 2: in that account. And by giving money to the city
28:00
Speaker 2: that the city isn't in a position to spend, you know,
28:03
Speaker 2: they're losing that earnings.
28:06
Speaker 1: Huh, which might give rise to a cause of action
28:11
Speaker 1: by any since any taxpayer for breach of fiduciary duty.
28:14
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
28:15
Speaker 1: Oh, there's another lawsuit somebody out there in the audience.
28:17
Speaker 1: Can Key, I continua.
28:19
Speaker 2: So I'll let people know what they tell me, if
28:23
Speaker 2: they tell me anything. But the next meeting of the
28:25
Speaker 2: trust board is in February. So in fact, what I think,
28:31
Speaker 2: I posted it last night on my Facebook. I went
28:35
Speaker 2: to the meeting in February of this year of twenty five,
28:38
Speaker 2: and I raised the issue of the inability of the
28:41
Speaker 2: city to spend the money that the board was transferring
28:46
Speaker 2: to them. I said, you, you can't transfer money to
28:49
Speaker 2: the city and have it just sit there.
28:52
Speaker 1: Right.
28:53
Speaker 2: So they didn't do anything back in February. We'll see
28:56
Speaker 2: if they do anything.
28:57
Speaker 1: Now, don't hold your breath, Tod. We really like you
29:00
Speaker 1: and what you're doing for the city in spite of
29:02
Speaker 1: the fact it's a thorn in the well am Ayer's
29:04
Speaker 1: side as much as any of the the council members
29:09
Speaker 1: and the city manager seven forty six right now more
29:13
Speaker 1: one more with Todd sendsor stick around QC Kinetics will
29:16
Speaker 1: QC Kinetics SAWCE talk station seven fifty fifty five KRCD
29:27
Speaker 1: talk Station Brient Thomas Todd Zendser and probably just scratching
29:30
Speaker 1: the service of all the issues going on in downtown
29:32
Speaker 1: Cincinnati that Todd is writing heard over. He busily writes
29:36
Speaker 1: letters issues for your requests and waits and waits and
29:38
Speaker 1: waits and waits and waits for them to say, I'm sorry,
29:41
Speaker 1: we don't have time to do it. Kind of just
29:42
Speaker 1: summarizing your life over the course of the past year.
29:45
Speaker 1: Todd's endser. One of the things you mentioned on the break,
29:48
Speaker 1: you've got the ongoing issues. Those are issues you've advanced,
29:52
Speaker 1: you've sent letters, you've brought to the public's attention, waiting
29:55
Speaker 1: for follow up, waiting for resolution. So you're keeping track
29:59
Speaker 1: of them ongoing and I presume ever growing list. But
30:02
Speaker 1: then you also have, like into the future, what you
30:04
Speaker 1: want to look into, Right, so there's that list projects
30:09
Speaker 1: you need to get to. But then you start as
30:12
Speaker 1: you become more and more popular and more widely known
30:14
Speaker 1: for what you are doing, this value to the city
30:17
Speaker 1: that you provide, people are bringing more things to your attention. Yeah,
30:22
Speaker 1: so you can I summarize by saying you're feeling a
30:24
Speaker 1: bit overwhelmed with a number of issues that need to
30:26
Speaker 1: be looked into.
30:27
Speaker 2: Todd, Yeah, I think one of the things I have
30:29
Speaker 2: to do is manage people's expectations about what exactly we
30:34
Speaker 2: can look into here because we really don't have any
30:36
Speaker 2: authority to go into places and talk to people like
30:40
Speaker 2: I did when I was working. But yeah, there are
30:43
Speaker 2: people that they have their own oversight questions. You know,
30:48
Speaker 2: the courts for example, and the criminal justice.
30:50
Speaker 1: Issues big topic this morning.
30:53
Speaker 2: It is a big issue for people. There are people
30:56
Speaker 2: that have their own lawsuits against the city that they're
31:01
Speaker 2: calling me about, uh for you know, for my take
31:05
Speaker 2: on their efforts and things like that. I've got a
31:09
Speaker 2: phone call today and I got a phone call tomorrow
31:11
Speaker 2: with some folks. So there's things going on and I
31:14
Speaker 2: just have to do what I can really well.
31:18
Speaker 1: And that leads me to ask you about the process
31:21
Speaker 1: of your starting this five oh one C three entity
31:25
Speaker 1: to do this type of work under the umbrella of
31:28
Speaker 1: an off for profit company. The Cincinnati Oversight Project is
31:33
Speaker 1: I believe that's what you've named it.
31:34
Speaker 2: That's what I've named it, and I want to kind
31:37
Speaker 2: of model it after a Judicial Watch if you if
31:40
Speaker 2: you're familiar with that organ site, and you know a
31:44
Speaker 2: lot of their work is getting records out of the
31:46
Speaker 2: government that disclose what's really going on. So that's that's
31:50
Speaker 2: part of the effort. The other effort is to have
31:53
Speaker 2: a platform to start talking to people about the value
31:56
Speaker 2: or benefits of having an oversight organization within government here
32:01
Speaker 2: in Cincinnati, like they do in a lot of states,
32:04
Speaker 2: and they do in a lot of municipalities.
32:07
Speaker 1: That's why we have inspectors general, right.
32:09
Speaker 2: That's correct. And you know that if you've seen one
32:14
Speaker 2: inspector general, you've seen one inspector general. They're all kind
32:17
Speaker 2: of different. And so Cincinnati is in a position to
32:20
Speaker 2: build their inspector General operation from the you know, from
32:24
Speaker 2: the get go, and improve the oversight of the city's operations,
32:29
Speaker 2: including the city council operation and the and the mayor.
32:34
Speaker 1: Well, why would they want to expose themselves to something
32:37
Speaker 1: that their own internal inspector general office would would expose.
32:40
Speaker 2: That's exactly right, Brian. And that's why you don't have
32:44
Speaker 2: them everywhere, because there's a lot of resistance to that
32:48
Speaker 2: type of oversight even when they even when they establish
32:52
Speaker 2: those oversight offices. For example, I interviewed for a position
32:56
Speaker 2: out West one time for a transit authorities I g
33:00
Speaker 2: and I went into interview and their proposal gave the
33:04
Speaker 2: ig no authority. No investigative authority was in the statute.
33:08
Speaker 2: And I told him that that's not that's not going
33:11
Speaker 2: to work out, got your teeth, And so they selected
33:14
Speaker 2: a woman who was friends with the governor, and she
33:18
Speaker 2: wound up quitting over that issue. In a couple of
33:21
Speaker 2: years they got in she got into a dispute with
33:23
Speaker 2: the board and they weren't cooperating with her and she
33:27
Speaker 2: didn't have any authority to press.
33:31
Speaker 1: Well, I'm guessing that you know, if you start the
33:34
Speaker 1: Cincinnati Oversight Project, you get your five oh one C
33:36
Speaker 1: three status, you're going to need some help. Is this
33:39
Speaker 1: an invitation for people who are interested in doing the
33:41
Speaker 1: type of work you're doing, to help you deal with
33:43
Speaker 1: all these challenges, including all the items that you have
33:46
Speaker 1: on your to do list.
33:48
Speaker 2: Well, eventually the answer would be yes. And you know,
33:51
Speaker 2: I haven't really decided whether it would be a five
33:53
Speaker 2: O one C three or five O one C four.
33:57
Speaker 2: I'm inclined to maybe not do a thing five oh
34:00
Speaker 2: one C three because the donors for the five oh
34:03
Speaker 2: one C three are public and five oh one C
34:07
Speaker 2: four donors are not public. And I'm thinking that people
34:11
Speaker 2: that want to donate and get greater oversight of the
34:14
Speaker 2: city may not want to have their name out front,
34:17
Speaker 2: like that, So I'm those are the kind of things
34:19
Speaker 2: I'm I'm looking at.
34:21
Speaker 1: Well, look at Signal ninety nine and they did a
34:23
Speaker 1: background check on her and she wasn't even living in
34:25
Speaker 1: the greater Cincinnati area at the time. Why do they
34:27
Speaker 1: do that? Why do they rifle through her records while
34:30
Speaker 1: she was an employee this insant police department because she's
34:33
Speaker 1: made posts online and she annoyed our elected officials. Right, Yeah,
34:37
Speaker 1: you set yourself up with a crosshair. When you do,
34:40
Speaker 1: you know, open your mouth. And that's why we're proud
34:42
Speaker 1: of you and happy with what you're doing, because you'll
34:45
Speaker 1: take the slings and errors from these clowns and you're
34:48
Speaker 1: you're identifying all the issues that will justify me calling
34:51
Speaker 1: them clowns. How's that, Todd?
34:53
Speaker 2: That's fine. Well, it provides a more healthy government if
34:58
Speaker 2: you have outside or into and people giving that third
35:02
Speaker 2: party view of what the operations are doing.
35:05
Speaker 1: Todd Zenzer, keep up the great work. A very merry Christmas,
35:08
Speaker 1: Happy holidays across the board. Well wishes for you and
35:10
Speaker 1: your family. I know you and I'll be talking a
35:12
Speaker 1: lot throughout the next calendar year. You're always here, welcome
35:15
Speaker 1: here on the fifty five Cassy Morning Show. To bring
35:18
Speaker 1: further to the public's attention the stuff you're doing each
35:20
Speaker 1: and every day. Follow Todd on Facebook, just look for
35:23
Speaker 1: Citizen Watchdog and regularly check up on his podcast, because
35:27
Speaker 1: you will remain enlightened throughout the year. Todd. I don't
35:30
Speaker 1: en for you, but I appreciate you. Thank you, Brian.
35:32
Speaker 2: Merry Christmas to you and everybody out there.
35:35
Speaker 1: Thanks much. Seven fifty six fifty five Carsity Talk Station
35:38
Speaker 1: got time to chime in. If you feel like I
35:39
Speaker 1: feel free to call me five one three