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FOP Pres Ken Kober - Grading the City Manager · Brian Thomas

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  Speaker 1: Station six point thirty fifty five Karise the talk station.
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  Speaker 1: Very happy Tuesday to you. Extra special Tuesday the return
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  Speaker 1: of FOP President Ken Kober, representing the Sincinnti Police Departments Union.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome back, Ken Kober or timing couldn't be better. Hey,
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  Speaker 1: maybe that's why you're here. Did you read the city
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  Speaker 1: manager performance review? She's awesome and she's the right person
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  Speaker 1: to leave the City of Cincinnati as city manager. Says
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  Speaker 1: the report, Ken, welcome back.
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  Speaker 2: Thank good morning, Brian, Thanks for having me. It was
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  Speaker 2: a certainly an interesting report.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I read the summary just a moment
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  Speaker 1: ago out loud, and a lot of it sounds like
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  Speaker 1: some sort of college professor's psychobabbel exercise and amounts to
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  Speaker 1: a bunch of nothingness. There's a plan to do this,
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  Speaker 1: she has an idea on this, and it's all awesome.
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  Speaker 1: I guess let's turn to public self health and safety.
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  Speaker 1: According to the report, one of the successes she launched
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  Speaker 1: an Achieving Change Together for Since He Act for Since
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  Speaker 1: He described as a holistic, comprehensive, community driven plan to
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  Speaker 1: reduce gun violence, reducing overall shootings by twelve in the
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  Speaker 1: first year. I'm not sure where that statistic come from.
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  Speaker 2: Ken.
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  Speaker 1: Is that an aspirational goal or do we actually get
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  Speaker 1: a reduction in violence, because I don't see. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: at least my reading in the news is we still
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  Speaker 1: have a serious problem with gun violence in the city Ken.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, we're fifteen homicides so far this year, pretty
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  Speaker 2: small sample, only the first two months of the year.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, we're obviously only in the second week of March,
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  Speaker 2: but we're on pace to have ninety homicides, which ironically
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  Speaker 2: is twenty percent or twenty more homicides than we had
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  Speaker 2: last year. So I'm not so sure that, at least
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  Speaker 2: at this point, which is the coldest months of this year,
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  Speaker 2: I'm not so sure that the gun reviolence reduction program
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  Speaker 2: is actually working.
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  Speaker 1: Uh yeah. And plus we're going into November. It is
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  Speaker 1: a very big political year, so I suspect rallies and
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  Speaker 1: you know, protests and all that are gonna be rolling
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  Speaker 1: out in the streets. It's great an opportunity for even
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  Speaker 1: more violence coupled with the heat. I don't want to,
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  Speaker 1: you know, suggest that that is actually going to happen,
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  Speaker 1: but logic and reason dictates that we need to be
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  Speaker 1: concerned about at that.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I just I mean, I said, when
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  Speaker 2: you're in the slow months of the year and you're
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  Speaker 2: already surpassing, you know, a projection of homicides, I don't
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  Speaker 2: know that touting that gun violence is down is necessarily
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  Speaker 2: the right thing, especially coming off a mass shooting of
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  Speaker 2: nine people shot, and then the next weekend we had
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  Speaker 2: two homicides on a Sunday morning, and there's just a
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  Speaker 2: lot of things that don't point towards gun violence going
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  Speaker 2: in the right direction.
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  Speaker 1: Well, they praised her for continuing to invest in police
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  Speaker 1: and fire departments in the new recruit classes, touting the
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  Speaker 1: fire department reaching its full compliment for the first time
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  Speaker 1: in a long time and the police department getting closer
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  Speaker 1: to a full compliment. Are are we closer too? Because
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  Speaker 1: every time you and I talk, can Cobra, I keep
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  Speaker 1: hearing about more and more officers planning on retiring or
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  Speaker 1: maybe choosing a different law enforcement agency to work for.
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  Speaker 1: Where are we in terms of the full compliment? And
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  Speaker 1: is this even close to accurate or partially accurate?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean there is certainly a silver lining. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: I think the city manager has invested in the police
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  Speaker 2: department at least financially. You know, there has been a
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  Speaker 2: commitment to these recruit classes. The problem is, you know,
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  Speaker 2: there's been no commitment or even a thought of trying
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  Speaker 2: to retain people. You know, recruitment is just one portion
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  Speaker 2: of this. You know, when you're hiring sixty cops a
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  Speaker 2: year but you're losing ninety, that math isn't working, you know,
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  Speaker 2: And until they find a way to retain officers and
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  Speaker 2: slow down retirements, we're going to continue to be in
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  Speaker 2: the situation we are. But like I said, not all
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  Speaker 2: is lost. I certainly do appreciate the fact that, you know,
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  Speaker 2: the city manager is committed to hiring more officers, but
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  Speaker 2: it's just the right thing to do when when you
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  Speaker 2: don't have enough of something, you should be doing these
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  Speaker 2: things anyway. So, like I said, that's kind of a
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  Speaker 2: silver lining I would I wouldn't pad anybody too much
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  Speaker 2: on the back for just doing the right thing. But
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  Speaker 2: it certainly is a appreciated because we've had past counsels,
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  Speaker 2: past mayors that it has not been a priority. So
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  Speaker 2: you know, for her, I certainly do appreciate that part. Well.
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  Speaker 1: One of the five categories council looked for as a
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  Speaker 1: priority was communication external and internal, and the relationship that
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  Speaker 1: the city manager has with the police department. It was
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  Speaker 1: suspiciously absent here. Nothing about encouraging or you know, patting
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  Speaker 1: her on the back for her, you know, reaching out
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  Speaker 1: to the police, otherwise publicly supporting them. And that's one
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  Speaker 1: of the things Christopher Smitheman regularly complains about. It is like,
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  Speaker 1: where is the support for police? How come there's no
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  Speaker 1: out loud recognition of the work they do. Praise for
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  Speaker 1: the police department seems to be absent across the board
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  Speaker 1: in leadership in downtown Cincinnati.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know what, it's little things like that. Well,
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  Speaker 2: you'll give you an example. You we just graduated fifty
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  Speaker 2: four people. You know, city manager shows up, swears them
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  Speaker 2: in and then walks out there in the middle of
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  Speaker 2: the ceremony. A lot of people took notice of that. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: that's not really showing support when you can't sit there
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  Speaker 2: for another fifteen twenty minutes until a graduation since complete
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  Speaker 2: and then leave. You know, it's little things like that.
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  Speaker 2: You can say all day long when you're standing in
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  Speaker 2: front of a camera that you support the police, that
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  Speaker 2: you support public safety, but it's the actions that speak
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  Speaker 2: a lot louder than words.
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  Speaker 1: Do amen to that, FOP President can coverer hold, We'll
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  Speaker 1: come back and we'll talk a little bit more about
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  Speaker 1: this glowing review for the city manager and see if
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  Speaker 1: there's areas where you think FOP president can cover. Maybe
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  Speaker 1: the union response to the City of Cincinnati's review performance
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  Speaker 1: review is City Manager Cheryl Long. I've read through the report.
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  Speaker 1: I guess I'm wondering, FOP President, kencober was there anything
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  Speaker 1: missing in there, anything that wasn't addressed, or anything that
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  Speaker 1: you thought perhaps maybe she got a glowing or is
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  Speaker 1: it review when it wasn't deserved, or maybe that she
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  Speaker 1: deserves some glowing reviews for something she's done. I'm, of
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  Speaker 1: course focusing on crime and law enforcement and violence in
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  Speaker 1: the City of Cincinnati, since that you're bailliwick there, Ken Cober.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, the only thing that I thought that
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  Speaker 2: was absolutely glaring that was missing were, of course, the
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  Speaker 2: tough topics, like the fact that you know, we have
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  Speaker 2: a police chief that's on administrative leaven has been since October,
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  Speaker 2: you know, eight point two million dollars payout the criminals
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  Speaker 2: for breaking the law in twenty twenty. I do understand
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  Speaker 2: that she inherited that mess. But you know what you
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  Speaker 2: do with a mess that you inherit says a lot
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  Speaker 2: about you. And I think just paying off criminals was
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  Speaker 2: was not a very good look. And then of course,
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  Speaker 2: you know it necessarily doesn't affect the police, but it
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  Speaker 2: does at least somewhat is you know, dealing with Michael Washington.
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  Speaker 2: I did see there was one line in there that
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  Speaker 2: this is going to make a better effort to create
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  Speaker 2: a robust human resources you know, plan for department heads.
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  Speaker 2: I'm like, let me just call it what it is.
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  Speaker 2: You know, these these have been really really troubling things
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  Speaker 2: that have happened. When you're talking about terminating Mike Washington,
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  Speaker 2: you know, the administratively for the chief, those are those
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  Speaker 2: are huge things that you thought that council would have
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  Speaker 2: at least addressed, but they just completely skipped over it
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  Speaker 2: like it didn't.
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  Speaker 1: Happen, skipped over like it didn't happen. And then you
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  Speaker 1: a whole the whole idea of having a human resource person.
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  Speaker 1: That person is supposed to be at least informed in
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  Speaker 1: employment law, and that person might want to say, hey,
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  Speaker 1: if you're going to suspend a police chief, you might
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  Speaker 1: want to have a specific reason to do it. They
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  Speaker 1: had to hire an independent law firm to go out
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  Speaker 1: into the world and look at her thirty plus year
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  Speaker 1: record to try to find some reason to justify putting
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  Speaker 1: her on pay leave. They haven't been able to find anything.
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  Speaker 1: Apparently they've extended that retention of the law firm twice
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  Speaker 1: now to this day, Ken, we have no explanation why
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  Speaker 1: police chief these he was placed on admin leave none.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, how that's not worthy of at least addressing and
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  Speaker 2: somebody that makes the decisions that is beyond me, which
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  Speaker 2: is why I believe that this report is just it
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  Speaker 2: is what it is. It's just a bunch of fluff.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I don't think that any of this was
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  Speaker 2: done and really a genuine attitude of hey, let's take
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  Speaker 2: a hard look at what the city manager's doing, and
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  Speaker 2: you know, if we see that they're shortcomings, what can
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  Speaker 2: we do to encourage her to you know, to succeed, uh,
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  Speaker 2: instead of some of these failures. And it just wasn't there.
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  Speaker 2: This was just you know, a couple of pieces, you know,
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  Speaker 2: words on a piece of paper that let's move on
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  Speaker 2: with life.
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  Speaker 1: Well exactly, And I guess I'm not suggesting that I
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  Speaker 1: expected anything other than this glowing review from sinc any
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  Speaker 1: city council. I mean, do you think they would dare
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  Speaker 1: to undermine the perception of unanimity and glowing reviews with
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  Speaker 1: have to have purvol as mayor and all Democrats running
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  Speaker 1: council and this is their choice for city manager. They're
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  Speaker 1: not going to criticize themselves a the mayor for uh
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  Speaker 1: for maybe some errors things like police chief agi and
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  Speaker 1: other things that you and I might point to by
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  Speaker 1: way of criticism.
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  Speaker 2: Now, and this is why people are frustrated. The general
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  Speaker 2: public is no one, No one's asking for her head
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  Speaker 2: on a platter. All we're asking for is transparency. And
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  Speaker 2: if there's room for improvement, as we've seen there certainly is,
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  Speaker 2: why would you not address that? You know, that's that
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  Speaker 2: should be what part of government is. We're using taxpayer
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  Speaker 2: doyle to fund people's salaries, to fund projects, all these things.
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  Speaker 2: I think most people just want transparency and hey, we
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  Speaker 2: know you're human, we know you make mistakes. Here here's
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  Speaker 2: where your failures have been. Here's where we expect you
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  Speaker 2: to get better. And it just wasn't there. It just
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  Speaker 2: it's it should not have been a surprise but I'll
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  Speaker 2: be honest, I am disappointed that they didn't at least
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  Speaker 2: take this more seriously.
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  Speaker 1: Didn't take it more seriously in this comment about delivering
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  Speaker 1: a structurally balanced budget, I'm puzzling over that one, Ken,
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  Speaker 1: because I thought they were short on money and that
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  Speaker 1: they had a budget deficit. Any comment on that before
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  Speaker 1: we part company? Ken?
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  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I do. I do find it interesting that
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  Speaker 2: one of those topics and there was fiscal health. Yet
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  Speaker 2: the city managers made it clear that I'm not even
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  Speaker 2: going to ask for a raise because we're going to
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  Speaker 2: be in a deficit. Yeah, and we're not sure we're
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  Speaker 2: going to ask city departments to cut money. But yet
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  Speaker 2: we've given away I say, they have given away what
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  Speaker 2: five million dollars for west End reparations, you know, four
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  Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars that they want to give to start
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  Speaker 2: a sports bar in west End. I mean, these are
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  Speaker 2: things that just defy logic. When you're worried about balancing
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  Speaker 2: a budget and you're just giving money away for things,
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  Speaker 2: it just it boggles my mind. But it having been
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  Speaker 2: here twenty six years, not much surprises me. I just
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  Speaker 2: continue to scratch my head at how silly some of
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  Speaker 2: these things are.
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  Speaker 1: Well, and you know, other points to bring up in
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  Speaker 1: terms of budget. They're funding a new solar panel array,
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  Speaker 1: which we all know it's important for the city to do.
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  Speaker 1: And we've got the NGOs. Todd Zender's been tracking that
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  Speaker 1: literally millions and millions of dollars shelled out over a
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  Speaker 1: year after year after year for the same non governmental organizations.
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  Speaker 1: We don't seem to have any understanding whether any of
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  Speaker 1: those non government organizations have accomplished anything and what they're
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  Speaker 1: using the money for. I mean, I don't know. I ken.
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  Speaker 2: I saw. Actually, it's funny you say that I saw
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  Speaker 2: one of those things. One of the NGOs that those are,
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  Speaker 2: the needle Needle Exchange program has gotten almost a million
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  Speaker 2: dollars over the last seven.
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  Speaker 1: Years, million dollars.
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  Speaker 2: It just it boggles my mind where all of the
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  Speaker 2: waste is. And I just they said I shouldn't be
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  Speaker 2: surprised by it, but again, it just makes me scratch
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  Speaker 2: my head when you look at these things. But it
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  Speaker 2: is ironic that you know, all of the labor unions
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  Speaker 2: for the City of Cincinnati over the next year are
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  Speaker 2: going to be engaging in contract negotiations and now all of
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  Speaker 2: a sudden a out of money. You know, it's the
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  Speaker 2: same tactic, just a different council.
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  Speaker 1: And on that note, FFP President Ken Kober, thank you
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  Speaker 1: for joining the program this morning. I always appreciate you
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  Speaker 1: willingness to do so point out some of the obvious
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  Speaker 1: disparities we have in the Sandy Manager review. Ken, have
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  Speaker 1: a wonderful day, and thank you on behalf of all
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  Speaker 1: my listening audience and everyady affiliated and associated with the
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  Speaker 1: fifty five Casey Morning Show. Trust me, we have your
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  Speaker 1: back and we're here to help you make things better
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  Speaker 1: for all the residents of the city of Cincinnati. Ken Kober,