Crowley owns up, moves on

It is not every day that a candidate for public office advertises his mistakes, but Democratic Councilman David C. Crowley has sent a mailer to voters saying his 2002 vote on the Empire Theater redevelopment was a big one.

"I thought it was important that we acknowledge that a mistake was made and tell people how we learned from it,'' said Crowley. "I've always lived my life that way. When I make a mistake in any aspect of my life, I want to learn from it.''

Crowley was part of the council majority that voted in 2002 to give $184,000 to LaShawn Pettus-Brown to restore the Over-the-Rhine theater. Instead, Pettus-Brown took the money and ran. He was tracked down, arrested, and did prison time for his crime.

The idea of admitting mistakes and learning from them, Crowley said in the mail piece, "seems to be lost on most public officials these days.''

"Instead of learning from their mistakes, they usually won't even acknowledge them,'' Crowley said. "So I'm going to own up to a mistake and tell you what I did to make sure it doesn't happen again.''

Crowley said in the mail piece that he co-sponsored legislation to have the city auditor report directly to council, made sure that a comprehensive audit was made of the Department of Community Development and Planning, and supported new procedures for evaluating recipients of city funds and holding them accountable.

Two years ago, the Hamilton County Republican Party ran a television ad mocking Crowley and fellow Democratic council members John Cranley and David Pepper for their votes on the Empire theater project. The ad portrayed the Democratic trio as dancing, bouncing bobble-heads cavorting on a theater stage.

Crowley said Monday that there was some concern inside his campaign that the Republican Party would come after him again on the Empire Theater.

"There was a lot of discussion inside the campaign about this mail piece,'' Crowley said. "Some wondered why we were even bringing up the subject again. But I wanted to get it out there.''

Brad Greenberg, executive director of the Hamilton County Republican Party, said Monday that the GOP has no plans to run ads attacking any council candidates.

Crowley said he is certain that "some of my colleagues probably won't like it very much that I brought this up again. But I felt it was something I had to do.''

(Photo by Tony Jones/The Cincinnati Enquirer)