Military to protect Portune?

In need of a new administrative aide, Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune has some interesting resumes to choose from.

Given the battles Portune, the lone Democrat on the three-commissioner board, has had with Republican Commissioners Phil Heimlich and Pat DeWine, perhaps the most intriguing candidate is Michelle Goldman – a former Israeli soldier.

Actually, Goldman worked in the Israeli military during that country’s war with Lebanon as a war correspondent. She also worked for the Israeli Broadcasting Authority as a correspondent.

Others Portune is considering are:

· Laura Randall, former Cincinnati television news personality;
· Norma Holt Davis, a lawyer and former head of the Cincinnati chapter of the NAACP;
· Kathleen Binns, manager of Portune’s 2004 campaign to keep his commission seat;
· Martha Good, a lawyer who unsuccessfully ran for Hamilton County Municipal Court judge in 2005 and Hamilton County Clerk of Courts in 2004;
· Marilyn Osborne, former aide to former Cincinnati Mayor Bobbie Sterne.

Portune wants to winnow the list to five candidates and then hire an aide by April 10.

That hire also could be getting a higher salary after Portune today also asked county Administrator Patrick Thompson to review the salary range for all three commissioners’ aides, suggesting it was too low. Heimlich agreed with Portune on that.

Portune’s last aide, Karen Ball, left to take a new job – and a $41,000 per-year-raise – with the county-owned Metropolitan Sewer District. Her $55,438.24 salary under Portune was at the high end of the current salary range for commissioners’ aides which runs from $42,620 per year to $58,011.

Rob Seddon, Heimlich’s aide, has an annualy salary of $52,520. Lisa Webb, Pat DeWine’s aide, is paid $54,059 per year.