County Administrator chewed out

Welcome to Hamilton County politics, Patrick Thompson.

Thompson, the county administrator hired in January, was the subject of a royal chewing out today by Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune after Portune said he learned about a plan Thompson was putting together to rent jail beds from other counties.

Portune was irate, and made it clear during today's commission meeting that he found out about the plan not from the county administration but "accidentally" from Sheriff Simon Leis Jr. as part of another conversation Portune was having with the sheriff.

That quickly degenerated into a war of words with all three commissioners talking over each other.

Portune asked Thompson for details of the proposed deal under which Hamilton County will rent jail space from Butler County and perhaps from Clermont County. Portune then asked several questions about the plan.

Commissioner Phil Heimlich then announced he was having a resolution typed up that would direct Thompson to finalize the deal with Butler County. An 11:30 a.m. courthouse press conference also was called by Heimlich and Commissioner Pat DeWine to announce the details.

Portune, bothered that he hadn't been told of the two months of work Thompson and county administration put in on trying to finalize the plan, asked Thompson, "When were you intending to bring these details forward? After the press conference?"

Thompson tried to explain how he has been working on the plan since almost his first day on the job, trying to address the problem of jail overcrowding at the Hamilton County Justice Center that has resulted in almost 9,000 people either being released early or not jailed at all since 2004.

"We've never discussed this anywhere as a solution," Portune interjected. "... The fact is that the county administrator works for all three commissioners. I don't know why I am finding out about this from the sheriff and not the county administrator."

Thompson didn't respond -- but Heimlich did.

Heimlich told Portune he'd asked Thompson individually to work on the issue only to find out that DeWine also had individually asked Thompson the same thing.

"It's nothing complicated," Heimlich said.

"Nothing complicated at all," Portune mocked.

"Now," Portune added to Heimlich, who was waiting for the resolution to finalize the agreement with Butler County, "you're trying to formalize and legitimize what has been going on for six months.

"I'd like to know what else the administration is working on that I don't know about."

Portune angrily ordered Thompson to give him a list by 5 p.m. today of all of the projects he and his staff are currently working on.

"Come on," DeWine answered. "What we're talking about is one of the biggest issues for the last year."

Instead of crying about who should get credit for the plan, DeWine suggested to Portune, all three commissioners should try to make it happen to prevent criminals from walking the streets.

Portune then tried to say something but DeWine refused to let him, leading to all three commissioners raising their voices about whose turn it was to talk.

"We all ought to be praising the county administrator for the work he's done," DeWine said.

Portune would love to, he said, if he knew about it.

The resolution was later adopted.

Thompson was hired by a 2-1 vote from commissioners with Portune -- the lone Democrat on the commission -- casting the no vote.