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Wednesday, April 05, 2006

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.


20 Comments:

at 3:30 PM, April 05, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Go Todd! That's why we love you!

 
at 4:45 PM, April 05, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's funny how now that Mallory's mayor City government has regained some civility, while the County Commission looks more and more ridiculous. Let's hope Pepper takes Heimlich's seat this Fall and DeWine fades quietly away.

 
at 6:24 PM, April 05, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Lincoln... Great idea but what to do til then? It Seems Heimlich and DeWine never allow public input for anything until it is too late and eveyone is holding the bag... I'll have to Sheriff Leis has placed his Republican badge in hiding until these two crooked politicians are gone.

 
at 6:47 PM, April 05, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

What Todd and everyone else should be focused on is the amount of money Heimlich's incompetence is costing taxpayers. He's done nothing for four years except pay lawyers millions to accomplish nothing on the Banks--and now other counties $10 million per year because he has not dealt with the jail space problem. Talk about reckless spending.

 
at 7:49 PM, April 05, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

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.

Once again, enter Phil Heimlich and all rules and civility are out the window. When Heimlich was leaving city council due to term limits, the Enquirer story had a telling quote about Heimlich from Jenny Laster of the Grass Roots Leadership Academy: "There's a way to get information without stripping dignity from people." This gets to the heart of what Phil Heimlich is about. He is not only unwilling to behave with basic respect for colleagues, he is unable to. He wants what he wants and he doesn't care who he mows down to get his way. Good for Todd Portune, making as much noise as possible and to John Dowlin for backing David Pepper - a move that is less pro-Pepper than anti-Heimlich. Dowlin knows what Heimlich is because he had to work with him. Heimlich's dangerous. There's no better word.

 
at 9:58 PM, April 05, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Pat Thompson...

Another friend of Heimlichs...

http://www.coloradoexposed.com/wordpress/?p=75

A piece from the article... one of many.

4. Conspiracy and Felony Witness Retaliation. These circumstances substantially arise from an apparently illegal Commissioners Meeting that took place in June of 2005, at which Patrick Thompson was in attendance and where discussions allegedly surrounded an orchestrated plan of revenge and retaliation directed at a female witness in a pending lawsuit against Jefferson County.

Why the heck didn't the Enquirer do any investigating reporting before this guy came here? Now we're all in trouble. Heimlich always finds a way to put us deeper in the do-do.

Hey Hey Ho Ho Patrick Thompson got to go!

 
at 10:08 PM, April 05, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thompson may think it's ok not to worry about 1 commissioner whose vote he didn't get, but a County Administrator should be thinking a little more long term. Not giving the 3rd commissioner a courtesy call on the subject was in poor form!

It only takes 2 votes to lose your job!

 
at 10:31 PM, April 05, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

There appears to be an effort to not only conceal campaign contributions from the wrong wing but also to conduct behind door meetings where our elected official (Portune) is being illegally restrained from representing the people who elected him.

We will investigate to see if there should be a civil removal lawsuit initiated against the (R)wrong wing commissioners.

 
at 8:04 AM, April 06, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Boo Hoo Todd. In case you haven't noticed, Todd, the jail overcrowding problem is one of the most pressing problems in the County. Did you really think that the county administration was NOT working on that? I suppose Bill Brayshaw should tell you that he's planning to salt the streets in the winter or that Sheriff Leis will make arrests with his officers or that Greg Hartman will be doing court filings or Rebecca Groppe will be recording deeds!!

Finding a plan to house more criminals so they don't leave the justice center early has been a county-wide issue for years and for Todd to think that the County Administrator wasn't working on the issue is RIDICULOUS.

People...please remember that County Commissioners, by design, are part-time representatives of the people who hire a county administrator to run the people's business! That's what Pat Thompson was doing!!!

Shame on Todd for complaining, AGAIN.

 
at 1:00 PM, April 06, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Mr. DeWine,

Pat Thompson running the county's business... that's funny!

No it's Pat Thompson running the business of Heimlich... that's sad.

 
at 1:33 PM, April 06, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

P.S. Anonymous wrote: I suppose Bill Brayshaw should tell you that he's planning to salt the streets in the winter or that Sheriff Leis will make arrests with his officers or that Greg Hartman will be doing court filings or Rebecca Groppe will be recording deeds!!

If Brayshaw were changing the salt to acid, and Hartman was going to send all court filings to Clermont County, or Rebecca was going to start recording deeds on toilet paper, don't you think a commissioner should be informed to have some input on if we look to rent jail space for inmates in Brown County... it would be wise for back door dealing Thompson to make sure that everyone is informed... Heimlich's puppet has been found out and a cry will be going out for his removal... maybe we can give him a part time job picking up the horse manure that runs out from the behind of Simon Leis's calvery... but I'm not sure if this guy is even capable of doing this without being told by Heimlich first.

Mr. DeWine you have no face left to save... your options are below short supply.

 
at 2:23 PM, April 06, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anonymous's comment reflects either a basic misunderstanding about how county government works, or he is simply doing someone else's political handiwork. I'll be charitable and choose the former.

Of course I know that prisoner overcrowding is a primary issue facing the county. I was the first county commissioner of this millenium who identified it as such and who actually committed to fund jail expansion. I tried on successive budgets to get the commission to include jail funding without success. The best I could accomplish with the majority members on the commission was support for a consultant. We paid over a quarter of a million dollars for the consultant's report to identify both short and long term issues and solutions to our problem.

The consultant's report was presented shortly after Mr. Thompson arrived. He was asked by me and the other two commissioners to come up with a plan to get us to be able to address the issue short term and the financing of expansion long term.

The consultant, by the way, did not recommend that we transfer prisoners to an adjoining county. The reason is one of the purposes of the justice center is to house prisoners in close proximity to the courthouse. Prisoner transfer is a huge expense, and to house prisoners in an adjoining county will add to the expense and cost.

Pat Thompson, then, was instructed by all three of us to work on and address this issue.

Here's what Anonymous then misses. Pat Thompson's work on negotiating with Butler County and reaching an agreement with Butler County was not shared with all three. Instead, he worked only with the other two. Only the other two were told what he was doing; how the negotiations were going; what the terms of the agreement would be; and so on. Phil and Pat had a press conference that included Butler county commissioners, police officers and others all lined up for the Hamilton County courthouse on Wednesday morning to announce that they had resolved the problem of jail overcrowding and the county administrator was going to keep his work a secret until then.

I don't begrudge Phil and Pat a press conference if they want to play politics with the issue or ensure that they get the credit. But our county administrator works for all three of us - equally and all the time. When he agrees to keep a solution to a problem he has been asked by all three of us to work on a secret from one of us he has then engaged in politics - something he is not allowed to do. He has a legal duty and responsibility to keep us all informed of what he is doing and he did not do it.

If this was his first mistake it might not be a problem. But it is not. He has allowed me, over my objection and my calling the issue to his attention on several occasions,to be kept in the dark on the Banks meetings and negotiations as well. Unfortunately it leaves me wondering what else is he secretly working on?

Does any of this then cause a problem? It does. Yesterday, because news of this broke Phil Heimlich quickly put together a Resolution to have the commissioners vote on that authorizes the county administrator to negotiate a deal with Butler county about the jail. Why would Phil do that? Well, one reason is because what Pat Thompson had been doing to reach an agreement with Butler County that was being unveiled at a press conference just one hour later would have needed authority of the Board. All of his work until then, as good as you may think it to be, was done without legal authorization. It was done with the "agreement" of two commissioners who are only allowed to make agreements like that in an open meeting.

For another reason, not all of the issues have been well thought out. Sheriff Leis did not speak at the press conference for a reason. In my conversation with the Sheriff as recently as today he has expressed personal concern about the approach taken by the commissioners to the issue and about the cost of this to the county. The charge per prisoner is high. Hamilton County, it is estimated, will spend as much as $10 Million a year on this plan.

And then I, as a commissioner, am forced to have to vote on an issue that I have known about for barely 24 hours and have no details on while the other two have had months of knowledge.

Maybe Anonymous doesn't care about open government; or about the rule of law; or simply about elements of fundamental fairness. But how ironic that lawmakers, who are dealing with an issue concerning lawbreakers, themselves exhibit such a blatant disregard for the law.

If this system of government is going to work the way it is supposed to and work well then we need a county administrator who is unwilling to play favorites, or play politics, and who, when he is working on an issue as directed by the Board, will keep his whole Board informed.

Todd Portune
Hamilton County Commissioner

 
at 2:46 PM, April 06, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Once again, we see that Todd Opportune is better at grandstanding than he is at coming up with actual solutions to problems. Maybe tomorrow Opportune will scream at the Hamilton County Prosecutor's office for prosecuting criminals behind his back.

 
at 5:08 PM, April 06, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jeff said: ....Once again, we see that Todd Opportune is better at grandstanding than he is at coming up with actual solutions to problems.

Maybe if Mr. Portune had the opportunity to help with the actual solutions instead of being told only 24 hrs in advance. As he said, "And then I, as a commissioner, am forced to have to vote on an issue that I have known about for barely 24 hours and have no details on while the other two have had months of knowledge."

And Jeff this isn't grandstanding by any means... it's called telling the people what is happening to us all. Many of us that voted for Portune voted him in to be a voice. How can he make proper decisions with only a 24 hour notice.


Jeff also said: Maybe tomorrow Opportune will scream at the Hamilton County Prosecutor's office for prosecuting criminals behind his back.

Only if Portune thinks they are innocent Jeff... let us hope that the prosectutor never needs a scolding... I mean sometimes the guy can be wrong. Remember when he went on the radio and started calling Paul Hackett "a baby killer." Not good to do to someone that just came back from Iraq. Many Viet Nam Vets were called baby killer, and it was as bad to it then as it is to do now to those returning from Iraq.

You need to wake up Jeff and you need to grow some kagungas and give a last name... otherwise your thoughts or words don't matter much anyway. I think that you're probably Patrick Thompson.

From what I hear he not only hid from his problems but he ran like heck from them when the law began learking around his desk.

 
at 5:38 PM, April 06, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

I see Chatty Cathy (aka Odd Todd) was able to pull his string out about 5 or 6 times in this blog entry.

Good for you todd!

 
at 8:48 PM, April 06, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hooray for Todd Portune

Just remember to NOT act like this once you are in the majority on the Commission after Pepper unseats Heimlich.

 
at 11:58 PM, April 06, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

__

Well, we all hope that the (R)wrong wing prosecutor could break away from raising concealed contributions long enough to bring those unlawful (R)wrong wing commissioners to justice.

__

 
at 2:29 AM, April 07, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh look here, while Todd Opportune rants away, the other 2 Commissioners actually put together a plan to solve the jail overcrowding issue. As usual, while Opportune grandstands, others are busy solving the problem.

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060405/NEWS01/604050376/-1/back01

 
at 11:16 AM, April 07, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

What kind of plan takes the hard earned tax dollars of the hamilton county residents and then use them to enrich another county ?

Take those funds and spend on drug treatment programs. Result, the crime rate goes down, no need to house self abusing citizens in jails.

How about spending it on improved education or low income housing ?

Produce a better environment for the citizens and then they won't feel like trash ?

We certainly don't need to finance our neighbors. That is like financing a fake war while our children have no health care, period !

You drink to much of the red Kool-aid, (R)wrong wing nut !

__

 
at 2:18 PM, April 07, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Solution to the jail issue? This is a total joke. We are now paying "rent" at $10 million a year to other counties. Because Heimlich has done nothing on this for 3.5 years (and it will take at least that long to actually expand the jail as recommended by the study), he has just cost us at least $35 million, without investing one dollar to actually expand our jail space.

So, he's paid $8 million+ in legal fees to accomplish nothing on the Banks, and $35 million+ in rent to Butler County to accomplish nothing on the jail. In other words, he has not just accomplished nothing--he's blown through millions of dollars to accomplish nothing.

 
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