Portune opposes appointment of light rail critic
Todd Portune complains that the other two Hamilton County commissioners -- including lame duck Phil Heimlich -- unfairly made a reappointment Monday to the board that control Metro busing.Portune, a Democrat, was upset that Commissioners Heimlich and Pat DeWine, both Republicans, ignored his request to hold off on the reappointment of current SORTA vice chairman Stephan Louis (pictured) for a three-year term.
Portune believed that appointment should have been delayed until after Jan. 1 when Democrat David Pepper takes over for Heimlich after beating him in the Nov. 7 election.
SORTA -- the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority -- is a political subdivision of the state of Ohio that operates Merto and Access, a bus system for those whose disabilities prevent them from riding Metro buses.
It is controlled by a nine-member, volunteer board -- five appointed by Hamilton County commissioners and four by the Cincinnati mayor, although the mayor's appointments have to be approved by county commissioners.
It provides 22 million rides per year and has an anual operating budhet of $82 million.
Portune is a proponent of bringing light rail transportation to the area.
Louis is an outspoken opponent of light rail and led the campaigh to defeat a sales tax increase proposed in 2002 that would have helped finance light rail.
Other SORTA board members are:
* Chairman Lamont Taylor
* Robert Buechner
* William Mallory Sr.
* Robert Mecklenborg
* Daniel Peters
* Melody Sawyer Richardson
Two seats remain vacant.
Stephan Louis biography
Mr. Louis has been involved in selling and marketing innovative medical devices throughout the United States for over 25 years. He has participated in the improvement and development of several medical devices including the pneumatic drive for one of the first artificial hearts. A Cincinnatian for the last seven years, he has been involved with the Pleasant Ridge Community Council and organized several community improvement projects. Mr. Louis holds a dual bachelor's degrees in electronics and design from Eastern Kentucky University. He resides in Pleasant Ridge and has three adult children. Mr. Louis joined the SORTA board in 2003.
10 Comments:
at 12:41 AM, November 22, 2006 
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at 8:13 AM, November 22, 2006 
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at 12:22 PM, November 22, 2006 
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at 1:34 AM, November 23, 2006 
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at 2:31 PM, November 24, 2006 
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at 6:48 PM, November 27, 2006 
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at 12:40 AM, November 29, 2006 
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at 8:52 AM, December 14, 2006 
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Post a Comment*Does Mr. Louis' business have anything to do with marketing some of Dr. Henry Heimlich's innovations?
Are we likely to see two more appointments before Henry Heimlich's term expires?
The article's assertion that I am a proponent of "Light Rail" leaves the reader with an unclear, or incorrect, assumption about my position on transit options and rail transit in articular.
"Light Rail" as it has become known locally is comprised of electrically operated rail cars requiring the acquisition of land for right of way and the construction of over a billion dollars worth of new infrastructure. The sales tax to support that kind of rail construction was defeated several years ago. I also opposed that sales tax measure.
What I have been promoting since 1998 is the use of existing rail right of way and the use of existing track for local passenger service with vehicles known as DMUs, or Diesel Movable Units. DMUs operate with Diesel fuel but they look, ride and experience the same way as the "light rail" vehicles do. The difference though is that using the existing track saves a lot of money.
The best opportunity to introduce DMU service is in the Eastern Corridor of Hamilton County. Under the County's Eastern Corridor Land Use and Transportation Plan - a plan that was embraced by the Commissioners through a Resolution adopted in late 2002 and worked on by the county Transportation Improvement District - local commuter passenger rail service will be introduced on the rail line known as the Oasis Line and would initially provide service from downtown out the eastern corrider past Lunken Airport and on to Milford. It would connect with the Wasson Line providing service to Norwood, Hyde Park, Evanston and Xavier University. In order to begin providing this transit option we will need to connect the track from the Montgomery Inn Boathouse to the downtown Intermodal Transit Center that currently sits virtually unused between Second and Third Streets downtown below the Freedom Center.
At the same time the track that runs out the Western Corridor of Hamilton County from Longworth Hall to Lawrenceburg Indiana can be examined as to how best to use that track for passenger service in western Hamilton County. One option being explored is how we can use federal funds that will be available for the High Speed Chicago to Cincinnati Midwest Regional Rail Initiative to upgrade the track and crossings for local service as well.
In short, by making these things [commuter rail service using existing track]a priority, we could be less than five years away from providing local passenger rail service east and west across all of Hamilton County and linking downtown to Lunken Airport, Milford and Xavier University to the east, and linking the downtown hotels and convention business to the Casinos in Indiana to the west.
This is the rail service I have been promoting in contrast to the Light Rail that was pushed to county voters years ago that would have spent over a billion dollars to construct a new line up I-71 and that would have taken well over ten years before any service would begin.
Under the approach that I favor we should also look to determine what improvements in local bus and shuttle service can be introduced that will create neighborhood hubs and link the county east and west, and community to community, to meet the existing needs, growth and demographic shifts, that we see in Hamilton County.
Unfortunately we have had a county that has been led by officials who have had no interest in transit and no vision for how to utilize transit for the benefit of the county. That this same group would rush to appoint a transit board member who will then oversee transit policy and operations at SORTA, and who will decide how to spend almost a hundred million dollars a year, long after Commissioner Heimlich, whose views were rejected by County voters, is gone, is what I objected to regarding Mr. Louis's appointment.
It may also be time to revisit the arrangement at SORTA and assess whether the SORTA model makes sense anymore. The county created SORTA in the late 1960s and retains the authority to rexamine those issues.
Thank you for your consideration of these additional points.
Sincerely,
Todd Portune
Mr. Louis has been involved in selling and marketing innovative medical devices throughout the United States for over 25 years.
Anybody out there have more info about this? Names of the companies he's represented?, etc.
Todd, have you ever talked with Mr. Louis about transit issues? If you had, you would know he is extremely knowledgable about these issues, knowledge that would be of great use to the Board. If you really want to serve the citizens, you'd quit wasting time on pursuing your petty differences with Phil Heimlich and instead work with people like Stephen Louis to solve the issues you've raised here.
WOW - I sorta would like to be a SORTA -
Should I sorta call -exactly who - or is it whom?
Sorta seems like there is room - for other gals -
Which I sorta - am -
First, Kimball Perry obviously hadn't done his homework - so he should be given an F onthis report.
Secondly, if the BOCC was intending to make an appointment - wouldn't it have been proper to both give notice to all board members ( and the public so that they could participate as provided by law) and provide an opportunity for the position candidate to interview with eachof the BOCC members, first?
But, I think this is just another dirty trick by the Heimlich-DeWhiner team trying to get in their last jabs before shrinking into oblivion as failures.
I think maybe I'll look into this issue of failing to allow the public to speak on the appointment of board nominees - it would make an interesting taxpayer's action and shed lighton DeWhiner's complicity with the bad practices institued by Heimlich.
Jeff said: Heimlich is coming out of the closet in the second distict in 2008!
It was my honor to be unanimously appointed to the Board of SORTA in Oct. of 2003 by Todd Portune, Phil Heimlich and John Dowlin. When appointed, I promised the commissioners and the community to listen carefully to all views concerning public transit in our region.
To that end as well as to learn the transit business, I’ve regularly attended OKI meetings on transportation, various community group forums, participated in two transport studies for our region and met with hundreds of individuals in our community concerning transit matters. I’ve routinely met and talked with city council members and county Commissioners (Todd most often) to get their input on transit matters.
Although a non-paid position, I consider this to be a serious responsibility to the community and especially to those who have come to depend on transit to live their lives. Hamilton County can continue to count on me being a fierce advocate for good transit and a defender of those who need this service.
Board members have to listen to all voices in the community. If Todd Portune or any other elected leader along with voters want expanded transit service including rail, the Boards job is to figure out how to make that happen in the most cost effective way.
Thank you for allowing me to continue to fulfill my obligation of stewardship to my community through my reappointment to SORTA.
Stephan Louis
Cincinnati
YOu know, any appointee worth their weight in salt would refuse to accept such appointment until the recommendation is ratified by the new bocc
I have come to know Mr. Louis very well since I am on two Yahoo! e-groups or "chat" rooms with him. I believe that Mr. Louis is a very highly professional person and always conducts himself in a civilized manner on the groups even when under criticism.
However, one thing that I have learned is that Mr. Louis is very critical of rail transit in all cases except in very dense urban environments such as New York City or Tokyo. He is involved with at least two organizations that are fighting rail transit development all over America. The good people of Cincinnati should be aware of this.
I happen to believe that Mr. Louis is a most competent SORTA board member. However, his skepticism of rail transit in the Cincinnati area simply cannot be considered unbiased. The big question is, does SORTA need someone hell-bent on blocking rail transit development on their board? You decide.
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