Cranley Recuses Himself

Updated, 1:30 p.m. - see below


After several people asked him about a possible conflict of interest, Councilman John Cranley decided Monday to take himself out of the leadership role in the debate over the future of the Hilltop Concrete Co. site in Lower Price Hill.



When Hilltop moves out, part of the 30-acre site will be taken up by the relocation and lowering of the Waldvogel Viaduct. But Queensgate Terminals wants the rest of the site, for an operation that would take containers from barges on the Ohio River to railroad cars.



The company sued the city after the city refused to grant it a new driveway access. A settlement of that suit in February resulted in the city's agreement that it would lease the property to Queensgate. But council members didn't like the proposed lease and rejected it.



The company has since talked about a new proposal - including the possibility that the city could get $4 million a year from the project, based on a per-container fee of $20 a day. Opponents doubt that figure. No official proposal has been submitted. Company spokesman David Martin says Queensgate's in no rush, that officials want to meet with neighborhood residents to explain the operation to them.



Chris Bortz, who co-authored with Cranley a resolution in March to keep the spot greenspace, said he still likes the park idea but wants to hear more details from the company.



So, back to Cranley. He planned to push the greenspace plan this week, but decided against it Monday after the conflict questions. He says he still doesn't see any conflict, but wants to avoid even the appearance of one and doesn't want to do anything to take away from the merits of the greenspace idea.



Bortz thinks it's best to take more time, let emotions calm down and get more information before presenting any options to council.

Update:

Councilman Chris Monzel is writing a new resolution to keep the Hilltop Concrete Co. site greenspace.

That comes after today's economic development committee meeting, where chairman Chris Bortz said the greenspace resolution all nine council members signed in March was moot because the proposal it was in response to has already been rejected by council. So Monzel said he would replace the resolution with a new one.

"Since John's gone from a leadership role in this," he said, "I want to step in and do it."

About 30 people got up and left council chambers after Bortz said the issue would not be discussed because there was no pending proposal either from the company or about the greenspace.

He also said he didn't want to push forward the old motion, which he co-authored with Cranley, because he didn't want to put a colleague into a conflict of interest situation.