Commissioner frustrated with COAST

Two prominent members of the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes filed a lawsuit last week against Hamilton County and others accusing them of illegally giving hotel-motel money to the Film Commission. Read the Enquirer story here.

COAST members, Tom Brinkman and Mark Miller filed the suit as taxpayers, rather than on behalf of the group. But Commissioner Todd Portune says the suit is "all COAST." It's become a pattern, he said. And it appears clear that the relationship between him and this group is just going to continue to deteriorate.



Here are some of the comments on both sides that didn't make the paper.

Portune:

"COAST ... apparently will stop at nothing to destroy the ability of Hamilton County government to promote the best interest of Hamilton County at large. They don’t want Hamilton County to be the kind of entity that an urban county has to be in order to be a growing, viable, interesting place to live and do business in. They have a very, very narrow view of what needs to be done in order to address the priority issues of the county and to improve the quality of life for people in the county."



Brinkman:

"This (lawsuit) just shows county commissioners are squandering money on all kind of ridiculous things. Now they’re saying we need more tax money for a jail crisis. If theywouldn’t have wasted it in the first place they wouldn’t be in this situation.
I see it in government all the time. We try to elect local officials that should be good caretakers of the funds. They can’t say no and they can’t say no to their contributors. It's another example of county commission squandering money."