DeWine's Plan B

UPDATE: After the debate the Blue Chippers held a straw poll among those in attendance. The results were 83 percent against Issue 27 and 17 percent for Issue 27.

Commissioner David Pepper said he doesn’t have a Plan B if the sales tax issue fails. But Commissioner Pat DeWine does.

“We’re looking forward to digging in after the election. We have a lot of ideas for what we want to do,” DeWine said Monday night at a Blue Chip Republican happy hour event at Mulligan’s in Hyde Park.

He and Joe Schmitz (standing in for Sheriff Simon Leis) gave both sides of the issue and took questions from the audience. Issue 27 would raise the county’s sales tax increase to pay for a new jail and public safety programs.

So what is his plan?

1) Fix the process issues in the criminal justice system. (He thinks people are held there too long awaiting trial)

2) Stop housing federal inmates at the Hamilton County Justice Center to free up those beds for local inmates

3) Fix up the Queensgate jail and continue to use it

4) House overflow inmates in Campbell County instead of Butler County (Butler charges more per bed)

5) Cut the budget to pay for those extra beds.

“The county can spend your tax dollars on the Film Commission and say there’s no money for the jail?” DeWine said when asked where he was going to find the money. He also referred to a list of cuts he’d proposed earlier in the year.

If either of the other two commissioners had been there, they probably would have given DeWine an earful on his Plan B. Commissioners David Pepper and Todd Portune say there is no money left in the budget to do the things DeWine wants to do. They’ve said his cuts aren’t enough and have lambasted him in the past for never coming through with a viable plan to solve jail overcrowding. Queensgate is unsafe and “falling apart,” Schmitz said Monday. And there is nothing left to trim in the tight 2008 budget.

But Pepper and Portune weren’t there. Many in the small audience were from DeWine’s camp. Among those in attendance:

Jeff Capell and Brian Wise, both of whom have filed separate lawsuits against the sheriff involving the sales tax issue.

Jason Gloyd, spokesman for WeDemandABetterPlan.com

Several other members of the anti-tax groups including Steve Dapper, who has been showing up recently at functions wearing a black and white striped jail jumpsuit.

In addition to the Plan B question audience members asked:

Does the sheriff have to provide mental health treatment?

Why is the plan so expensive?

Were the Baptist ministers offered money to support the sales tax? (Schmitz answered “that’s a rumor as far as I know.”)

Schmitz did a pretty good job filling in for the sheriff. He’s director of the corrections division at the sheriff’s office and seemed as confident as any elected official as he gave the pro-sales tax viewpoint.

He even managed to get in some digs – at one point saying DeWine was giving out misinformation about the tax. DeWine disagreed.The Blue Chippers said they’ll remain neutral on the issue since it’s pitted Republican against Republican.