Portune again commission president

Todd Portune's reign as president of the county commission will continue for another year. At the commission's re-organization meeting on Monday, Portune was again elected the board's president.

The process went like this: Portune introduced a motion nominating fellow Democrat David Pepper as temporary president. The motion passed unanimously and Pepper (his one act in his two minutes as the temporary board leader) nominated Portune as president. The motion passed unanimously (even Republican Pat DeWine voted "yes"). And Portune again took the reins.

He thanked his colleagues for the nomination and recounted some of the 2007 accomplishments.
"2007 was a very active year for this board," he said. "There were some significant reforms in terms of structure of county government and in streamlining and setting policies to be implemented by the board.

"Two budgets were voted on by this board which started with deficits.

We worked with first suburbs, school district and the Banks. We’re going to break ground before opening day."

One thing that didn't get done, Portune said, was a fix to the jail overcrowding problem.
Portune nominated Pepper as vice president. Portune plans to introduce his 2008 agenda on Wednesday.