Speaker 1: It's seven oh five here at fifty five k CUD
Speaker 1: talk station. Love when guests are in studio, and I
Speaker 1: love talking to todds Zenser, even though the content roo've
Speaker 1: always revealed shenanigans, most notably in the city of Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: He is the citizen Watchdog and the citizen of the
Speaker 1: City of Cincinnati. I think go you a debt of
Speaker 1: gratitude for the work that you do and your focus
Speaker 1: and your willingness to stick at something and look behind
Speaker 1: all the look at all the details and the documents
Speaker 1: behind the scene to point out the mismanagement of basically
Speaker 1: finances and well the government generally speaking. Good to have
Speaker 1: you back in studio, Todd Zenzer, thank you, good morning,
Speaker 1: Good morning. And you can get his podcasts where you
Speaker 1: get your podcast Citizen Watchdog Citizen Watchdog podcast where he
Speaker 1: goes into detail about all these things he reveals. Let's
Speaker 1: start with I know you're behind and helping assist with
Speaker 1: getting signatures for the Save Hyde Park Square ballot initiative,
Speaker 1: which is a referendum to nullify the council's April twenty
Speaker 1: third decision depriving the residents of the Hyde Park area
Speaker 1: from their rights to control their destiny in terms of zoning.
Speaker 1: And I had the guy who was I can't remember
Speaker 1: what the name of the site was, but he has
Speaker 1: the depictions of what this monstrosity hotel and all these
Speaker 1: upgrades will look like, and it just looms so large
Speaker 1: over the existing high you have to see it to
Speaker 1: fully understand it. I mean, because if you hear's someone
Speaker 1: talking about, well, the elevation is only going to go
Speaker 1: up in an X number of feet, but when you
Speaker 1: see what that's going to mean for the look of
Speaker 1: Hyde Park Square, it's like, oh my lord, it's it's bad.
Speaker 2: One of the witnesses that I don't know if it
Speaker 2: was at the council meeting or at the planning commission
Speaker 2: said imagine if you've ever ever been to the Arc.
Speaker 1: Exhibit yeah in Kentucky.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she said, imagine that arc sitting on Hyde Park Square.
Speaker 2: That's what she described it as.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, that is a really great way of describing it,
Speaker 1: because that thing is just monstrous.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So that's what they're that's what they're looking at.
Speaker 2: And this is this is a true petition drive. This
Speaker 2: isn't just for you know, for show. They're actually out
Speaker 2: there gathering signatures on petitions.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and from my conversation with you off air before
Speaker 1: we started this morning, they're aread you've already got thousands
Speaker 1: of signatures on this petition.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're making progress great.
Speaker 1: And my understanding is you've got to have a minimum
Speaker 1: of ten thousand, but you want to get a lot
Speaker 1: more than that, because some of the signatures get thrown out,
Speaker 1: like someone else that lives outside of the city signs it,
Speaker 1: and that that won't count exactly. All right, So you've
Speaker 1: been around town doing signature gathering and I understand you've
Speaker 1: got some some events coming up in locations where the
Speaker 1: the petition can be signed.
Speaker 2: Yes, the next one is tomorrow afternoon in pleasant Ridge
Speaker 2: from two to five pm at the Nine Giant Brewery
Speaker 2: on Montgomery Road.
Speaker 1: Nine Giant Brewery, sixty ninety five Montgomery Road between two
Speaker 1: and five pm. Stop on end. You don't have to
Speaker 1: have a beer, but why wouldn't you and sign the petition.
Speaker 1: And now there are people walking around downtown and hanging
Speaker 1: out and dives and places like that to get these signatures.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the Hyde Park citizens have mobilized in a big way.
Speaker 2: Good and yeah, they're all over the place.
Speaker 1: Well, and there's an incentive for people who don't aren't
Speaker 1: impacted by the Hyde Park development. It's just because again
Speaker 1: the right to control your own neighborhood, your own your
Speaker 1: own community. They're all different. I mean, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of different communities in the city since say the Bondhill
Speaker 1: was the victim of this kind of thing, and so
Speaker 1: Bondhill residents because they got burned by Cincinni council trumping
Speaker 1: what they wanted, well, get out there and sign the petition.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and it's not going to stop. There's a new
Speaker 2: initiative now that the city is coming up with where
Speaker 2: they want to rezone our hillsides so that they can
Speaker 2: develop our hillsides. It's called the Hillside Initiative. The hillsides
Speaker 2: are I don't I haven't looked a lot into it yet,
Speaker 2: but there's a Hillside Trust that basically is responsible for
Speaker 2: preserving all these hillsides, and the city is out there
Speaker 2: engaging in community engagement asking people not whether or not
Speaker 2: we should develop the hillsides, what would you like to
Speaker 2: see developed on the hillsides. That's how they operate.
Speaker 1: They start from that foregone conclusion that this will happen.
Speaker 1: So here's give me your input exactly.
Speaker 2: And it's very important that people pay attention. This is
Speaker 2: another sneak attack, just like connected communities, and we really
Speaker 2: need to pay attention to what's going on here. We're
Speaker 2: gonna we're gonna lose our hillsides to developers next.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, what does it mean to develop the hillsides anyway?
Speaker 1: What are their proposals for it?
Speaker 2: They'll put housing or they'll put you know.
Speaker 1: These connected communities for focused like small multi unit buildings
Speaker 1: and things.
Speaker 2: That's the thing. They haven't really shown their cars yet.
Speaker 2: They're out there asking the public about it, but they
Speaker 2: haven't really shown their card yet. But the hillsides, from
Speaker 2: what I understand, make up like twenty percent of the
Speaker 2: land in the city, So they want to go after
Speaker 2: that and open it up to development.
Speaker 1: So are they going to bring back inclines then, because
Speaker 1: they don't want us drive in cars.
Speaker 2: I would love to see the price ill inclient come back,
Speaker 2: but that's not going to happen.
Speaker 1: Just for nostalgia proprix exactly like San Francisco's street car
Speaker 1: is not exactly the best mode of community a mode
Speaker 1: of transportation, but it's cute to see but it's.
Speaker 2: The folks in Hyde Park Square are out there. You know,
Speaker 2: they're they're doing work for all of us on this
Speaker 2: petition drive.
Speaker 1: I agree, And let's face it, every single neighborhood in
Speaker 1: the city since then. He was a victim of this
Speaker 1: when they foisted connected communities without everybody, without hearing from people.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 1: So it's been done to everyone, and then they go
Speaker 1: and give a waiver for these well connected developers A
Speaker 1: phrase I got for you from you in Hyde Park
Speaker 1: to waive connected communities concept in Hyde Park Square.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's funny. We were when we were collecting signatures
Speaker 2: last night. Somebody actually came in and said, oh, these
Speaker 2: well connected developers.
Speaker 1: Oh that's great, that's great listening to Todd Zenzer And
Speaker 1: you know, it's the truth. I mean what I mean.
Speaker 1: It just it reveals so much about where the loyalty
Speaker 1: of the elected officials, the council members and the and
Speaker 1: the mayor are. It's not their constituents.
Speaker 2: It doesn't seem to be Brian, that's for sure.
Speaker 1: Well, elections can have consequences, and we are going to
Speaker 1: get an opportunity. Well, citizens of Cincinnati are going to
Speaker 1: get an opportunity to maybe vote for different people in November. Yes,
Speaker 1: how optimistic are you that that's going to happen?
Speaker 2: Well, one good sign is that, from what I understand,
Speaker 2: the Democrats were supposed to come out with their slate
Speaker 2: their slate card by now, and they've pushed them back totally.
Speaker 2: So they maybe having some difficulty trying to figure out
Speaker 2: who they should run for council. I mean, the mayor
Speaker 2: of course is set, but the Blue ticket or the
Speaker 2: Democrats isn't settled.
Speaker 1: Yet, So perhaps some infighting, maybe even over zoning issues
Speaker 1: inside the Democrat party.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure. You know, they have one vacancy that
Speaker 2: they have to fill. There's one incumbent that's not Victoria
Speaker 2: Parks is not running again, so there's one empty slot,
Speaker 2: so there's probably disagreements about who should fill that slot.
Speaker 2: And then I think there may be some incumbent council
Speaker 2: members who aren't aren't a sure thing for the ticket.
Speaker 1: Really, yeah, is anybody out loud running against like, for example,
Speaker 1: either connected communities or what was done to Hyde Park
Speaker 1: as a Democrat? Like here, I am a Democrat. I
Speaker 1: want to run for since a city council and I
Speaker 1: object completely to what they did to the residents of
Speaker 1: High Park.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, there are definitely Democrats who are concerned about
Speaker 2: what went on. And I think what you're going to
Speaker 2: see is the Charter Committee is working on coming up
Speaker 2: with a slate I would hope. So, I mean, and
Speaker 2: those that slate is not going to be one party
Speaker 2: or another. It's going to be it's going to be
Speaker 2: a combination of independence or Republicans, some Democrats.
Speaker 1: Well isn't that kind of what the Charter Committee is
Speaker 1: all about.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's exactly right.
Speaker 1: It's common sense government, correct.
Speaker 2: So we'll see what happens there. I mean, I think
Speaker 2: there's going to be some competition.
Speaker 1: Well, I'd like to see that, and I'd like to
Speaker 1: see some you know, some reporting on it, you know,
Speaker 1: people talking about the issues, raising awareness that there is
Speaker 1: a choice that you have, that it may be represent
Speaker 1: you better as a resident of the City of Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's going to take all of that. A
Speaker 1: well oiled campaign.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're going to see You're going to see social media.
Speaker 2: There's going to be the Charter Committee is refreshing their website.
Speaker 2: I do believe they're very serious about challenging the incumbents here.
Speaker 1: Good good, Well, you've got the fifty five CASEE Morning
Speaker 1: Show to spread the word about those alternatives, because there's
Speaker 1: got to be a change, and you have a multitude
Speaker 1: of reasons why other than just this one issue, the
Speaker 1: zoning issue of why there needs to be a change.
Speaker 1: And we're going to continue with Todd Zenzer and talk
Speaker 1: about some of that. Remember it's Citizen Watchdog is his podcast.
Speaker 1: Make sure you find that to stay up on what's
Speaker 1: going on the City of Cincinnati seven to fifteen. Right
Speaker 1: now the fifty five KRC Detalk station. Brian Thomas was
Speaker 1: Citizen Watchdog Todd Zenzer in the studio. Let's pivot over
Speaker 1: to another area of mismanagement by city government. That will
Speaker 1: be the equipment used to clear our roads and service
Speaker 1: our roads and things of that nature. And we found
Speaker 1: out it was only January this year. Hell, they didn't
Speaker 1: even plow a lot of the roads up like a
Speaker 1: Mount Adams and the like. A lot of equipment apparently,
Speaker 1: as we learned at the time, was out of commission,
Speaker 1: and they also had manpower issues, which we can talk
Speaker 1: about odds Inzer, you investigated this, what did you learn, well,
Speaker 1: your investigation.
Speaker 2: Well, what I did, I'm I'm trying to keep track
Speaker 2: or come up with these deficits that the city has.
Speaker 2: They have a deficit on their pension liability of oh,
Speaker 2: eight hundred plus million dollars. They've got to close that
Speaker 2: gap in twenty years, which would take about forty million
Speaker 2: dollars a year. And then we have the infamous four
Speaker 2: hundred million dollars in deferred infrastructure maintenance. Right by the way,
Speaker 2: I've never seen a list that totals four hundred million.
Speaker 2: I've seen lists of total two hundred and fifty and
Speaker 2: two hundred. They've never produced a list of that four
Speaker 2: hundred million, but that's the number they use. In fact,
Speaker 2: when we were in the throes of the campaign, they
Speaker 2: said it was five hundred million.
Speaker 1: But why would they want to admit to something that
Speaker 1: makes them look even more incompetent by inflating that figure.
Speaker 1: If they had hanging it's only two hundred and fifty million,
Speaker 1: we can manage that, we'll catch up eventually. But by
Speaker 1: saying it's four hundred or five hundred million dollars, they've
Speaker 1: acknowledged that they have ignored a problem in road maintenance
Speaker 1: for even worse than what we perceive it to be.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, they did that so that people would vote
Speaker 2: to sell the railway.
Speaker 1: Oh Lord, is that the reason?
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly. And then I was then when this snow,
Speaker 2: this winter storm Blair came up and we had twenty
Speaker 2: of our snowplows out of commission or broken down, it
Speaker 2: indicated the problem with this fleet maintenance.
Speaker 1: So much like ignoring the pension, much like ignoring the roads,
Speaker 1: this is ignoring the fleet right over time.
Speaker 2: That's right. So I found this report from the internal
Speaker 2: audit manager in the city. So I looked into that
Speaker 2: operation I don't know, a few months ago and had
Speaker 2: some observations. I was somewhat critical. But they issued a
Speaker 2: report and it stands out among their reports because it's
Speaker 2: almost twenty pages long and it's got twelve Fine. You
Speaker 2: look at their other reports and they're all like six
Speaker 2: seven pages long, and they got a couple of observations,
Speaker 2: but this was a fairly hard hitting report and it
Speaker 2: had twelve findings, which is very unusual. And some basic things. Well,
Speaker 2: they have a forty five percent of fifteen hundred vehicles
Speaker 2: are out of life cycle.
Speaker 1: So almost half of all of the vehicles they have
Speaker 1: are out. What does out of life cycle mean? Specifically?
Speaker 2: Right. So in their fleet management, they keep track of
Speaker 2: how old the vehicle is, how many miles it has,
Speaker 2: what it's a maintenance record looks like, and they have
Speaker 2: a software that helps them manage the fleet, and they
Speaker 2: come up with this indicator of out of life cycle.
Speaker 2: And this audit report found that six hundred and eighty
Speaker 2: almost seven hundred of their vehicles are out of life
Speaker 2: cycle and they had three big categories. But the total
Speaker 2: cost to replace all those is eighty two million dollars.
Speaker 2: Oh great, And so you have the pension liability, you
Speaker 2: have the deferred maintenance, you have the vehicle of purchase
Speaker 2: and replacement. And I'm sure there are other deficits out there,
Speaker 2: we just don't know what they are right now. But
Speaker 2: those three items total one point three billion.
Speaker 1: Dollars billion with a B.
Speaker 2: Yes, And you don't see any activity in council to
Speaker 2: address this.
Speaker 1: Well, do you think the council members are even aware
Speaker 1: of this?
Speaker 2: Well, I think they are generally aware of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, generally, But I'm talking about Todd Zenzer level awareness,
Speaker 1: where you have the actual dollars. You look at the
Speaker 1: reports that exist, this report that you're referring to that
Speaker 1: allowed you to crunch the numbers that identified all these
Speaker 1: different problems. It came out over a year ago, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, came out in January of twenty four. And if
Speaker 2: the council and the city manager and the mayor read
Speaker 2: the report, I don't see how they couldn't have come
Speaker 2: up with some kind of action to to to fix it.
Speaker 2: Because here's here's what's funny, because.
Speaker 1: They're too busy chiefs in their green new deal tail exactly.
Speaker 2: But here's the thing. If they truly believed what they
Speaker 2: were saying about climate change and the fact that all
Speaker 2: these that that all these storms and and weather issues
Speaker 2: and and and and all of that is caused by
Speaker 2: greenhouse gases, you'd think they would have looked at this
Speaker 2: report and said, oh my god, we're going to have
Speaker 2: all this bad weather coming. We better, we better make
Speaker 2: sure we're prepared.
Speaker 1: They don't.
Speaker 2: They can't possibly believe all this. They don't Green Cincinnati
Speaker 2: Plan and all the disasters that are going to happen
Speaker 2: because they're not they're not uh uh managing for it.
Speaker 1: Well, we'll talk more about this since a green plan
Speaker 1: coming up. But the whole notion that the City of
Speaker 1: cincinnat within these geographic limitations that it has can have
Speaker 1: some sort of, you know, plausible impact on the global climate.
Speaker 1: Is just a joke that anyone thinks that that is.
Speaker 1: It's just it's nonsense, and it's obviously there's something else
Speaker 1: behind the curtain of these green energy projects, and gee,
Speaker 1: I wonder what it is. Seven twenty five ifty five
Speaker 1: KARO City Talk Station more with Todd Zenzer or Citizen
Speaker 1: Watchdog a thirty fifty five Krcity Talks station. I hope
Speaker 1: you're having a happy Friday. I always enjoy my conversation
Speaker 1: with Todd Zenzer, the enlightening they are in times doing
Speaker 1: the heavy lifting and paying attention to the important bottom
Speaker 1: line figures for the city government. What's out there, what
Speaker 1: needs to be done, what's being neglected, and where they're
Speaker 1: focusing their attention. And you alluded to it. We just
Speaker 1: mentioned it, the green Energy Plan, which I think I
Speaker 1: learned from you or someone else that at least may
Speaker 1: I have to have purvol and quite a few other
Speaker 1: members of the council view everything from a lens of
Speaker 1: green New Deal sort of focus, as well as DEI Yes.
Speaker 2: When he was interviewed about their twenty twenty three green
Speaker 2: Cincinnati plan. The mayor said that any everything that comes
Speaker 2: across his desk he views through two lenses, equity and climate.
Speaker 2: And I don't even know what that means, to be honest,
Speaker 2: I don't either, but he's very committed and.
Speaker 1: Ought to be committed.
Speaker 2: The Green Cincinnati Plan is very very extreme. I mean
Speaker 2: it is. They put so much effort and planning into
Speaker 2: that thing. I've asked for any records that will show
Speaker 2: what the cost of the Green City Plan is in
Speaker 2: terms of what a cost to put it together, and
Speaker 2: I asked for the same information on connected communities. I
Speaker 2: haven't gotten anything back yet. Of course you have it,
Speaker 2: but it is the Green Cincinnati Plan is just very
Speaker 2: very extreme.
Speaker 1: You know, for example, Phell, let's talk about the example.
Speaker 2: Five different types of equity are outlined in the plan.
Speaker 1: How does equity save the planet.
Speaker 2: Brian, I don't know about all that stuff.
Speaker 1: Money goes out the door to fund what non government
Speaker 1: organizations are putting together studies and doing focus groups and
Speaker 1: that kind of thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've I've been looking at the nonprofits and external
Speaker 2: organizations that the city gives money to, and my count
Speaker 2: is up to two hundred and fourteen, So.
Speaker 1: Two hundred and fourteen hands in the cookie jar.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, we got over a billion dollars in outstanding debt
Speaker 1: and maintenance and upgrade needs.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And what seventy one organizations are given money under
Speaker 2: the Green Cincinnati Plan.
Speaker 1: And do we have any idea what they're doing?
Speaker 2: Well, and we know what they got the money for generally,
Speaker 2: but were there's no report back on what they actually
Speaker 2: do with the money.
Speaker 1: Well, see, that's there's something like that. USAID revealed when
Speaker 1: DOGE took a look at that, they found that money
Speaker 1: went out the door, but they never followed up like
Speaker 1: for example, you know, studying I don't know, transgender mice
Speaker 1: or pick your favorite example of money millions of dollars squad. Yeah,
Speaker 1: did anything get accomplished by the recipients of the money
Speaker 1: or was it just money that went to some identified
Speaker 1: not for profit or non government or governmental organizations who
Speaker 1: purported to address whatever issue they were told to do.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So they have a number of grant programs that
Speaker 2: they operate. There's there's fourteen competitive grant programs that the
Speaker 2: city operates with either federal money, state money, Cincinnati money.
Speaker 2: But on the there's a category called leverage support in
Speaker 2: addition to the Green Cincinnati Plan, in addition to the
Speaker 2: Act for Sense program. In addition to that's the other one,
Speaker 2: A Safe and Clean is another program. And they have
Speaker 2: all these programs where all these nonprofits and and the
Speaker 2: amounts range from like nine hundred dollars to two hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty thousand dollars. And so they have all these
Speaker 2: organizations getting money, and we really don't have a good
Speaker 2: handle on exactly how they're managing that money. And there's
Speaker 2: just a lot of risk there for a lot of leakage,
Speaker 2: a lot of misappropriation. And I've found one audit of
Speaker 2: one recipient in the last several years, and it was
Speaker 2: a pretty good They had some pretty good findings actually,
Speaker 2: and that that should have caused them to look at
Speaker 2: a lot more of these organizations than they have looked
Speaker 2: at and well.
Speaker 1: Boiled down to its most basic points, what do the
Speaker 1: audit reveal about that one organization? It was recipient of
Speaker 1: the taxpayer dollars.
Speaker 2: So this is it was kind of surprising because this
Speaker 2: is the region Economic Development Initiative, and so this is
Speaker 2: an initiative with other local governments and the let me
Speaker 2: see if I can find the results here real.
Speaker 1: Quickly, Well, why are you doing that? We can talk,
Speaker 1: We can have further about this because we can't put
Speaker 1: this subject matter to rest and because we're coming up
Speaker 1: on a break here. But I must observe that you know,
Speaker 1: some entity out there is getting a quarter of a
Speaker 1: million dollars. We don't know exactly what they're doing or
Speaker 1: what they're accomplishing, but those entities employ people. A salary
Speaker 1: must be paid because this isn't all volunteer work going
Speaker 1: out there, That's right. So you we are basically so
Speaker 1: after the salary is paid, what what did you get
Speaker 1: in return for paying that person's salary? What's left over
Speaker 1: from that that allocation to cover whatever costs associated with
Speaker 1: whatever work they're doing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, there are some of these groups that they
Speaker 2: have they have millions of dollars in assets that are
Speaker 2: getting these big nonprofits and they're getting two hundred, two
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty thousand dollars from the city. One of them,
Speaker 2: the CEO, is making over four hundred thousand.
Speaker 1: Dollars bactly what I'm talking about right there.
Speaker 2: And it's like, why do you need r two hundred
Speaker 2: thousand dollars if they're able to pay your CEO over
Speaker 2: four hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: Well maybe because that's some of that money's going to
Speaker 1: come back to fund campaigns to get city council members
Speaker 1: and the mayor re elected. Seven thirty five fifty five
Speaker 1: kr CD talk station seven forty one if you five
Speaker 1: KRCD talk station talking with Todd Zenzer says in Watchdog,
Speaker 1: former Inspector General for the United States. Looking at what
Speaker 1: information is available, and it's kind of frightening stuff when
Speaker 1: it comes to finding out how many of these outside
Speaker 1: organizations are being funded by the city since an eighty
Speaker 1: dollars in the name of the Green Energy Plan or
Speaker 1: whatever the hell it's called. And Todd's revealed already this
Speaker 1: morning of one over one billion dollars in outstanding obligations,
Speaker 1: and there could be a whole lot more than that.
Speaker 1: We're talking about the equipment eighty two million dollars worth
Speaker 1: of out of lifestyle equipment, which is exactly why the
Speaker 1: plows weren't running around January four hundred or between two
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty and four million dollars in road repairs
Speaker 1: that are outstanding and behind do so add that to
Speaker 1: the list and eight hundred and fifty million dollars in
Speaker 1: outstanding pension allocation behind the eight ball by eight hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty million dollars. So there's your billion plus right there.
Speaker 1: And as it turns out, a lot of money flowing
Speaker 1: out of the city since then, he going to these
Speaker 1: couple of one hundred different outside entities, mostly in the
Speaker 1: name of green energy and green new deal kind of crap,
Speaker 1: none of which we have any control overs. But that's
Speaker 1: where the nefarious part comes in. You know, we can't
Speaker 1: change the climate just by taking steps in that direction.
Speaker 1: With the city of Cincinnati on its own, we're all
Speaker 1: breathing the same air globally, so there's got to be
Speaker 1: something nefarious about it. And as it turns out, a
Speaker 1: lot of people making a lot of money off the
Speaker 1: tax dollars going out to these organizations, and yet they
Speaker 1: can't show what they've done in return for the money.
Speaker 1: They can't even account for where the money was directed.
Speaker 1: You had that audit you mentioned, and you pulled it out,
Speaker 1: So explain to my listeners about that one, because it's
Speaker 1: just it's illustrative.
Speaker 2: Well, one of the groups that are getting a lot
Speaker 2: of money from the city is called the Regional Economic
Speaker 2: Development Initiative and that's a group of local governments and
Speaker 2: the internal audit manager just tissued a report in April
Speaker 2: end of April this year, so a few weeks ago,
Speaker 2: and their audit and again I've been critical of them
Speaker 2: in the past, but again this audit identified had four findings.
Speaker 2: Number one and the way they the way they were
Speaker 2: these findings, it's way too gentle, you know, they try
Speaker 2: not to offend people by hitting them too hard. But
Speaker 2: number one is contract management review and oversight, need.
Speaker 1: Improvement, need improvement.
Speaker 2: Yes, and they identified, for example, fourteen thousand dollars spent
Speaker 2: by that group with no supporting documents, so it's.
Speaker 1: You can't audit it.
Speaker 2: Well, that's that's another finding. Oh. Another finding is a
Speaker 2: third party is unable to verify the terms of the contract.
Speaker 2: So what that's saying is that somebody coming in from
Speaker 2: the outside to try that tries to figure out whether
Speaker 2: you're complying with the contract. They're not able to do
Speaker 2: that because of the way that the organization is maintaining
Speaker 2: their records. Another one is payroll journals contain insufficient information
Speaker 2: to determine whether contractual terms are upheld. What that means
Speaker 2: is that this organization is not keeping track of how
Speaker 2: much time their employees are spending on city matters because
Speaker 2: that's what gets build to the city. So they can't
Speaker 2: even tell you how much of the money they pay
Speaker 2: their employees is for work that went to the city.
Speaker 1: And this is just one. This is just one.
Speaker 2: This is one that's been around a long time. There's
Speaker 2: been getting money from the city for a long time.
Speaker 2: This isn't one of these small, you know, little nonprofits.
Speaker 2: This is a well established organization. It's very, very shocking
Speaker 2: to me.
Speaker 1: It is I'd like to say unbelievable. No, but it's
Speaker 1: totally believable under the current administration and how it's been
Speaker 1: operating now for the past several decades. This eight hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty million dollar hole, this billion plus dollar hole
Speaker 1: we just went through and you talked about earlier, didn't
Speaker 1: happen overnight, that's right. How many years the Democrats been
Speaker 1: in control of the City of Cincinnati A long time?
Speaker 1: Uh huh, long time. This happened on their watch.
Speaker 2: And this council and this mayor are engaging in the
Speaker 2: same kind of conduct that led to these deficits. They're
Speaker 2: they're not paying attention to how much money they're spending
Speaker 2: on other things other than these deficits.
Speaker 1: And maybe we can bring back up the railroad sale,
Speaker 1: because you mentioned how they use these numbers to parlay
Speaker 1: us into believing the sale of the railroad is going
Speaker 1: to help see if it actually did help the situation
Speaker 1: at all under the current circumstances. Seven fifty coming up
Speaker 1: with seven fifty one if you've have k City Talks
Speaker 1: one more segment here with Todd Zenzers, citizen watchdog, former
Speaker 1: inspector General, and he is doing as much suspecting as
Speaker 1: he can with the books being cooked in downtown Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: You had mentioned off air, are you mentioned on the
Speaker 1: air about these two hundred plus organizations that all have
Speaker 1: their hand in the cookie jar. They're not regularly audited.
Speaker 1: The one audit you were able to find show that
Speaker 1: they were not well capable of even being audited. They
Speaker 1: didn't know where the money was going, how it was being spent.
Speaker 1: So that's probably illustrative of probably every other of the
Speaker 1: couple of one hundred of these organizations. But you mentioned
Speaker 1: how much it's expanded. The number of these organizations has expanded,
Speaker 1: The hands in the cookie jar have increased exponentially over
Speaker 1: the past ten years.
Speaker 2: Right, there's all kinds. There's various lists of these organizations
Speaker 2: in different categories. The main one that I got interested
Speaker 2: in was the leverage support category. And back in twenty
Speaker 2: fifteen in the budget in twenty fifteen, I could only
Speaker 2: find a half a dozen out external organizations are not
Speaker 2: profits that shared about five million dollars. So fast forward
Speaker 2: to twenty twenty five, we've got over two hundred sharing
Speaker 2: twenty five million dollars. And it's just grown and grown.
Speaker 2: In fact, a couple years ago under this administration, this
Speaker 2: current administration, they had so many of these groups that
Speaker 2: they had to restructure the budget and create additional categories
Speaker 2: to put these groups in. It used to be one
Speaker 2: leverage support category. Now they've got three of those categories,
Speaker 2: and they've got several other programs like Act for Cinci
Speaker 2: where they just give they give money. After Act for Sincy,
Speaker 2: I think there's like forty one groups the Green Cincinnati Plan,
Speaker 2: there's like seventy one out external organizations that get money.
Speaker 2: And if you remember our conversation about clienteleism, that was
Speaker 2: about the political dynamic that's created, the bond that's created
Speaker 2: between the incumbents and these grant recipients.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well they're out there putting banners up and getting
Speaker 1: petitions signed and campaigning on behalf of the officials.
Speaker 2: Well yes, but in addition to that, you've got to
Speaker 2: look at the oversight of these organizations. And that's not
Speaker 2: going on either.
Speaker 1: Who decides what organizations get money? How is any individual
Speaker 1: or because I'm going to put my name on that list? Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: for to sign.
Speaker 2: Up for Leverage support, there's an annual application process. Surprise,
Speaker 2: not surprisingly, the same organizations seem to get funded every year. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm sure, but there's an application process that the city
Speaker 2: manager's office reviews and recommends the organizations that receive money
Speaker 2: and how much they get and now get this. Once
Speaker 2: that happens, the city manager's recommendations go to the mayor,
Speaker 2: and the mayor can add or subtract, and there's nothing
Speaker 2: written about that process how the mayor comes to determine
Speaker 2: those amounts, and then it goes to the council and
Speaker 2: the council can add and subtract, and there's nothing to
Speaker 2: say how they do their decision making there. So, for example,
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty five, through that process, they added one
Speaker 2: point five million dollars to this city manager's recommendations, just arbitrarily.
Speaker 2: There's something wrong with that process.
Speaker 1: Really, Yes, I hadn't noticed to. And so if Purvol,
Speaker 1: this Parvol can add one of these an additional group,
Speaker 1: that means that that person, that group that empty has
Speaker 1: not gone through the city manager review process. You spoke of, Well,
Speaker 1: not whether we can take any comfort in that process
Speaker 1: by itself, but if you go the list then goes
Speaker 1: to Purvol and he can add to it. He could
Speaker 1: add someone who hasn't even gone through the review process.
Speaker 2: That's right. So the the interesting thing is, and I
Speaker 2: did a podcast on this, we called it the Missing Audit.
Speaker 2: The previous mayor, John Grantley and the city council, after
Speaker 2: the scandal, commissioned an audit of the economic development projects
Speaker 2: and they hired an audit firm out of Chicago named
Speaker 2: Crow and Crow issued a draft report in December twenty
Speaker 2: twenty two, and it included a recommendation about that very process.
Speaker 2: It says that's not a good process. It's ripe for corruption.
Speaker 1: Yes it is.
Speaker 2: So did the city do anything about that? No, they
Speaker 2: basically buried that report. I finally got just the other day,
Speaker 2: I had a records request for Let's see, I see
Speaker 2: the draft report. Where's the final report? So I didn't
Speaker 2: know whether they just canceled the thing or buried it
Speaker 2: or what. So I did a record request for it.
Speaker 2: I finally got the documents and there was a one
Speaker 2: year gap between the draft report and there is a
Speaker 2: final report dated November of twenty three. But what happened
Speaker 2: in the interim between the city and this audit firm
Speaker 2: is very mysterious. I've never seen anything like it, to
Speaker 2: be honest with.
Speaker 1: You, Todd Zenzer, always revealing things that you've never seen
Speaker 1: anything like it, in spite of the fact that you've
Speaker 1: been doing this kind of work now for decades, former
Speaker 1: Inspector General Todd and you did it on a federal
Speaker 1: level too. I mean, this is ah todds Enzer Citizen Watchdog.
Speaker 1: Find a podcast, check it out and thank you again
Speaker 1: on behalf of all the residents of the city of
Speaker 1: Cincinnati for the work you're doing. And you know it
Speaker 1: reveals a lot. Think about if it's this bad in
Speaker 1: the city of Cincinnati, how bad do you think it
Speaker 1: is on a federal government level. Todd Zenzer will have
Speaker 1: you back in studio hopefully soon. It's always a pleasure
Speaker 1: having here my friends. Thanks around, folks, Thank you my pleasure.
Speaker 1: Alyssa McClanahan local author with the Reason, a book on
Speaker 1: the reasons why Zimmer got shut down, Zimmer the movement
Speaker 1: that defeated a nuclear power plant. That plus so here
Speaker 1: about the Law Enforcement Expo at eight thirty. I'll be
Speaker 1: right back