Republican Cincinnati Councilman Charlie Winburn: Pocketing $$$ That 'Could Be Illegal'

Refunds From City Council Members



 CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Fifteen months ago, Charlie Winburn was running for a seat on city council and said he had uncovered chicanery at City Hall.   Sitting council members were receiving health care insurance and pension fund contributions that he called "unauthorized benefits received through current budget expenditures."  And their salaries were too high.  Republican candidate Winburn was blowing the whistle on the scam.  He issued an Aug. 25, 2009 press release under this headline:  "Winburn calls upon city council to give up questionable taxpayer funded health and pension benefits."   The move would save $400,000 and end a practice that Winburn said "could be illegal."   



Fast forward to today.  Winburn appears to be taking the benefits of public office that he deemed improper at best, illegal at worst.  Despite the talk, once in office Winburn never seems to have lifted a finger to halt practices he denounced as possibly illegal.  Of course, it could be that his complaints were a scam, an effort to make something out of nothing.  In fact, he now seems to be sharing in the loot -- or what he considered loot when he was on the outside.  And though he has the option of refunding his paycheck to the city, he doesn't seem to have given much back.  Winburn appears to personify an old proverb:  Talk is cheap.      

Winburn could use the city's voluntary refund option to return all, or part, of his $60,650 annual council salary to the city.  Records (up to date through 11/18, see accompanying chart) show he returned $1,400 last January.  The same City Hall finance and accounting records show Democratic Mayor Mark Mallory refunds $165.87 out of each paycheck; Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls, another Dem, returns $96.82 biweekly, and Councilman Cecil Thomas, also a Dem, gives back $50 from each paycheck.  Republican Leslie Ghiz refunded $132.80 last January.  Refunds from the three Democrats total $5,941.11 so far this year.  Together, the two Republicans have refunded $1,532.80. 

Both Winburn and Ghiz have complained that council's pay package is too much -- yet they haven't shown much interest in voluntarily rebating sums they consider excess.  Winburn in particular was opposed to the salary, health insurance and pension contributions benefits for council members, whom he described as part-time workers.  He said council members got a full-time salary for a part-time job.  From his press release 15 months ago (when he was running for office):

"Current city policy for part time employees who work less than 30 hours per week does not provide health care benefits.  This decision to cut benefits would put all part time employees, including council members, on the same playing field as it applies to health care benefits.

"Winburn said Councilwoman Ghiz's (she, too. was running for office at the time) proposal to cut council pay is a good start but doesn't go far enough in reforming the total council compensation package for city council members . . ."

Winburn said any savings should go to prevent the layoffs of fire and police.  Now it looks like it was all talk.  Winburn, who complained last week that the city misspent $5,000 on a streetcar display on Fountain Square, is silent about his own complicity this year in activities he labeled possible misfeasance last year.  After all, it was he who said council's payroll package "could be illegal."  Meanwhile, he hasn't noted that the money refunded by the mayor, Qualls and Thomas exceeds the cost of the streetcar display.  And city officials who handle Cincinnati's payroll and budgeting say they haven't heard very much this year from Winburn about cutting his own salary, or reducing benefits packages.

Chris Bigham, superintendent of accounts and auditing over payroll at City Hall, said Winburn has taken the full amount of every council paycheck since January:  "I have not heard one word from him about refunds or anything like that.  He did make a donation earlier this year."

Budget Director Lea Eriksen said she has no memory of Winburn contacting her about reducing his council salary and benefits.   "No, he's not brought that up to me,'' Eriksen told The Daily Bellwwether.  "I follow Council items closely.  If he would have done anything, I would have seen it."

So what could Winburn voluntarily cut from his own pocket?  Here's the list of things that he wanted slashed:  $65,670 in salary; $9,198 annual pension benefits; $5,000-$8,000 annual health benefits.  He said council's compensation package was "$83,268 approximate total of annual compensation."   And in Winburn's world every penny was "questionable" and "could be illegal" and "misinterpretation of what they are entitled to under the term 'compensation.'"

[UPDATE: 4:55 pm -- Winburn copied The Daily Bellwether on an e-mail he sent out today that explains why he's taking city benefits:  "Regarding your inquiry, I based my original question upon a plain reading of the Cincinnati City Charter. We asked and the city administration answered. They determined that the benefits paid for council members were considered compensation and were not a violation of the Charter. When I joined Cincinnati City Council in December, 2009, I opted out of the City-provided benefits because I was covered under another plan. I was subsequently told by the City that I could not opt out of their plan and was required to be covered. If you can provide any further information to me on whether these benefits are illegal, please let me know so that I can opt out altogether."]

Two Ohio Mayors Head For Jerusalem: Dayton's McLin and Cincy's Mallory

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin is on the six-member delegation of U.S. mayors headed to Jerusalem for an international conference about improving urban life that begins tomorrow. Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory is also in the delegation. Both are Democrats.

The conference also gives the mayors a "fresh and open look at Jerusalem, and a new understanding of Israel and its achievements," says Jack Rosen, who heads an organization that helps cover the mayors' expenses. Israel is America's closest ally in the Middle East, so the diplomatic layer of the trip is probably as important as all other aspects put together.

Costs are paid by the American Jewish Congress-Council for World Jewry, and the sessions are hosted by Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski. About 60 others mayors from around the world are coming for the annual conference, whose theme this year is the urban center as the heart of a metropolitan area's economic, governmental, cultural, and administrative influence and importance. The announcement says:

"During the October 14-18 event, the mayors are scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, President Shimon Peres, and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. They will participate in round-table sessions that will explore topics such and intercultural and economic challenges facing cities and the role of mayors in the international arena. The mayors will tour both historic and modern sites in Jersualem and visit Yad Vahsem, the holocaust memorial; the Hadassah Hospital; a high-tech business incubator; and Yad Sarah, a social services facility in Jerusalem."

Cincy Mayor's Dad: I'll Be Peddling Newspapers On City Hall Steps

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Just ran into Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory's dad at a downtown event, and he told me he is so busted up over the coming demise of the Cincinnati Post PM newspaper that he plans to distribute them on City Hall's steps as a eulogy. William L. Mallory Sr., said he's going to buy a $15 bundle for the newspaper's last day on Dec. 31.

"When I was a boy I used to sell them there. They were 2 or 3 cents apiece back in the early 1940s," Mallory recalled. He said somebody tried to chase him off the steps, but the mayor at the time, James Garfield Stewart, intervened. He said Steward told him to stay on the steps for as long as he wanted. "I never forget what he said," Mallory said.

The mayor's father, now retired, was the Democratic Majority Leader of the Ohio House for years. In all, he served 28 years in the Ohio General Assembly before stepping down in 1994. He founded a downstate political dynasty that includes Mark as mayor, Bill Jr. as a Common Pleas Judge, Dale as a state representative in District 32, and Dwane, who is mulling a run for a seat on the Hamilton County Municipal Court.

Cincinnati lawyer Stan Chesley, who hosted fundraisers for President Bill Clinton at his home, recently co-sponsored a gathering that unoffficially launched Mayor Mallory's reelection bid. Gov. Ted Strickland was in attendance when Chesley said the Mallory clan had succeeded the Tafts as the city's preeminent political family.

Said Chesley: "I can remember when everybody wanted to be a Taft. Now nobody wants to be a Taft. They all want to be a Mallory."

The family patriarch said he loved the Post, which leaned Democratic on its editorial pages. He said he considered it a great journalistic enterprise, and added that he once considered becoming a journalist. Instead, Ohio politics beckoned.

Cincy Mayor Lauds SW Ohio Climate Change 'Ambassador'

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Cincinnati's Democratic Mayor Mark Mallory says "global warming is a very serious problem" and nominated a city resident to be trained by Al Gore as a climate-change lecturer to raise concern about the planet's growing environmental crisis. Mallory took action earlier this month, a move that preceded this week's release of a report by the Intergovernmental Report on Climate Change in Paris.

The report, due out on Friday, is expected to present clear scientific findings the Earth has warmed, temperatures will continue to rise, and human activity is overwhelmingly the cause. Mallory wrote a letter of support last October that helped Cincinnatian Mary Clare Rietz be selected for training sessions with Gore earlier this month in Nashville. She will present lectures about the information in Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth across the region.

"Global warming is a very serious problem that affects us all and is going to require a united national response,'' said Mallory, who serves on the U.S. Conference of Mayors council on climate protection. ''The first step is educating people about this crisis and how it can be turned around. It is an honor for her to be selected for this important task. She is a true ambassador, not only for our city, but for the world."

The training was done in conjunction with The Climate Project, a non-profit group that gave 1,000 volunteers from around the nation information to present lectures about global warming. Each of the 1,000 messengers is committed to making at least 10 climate change presentations this year.

Gore's plan to use volunteers has been seen as a savvy initiative to build grassroots support aimed at countering those who say global warming is not a problem, or that it is not connected to human activities.