City Hall’s Lack of Accessibility

All the way back in November of 2020, John Cranley announced that City Hall would remain closed to the public due to surging COVID-19 cases “for several weeks.” The public would have to watch all City Council meetings online and give public comment virtually. The timing of this announcement occurred right around the time PG Sittenfeld was arrested by the FBI for alleged corruption. Fast forward 4 months and City Hall is still closed to the public. In order to participate in the public comment portion of City Council meetings, you have to sign up online 24 hours in advance. In a time when corruption is plaguing our city government, the elected officials who work there are now more inaccessible than ever.

Is the inaccessibility of City Hall and the elected officials who work there by design? The mayor has been all over this city doing press conferences in the recent days and even encouraged hoards of people to head downtown to The Banks and drink beer maskless. And let’s not forget the mayor and some other councilmembers were some one of the biggest critics of Cincinnati Public School’s remote and hybrid learning options. It’s pretty curious that COVID-19 cases continue to dip and vaccinations have become widespread, yet City Hall remains closed with no plan in place to reopen. It comes off as very hypocritical to deny the citizenry the ability to access City Hall and their ability to face their elected officials in-person. If schools are allowed to cram 30 kids into a classroom with “3 feet of social distancing, nose-to-nose,” than I don’t see why City Hall remains closed to the public. If you’re allowed to head down to The Banks on a sunny Saturday afternoon and pound back Rhinegeist with hundreds of maskless strangers, then the mayor and councilmembers can open their doors to the public that put (most) of them into office. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. It’s just laughable to me how some of our elected officials have used this pandemic to retreat further into the shadows when in reality, the dealings of Cincinnati City Hall require lots and lots of sunlight.

We as citizens must hold this “elected” body accountable. Especially considering 4 out of the 9 councilmembers were never actually “elected” in the first place. It’s bold to shut the doors to City Hall as a corruption crisis plagues our local government. Additionally, the City of Cincinnati just recently received $291 million stimulus dollars from the federal government. Now is the perfect time to hear how the citizens of this city feel that money should be spent. Government accessibility is imperative at all times, regardless of a pandemic. From my experience, if a government official goes above and beyond to skirt transparency and government accessibility, something is awry. I wish I could say the brazenness that constantly comes out of City Hall shocks me, but it doesn’t. What will shock me is when things at City Hall actually work the way they are supposed to. Until then, carry on.