The Dirty Politics of City Hall
As if the drama at Cincinnati City Hall couldn’t get any worse, City Councilmember Wendell Young was charged Thursday with tampering with records which is a third-degree felony. There has been whispers all over conservative talk radio for the past few months about how “another indictment” was coming for a City Councilmember which leads me to believe this felony charge was predetermined and has been cooked up for a while. The charge stems from the “Gang of 5” text messaging scandal and The Enquirer’s Sharon Coolidge does a nice job of summarizing the felony charge here. In short, a special prosecutor, named Patrick Hanley, was appointed to investigate the Gang of 5 scandal, despite the fact Judge Ruehlman already had fined the City of Cincinnati $101,000 over the 5 councilmember’s actions of holding “secret meetings” over text messages. But that wasn’t enough for some at City Hall. The most important piece of information in The Enquirer’s article on Wendell’s arrest is as follows: “Hanley, who was appointed by Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters at the request of then-City Solicitor Paula Boggs-Muething, has been investigating since December 2019 whether the text messages themselves or the missing texts rose to the level of a crime.”
Anyone with any sort of knowledge of City Hall knows that Paula Boggs-Muething is at the beck and call of our seedy Mayor. This previous request of a special prosecutor to investigate the “Gang of 5” has John Cranley’s finger prints all over it. Wendell Young and John Cranley have often battled with each other over the years and Young even went as far to report the mayor to the FBI for possible corruption in 2018. Despite the fact nothing ever came out of Young’s complaint to the FBI, this most likely is revenge at the behest of Cranley. You’re probably wondering what heinous felony Young committed? He deleted some of the notorious “Gang of 5” text messages off of his phone. Firstly, many phones are set up to delete messages after a certain time period. Secondly, given the fact that Young is 75 years old, I don’t exactly expect him to be the most tech-savvy person around. Thirdly, the court as well as the cell phone providers all have and had records of the text messages. Simply deleting old messages off of a cell phone seems like such an asinine felony. It’s hilarious to me that when law enforcement wanted Cranley’s phone to review his own text messages, he accidentally dropped his phone into a hot tub. But the COAST sycophants let that little snafu slide considering they endorsed the mayor during his 2013 run.
If Wendell Young were to resign, Chris Seelbach would pick his replacement.
There’s been plenty of faux outrage coming from political hacks like Betsy Sundermann and Liz Keating. Betsy Sundermann is one of the many unelected appointed councilmembers who goes on Twitter tirades praising Trump, crying about masks and bashing public school teachers. Sundermann told Sharon Coolidge, “Young must resign immediately so we can focus on the real issue impacting Cincinnati. The people of our city deserve much better than this revolving door of corruption.” Except there is nothing corrupt about Wendell Young. If Sundermann’s definition of corruption is simply deleting old text messages off of one’s phone, she’s truly delusional (spoiler: she indeed is). Liz Keating, also an unelected councilmember who purchased her seat on City Council, also called on Young to step down. Keep in mind these are two people who have never even appeared on the ballot, while over 28,000 Cincinnatians casted votes to elect Wendell Young in 2017. Both of these Trumper’s opinions are irrelevant and they’re just seizing upon an easy opportunity to take pot shots at a well-respected City Councilmember.
I applaud Young for refusing to take some half-baked plea deal and I hope he fights this all the way until justice is truly served in his favor. He should not resign and he should continue to serve on City Council as normal. The last question that must be answered is if Young does resign, who gets to choose his replacement and who will replace him? According to his Successor Designation Certificate he filed when he was elected in 2017, he designated Tamaya Dennard and Chris Seelbach to choose his replacement if he were ever to step down. As far as I can tell, that means Seelbach would have full discretion at picking Young’s replacement if he were to resign. To me, the obvious choice would be to appoint Michelle Dillingham if Young is forced to step down. Dillingham placed 10th in the 2017 council election behind corrupt Jeff Pastor whose another Republican that purchased his way onto City Council. Dillingham lost a seat on council by a mere 217 votes, meaning 21,000 Cincinnatians already voted for her and she actually appeared on the ballot. We also must keep in mind that Dillingham is known for actually fighting for the working-class people of Cincinnati and she doesn’t play nice with corrupt politicians. Which means it probably won’t be her who is appointed because nobody at City Hall will want to actually appoint someone that will disrupt the status quo. The dirty politics of this city continues to make me sick. I hope Wendell Young stays strong and continues to fight the good fight.
