{"id":926,"date":"2014-08-02T08:55:48","date_gmt":"2014-08-02T12:55:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.townehouse.net\/phoenix\/?p=926"},"modified":"2015-08-24T15:00:11","modified_gmt":"2015-08-24T19:00:11","slug":"howdy-harry-black","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?p=926","title":{"rendered":"City Manager Selection"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Harry_Black\"<\/a>As you may recall, last December almost immediately after being elected, Mayor John Cranley nominated Park Board Director Willie Carden for the position of City Manager to replace outgoing City Manager Milton Dohoney. Very soon after that, and prior to his confirmation by the council it came to light that an ethics complaint had been filed against Carden with the Ohio Ethics Commission. Apparently Carden, along with his Finance Director, Marijane Klug, had received \u201csalary Enhancements\u201d paid to them by the Cincinnati Parks Foundation. After an investigation by the Ethics Commission, a settlement<\/a> was reached requiring both Carden and Klug pay back half of the monies received and the commission would not refer the matter to the prosecutor’s office. Both Carden and Klug continued their employment with the Cincinnati Park Board. That truly amazes me that not only did they keep their jobs, but were permitted to keep half of their illegal earnings.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

After the above action was made public following the nomination of Carden, he withdrew as a candidate and Mayor Cranley was given a do over<\/a> in selecting a new City manager. Apparently this time he took a bit more time to locate the new candidate for city Manager than he did when selecting Carden. About eight months longer in fact. Several days ago he announced the nomination of the Chief Financial Officer from the City of Baltimore, Maryland, Harry Black. Harry has no previous experience as a City Manager. Now my first reaction was \u201cWhat, did you not see the HBO series, “The Wire<\/a>\u201d\u201d. If you have not, take my word for it, this series did not present a very flattering picture of Baltimore City Administration or politics. Of course, I have no idea if this was factually presented, or just made up to be good television. So I will reserve judgment on his previous employment and employer and just assume he is a straight arrow.<\/p>\n

Following a national search, there did not seem to be much publicity or press coverage. I only recall one article where the Mayor stated the search was nearing a conclusion and he hoped to have the new City manager on the job by July First. Obviously, that did not happen. However, it did not seem to take long before the \u201clong list\u201d became a short list of only two candidates, Harry Black and Scott Stiles. The selection of Harry Black was no surprise as it follows the trend that local talent is always overlooked in favor of outside talent. This trend occurred in the selection of the fire chief and the last two police chiefs, even when the local talent appears to be the best candidate, as in the case of the selection of Jeffrey Blackwell. There is no question in my mind that Paul Humphries was clearly the best choice for position of\u00a0Police Chief. That being said, all that is left to do is to adopt a wait and see stance. I wish the new City Manager the best of luck. Hopefully he can settle in quickly, pick up the reins and get the City back on a fiscally sound foothold. I trust he will not find the east\/west divide too confusing and trust he will quickly realize that Gold Star is the superior chili.<\/p>\n

Those are my thoughts, what are yours?<\/p>\n

Thank you for reading the blog. Feel free to comment, disagree, like, share, and subscribe.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As you may recall, last December almost immediately after being elected, Mayor John Cranley nominated Park Board Director Willie Carden for the position of City Manager to replace outgoing City Manager Milton Dohoney. Very soon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_daextrevo_audio_file_creation_date":"","_daextrevo_text_to_speech":"","_daextrevo_document_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13,21,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-opinion","category-political"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/THFI.png?fit=214%2C200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":794,"url":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?p=794","url_meta":{"origin":926,"position":0},"title":"Cranley\u2019sDo Over","author":"Tom Lind","date":"December 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"When John Cranley was elected to Mayor he jumped into the mix with both feet. He was making Mayoral decision even before he took the oath of office, as we saw with the dismissal of then City Manager Milton Dohoney, and he announced his intent to appoint Willie Carden to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"John Cranley","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/johncranley-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11418,"url":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?p=11418","url_meta":{"origin":926,"position":1},"title":"The Elephants In The Room","author":"Tom Lind","date":"May 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I have been fortunate enough to be on this planet for a good number of years. In those years I have seen a lot of changes in our society. Specifically I am speaking with regards to the disparate treatment of members of different races. Having grown up in an all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/10986958_10153885875821040_5250909110685643185_o.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/10986958_10153885875821040_5250909110685643185_o.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/10986958_10153885875821040_5250909110685643185_o.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/10986958_10153885875821040_5250909110685643185_o.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11484,"url":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?p=11484","url_meta":{"origin":926,"position":2},"title":"The Elected and the Useless","author":"Tom Lind","date":"June 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Not that there was ever any chance that Jeffrey Blackwell would be an effective leader or a good police chief for the Cincinnati Police Department, recent events have ensured that he has become even less effective, if that is possible. I am referring to the events of the past few\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Harry-Black.jpg?fit=820%2C461&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Harry-Black.jpg?fit=820%2C461&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Harry-Black.jpg?fit=820%2C461&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Harry-Black.jpg?fit=820%2C461&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12189,"url":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?p=12189","url_meta":{"origin":926,"position":3},"title":"Like A Bad Penny","author":"Tom Lind","date":"December 31, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"There is an old idiom about a bad penny and such seems to be the case about former Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffery Blackwell, who was fired as chief on September 9th, 2015. I believed that would be the end of my commentary on the matter with what I thought\u00a0was a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/6b540487-5117-4bba-956c-c8fa910c5552-large16x9_CranleyBlackwellNewserFeed_frame_22850.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/6b540487-5117-4bba-956c-c8fa910c5552-large16x9_CranleyBlackwellNewserFeed_frame_22850.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/6b540487-5117-4bba-956c-c8fa910c5552-large16x9_CranleyBlackwellNewserFeed_frame_22850.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/6b540487-5117-4bba-956c-c8fa910c5552-large16x9_CranleyBlackwellNewserFeed_frame_22850.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":27,"url":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?p=27","url_meta":{"origin":926,"position":4},"title":"Corruption In Cincinnati City Government","author":"Tom Lind","date":"September 2, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"There is a form of corruption in City Government that is insidious and is undermining the Civil Service process. As a tax payer, you have the right to expect that individuals being hired and promoted within the Civil Service Process are the best candidates, the most qualified, the best bang\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Political"","block_context":{"text":"Political","link":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?cat=22"},"img":{"alt_text":"It's not who you know . . . . .","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/favoritism-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11778,"url":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?p=11778","url_meta":{"origin":926,"position":5},"title":"The Next Police Chief","author":"Tom Lind","date":"September 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Several weeks have now passed since the firing of Jeffrey Blackwell from his position of Police Chief of the Cincinnati Police Department. The dust seems to have settled and those who were vocal over the validity of the firing have calmed their rhetoric. Certain Council members have accepted the fact\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/preview.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/preview.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/preview.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/preview.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p38YRh-eW","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}