Saturday, February 11, 2012

Who Does Council Member Smitherman Represent ?

Cincinnati City Council Members Smitherman & Winburn called for a special council meeting to showboat discuss the streetcar project. There, Smitherman peppered City Manager Dohoney about all sorts of minutiae. Dohoney has been upfront & transparent about this project from day one. What is strange is Duke Energy's assertions of specifications & costs which appear to be a money grab. But Smitherman took their numbers as gospel while even questioning Mr Dohoney when he stated the overall cost would be 110. If Smitherman were really representing the citizens of Cincinnati it seems he would want to direct his questioning at Duke. Instead, his behavior at the meeting indicated he might be representing Duke or residents in Hamilton County outside the city. It's been suggested his roles in the local NAACP might be conflicting with his role as a member of city council. What else is he involved in? He certainly doesn't seem too interested in preventing the citizens of Cincinnati from getting fleeced.

3 comments:

WestEnder said...

I doubt even Smitherman knows the answer to this question.

Quimbob said...

I guess it depends.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF8YodHwzik

5chw4r7z said...

The short radio news clip I heard was interesting, like Smitherman was representing the people Of Cincinnati.
He asked, "can the City legally proceed with the streetcar if Duke does not cooperate?"
Dohoney, "Yes! The city owns the streets and rights of way and Duke uses those rights of way at our pleasure"
So it seems like Mr. Smitherman helped make the point that there is not a damn thing Duke can do to stop construction.