Fact check from Pureval and Mann’s debate

The fiery debate between the two Cincinnati mayoral candidates Tuesday night provided fodder for water cooler conversations the next morning.

It also left plenty to fact check.

Cincinnati councilman David Mann and Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Aftab Pureval meet for a debate Tuesday, Sept. 21, at Xavier University, hosted by The Enquirer.

What does Aftab Pureval really do as Hamilton County clerk of courts? How long has Councilman David Mann been in office really?

Here's a look at some of the claims Pureval and Mann made Tuesday night at Xavier University and the truth behind them:

How long has Mann been in office?

What was said: Mann and Pureval couldn’t agree on how long Mann has served in government. Pureval said 47 years. Mann said 26 in City Hall.

Mann, a former mayor, has pitched himself as an experienced veteran. Pureval has pitched himself as a newcomer who can bring change.

The facts: Mann has been in public office 28 years, though it’s been over a 47-year stretch. Here’s how it breaks down: He’s been on Cincinnati City Council for 26 years; 18 of them from 1974 to 1992 and then another eight years after being elected in 2013 and reelected in 2017. That’s 26 years. He served one term as Ohio's 1st Congressional District representative from 1993 to 1995, bringing the total to 28.

Is the clerk of courts 'not terribly important'?

What was said: Mann described Pureval’s clerk of courts job as “not terribly important.”

“As clerk, under the statutes of Ohio, his only responsibility is to keep track of the papers,” Mann said.

The facts: When asked by The Enquirer what his day-to-day routines were like, how many days a week he's in the office and for how many hours, Pureval wouldn’t specify.

“My job every day is to ensure justice in Hamilton County happens, that it happens efficiently and that people have access to the courts,” Pureval said Wednesday, the day after the debate.

The clerk of courts gets paid $113,000 a year and is responsible for an office with a $16 million annual budget and 200 employees. The duties of the clerk of courts office include filing court documents, issuing titles for automobiles, overseeing bailiffs in municipal court to provide security and serve evictions, process traffic tickets and process passport applications.

Were people Pureval fired allowed to talk?

What was said: Right after he took office as clerk of courts in 2017, Pureval fired 15 people in his office. He asked them to sign separation agreements that included a nondisparagement clause that prevented either party from making negative comments about the other.

When pressed by Enquirer reporter Sharon Coolidge on Tuesday night, Pureval said the people he fired were released from the nondisparagement clause and can talk about him, good or bad. He said one of the employees was even featured in an ad against him in his 2018 congressional campaign.

The facts: Pureval and his attorney, Paul De Marco, contend the employees were released from the nondisparagement clause and all other restrictions in the separation agreement on Dec. 10, 2018. On that day, the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office ruled the separation agreements unenforceable, De Marco said Wednesday.

Then, on Aug. 1, 2019, the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution releasing all 15 employees from any claims made against them.

“I would do the whole thing differently,” Pureval told The Enquirer on Wednesday. “The contracts were unenforceable and null and void. We did not include county commissioners and prosecutor in the process.”

What happened to Cierra Allen?

What was said: In response to a question regarding police-community relations, Pureval spoke about the need to address gun violence. He gave a recent example from his office: An employee, Cierra Allen, 30, a mother of two and a law student at Northern Kentucky University's Chase College of Law, was shot and killed Sept. 11.

Allen worked in the Hamilton County Clerk of Courts' help center.

"Gun violence has just increased at a shocking rate in our city and across the country," Pureval said. "Just recently a third-year law student going to school at night, Black woman, mother of two, was shot and killed. Her name was Cierra Allen and she was an employee of the clerk of courts office. I called Cierra’s mom and tried to explain to her how beloved Cierra was in the office and how the incredible work she did at the help center lifted up so many families in our community. Of course, Cierra’s mother was in complete despair."

The facts: What Pureval said was accurate. But there was more to the story.

Hours before the debate, Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters announced he declined to press charges against the shooter. Cincinnati police and the prosecutor's office determined that Allen was shot in self-defense, according to a press release from the prosecutor's office.

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Fact check from Pureval and Mann’s debate

How long has Mann been in office?

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