CINCINNATI — Cincinnati taxpayers will likely spend more than $152,000 on the salaries and health insurance for suspended City Council members Jeff Pastor and PG Sittenfeld through the end of this year, while both await trial on corruption charges.

State law allows Pastor and Sittenfeld, whom the FBI arrested following separate grand jury indictments last November, to collect full salaries until their cases are resolved in court or their council terms expire on Jan. 3, 2022.

“The bottom line for Cincinnati voters is they’re paying for nothing right now,” said University of Cincinnati political science professor David Niven. “They’re paying for our commitment to justice, which doesn’t tangibly get them anything in terms of work from two employees of the people.”

Eric Clajus

The city also pays for the salaries and health benefits of the two interim council members who temporarily replaced Pastor and Sittenfeld – Steve Goodin and Liz Keating through the end of the year.

In November voters elected Keating to keep her seat on council. She will be returning to her own seat in January. Voters did not elect Goodin.

“It is a lot of money,” Niven said. “It’s a burden on Cincinnati to be paying for two extra council members who literally can’t do anything.”

The city pays council members $5,054 per month and contributes an additional $483 per month to those who have a family health insurance plan. That amounts to $11,074 per month, or $132,891 per year, combined paid to two council members who each have family insurance plans.

Taxpayers also paid Sittenfeld and Pastor’s salary for more than six weeks in late 2020 after their arrests.

Lot Tan

Last year the FBI arrested Pastor on Nov. 10, 2020 and then Sittenfeld on Nov. 19 for allegedly taking thousands in bribes from developers in unrelated cases.

Days after Pastor and Sittenfeld’s arrests, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced he would initiate suspension proceedings against them with the Ohio Supreme Court.

Several council members and Mayor John Cranley called on Pastor and Sittenfeld to resign. Instead, both voluntarily agreed to be suspended, which means they keep receiving paychecks.

“You’re innocent until proven guilty. I think they both stepped away from council so it wouldn’t taint the future decisions,” said Sean Comer, Xavier University’s director of government relations.

WCPO file

But taxpayers may see it for what it is: they have been paying double for two council seats for more than a year.

“Is it fair to taxpayers? Nobody is going to say yes,” Comer said. “Nobody wants their money to go to somebody who is corrupt, who they think has done something illegal.”

Pastor’s attorney, Ben Dusing, said it’s only fair that he keeps getting paid while he awaits trial, which is set for May 2, 2022 in U.S. District Court.

“Given that Mr. Pastor was forcibly displaced from counsel and, if proven innocent, well thank goodness that the law afforded for his continued provision for his family,” Dusing said.

Sittenfeld has been adamant since his arrest that he will fight the charges at trial, which is set for June 20, 2022. Both men will face trial with separate judges and separate juries.

Phil Didion

“PG is innocent and for nearly ten years he served the people of Cincinnati faithfully,” said Sittenfeld’s attorney, Charlie Rittgers. “He is fighting the unfounded charges - and the presumption of innocence is another fairness which the people have said he deserves, just as each of them does.”

The corruption scandal at City Hall began in February 2020 when the FBI arrested former Councilwoman Tamaya Dennard.

A week after her arrest, Dennard resigned, so her city paychecks stopped.

“She resigned, she didn’t take a suspension,” Niven said. “She didn’t take the salary because I don’t think she saw a path forward that would exonerate her.”

She is serving an 18-month prison term after pleading guilty to honest services wire fraud, admitting that she took $15,000 for her vote on a development deal at The Banks.

“Pastor and Sittenfeld are in very different situations (than Dennard) even though they are charged with similar crimes, the details are very, very different,” Niven said.

Due to the complexity of their cases, and the backlog of cases in the federal court system due to COVID, legal experts say it was obvious that any trial for Pastor and Sittenfeld would be more than a year away. And long after their terms on council had expired.

“Certainly, you could make a case that once it was obvious that their case was not going to be set until well after their time on council, that there was a moment that they could have said, ‘I should just resign. I should not continue to collect a check for something that I’m not doing, that I can’t do,’” Comer said.

What could the city spend $152,000 on if it weren’t paying for two extra salaries?

• Hire one and a half new police officers or firefighters.
• Hire nearly two new health center nurses.
• Pay 71 percent of the cost of a new garbage packer truck.
• Buy one and a half snowplows
• Purchase at least three police cruisers
• Add more than 500 pedestrian road signs
• Complete 69 new painted cross walks each with two curb ramps

WCPO

In the city’s most recent capital budget, council voted to spend relatively the same amount as Pastor and Sittenfeld’s salaries on:

• $168,000 Gas light repair and replacements.
•  $150,000 Real Time Crime Center camera program.
• $125,000 Parking meter replacement.
• $125,000 Health center facilities and repairs.
• $150,000 Paddock Road safety improvements.

If Pastor and Sittenfeld are convicted, the city could go to court to recoup the salaries it paid to them over the past year. But it’s likely a judge will also order both men to pay restitution as part of their sentencing, as was done with Dennard. Which means they may not have enough money to repay city taxpayers for those paychecks if convicted, Niven said.

Despite that, Niven said it is still symbolically important for the city to try to recoup those salaries, if either Sittenfeld or Pastor is convicted

Pastor will face a jury with his co-defendant Tyran Marshall, who is accused of funneling bribes to Pastor through an LLC. The FBI arrested Pastor last November on charges that he took $55,000 in bribes from two developers during his first term on council.

WCPO Staff

In Sittenfeld’s case, the FBI alleges that he promised to deliver council votes supporting a development deal at the former Convention Place Mall in exchange for four $5,000 contributions to his political action fund. Sittenfeld allegedly accepted four more checks in fall 2019 for a total of $40,000 in bribes.

These back-to-back trial in May and June will be “challenging and painful,” for the city, Comer said, because so many political consultants, staffers, donors, and developers could be called to testify.

“A defense is not only going to call in every political figure in Cincinnati, at least symbolically, for their part in this,” Niven said. “It’s going to call in every donor, everybody who had business with the city, and every intermediary, campaign staff, consultant and hangar-on.”

“The main defense here is going to be - this is how politics works,” Niven said.

CINCINNATI — Cincinnati City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to direct a portion of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) dollars to affordable housing.

The city has 35 TIF districts. As property values increase in those districts from new developments, a portion of the increased tax dollars the city collects goes into a special fund that is then reinvested in the neighborhood. Under this new ordinance, a chunk of that money will be used solely for affordable housing.

Josh Spring, executive director for the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition, said the money for affordable housing is much needed.

“We are short more than 28,000 affordable homes,” Spring said. “Until we invest real money, significant, millions of dollars…homelessness will continue to increase.”

The city took steps to invest on Wednesday when City Council unanimously approved a measure that allocates 25% of TIF dollars to fund affordable housing. The city’s 35 TIF districts have about $26 million total, meaning $6.6 million will be set aside to build affordable housing. Plus, 25% of any additional money the TIFs generate in the future will also be invested.

Councilmember P.G. Sittenfeld described the investment as “a eureka breakthrough moment.”

“It does not address the totality of the need because we literally need tens of thousands of units of new affordable housing. But this is $6 million more going to affordable housing than was true yesterday, and it’s the biggest commitment the city has ever made,” he said.

Sittenfeld said City Council is defining “affordable” as 60% of area median income and below. He said the 80% standard is not affordable enough.

“This is truly affordable housing,” he said.

Developers can apply for funding if their projects include affordable units.

The Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition supports this move.

“Perfectly matches what we have been pushing for, for a long time,” Spring said.

“Yesterday accomplished one bullet in a long list of changes that we have to make, but we celebrate that one bullet and we continue to press for the rest.”

Spring credits the recent protests for bringing about change.

CINCINNATI — Suspended Cincinnati City Councilman PG Sittenfeld will face a jury on June 20, 2022, setting up back-to-back public corruption trials that could bring national attention to the Queen City for two months next summer.

U.S. District Court Judge Douglas Cole set Sittenfeld’s trial date during a 10-minute court hearing on Tuesday. Attorneys predict the case could take three to four weeks to present to a jury.

“I’m eager to move forward and I’m very confident that when the full facts come out, I’ll be completely exonerated,” Sittenfeld said, as he entered the courthouse. “We’re going to fight this to the very end.”

Sittenfeld is the third council member the FBI arrested on public corruption charges last year. Former Councilwoman Tamaya Dennard is serving an 18-month prison sentence after she pleaded guilty to honest services wire fraud.

Suspended Councilman Jeff Pastor faces a jury on May 2, 2022, with his co-defendant Tyran Marshall, who is accused of funneling bribes to Pastor through an LLC. The FBI arrested Pastor last November on charges that he took $55,000 in bribes from two developers during his first term on council.

In a May interview, Pastor’s attorney, Ben Dusing, blamed the long trial delay on a backlog caused by the COVID-required closures.

But one of Sittenfeld’s attorneys, Charles H. Rittgers, said the nine-month delay may be necessary to allow them to resolve evidenciary disputes with prosecutors and give them time to review documents and interview witnesses.

Sittenfeld and Pastor’s cases will be heard by different judges and different juries. Rittgers did not believe that Sittenfeld’s trial would be impacted by whatever the jury decides weeks ahead in Pastor’s case.

“The facts, as I understand it, as laid out by the prosecution, are totally different from the facts in PG’s case,” Rittgers said. “My understanding is that there was financial gain on behalf of Pastor … PG did not personally gain anything financially.”

Sittenfeld, a Democrat, had been considered the front-runner to win this year’s Cincinnati mayoral race until the FBI arrested him in November. A 20-page indictment charged Sittenfeld with two counts of honest services wire fraud, two counts of bribery and two counts of attempted extortion.

Federal officials alleged that Sittenfeld promised to deliver council votes in 2018 supporting a development deal at the former Convention Place Mall in exchange for four $5,000 contributions to his political action fund. Sittenfeld allegedly accepted four more checks in fall 2019 for a total of $40,000 in bribes.

“This is not a case about personal gain – the government does not allege that money went into Mr. Sittenfeld’s pockets,” Rittgers wrote in a motion to dismiss all charges. “Rather, the indictment alleges nothing more than that Mr. Sittenfeld engaged in the kind of routine conduct of elected officials in cities, counties and states across the nation.”

But prosecutors say what Sittenfeld did is a crime.

“It is not a defense to bribery that the public official would have done the official act anyway, even without payment; and receiving bribe payments through a PAC is no less corrupt,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Singer wrote in a recent court filing. “These actions are not … ‘everyday American democratic activity’—this is bribery.”

What the jury believes about Sittenfeld’s political fund, which is named the Progress and Growth PAC, could determine his fate.

CINCINNATI — Cincinnati is preserving affordable housing in the West End, but some believe it is coming at the expense of more than two dozen families.

Chris Griffin, West End Community Council president, said his father is one of the people paying the price for upgrades to the Arts Apartments.

"My father has been a 30-year resident at those apartments, and he's being displaced," Griffin said.

Griffin said his father fell victim to a policy involving tax incentives used to upgrade the Arts Apartments, long recognized as an affordable housing development that did not enforce specific income requirements.

By taking advantage of those tax incentives, apartment residents will now have to meet specific income requirements.

Griffin said those displaced are "poor" but "not poor enough" to live there.

"These people shouldn't have to move," he said. "They've been paying their rent there for a long time."

Cincinnati city council approved the tax exemption for owner and developer Birge & Held in November.

The company also applied for Low Income Housing Tax Credits through the state. And committed to making all units affordable.

Of the 248 units, 83 will be Section 8 housing. The remaining 165 units will be deemed affordable, with rents varying by income levels below 60 percent of the area median income.

For the West End, that means a family must make below $35,800 to live at the Arts Apartments.

Under the new terms, 28 existing tenants don't meet those income qualifications and must leave.

"My dad…he sent me a photo and said I don't want to end up like this," said Griffin, who shared a photograph on Twitter that appeared to show a displaced resident.

Welp this is what’s going on in the West End, Market-rate renter were forced out of their homes. 29 families the CDC and city council approved to be displaced from the west end @GregLandsman @ChrisSeelbach @voteSundermann @voteSmitherman @Dr_JRTate @VoteDillingham @StaceySmithCCC pic.twitter.com/czd0XSPMvw

— Christopher Griffin (@Chris_SupaG) August 25, 2021

But Mary Burke Rivers, executive director of Over-The-Rhine Community Housing, said that is not what's happening in the photo.

"In that particular image was a person who relocated on site while their unit was being renovated. And when they moved back they didn't want their furniture. So they talked to the property mangers and said, 'I don't want this. I'm going to put this out,'" she said.

OTRCH is working with Birge & Held on the project.

Rivers said those displaced are being offered relocation assistance.

"All moving expenses are being covered, nobody is set out, and can get upwards of over $9,000 in relocation benefits," Rivers said.

She added that the goal for her organization is to help preserve affordable housing, not end it for some residents.

"We know that it's so important to preserve affordable housing, because you can't get it back," Rivers said.

Some residents and West End representatives argue the changes in the neighborhood, such as those at the Arts Apartment, aren't helping everyone who lives there.

"This is just an example of the double-edge sword if we don't look at all outcomes of the actions that we're taking, and the development that we're doing," said Ashley White, West End Community Development Corporation president. "We need to talk to everyone and not just one side."

Both the West End Community Council and the West End Community Development Corporation said they want more say before the city council makes any further decisions on developments as more housing projects with set income levels are on the way for the West End.

"If we convert everything to deed-restricted income-based housing… we really don't have affordability for anybody at any other income," said Noah O'Brien, vice president of the West End Community Council.

LaVonda Evans spoke about the unspeakable at Cincinnati City Hall on Tuesday morning. Her only son, 16-year-old Ladarius Evans, was shot and killed during a quadruple shooting in Walnut Hills in June.

"Words can't even explain,” Evans said. “It was a moment of disbelief, hurt, pain, confused. I was hoping it was a bad dream."

Evans is now asking city leaders for change. In front of city council’s Law and Public Safety committee she pleaded for a solution to gun violence for her son's sake.

"This was a loss that I had to take,” she said. “Half of my heart is gone. And this is what he'd want me to do."

Community anti-violence advocate pastor Ennis Tait is also looking for solutions to the city’s string of summer shootings, many of which have injured or killed young teenagers.

"We have to look at it in the way we describe it as public health crisis, just as we did with COVID," Tait said. “All the teams came together."

Tait is asking the city to take an “all-in” approach to gun violence.

"Where everyone in their respective roles were at the table bringing their resources and their wisdom and their knowledge,” he said.

Tait is putting that idea into practice at the Business Center in Avondale on Reading Road that houses his ministries offices. There the Positive Force Collaborative is expanding and establishing a dedicated center. The program will address issues like violence, poverty and trauma among other issues.

"We were using other spaces, but now we have where they're going to be trained and be developed,” Tait said. “But, they'll also receive mentoring."

Tait also said he hopes the expansion can lead to more resources for people.

"In Cincinnati we have a commitment to doing research, we invest a lot in research, we invest in a lot of opinions,” he said. “We don't do a whole lot in people."

Tait hopes the space will be ready to go in three months, and the sooner the better to start changing lives before it’s too late, as it was for Ladarius Evans’ mother.

"This is a lifelong loss for me,” said Evans. “I have to deal with this everyday. Every movement. He's supposed to graduate next year, go to prom. I will never get to experience that, never with him."

If you know anything about the shooting June 17 in Walnut Hills, please call Crime Stoppers at 513-352-3040.

CINCINNATI — A coalition pushing for more affordable housing in Cincinnati has grown in strength and numbers, and its leaders say a funding proposal is on the horizon.

“We’re stronger today than we were before the ballot box,” said Josh Spring, executive director of the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition. “We’re confident that we’re going to get this accomplished -- that we will get housing funded every year in this city by right.”

Voters in May rejected a charter amendment that would have required Cincinnati’s city government to set aside $50 million each year to build and preserve affordable housing in the city.

RELATED: Voters defeat Issue 3 affordable housing proposal

City officials and local unions opposed the measure, arguing it could require the city to reduce services and cut jobs to come up with the money. But labor leaders and affordable housing advocates have joined forces since the vote and say they’re determined to craft a winning proposal.

Eric Clajus | WCPO

“It’s been called a family reunion, if you will,” said Brian Griffin, director of communications and technology for the Cincinnati AFL-CIO Labor Council. “We are all back on the same side of the table. We’re all pulling on the same end of the rope again, and we have a very common interest. And we are very, very dedicated to the idea that this is an issue that needs to be brought to a front burner, and it needs to be addressed in the city of Cincinnati.”

The Rev. Damon Lynch III said he’s calling on faith leaders to join the effort, too.

“During the time of the fight for Issue 3, the faith community was visibly absent,” said Lynch, the pastor of New Prospect Baptist Church in Roselawn who has been meeting with the affordable housing coalition. “My charge and my challenge is for the faith community to get actively involved. These are members of our congregations, members of our families who need housing.”

Eric Clajus | WCPO

Elected officials and business leaders from across the political spectrum are working to address the need for more affordable housing, said Cincinnati City Councilman Steve Goodin, a Republican. But Goodin argued city government and city taxpayers should not be asked to tackle the issue alone.

“The folks who need this housing don’t really recognize the boundaries of the city and the county,” he said. “We’ve got to have a regional approach. There’s great housing stock in the county.”

Housing is considered affordable if it costs no more than 30% of a family’s monthly income. A recent report showed how high people’s wages must be to afford a typical apartment.

‘This is a good fight’

In Ohio, the fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $865 a month. For people to afford that rent and accompanying utilities without paying more than 30% of their monthly income, they must earn at least $14.84 an hour, according to Out of Reach 2021, a report issued July 14 by the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio.

Fair market rental rates are higher in Cincinnati, at $916 for a two-bedroom apartment, according to the report, so tenants here must earn at least $17.62 an hour to reasonably afford that rent.

“As long as there’s low wages, there’s going to be a need for low-income housing,” Lynch said. “And the handwriting on the wall is that we’re actually losing affordable housing, wages are not increasing, and people are losing their homes.”

Fonsea Bonner and Barbara Prince are both residents of Gateway Plaza Apartments, a subsidized apartment tower in downtown Cincinnati, and both worked as volunteers trying to get out the vote for the affordable housing charter amendment known as Issue 3.

Lucy May | WCPO

They said that people who live in income-based housing are feeling stuck because their options are shrinking as the city’s redevelopment continues.

“If at any time I feel as if I want to move, where am I going to go?” Bonner said. “I’m not able to afford market rent. So what am I supposed to do if there’s no affordable housing here?”

“That’s the thing about it,” Prince added. “You can’t hardly find it because it’s not out here anymore. They’re making condos and everything else. So it’s hard for anybody, you know, to really go somewhere and live.”

Low-income people are being displaced in Cincinnati every day, Lynch said, making it difficult for them to build strong, healthy communities.

“As a Christian faith community, this is one of the fights that we should be involved in,” he said. “Vernon Johns, the great pastor before Dr. King, said this. He said his father taught him, ‘Son, when you see a good fight, jump in it.’ And this is a good fight.”

The language in Issue 3 suggested multiple revenue sources the city could use to fund Cincinnati’s affordable housing trust fund, but critics said several were unworkable. The coalition working to create a new proposal is looking at the suggestions in the Issue 3 charter amendment, Spring said, and other proposals surrounding the trust fund including Cincinnati City Councilman Chris Seelbach’s proposed ordinance to increase the city’s income tax by 0.1% to generate millions of dollars each year for affordable housing.

Courtesy: Graydon Head & Ritchey LLP

Goodin said he likely will oppose Seelbach’s proposal because he thinks it will end in another big fight that doesn’t lead to a solution. Plus, Goodin said, the city just lowered its earnings tax as a way to convince voters to pass Issue 7 for better public transit.

“I don’t want it to be a bait and switch for the voters,” he said. “I think the voters will have a very negative reaction to that. And I don’t think the business community will have a very positive reaction either.”

It’s possible, Goodin said, to create a sizable affordable housing trust fund with public and private cooperation that won’t increase taxes at all.

The city of Cincinnati already dedicates lots of tax dollars to tax abatements and incentives for higher priced homes and development, said State Rep. Tom Brinkman, a Mount Lookout Republican. If city leaders wanted, they could redirect that money to affordable housing without raising taxes at all, he said.

“Right now, I believe there’s plenty of funds out there,” Brinkman said. “Just redirect it, and right size it.”

However it is accomplished, the goal is to generate a large enough trust fund to create new affordable housing, help preserve the affordable housing the city already has and help people achieve the goal of affordable home ownership, Spring said.

‘We won’t stop’

“What we’re seeing is a renewed interest in, how do we provide or help to create an environment for safe and affordable quality housing for as many Cincinnati residents as possible?” said Jeniece Jones, executive director of Housing Opportunities Made Equal, Cincinnati’s fair housing organization.

Cincinnati’s affordable housing trust fund could include down payment assistance for low-income home buyers, she said, in addition to low-interest loans and assistance for low- or moderate-income homeowners whose are struggling to afford their taxes as their neighborhoods redevelop around them.

Zoom screenshot

“That’s where the rubber really meets the road,” Jones said. “That’s a way for us to move forward in a meaningful way to get homeownership as one of the many things that an affordable housing trust fund can and should be able to do.”

The coalition expects to craft a proposal in the coming months to put before Cincinnati City Council, Spring said, or to put before voters again.

“We are confident that the way we get this done is by having the power be in people’s hands,” Spring said. “Certainly, if city council – this city council or a future city council – wants to step up and move forward, we can work together.”

Griffin said there’s a compelling case for the business community to back the construction and preservation of more affordable housing, too.

Lucy May | WCPO

“This is something that, again, everybody at every layer of the community – from the business community to the labor community to everybody else – really needs to bring front and center and resolve as soon as possible,” he said. “There is a sense of urgency. And while we want to get it right, we also want to get it as soon as possible.”

It’s not a question of whether Cincinnati’s affordable housing trust fund will be funded, Spring said, but when.

“We will accomplish this,” he said. “The development and preservation of housing will be funded in this city. We know it will because we won’t stop until it is. So we’ll just keep pushing until we accomplish our goal.”

More information about the push for more affordable housing in Cincinnati – including how to get involved in the effort – is available through the Cincinnati Action for Housing Now website or the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition website.

Lucy May writes about the people, places and issues that define our region – to celebrate what makes the Tri-State great and shine a spotlight on problems we need to address. Poverty is an important focus for Lucy and for WCPO 9. To reach Lucy, email lucy.may@wcpo.com. Follow her on Twitter @LucyMayCincy.

CINCINNATI — The city budget is finally balanced, but it took $67 million of American Rescue Plan funding to make it happen. On Thursday, at the first public hearing for Cincinnati’s 2022 budget, groups made their case to receive a portion of what’s left.

But members of council are still uncertain about the city’s financial future. Decisions made in Columbus could radically change Cincinnati’s plans.

The issue: "There is significant uncertainty in the short term regarding the extent of income taxes,” said assistant city manager Chris Bingham.

Earnings tax, which funds a majority of Cincinnati’s city budget, can usually only be collected from people working within city limits.

During the pandemic, Gov. Mike DeWine signed an order allowing Ohio cities to collect the tax from people working remotely for local companies while living elsewhere.

RELATED: Remote workers want to stop paying city income taxes

That measure isn’t permanent, however. And if people don’t return to working in-person, inside city limits, the tax revenue they generated for local government will be lost.

Worst of all, from a local government’s point of view: The Ohio House and Senate are considering bills that would require cities to refund the remote workers who paid earnings tax during the pandemic.

“It would be absolutely devastating for a city like Cincinnati that is so dependent on the earnings tax,” said Councilmember David Mann, who chairs City Council’s budget and finance committee.

But Cincinnati would also have time to plan. Mann said he and his colleagues are ready to use American Rescue Plan money to fill the tax gap this year and next if necessary.

“It’s not like the money disappears the next day” if a new bill is passed, Mann said. “One of the things we did when we made estimates about how to use the stimulus money was to increase our contingency because of those issues.”

The city budget must be finalized and approved by the end of June.