Speaker 1: Don't want to be an American.
Speaker 2: He's got flown back on seven hundred the pretty well
Speaker 2: would just jump right back into it.
Speaker 1: Man over the fence, over the wall, as they say.
Speaker 2: City council members are pretty tight lipped about taking sides
Speaker 2: regarding the city manager's decision AKA after Perevol's decision a
Speaker 2: place Chief terias A. Thiji on leave. We heard from
Speaker 2: Ken Kober immediately following yesterday's press conference with Steve im
Speaker 2: at the Finny Law fram who is representing Chief Thiji
Speaker 2: in this whole situation. He came on my show live
Speaker 2: on seven hundred Wow, and his immediate reaction to this
Speaker 2: thing was like, listen, there's many in the rank and
Speaker 2: file weren't necessarily Teresa Thigi fans, but guess what we
Speaker 2: all are now because of what happened to her, that
Speaker 2: she's being railroaded out of her job and being called
Speaker 2: this this is nothing but politics and she's a political scapegoat.
Speaker 2: And finding out on her thirty fifth anniversary of or
Speaker 2: hire as a new cop and now the chief of Cincinnati,
Speaker 2: the first woman to do that long history of service
Speaker 2: for her family as an insult to the badge and
Speaker 2: salt to the whole process. And what's interesting about this
Speaker 2: after the followed very very few and that's, by the way,
Speaker 2: I may say, not serving all of them, but the
Speaker 2: only one to voice an opinion on counsel and this
Speaker 2: whole thing joins me now and that is Seth Wall Seth,
Speaker 2: good morning. I'm doing well, but I'm also probably doing
Speaker 2: better than you right now. I can't imagine what you
Speaker 2: woke up this morning and went in the seconds where
Speaker 2: the cobwebs are there, they go away. The first thing
Speaker 2: you probably thought of is is this dumpster fire?
Speaker 3: It's been It's been quite a week of chaos and
Speaker 3: hectic and yeah, it's been. It's been a week, Scott,
Speaker 3: and not the best week that we've had in Entity council.
Speaker 1: Yeah, is Terry Thiji the problem?
Speaker 3: You know, I think the problem with that question, Scott
Speaker 3: is how do we know that they're not telling you anything,
Speaker 3: They're not telling me anything. None of us know why
Speaker 3: this decision is being made. So is she's the problem.
Speaker 3: I'm waiting for the evidence to be shown to us.
Speaker 2: But in people, so wow, this is you know, it's
Speaker 2: share a long because the way it works is the chiefs,
Speaker 2: the chiefs administrators they all report to city manager share along.
Speaker 2: So this is Cheryl's But again, she's just the executioner, right,
Speaker 2: This is the mayor. This is af tad pirrival. This
Speaker 2: isn't Sheryl Long. She is a subordinate and she's doing
Speaker 2: what she I don't know what she is commanded to do,
Speaker 2: I suppose.
Speaker 1: Or I don't know. Is Cherylong run the whole thing?
Speaker 2: Either way, it's a horrible look for the mayor, especially
Speaker 2: with an election coming up in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 3: Well, I think it's a bad look for the city
Speaker 3: as a whole. You know, from everything that I've been told,
Speaker 3: which is pretty much what you see in the media.
Speaker 3: I mean, this seems to be a decision made by
Speaker 3: Cheryl Long, and I think that leads to a lot
Speaker 3: of questions about the fact that the police chief, at
Speaker 3: the end of the day, is a very important decision,
Speaker 3: especially when we are trying to get crime under control
Speaker 3: in our downtown or over the Rhine and in these
Speaker 3: neighborhoods were seeing spice and crime in It is a
Speaker 3: very very important decision to change the police chief, no
Speaker 3: matter when you're changing the police chief, but to change
Speaker 3: it in such a chaotic tactic fashion with no clear plan,
Speaker 3: no clear evidence about why the decision is being made.
Speaker 3: That is a massive problem, and it is I think
Speaker 3: it's I think Ken was spot on. I imagine this
Speaker 3: is terrible from hero out for the police department, because
Speaker 3: you know, even if it's not a situation of a scapegoat,
Speaker 3: it sure feels that way. And it's a situation that
Speaker 3: we need to be providing stability right now. We need
Speaker 3: to be showing leadership and we need to put our
Speaker 3: plan for because the most important thing is public safety,
Speaker 3: not personality conflicts.
Speaker 2: Seth Walsha immediately following the press conference yesterday with Steve Vam,
Speaker 2: who did a great job, by the way, I spoke
Speaker 2: to Ken Cobra, President the FFP live on the show,
Speaker 2: and that was one of the questions I had to him.
Speaker 2: It's like, we just spent what kramerting four and a
Speaker 2: half million dollars with Kramating, Jefferies, yourself and others voting
Speaker 2: to fund the police department. We got to get more
Speaker 2: bodies and we got to recruit. We're down one hundred
Speaker 2: and thirty one hundred and fifty officers. Can't have that.
Speaker 2: We've got have lateral recruiting class. We're going to pull
Speaker 2: officers from other jurisdictions and make an appeal to them
Speaker 2: with money and the job at hand, to come to
Speaker 2: Cincinnati and work here, and work for a district and
Speaker 2: make a difference in crime, make some money yourself and
Speaker 2: all that.
Speaker 1: That's all well and good.
Speaker 2: Four and a half million dollars does in this whole
Speaker 2: move undermine that, because if I'm a officer, if I'm
Speaker 2: a beat cup, and let's say I don't know I
Speaker 2: work in a jurisdiction, I'm maybe considering making the move
Speaker 2: over to Cincinnati.
Speaker 3: Go ahole.
Speaker 2: On second look, they look how dirty they just did
Speaker 2: the chief, and that's a chief. I'm nobody. What chance
Speaker 2: do I have? So did we just shoot ourselves in
Speaker 2: the foot? We opened the coffers up to four and
Speaker 2: a half mill but at the same time send the
Speaker 2: message out that we don't know what we're doing over here,
Speaker 2: and we'll make you escapegoat politically if we have to.
Speaker 3: Well, that's where my concern comes in in terms of
Speaker 3: there's a lot of concern I have here. But yes,
Speaker 3: when we're talking about our law enforcement members, not only
Speaker 3: the morale of existing police rale of those we're trying
Speaker 3: to hire, But is that plan even heading forward the
Speaker 3: five and a half five point four million dollars we
Speaker 3: just allocated, Like, what is the plan for that now?
Speaker 3: Because it was moving forward under the last police chief
Speaker 3: who's currently on administrative lease. It's not That's what That's
Speaker 3: my frustration. Where I'm most upset right now is we
Speaker 3: are trying to get crime under control in the city
Speaker 3: of Cincinnati. It is not clear the stability in the
Speaker 3: past for that, because nothing's been laid out to us
Speaker 3: other than this hectic process that we've all watched play
Speaker 3: out of the media. We've named an interim police chief
Speaker 3: who by all accounts is an amazing individual and going
Speaker 3: to be a great leader for the department. But it's
Speaker 3: not clear what the transition is and what's carrying on
Speaker 3: and what the problem even was in the first place.
Speaker 3: But let's just change. So how can you and I
Speaker 3: even confidently say we know what's happening next? You know,
Speaker 3: is all the plans we've done for the last two
Speaker 3: months drown out the window and we're starting fresh or
Speaker 3: are we continuing it? And if we're continuing it, how
Speaker 3: are we going to provide the confidence people that that's
Speaker 3: what's happening. I don't know, and that is not an
Speaker 3: acceptable answer for somebody who's city on Tony Caln Famili
Speaker 3: give you, And it's not an acceptable answer for the
Speaker 3: city manager to give us that as the solution right
Speaker 3: now is that we don't have enough information to even
Speaker 3: answer that question. So yeah, I'm very worried about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and as I understand, I don't know any but
Speaker 2: I understand from the rank and file many they respect him.
Speaker 1: They love the guy.
Speaker 2: I mean, he's the guy that wrote that citation a
Speaker 2: month later or charged anyway, the white guy in the brawl,
Speaker 2: because that was at the behest of the rabid reverence
Speaker 2: out there who demanded a flash demanded of Whitey be
Speaker 2: charged because he got black guys who were an assault
Speaker 2: and no officer on the scene would write it because
Speaker 2: they didn't think a crime was committed. But he took
Speaker 2: essentially the political bullet and said, okay, final, I'll be
Speaker 2: the one that puts my name to this, this thing
Speaker 2: that got that ball rolling. And that was all the
Speaker 2: behest of the mayor's office. So that's greasy and dirty
Speaker 2: as well, because that is a potential civil rights violation.
Speaker 2: Which you know, again, when you're fighting to keep your
Speaker 2: nose above water like aftap Purivalis and keep his political
Speaker 2: career going, that seems like a pretty big misstep to me.
Speaker 2: You open yourself up for a civil rights case. But
Speaker 2: I don't know, does they only care about this election
Speaker 2: coming up and damn the torpedoes.
Speaker 1: We'll see what happens after that.
Speaker 3: You know, again, I don't know. From everything I've heard,
Speaker 3: it doesn't sound like this was the mayor's decision, which
Speaker 3: I know is you know, we think the way the
Speaker 3: city government works, that this would be the mayor's decision.
Speaker 3: This is legally and technically the city manager's decision. And
Speaker 3: everything that I've heard behind the scenes, which again it's
Speaker 3: not much more than what you've heard, does not sound
Speaker 3: like the mayor's the one who made the decision on this.
Speaker 3: It sounds like the mayor may have been aware of
Speaker 3: conversations transpiring behind the scenes which led to comments last week,
Speaker 3: But beyond that, I don't have anything to indicate that
Speaker 3: a have to have was the one who made the decision.
Speaker 2: Ultimately, well, there was a political component to this, There's
Speaker 2: no question about it. This wasn't a criminal charge. This
Speaker 2: was a political charge.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think that that's one of the
Speaker 3: big questions. Why does this decision made? Right now? What
Speaker 3: was the urgency that required this decision to be made
Speaker 3: so quickly that the police chief had a flyback from Colorada?
Speaker 3: And I've asked that question. I don't have a satisfactory
Speaker 3: answer to it, right, And it seems like there was again,
Speaker 3: I mean, it's chaos, and it seems like chaos reigned
Speaker 3: for thirty six hours at city Hall and bad decisions
Speaker 3: were made and that's not okay and that's not acceptable,
Speaker 3: and that's the big problem here. Some people need to
Speaker 3: come out and say what actually happened and led to
Speaker 3: this and why this decision was made. You know, this
Speaker 3: is a really big decision and the absence of information
Speaker 3: leads to rampant speculation that is not good for anybody.
Speaker 3: And I don't understand why people are so gun try
Speaker 3: to come out and just say what happened and what
Speaker 3: led to this decision. It's not like we don't know
Speaker 3: what's happening. You know. Last Wednesday, I think they put
Speaker 3: out like three press releases saying that she was still employed,
Speaker 3: which is you know, you know that Scott you're in
Speaker 3: the media is like, that's the kiss of death.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't I don't understand you.
Speaker 2: We're good at reducing force around here, so we know this,
Speaker 2: but I don't heard when somebody get called back from
Speaker 2: a conference in Denver and going, hey, you got to
Speaker 2: get back here right away because you've got a we've
Speaker 2: got a violence emergency. Well, you know, the emergency would
Speaker 2: have happened immediately. What happened to Mountain Square, this was,
Speaker 2: this was after that. There's nothing newsworthy going on, and
Speaker 2: just out of the blue, she's in Denver and now
Speaker 2: we got to pull the plug on or doesn't make
Speaker 2: any sense. And I brought up A. Henny's name earlier,
Speaker 2: and he seems like a great guy, be a great chief.
Speaker 2: But I guess the question is, wasn't that Terry the
Speaker 2: We don't know why Terry Thigi got fired in the
Speaker 2: first place. There's no reason around this. And technically she's
Speaker 2: not fired, she's still on administrative leave. So there's that
Speaker 2: level of confusion. What are you getting with Henny that
Speaker 2: you didn't have with Thiji. Nobody knows.
Speaker 3: Right, and you know, again, a hard number one priority
Speaker 3: has to be public safety. So you know, I I
Speaker 3: think Henny is going to do a great job. But
Speaker 3: at the end of the day, you know, things I've
Speaker 3: heard from police officers are are we being held accountable
Speaker 3: for the fact that crime is happening? And I can't
Speaker 3: imagine what the morale is and I have it. It's
Speaker 3: a very difficult question for me to answer right now
Speaker 3: because I don't know what we're holding her accountable for.
Speaker 3: There may ver will be a good reason, Scott that
Speaker 3: you and I would agree with and say, yeah, that's
Speaker 3: the right decision, and you know, it had to happen urgently,
Speaker 3: but we absent of information, we don't know that, and
Speaker 3: so the perception is chaos, and uh, you know, we're
Speaker 3: reacting to crime, but we're reacting now to it as
Speaker 3: opposed to over the summer, where you and I've had
Speaker 3: multiple conversations about it, and this is just it doesn't
Speaker 3: make sense. And I think the clarity is so badly
Speaker 3: needed because it is going to have a negative impact
Speaker 3: on our police, it's going to have a negative impact
Speaker 3: on our citizen morale, it's going to have a negative
Speaker 3: impact on what we are trying to do as a city.
Speaker 3: And right now, I don't think that we need that.
Speaker 3: Forget the election. Think about Cincinnati and what we are
Speaker 3: trying to achieve. You and I talk about economic development
Speaker 3: all the time. You know, right now is when we
Speaker 3: need the inspiring confidence that we've got this under control,
Speaker 3: because we want people coming downtown, we want people coming
Speaker 3: to over the run. This is not a good time
Speaker 3: to indicate in any way that we you know, we're not.
Speaker 3: We don't have a plan for how we're handling public safety.
Speaker 3: And again there may very well be a plan. They
Speaker 3: come out and tell it to us, show us what
Speaker 3: the plan is.
Speaker 2: I don't have a censor as a plan, Council Member
Speaker 2: sas Walsh, I really really don't.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: Here's the issue, though, you're out now campaigning as all
Speaker 2: members of council are, when election coming up in just
Speaker 2: a few short days, you're almost down to the wire
Speaker 2: right now. When you talk to your constituents, When you
Speaker 2: talk to the good people of Cincinnati, not only the citizens,
Speaker 2: but also the people who operate and own businesses in
Speaker 2: in downtown, just to maybe travelers too as well, who
Speaker 2: the hell knows you make contact with. What is the
Speaker 2: consensus among the constituents in this.
Speaker 3: I mean I'm hearing. I imagine this is what you're
Speaker 3: hearing and what people are feeling who are listening to this.
Speaker 3: You know, Opinions about the police chief varied, but opinions
Speaker 3: about how this has been handled are pretty unified, which
Speaker 3: is that she didn't deserve to be treated this way
Speaker 3: so publicly. It's not clear why it happened, and so
Speaker 3: the opinions on the entire process is that it is
Speaker 3: it's been atrocious and that nobody deserves to go through this,
Speaker 3: least of all for not a clear reason about why.
Speaker 3: And people are pretty offended by it, and I think
Speaker 3: rightfully so, and I think again, absence of information, it
Speaker 3: looks bad. It looks really bad.
Speaker 2: Oh, the FOP should have voted no confidence on the
Speaker 2: mayor's conduct here in an indirect way that with Thigi
Speaker 2: and now they're standing behind Fiji going listen. There are
Speaker 2: numbers who had issues with Terry and how she ran
Speaker 2: the shop, as you will with any boss for that matter.
Speaker 2: But at the same time everyone is coalesced. I guess
Speaker 2: on the thin blue line to say this is outrageous
Speaker 2: and there's no plan going the way I look at
Speaker 2: it politically, Seth is what's the strategy here. I mean
Speaker 2: you have turmoil with an interim chief, which implies you
Speaker 2: have no control over crime and that it's all Terry
Speaker 2: Thigi's fault. You mean, Kenny the chief. It's a fresh start.
Speaker 2: Then you get to the election. Were the repercussions here?
Speaker 2: Because I'll be honest with you, even with this nonsense
Speaker 2: and this mess that's going on right now in this
Speaker 2: S show and the way this has been handled, I
Speaker 2: don't know how Aftab loses the election.
Speaker 1: I really don't.
Speaker 2: I mean he can, I suppose, but I don't see
Speaker 2: this huge ground swell for Corey Bowman, who's a political
Speaker 2: no name upcomer, and Jad Vans's brother dad has baggage.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean I saw a great faith and of
Speaker 3: the Cincinnati and I do think that his election results
Speaker 3: will be very positive for him. But I think it's
Speaker 3: important to remind you, know, your listeners, that Cincinnati is
Speaker 3: three branches of government. You know, it's the mayor, it's
Speaker 3: the city Council and this administration, and all three are
Speaker 3: are theoretically equal. So you know, the mayor, I think
Speaker 3: you're right, he's going to get re elected city Council.
Speaker 3: Obviously that the vote there is important for people to
Speaker 3: show up and make their voices heard, but also equally
Speaker 3: so you know, even if you know all eight incumbents
Speaker 3: are re elected and you know we get the ninth member,
Speaker 3: Bryan James elected on the Democratic slate there, people may
Speaker 3: feel frustrated, but the administration is still equal on here
Speaker 3: that you know, you should be expecting us to be
Speaker 3: asking these hard questions of You should be asking us
Speaker 3: and expecting us to be challenging them to come up
Speaker 3: with the answers and tell us what is going on
Speaker 3: in a public setting, not behind closed doors, not in
Speaker 3: a way that you know it's not clear, because this
Speaker 3: is too big and too important of an issue not
Speaker 3: to have clear answers off for the public. And I
Speaker 3: think that's really important people understand. You know, the mayor
Speaker 3: and city council are your voices near representatives the way
Speaker 3: our government is set up, as the administration's in charge,
Speaker 3: and if we are not getting clear answers, we need
Speaker 3: to be pushing them to get the clear answers. And
Speaker 3: we can't just rest on our laurels and say like,
Speaker 3: well that's their decision. We need answers we need to.
Speaker 1: Hold them agaut and we do.
Speaker 3: This is one way to do it. Let's make it
Speaker 3: clear where we're frustrated.
Speaker 2: All right, voters most likely will choose AFTAB over Corey Bowman.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, does this have an effect
Speaker 2: down ticket? Should you be concerned as well? Should the
Speaker 2: other members of council because so many people that are
Speaker 2: running because of the way this was mishandled. We've got
Speaker 2: so many hats in the ring right now. Anything can happen.
Speaker 2: You say you support AFT to add pureval, but what
Speaker 2: if you cost you your seat?
Speaker 3: Like anybody running for any office should be scared when
Speaker 3: they have to go out there. They have to earn
Speaker 3: votes every single day. It's one of the reasons that
Speaker 3: I'm trying to be vocal about this. I think the
Speaker 3: people's for people need to feel their frustration is being
Speaker 3: vocalized at an elucts of leadership capacity. I think anybody
Speaker 3: running right now should be worried and should be willing
Speaker 3: to take a stance on this issue, and they have
Speaker 3: their opinions known on this issue because this is an
Speaker 3: important issue that determines kind of how the next administration
Speaker 3: operates in terms of you know, whoever gets elected this cycle.
Speaker 3: And if you're not willing to speak out, if you're
Speaker 3: not willing to challenge and the hold people accountable. You know,
Speaker 3: that's the role of a city council member is to
Speaker 3: hold the administration accountable, to ask the hard questions. It's
Speaker 3: how you and not to become I would say we're
Speaker 3: friends now, Scott, but you know, we started having these
Speaker 3: conversations about a bridge fire where they thought that three
Speaker 3: years was acceptable to take to get it fixed, and
Speaker 3: I've said, no way, and we got done one hundred days.
Speaker 3: That's why we start talking about snowclouds, because we didn't
Speaker 3: plow six hundred streets and we had to hold people
Speaker 3: accountable and ultimately the DPS director retired because of that,
Speaker 3: and we got somebody in there that is going to
Speaker 3: get our streets cloud this year. And that is the
Speaker 3: job of the city council member. And if you're not
Speaker 3: willing to speak out the whole the administration accountable, I
Speaker 3: don't know why you should be elected to it. And
Speaker 3: I think that you guys should be holding people accountable
Speaker 3: and challenging us to speak out and say these things.
Speaker 3: We can all be the same party. We can all
Speaker 3: be friends, but our job is accountability.
Speaker 1: I can't say all Seth Walsh.
Speaker 2: I can't say all members of council beside yourself, but
Speaker 2: most members of council and maybe y'all. No one wants
Speaker 2: to come out publicly and chastise the mayor and call
Speaker 2: them out as you just did on the show.
Speaker 1: Why is that? Why do you think that is that
Speaker 1: you're the only one willing to do it.
Speaker 3: I don't know, Scott, and I will prefer to you
Speaker 3: to figure that one out for me. I don't have
Speaker 3: enough money to go to therapy to get that answer.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, it's not I don't understand. It seems
Speaker 2: to me maybe we're just trying to protect the brand.
Speaker 2: Like if I'm a Democrat, I'm not allowed to criticize
Speaker 2: another Democrat. You just did that, and I think you're
Speaker 2: going to be fine. It's okay. We need to get
Speaker 2: back to it. Whether it's same with the Republicans. Republicans, Hey,
Speaker 2: you can't criticize Trump.
Speaker 1: Yeah you can. You're supposed to. That's how the system
Speaker 1: works up.
Speaker 2: I mean, I got I get in fights when I
Speaker 2: was younger, all the time with my two brothers. I
Speaker 2: still love them. I take a bullet for either one
Speaker 2: or both of them. But you're allowed to disagree with people.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree, and I try to lead by sample,
Speaker 3: and I hope you know it is scary sometimes to
Speaker 3: step on the ledge and take the phone call with you,
Speaker 3: Scott and say, I don't know his opening question is
Speaker 3: going to be today, but we'll find out.
Speaker 1: Oh that's two of us.
Speaker 3: Yeah right, so we're always surprised. It's always a fun time.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I hope others get the confidence and the
Speaker 3: courage to be speak out too, because I think on
Speaker 3: issues like this it's too important to stay silent.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, all right, I know you got to get going, Seth.
Speaker 2: I appreciate it. Hopefully you can brave through this. Council member,
Speaker 2: Seth walshould appreciate your vote. I'm sure very thoughtful as always,
Speaker 2: and we'll see where this goes. But I even think
Speaker 2: the people who know I don't know where it's going
Speaker 2: at this point, and that's a scary part. All the best,
Speaker 2: my friend do will.
Speaker 3: Thanks Scott, take care.
Speaker 2: You know, we just had the no King's protest down people.
Speaker 2: Donald Trump is as it's chaos. He's making rast's decisions,
Speaker 2: no accountability, no context. And if you're a Democrat and
Speaker 2: you're down there, I imagine many Republicans are the No
Speaker 2: Kings rally. But if you're down there, a't so your
Speaker 2: point and this is your belief, I'd have to ask you,
Speaker 2: isn't this exactly what you were protesting this weekend?
Speaker 1: Chaos?
Speaker 2: No accountability, investigations by law enforcement that are politically compromised,
Speaker 2: unelected appointees like Iris Rawley having too much power, cronyism.
Speaker 2: We protesting Trump when you should have also been protesting
Speaker 2: after that puer Vault Scott's Loan Show seven hundred ww