Cincinnati City Councilman Wendell Young will remain on council after an effort to unseat him failed.
But a state suspension looms for the Democrat, who is facing a felony charge of tampering with records related to his destruction of text messages about city business in the Gang of 5 civil case.
Republican Councilwoman Betsy Sundermann sought a vote to suspend Young after votes overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure in the May primary giving council members the power to suspend a fellow member if they are indicted or arrested on a criminal charge related to their city job.
She needed a vote of 7, but only got 6.
Issue 3 is a charter amendment that would require the city to devote at least $50 million a year toward affordable housing, with the amount rising each year with inflation. There is no set funding mechanism for the amendment, which is perhaps the largest sticking point for the opposition.
Josh Spring, executive director of the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition and one of the main proponents of the amendment, said he is not at all surprised each of the three political parties is against Issue 3. Housing advocates have been going to those same political parties and elected officials for years asking for help, Spring said, “so it’s not a surprise that the folks we have been going and having those discussions with would continue to not step up to the call.”
Analysis: City Council Slate Makes Charter Relevant Again wvxu.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wvxu.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Michael Keating / WVXU
Cincinnati s Charter Committee – the independent political party that has fashioned itself to be the watchdog for good government in the city – is going back to its roots.
After 2020, which saw three members of the nine-member Cincinnati City council indicted on federal corruption charges – something unprecedented in the nearly 100 years of Cincinnati s council-manager form of government – the Charter Committee saw an opportunity to once again become a major player in city politics, doing so by re-establishing itself as the reform party.
Thus, the Charter Committee – which plans to run a full slate of nine council candidates in the November election – released an actual Charter Platform. Party platforms became as rare as hen s teeth in the last few decades of city politics. But Charter has one that its as-yet-unnamed slate of candidates will run on this fall.