Jane Murray Gets An Early Thanksgiving Present

If the political scene in the City of Portsmouth were a war zone, then you could say that Jane Murray has just become the victim of a "friendly fire" attack. Her fledgling administration has just been "nuked" by the latest bombshell from the C.A.V.E. people (Citizens Against Virtually Everything). Of course they were aiming at their enemy, the current Mayor of Portsmouth, Jim Kalb, but in fact his administration will not be affected. They missed Kalb hit Jane Murray.

In their ongoing effort to tie the hands of their elected representatives on City Council and in the Mayor's office, some "concerned citizens" put a measure on the ballot to amend the City's charter to prohibit the City from issuing bonds for more than $100,000 without a vote by the citizens. In a special election in February 2009, voters passed this amendment by a slim margin: 584 for/575 against. The case was ultimately appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court which upheld the passage of the ballot measure in a decision announced last week. So the City is now bound by the $100,000 limit.

This will present quite a challenge for the Murray administration. Even in a city the size of Portsmouth $100,000 does not go that far.

The answer is: It really doesn't matter.* They all cost over $100,000. That means for Murray to finance the purchase of any of these items, she will have to get a measure put on the ballot and hope that the citizens are in a generous mood. If they aren't then it won't be long before the City's sanitation fleet looks as rag-tag as Shawnee Sanitation. (Of course the City can arrange to "lease-purchase" items that cost more than $100,000 but surely the eagle-eyed CAVE people will see through that ruse.) A special election in the City of Portsmouth costs $20,000 to $30,000, so hopefully Murray will limit her ballot requests to primary and general elections to keep costs down. But that can be a long wait if there is a major sewer or bridge failure or if one of the City large water or sewer pumps would have to be replaced in a hurry. Cities commonly issue bonds to pay damages as a result of lawsuits: these are called "judgement bonds." The City has two major lawsuits pending against it: one by Larry Essman, et al, and another by Jane Murray, et al. Each of these suits is expected to be at least $2,000,000. But as a result of the new charter limitiation, any settlement that may be reached would have to be $99,999.99 or less, unless the plaintiffs really think the voters of Portsmouth will agree to pass a tax on themselves just to put money in Essman's and Murray's pockets. And we suspect the plaintiff's legal fees are already close to the $100,000 mark.

So that smell coming from the CAVE people's kitchen may not be turkey. It may be Jane Murray's goose.

* (ANSWERS: 1. b, 2. a, 3. d, 4. c.)