River Vices

Councilman Mollette


Councilman Mohr

In the recent elections, Marty Mohr, the councilman of Ward 6, came very close to losing to Richard Noel, a 78-year-old soft-spoken senior citizen who was fed up with Mohr’s abuse of ordinary citizens and his subservience to the over-privileged of Portsmouth. In fact, Noel got more Yes votes (358) in the election than Mohr did (354), but not all those who voted Yes for Noel also voted Yes on the recall. To recall Mohr, they had to vote Yes for the recall as well as Yes for Noel. Confused? Well, so apparently were some voters, and that confusion, combined with the screwup of the vendors of new voting machines, is the reason Mohr will continue to misrepresent Ward 6 on the Portsmouth City Council. If it's a voting screwup, and it isn't Florida, it must be Ohio.

Mohr might have been removed from office in the 2004 recalls that swept Ann Sydnor and Carole Caudill out of the Municipal building. But because he claimed to be outraged by Mayor’s Bauer underhandedness, and because he denounced Bauer for the city’s purchase of the Marting’s building to a Columbus Dispatch reporter (20 June 2004), Mohr shielded himself from the wrath of the voters. In the the Dispatch, interview Mohr accused Bauer of “a pattern of deceit,” claiming that Bauer “misled council on the value and condition of the building. It ain’t worth anything. . . . ” Mohr finished by saying, “At first I didn’t think [the recall election] was a good idea. Now, after several months of continuing lies and deceit, yeah, it needs to be done. It needs to be done in the worst way.”


Marty Mohr on Marting building: "It ain't worth anything."

I was told that when Mohr was first thinking of running for city council, he was motivated by a sincere desire to clean up the corruption in city government. But he subsequently and somewhat suddenly turned around 180 degrees. He got very impatient with reformers and democracy, and he called for the end of that part of council meetings that permitted citizens to speak on items not on the agenda. At another council meeting, he angrily denounced some of those who sat in the front rows of the meeting as “crap” because he held them responsible for a rumor circulating on a local internet chat room that he was involved in an adulterous relationship. Becoming increasingly arrogant, belligerent, and anti-democratic at council meetings, Mohr began looking and acting like the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Instead of the reformer he appeared to have been in 2004, he emerged instead in 2005 as the buffoonish, hotheaded right-hand man of Howard Baughman, the smarmy council president who is a relative of Clayton Johnson. Mohr’s boorish behavior caused a new word to enter the Portsmouth political slang: Mohronic.

Why did Mohr do a 180 degree turn? Could one of the reasons have been because Neal Hatcher was in the process of purchasing property from the Mohr family, building a dormitory on it, and naming that dormitory Mohr Hall? Why name a dormitory after the Mohrs? They had once lived on the site, but so had other families. The Mohrs are a respectable Portsmouth family, but no Mohr has ever been a candidate for Portsmouth’s Wall of Fame. Mohr himself is the proprietor of Automania, a business that specializes in noise pollution, a business that appeals to the mania among young males to turn their automobiles into earsplitting thumping boom boxes. Automania is an appropriate name for his business. I think it must help to be a maniac, or at least stoned, to appreciate such brainless noise. When I am wakened late at night by the sound of some deep dumb-ass bass sound in a passing automobile, I think “Mohronic.” There are reports that Automania was well represented at the now notorious Cruisefest.

So it was certainly not for noise pollution specialist Marty Mohr that a college dormitory was named Mohr Hall by Neal Hatcher. Then for whom? A plaque on the Mohr dorm explains that Ann Mohr, who I'm told is Marty Mohr's aunt, had graduated from the Portsmouth branch of Ohio University in 1971. So are we to believe the reason why one of Neal Hatcher’s dormitories is named Mohr Hall is that somebody who once lived on the site graduated from the Portsmouth branch of Ohio U. thirty-five years ago? Is that a historical event worthy of commemoration? But the honor, or flattery, of having a Neal Hatcher dormitory named after his family can not alone account for Mohr morphing from a reformer into a political tool of the over-privileged of Portsmouth.

“Follow the money” was the advice Deep Throat gave to Woodward and Bernstein, and I tried following it. Hatcher not only named a dormitory after the Mohrs, he paid them money for part of the land on which the dorm is located. How much money did Hatcher pay the Mohrs for their property? I was unable to find out because in the very knotty real estate relationship between Hatcher and the Mohr family, in which the city and Shawnee State acted not just as intermediaries but as pimps, the sale price was kept from public view. In inquiries I made at the Scioto County Courthouse, I learned that one of the advantages of the tax-free arrangement that Hatcher works out with the city in deals like the one he arranged with the Mohr family is that the sale price does not get recorded at the Scioto County auditor’s office. Hatcher can generously pay off or buy-off favored parties without publicly revealing how much he pays them. Hatcher cheats most people in what he ends up paying them for their property, but there are a selected few he pays very well. Harry Kyle pointed out at a 2002 city council meeting that Hatcher would pay $5000 for one lot and for a lot right next to it he would pay someone who was well-connected “six or seven or eight times that much.”

What would Hatcher have paid for the Mohr property if Marty Mohr had not been on the city council and therefore was not in a position to do his political bidding? Probably what he pays others who are not one of the Portsmouth’s over-privileged: as little as possible. So the M emblazoned above the entrance of the Mohr Hall dormitory could stand not only for Mohr but also for Money.


Mohr Hall, a student dormitory in Hatcherville

As quoted in the Community Common, Mohr interpreted his slim margin of victory in last Tuesday’s recall election as an endorsement to continue doing just what he has been doing. Lord, help us! The first thing Mohr says he is going to pursue is changing the rules for recalling public officials. “If you remove someone, there has to be a good reason,” Mohr told the Community Common (9 Nov. 2005). “Not just because you don’t like the way he ties his shoes.” There are those who are not convinced that Mohr knows how to tie his shoes, but it is not tying shoes but being buffoonish and contemptuous of concerned citizens who dare to come to council meetings that led a majority of voters in Ward 6 to recall him from office. It is not because of the way he ties his shoes that Mohr was censured and fined but for his Marty Mussolini-like behavior at council meetings.

Mohr had previously tried to change the rules that permitted citizens to speak before the council on items not on the agenda. That attempt to stifle free speech failed, and so should any attempt to change the rules on recall. As for the necessity of recall elections, especially for politicians like Bauer and Mohr, I will quote Marty Mohr himself, only substitute “years” for “several months.” “Now, after several months of continuing lies and deceit, yeah, it needs to be done. It needs to be done in the worst way.” In no way should a volatile individual of such limited moral and intellectual capacity as a Marty Mohr be allowed to serve for four years on the city council without the possibility of being recalled.

If anything should be changed, it is the four-year term for members of city council. Four years can be an eternity when those in public office are as incompetent as they are corrupt, as we are now discovering at the state and national level. At least at the national and state level, there are two parties to choose between in any given election. In Portsmouth, political differences are insignificant. Never mind Democrat and Republican, in Portsmouth there is just the party of the corrupt and incompetent and the party of the honest and competent, and Democrats and Republicans can be in either. Unfortunately, there aren’t many in the party of the honest and the competent. Fortunately – I will even go far as to say miraculously – there is somebody from the party of the honest and competent on the city council and his name is Robert Mollette. I say “miraculously” because a felon with a record as long as Randy Johnson’s arm was permitted, and perhaps even encouraged and abetted by city officials, to run against Mollette in 2004.

No one, not even those crack investigative reporters on the Prostitute Daily Times pointed out the criminal background of Mollette’s felonious opponent, Michael Malone, brother of city councilman David Malone. Mollette won the race against Michael Malone 693 to 692: 1385 votes were cast but one vote was all that separated them. I don’t believe in divine intervention, but that one vote that put Mollette ahead makes me wonder. They put up another recall candidate to run against Mollette in last Tuesday’s election. Mollette rolled over him by getting about 80% of votes cast, though those figures have not yet been certified. In the local race that mattered most, the race in Ward 3, which was even more important than the mayoral race, the people won, and they won by a huge margin.

So many "M"s: Mohr, Malone, Mussolini, Mollete. Maybe some day there will be a dormitory or public building in Portsmouth with an M that deserves to be on it, an M that stands for Mollette, a Portsmouth councilman who, wonder of wonders, is not in the pocket of the over-privileged.

Mayoral Candidate Trent Williams

In his campaign literature, Trent Williams says, "I've always believed that I could make a difference. I have the vision, passion and personal commitment to make a positive impact on our community." That may be true, but I’ve heard more than one person say they are voting for Trent Williams because he is the lesser of two evils. Lee Scott’s position is there is only one evil person in the race and it’s Trent Williams. I also know a few conservatives who know Williams better than I do who say he will be no improvement over Bauer or Kalb. However, on the basis of what I’ve seen of Kalb, I have to strongly disagree with Lee Scott’s endorsement of him, but Scott was right about Tim Loper from the start, so he could turn out to be right about Williams. To help me and others who might not know much about Williams, I arranged to interview him at his office on the Thursday before the Nov. 8 election.


Interview of Trent Williams, 3 Nov. 2005


Q. The relatively few voters I’ve talked to about your candidacy are in general agreement that what concerns them about you is not whether you are honest and trustworthy but whether you have enough backbone, whether you will be strong and decisive enough for the job. How do you respond to those concerns?

A STRUGGLE

A. Of course I don’t agree with that. I think I’ll be a strong mayor as I’ve been a strong auditor. However, I do think I know how they might have formed that opinion. And that is because – you know I’ve been auditor for six years and over that time – let’s say over the first four years – it was a struggle. It was a struggle being beat down by the mayor that was in office at that time, Mayor Bauer, on many different issues, as well as not having the support of the city council in simply trying to do my job . . . and it became sort of a popularity contest, or just an ongoing battle, that didn’t look like it would have a favorable outcome from [the office of the auditor’s] point of view . . . My proposals I would say would be overlooked or not taken seriously. It got to the point where anything I would try to say was done in vain and a feeling of “Why try anymore?” If [the city ] council is not going to consider the point of view I’m going to give them, it’s like I’m not effective because I’m having a boot put on me. It’s like, “Be quiet and do your job.”

Q. Could you be more specific?

A. Mayor Bauer and some members of council tried to downsize my office staff and outsource payrolling. My office was the only city office they tried to downsize, and they could do that because employees in the auditor’s office were not unionized. When unionized city employees got raises, employees in the auditor’s office did not. The employees later formed their own union, which gave them some job protection and raises like everybody else.

Q. Did you ever find a way to express your disappointment and frustration during that period, publicly?

A. As I said, I was much stronger in the beginning, but then I saw that approach wasn’t working, and I become a little bit ineffective over being swept under the rug and being taken advantage of. It used to seem to me that I was sitting in my chair against the other seven people sitting at the table. No one else out of the audience would agree with me or take my side on an issue. Therefore I was easily made to be frustrated by not being taken seriously. But what I think really built my confidence and helped me make a stronger stand for things was when people would actually support what I would say. And that came from an increased interest and an increased number of people that actually came to the city council meetings, and I didn’t feel like I was alone any more. I really appreciated the number of people who began coming to the city council meetings.

Q. So there was nobody on the city council or in the city government who you felt was an ally of yours during that period?

A. Exactly. I felt at that time because of so many issues that were being put against me and it was just a battle between my office and Mayor Bauer’s office and some members of the city council. There’s a long history of friction between the auditor’s office and city council. . . . I feel much more confident now that I have allies on the council – and it’s not so much a question of allies as support and interest of people there agreeing with things [I] point out.


Trent Williams answering my questions in his office

WILLIAMS VS. KALB

Q. Why should anyone vote for you rather than acting Mayor Kalb?

A. I feel I have a good reputation for honesty and integrity . . . and I feel people are somewhat comfortable with the job I’ve done [as auditor] for the last six years. I’ve been elected twice by a large margin – nearly 70% both times that I’ve won the election.

Q. In the mayoral primary, where did you finish?

A. Second. About a hundred votes behind Jim [Kalb]. And regarding that, with seven candidates, I felt that, or was hoping anyway, that the people who voted for Jim were voting for him and the rest were voting against him. I hope that’s the way it works out this time and that I pick up a lot of the votes for the other candidates in the primary.

Q. What has Kalb done or not done as mayor that you don’t agree with?

A. I think Kalb has tended to go along with some of the former administration’s policies instead of taking a step away from that administration’s philosophy. For example, the plan was for the former council and the former administration to go into the Marting’s building with a tax on the property owners for renovating the Marting’s building. That was the plan. (Of course, the referendum is now in place that will stop that.) And guess what? The plan of the current council and administration is also to continue the former administration’s plan – to continue to go in and renovate the Marting’s building and finance it through putting the same property tax on the back of the property taxpayers. Instead of looking first not at where we are going to put the building but looking for other alternatives, other ways, to pay for wherever and whatever we do. I’d like to see us look into grants and other types of taxes or fees that might replace putting the burden on the property taxpayer. I hope we’re able to bring in some type of mall or upscale retail development. And if we do bring that into the city of Portsmouth, which is one thing I really want to look into and pursue aggressively, we could look at making an agreement with the county government to get a share of the increased sales tax that would come from any retail development.

REVENUE SHARING

If the city government is going to bring in a retail development into the city of Portsmouth, I think it would be fair for the city to share – I don’t mean to take the entire 7% payoff that would be generated by that – but even a half percent or just something minimally to help offset a new or renovated building, that’s for sure. If you look around this place [the Municipal building] – and I’m sure you have – that could help offset and instead of putting it on the property taxpayer’s back, that [half-percent] could just come from the increased supplemental sales tax.

Q. Does the county get all of that 7 percent?

A. No. They get 1 and one-half percent, and 5 percent goes to the state. The other 1 and one-half percent goes – no, that would be 7, that would be 5 and 2.

Q. 5 percent to the city?

A. 5 percent to the county.

Q. I’m confused. 5 percent to the county?

A. [I] take that back. It was 7 and one-half percent, wasn’t it?

Q. I’m not sure.

A. Off the top of my head, it’s hard to remember. But now I remember. It was increased to 7 and one-half [percent] and with the state’s new budget they dropped that half percent. The additional 1 percent— OK, 6 percent goes to the state and 1 percent goes to the county. I believe that’s the formula right now.

Q. And the formula doesn’t include the city in that?

A. Not at all.

Q. And is that typical throughout Ohio?

A. Yes. Sales tax typically goes to the county, income tax is brought in by the city, and property tax – there’s a formula that splits up that between the county, city, and any villages, townships, and schools.

MARTING’S REFERENDUM

The editor of the Portsmouth Daily Times has called the upcoming referendum on the Marting’s building “ridiculous.” What is your view?

A. How can it be ridiculous if so many people are so divided on it? I may be wrong, but I think the majority [of voters] are not going to want to put in many millions of dollars – we’re talking in the 4, 5, 6, even 7 million dollar range. Are we going to take many millions of dollars to renovate a building, which we’re going to have high upkeep and maintenance on, or are we going to put a similar amount, or maybe even more, into a newly constructed building that taxpayers will be much more willing and happier to pay taxes for knowing they are paying for a new state-of-the-art investment that’s going to last for decades? I don’t agree [that the referendum on Marting’s] is ridiculous. . . . I want to see happen what the citizens of Portsmouth want to happen and what taxpayers are willing to pay for. And I think they don’t want to pay for the renovation of the Marting’s building. I think that’s been proven. The three recalls that we’ve had [of Mayor Bauer and councilwomen Sydnor and Caudill] I think were greatly related to those individuals’ support of renovating the Marting’s building. . . . I would like to see us, first, vigorously pursue some type of retail development for that building. That’s what I intend to do. I may be just dreaming a little here, but I think there can be interest, if we’re proactive, in pursuing the interest in the building. . . . That’s the primary first thing the building should be used for. If it eventually comes to where we can’t find a suitable tenant for the building, I think the taxpayers are going to be most happy with razing the building and putting in something that’s going to be suitable to our needs on that site.

NEAL HATCHER

Q. The real estate developer Neal Hatcher is one of the most controversial figures in Portsmouth. Do you have any criticisms of the city government’s relationship with Hatcher?

A. I think it was unfortunate that it was the city that had to do the deal. I’d like to have seen it just a deal between the college and Neal. I don’t understand why the city was forced to become involved with it. . . . I’m not against and am very much in favor of increasing the enrollment of Shawnee State University, which is one of the greatest assets in this community. And I think the dorms are beautiful, and I think that’s one of the reasons for the increase in enrollment for Shawnee State.

But two things I don’t agree with, in any case. One, as I said, is that if eminent domain was going to be used, it should have been a state institution, meaning Shawnee State, to use the power of eminent domain instead of forcing the city, or having the city become involved. And second, I don’t think eminent domain should be used for private development. Now, with that said, Neal is doing something. And I respect that. He’s trying to make improvements. But you have to play by the rules, and ultimately I think most people would agree that even though the buildings he is going to put up over there are going to be quite an asset to the town and to the university, you still can’t bypass the rules just because the ends justify the means.

NO TRUST

Q. Is there anything that I haven’t touched on that you would like to say before we end this interview?

A. Yes. To expand on your earlier question, “Why should someone vote for Trent Willliams for mayor?” I think that I can help develop the trust in city government that is going to be required for us to do anything. What I mean by that is we don’t have now a level of trust between the administration and council and its constituents. And when there’s not that trust there, it tends to bring any little thing that’s done into question. What I would like to be able to help with is to kind of start over. See that things are done above-board, see that things are done openly, hopefully with input from citizens. As I said before, this is not about what I want. This is about what I think everyone in the city will benefit from. What I’ve been working on is developing an advisory panel of community members. . . . Leaders and just regular people . . . from all the key players that make up the development of the city, to come together, not necessarily on a monthly or strict schedule basis, but on an as-needed-basis, to advise me on the problems that we have in the city and what solutions are there to those problems and how can we achieve those solutions.

NO PLAN, NO DIRECTION

Another big problem, besides the trust issue, is that we have no plan. We have no direction right now. There’s nothing we can pick up and put in front of us and say, “This is the direction we’re hoping to go in and here’s how we’re going to get there.” We need a strategic plan and a marketing plan. . . . Right now I don’t think there’s any reason to look at Portsmouth, because there’s no one coming to you and saying why you should look at Portsmouth. . . . They are not going to come to us if twenty other cities are already hot on their tails to get them to come there. Why would they even look at us?

CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS

Q. Could you give me a rough idea of how much you’ve been able to put into your campaign?

A. Financially, you mean? I think it’s in the $5000 dollar range. . . .

Q. I know from experience, on the basis of the Bauer recall campaign, that the number of signs, and even the amount of money collected, is not necessarily the most important thing.

A. Exactly. . . . There was a lot more money put in the “Keep Bauer Campaign” than in the “Recall Bauer Campaign.” A tremendous, a vast difference. But the vote was what, 65% for recall?

Q. About that [it was 64%]. In looking over your campaign contributions, I notice $2500 from the Scioto County Republican Committee. Since you have about $5000 in contributions to this point, $2500 is a major donation, about half of what you’ve raised. My question is, in view of the putative non-partisan character of city elections, is such a large contribution unusual? Assuming Kalb is a Democrat, does he have a large contribution from a corresponding Democratic committee?

A. No, he doesn’t, not according to the latest records. But three unions have contributed somewhere between $1,200 and $1,500 dollars to Kalb. [Andrew Feight says four unions contributed a total of $2000 to Kalb’s campaign.] And the Scioto County Republican Committee has made $2,500 contributions to Republican candidates in the past, not just for me. I wish I had started fundraising earlier, and raised maybe $10,000 dollars, so the political contribution wouldn’t be such a substantial percentage. But I got a late start.

Q. Thank you for answering these questions.








Contributions Received for Trent Williams' campaign

Scioto County Republican Comm. >>>>>>>>>>>>>$2,500
Loan from unspecified source>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> $1,240
Fundraising Event 10/13/05 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>$515
Fundraising Event 10/15/05 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>$225
DeSimone, Shane. Portsmouth. In-Kind >>>>>>>>>$250
Hempill, Barry. Portsmouth. In-Kind >>>>>>>>>>>$200
Sherman, Faye. Portsmouth >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> $200
Cade, Douglas E. Haverhill >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> $100
Williams, Melvin D. Franklin Furnace >>>>>>>>>> $100
Wheeler, Saundra K. Portsmouth >>>>>>>>>>>>>>$100
McFarland, Lynn A. Portsmouth >>>>>>>>>>>>>> $100
Lopez, Ronald, L. Portsmouth. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> $100
Scott, Thomas A. Portsmouth >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> $100
Holsinger, Robert J. Wheelersburg >>>>>>>>>>>> $100
Knauff, Lisa. West Portsmouth >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>$75
Chamberlin, Robert. Wheelersburg >>>>>>>>>>>>>$50
McNelly, Sharon. Portsmouth >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>$50
Duzan,Gary. Portsmouth >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> $50
Scott, Bridget L. Portsmouth >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> $50
Trimble, Suzanne. Waverly >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>$50
Singleton, Karnella. Portsmouth >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>$50
Sherman-Bias, Sally J. Portsmouth >>>>>>>>>>>>> $50
Wampler, Carol, L. Portsmouth >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>$50
Harcha, Rachel, A. Stout >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>$50
Rodeheffer, Lynne, S. Portsmouth >>>>>>>>>>>>>>$50
Reynolds, Klara, B. Lucasville >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>$50
Kegley, Lindsey, B. Portsmouth >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>$50

Convicted sexual predator Zane Loper


In a brief report on the trail of tears of a child who was raped by Zane Douglas Loper, a Scioto County Board Mental Retardation Developmental Disabilities (SCBMRDD) employee, Teresa Mollette wrote with an understandable sense of outrage, “It appears this child who was first raped while in the care of MRDD is now being raped for a second time by her own lawyer, Stan Bender, and the legal system . . .”

The SCBMR/DD is the Portsmouth-based satellite of the Ohio Department of Mental Retardation Developmental Disabilities, a state agency that has the following mission statement: “The mission of the Ohio Department of MR/DD is continuous improvement of the quality of life for Ohio's citizens with developmental disabilities and their families.” The current PR slogan of the Portsmouth MRDD is “Teamwork Makes the Dream Work.” Given SCBMR/DD’s recent nightmarish history, I think such a slogan is at best premature and at worst offensive. If a slogan is necessary, I suggest “MRDD Care Makes the Nightmare.”

Having talked to the child’s mother, Denise Yates, and having read disturbing and depressing legal material related to the rape case, I want to provide some background information to substantiate Teresa Mollette’s charge of a sexual rape being followed by a legal rape. The text of her charge and a distorted photo of the child in question can be found at (http://portsmouthcitizens.info/blog/?page_id=29).

The raped child, Denise Yates’ daughter, was born on April 16, 1991. When she was about three years old, she was diagnosed as being retarded. In 1997, her mother enrolled her in SCBMR/DD’s Vern Riffe School. It was a fateful enrollment, for in 1993 SCBMR/DD had hired Zane Douglas Loper as a teacher’s aide at the Verne Riffe school even though Loper was already known to have been sexually abusing children. Prosecutors would later charge that Loper’s sexual abuse of children had begun as early as 1984, almost ten years before he was hired at the Vern Riffe School. Denise Yates’ attorneys later formally charged that the “Defendants [SCBMR/DD, Superintendent Oakley, and Riffe School Principal Miller] actually and constructively knew of information which indicated that Loper had engaged in prior unlawful sexual activity with children placed under his care and Defendents knew or in the exercise of reasonable care should have known that if that information was not investigated Loper would continue to molest children in his position at the Vern Riffe School.”

Unlike other mothers of retarded Riffe School children who had been Loper’s victims, Denise Yates dared to accuse Loper of preying upon children while he was employed by MRDD at the Riffe School. She would pay a price for being so outspoken about the crime committed against her daughter. But if she had not publicly protested about Loper and if John Welton had not reported on the scandalous mismanagement at MRDD in the Shawnee Sentinel, possibly nothing would have come to light. Certainly if we waited for the Portsmouth Daily Times to do the kind of investigative journalism John Welton did, we would be waiting from here to eternity.

Welton reported that Superintendent Oakley knew, or should have known, that Loper, a former Shawnee State student, was a deeply troubled young man whose molestation of children at other venues was no secret in Portsmouth and West Portsmouth. In an online Sentinel story dated 15 July 2003, Welton wrote, “Portsmouth Police Officers met with the Sentinel last night and stated that rumors continue that the Superintendent of MRDD, John Oakley, had been made aware of Loper’s prior allegations of molestation of children in the care of numerous county agencies, including Scioto County Children’s Services and Shawnee Mental Health. Oakley still hired Loper after being warned that Loper posed a danger to the children at MRDD.”

Welton believed Loper’s family and political connections got him the job, because Oakely hired Loper as a favor to Loper’s stepfather, Todd Miller, a captain in the Scioto County sheriff’s office. If true, that would not be surprising, for at least some hires at public agencies in city and county agencies are based more on who those hired are related to or friends with rather than on their qualifications.

Oakley later claimed that MRDD had investigated Yates’ charges and found them to be without merit. But, under pressure, Loper resigned from MRDD in August 1998. That he was forced to resign was apparent when he took legal action against MRDD for his severance. Then, surprisingly, in spite of the troubles he had had at MRDD, and in spite of his reputation as a pedophile, Loper was hired as a part-time policeman in Peebles, Ohio, a small town in Adams Country. Was this another instance of a criminally inclined individual benefiting from political connections? If so, those connections could only do so much. Loper was subsequently arrested on 16 counts, including raping a child under 13 and possessing child pornography. He was charged with having raped Yates’ daughter a number of times in 1998, when she was seven. If convicted, Loper would have faced life imprisonment, but through plea bargaining he was allowed, on 7 May 2002 to plead guilty to the lesser charge of 5 counts of Gross Sexual Imposition. He received an 18 years-6 months sentence. Because he was classified as a sexual predator, he had to serve his terms consecutively.

In a public statement dated 1 August 2003, Superintendent Oakley wrote that though Loper had been convicted, it had not been proven that his “wrongdoing,” one of several euphemisms Oakley used to refer to Loper’s heinous crimes, “that no such wrongdoing occurred during his work time as an employee of the Board.” Since there was no trial, all that Loper did and when and where he did it will probably never be known. But by “during his work time,” Oakley implied Loper’s crimes were extracurricular, that none of them of had occurred during the work day at the Riffe School. Loper worked at the school from 1993 to 1998, and in all those years, Oakley implied, he had not molested children while at the school. If Loper had molested Yates’ daughter, Oakley suggested, it was only when he was “babysitting” her for her mother.

In a 2004 deposition, Denise Yates made it clear, under oath, that Loper had never babysat for her, and Loper and she had never dated, which was another of the rumors that were circulating, possibly to try to discredit her testimony and make her appear an unfit mother. Denise Yates said, under oath, that her daughter described two molestations by Loper when they were alone in the Riffe School bathroom. Denise Yates said in sworn testimony, “She [Yates’ six-year-old daughter] had talked about him [Loper] taking her in the bathroom another time and making him perform – making her perform – oral sex on him and making her eat what came out of – as a result” (Page 98 of deposition). On a Riffe School overnight camp-out, Loper, according to more than one observer, had slept alone in a tent with Yates’ daughter and another little girl. During the night, Yates’ daughter had gone out with Loper to use the bathroom, but afterwards, she said, “he wouldn’t let her put her pants back on and he made her lay on the ground and he rubbed himself on her private and he took his hand and rubbed her private and then used his mouth and told her not to tell anybody, that it was their secret, that some day he was going to marry her and she would be his wife, and that’s what husbands and wives do” (Page 92). On another occasion in another location, Loper was alleged to have instructed those same two little girls how to have lesbian sex with each other.

Denise Yates later decided to file suit against MRDD and Superintendent John Oakley and Principal Tony Miller, but based on what she knew about Portsmouth politics, she had decided it would be unwise to hire any Portsmouth lawyer to represent her. She knew that because of politics in Portsmouth, local lawyers are not likely to even want to take a case if it meant having to take on any of the over-privileged of Portsmouth or of suing any of the public agencies on which Portsmouth’s pork-supported economy are dependent. Yates engaged a Chillicothe attorney, but he turned around and engaged a Portsmouth attorney, Stanley Bender, who represents Clayton Johnson in the Marting mess, as his associate. What she feared about Portsmouth lawyers came to pass. Bender and her Chillicothe attorney, her own lawyers, succeeded in taking away her rights as her daughter’s legal guardian, claiming she is too emotional and cannot be “objective.” In a letter to Yates (30 Aug. 2005), Bender wrote, “Your obvious disgust with MRDD and its employees over the way your daughter and you were treated is understandable. However, Tom [Spetnagel] and I believe you are allowing this to cloud your objectivity.” If it was a father, a male, who was refusing to settle, would he be accused of having his objectivity clouded, of his being too emotional? Denise Yates is a professional, with a career in law enforcement herself and a mind of her own. She doesn’t need to be patronized by those in suits and robes at the County Courthouse. In any event, Probate judge Kirsch appointed a third Portsmouth lawyer to be the child’s ad litem legal guardian.

What is behind all this legal maneuvering? Ms. Yates declined to accept an offer from the other side to settle. Yates made the judgment that the offer was insufficient considering how much of it would be taken by lawyers in contingency fees. It is not a question of how much Denise Yates herself will get, because she will get nothing. The statute of limitations ran out for her some time ago. Whatever money her daughter is awarded would be put in a trust fund.

Ms. Yates’ lawyers want to settle now. One of the reasons Bender gave for settling now was that as more time goes by the heinousness of Loper’s crimes and of the criminality of MRDD’s neglect are being forgotten. “The longer this [case] continues,” he argued in his letter to her, “the more the notoriety of these events subsides. In other words, our claim loses value” (30 Aug. 2005). Portsmouth’s only daily newspaper has priorities that place support of Clayton Johnson and the Marting Foundation and the denigration of the reform movement much higher than justice for a mother and her raped child. With cover-up/kiss-ass journalism, the shelf-life of a story that justifies the Marting’s sale lasts as long as is necessary and a story that protects the over-privileged of Portsmouth never “loses value,” but the story of the sexual and legal rape of a child is out-of-date rape.

Chillicothe St. at rush hour, 2005

Though it would be a challenge to say exactly what its boundaries are, where it begins and where it ends, there is a downtown Portsmouth. But the downtown Portsmouth of today is not the downtown Portsmouth of a hundred or even fifty years ago. The downtown Portsmouth of a hundred years ago is dead. Fifty years ago, in downtown Portsmouth, arteriosclerosis was already beginning to set in. Twenty-five years ago, at the time of the shopping mall scam, it was more like rigor mortis. The Glockners got out of the hardware business and got out of downtown and into the outskirts years ago, which was why their auto dealership became one of the few success stories in Portsmouth. If only Marting's had done the same. How many more antiques/junk shops can downtown accommodate? Chillicothe street, which has trouble handling what little traffic there is now, will be constipated with the additional traffic brought by the new bridge – it won’t take much traffic to do that – and there is little parking space to provide relief.

Certain people, some in good faith, others in bad, are claiming that downtown Portsmouth can be resuscitated, if not born again, as a shopping and business center. That is a very doubtful proposition. In the last half century, drastic changes have taken place in where and in the way people shop, including on the internet, as well as the way in which they get around, changes that almost guarantee that the bustling prosperous downtown Portsmouth of the past is going to remain a thing of the past. If anything is going to revive downtown Portsmouth, it is not going to be nostalgia.

I have nothing against downtowns. On the contrary. I am of a generation and from a class (blue-collar) for whom downtown was a wonderfully defining experience. I love downtowns and feel lucky for having been too old to have been part of a later mall generation. How hard it must be for anyone to outgrow the experience of having been a mall rat. My favorite floodwall mural is the one of Chillicothe St. on a Saturday night in the mid-1940s. I would like to be able to step into that mural and go back in time. “Downtown” is one of my favorite ballads, especially when belted out by Petula Clark. But I know the difference between fantasy and reality, between the past and the present.


Mural of Chillicothe Street, Saturday night, 1940s

The long delayed grand new U. S. Grant bridge replacement is not going to change the obsolescence of downtown Portsmouth anymore than the picturesque old U.S. Grant Bridge did. The new bridge is a striking structure, a triumph of engineering, but it is a bridge to the past, which is to say it is a bridge to Portsmouth’s downtown. The new bridge is not nearly as questionable as that so-called “bridge to nowhere,” the $941 million bridge from the Alaskan mainland to Ketchican (pop. 8000) on the island of Gravina, but the $38 million (and counting) Portsmouth bridge is another expensive link in the chain of American transportation pork. The Carl Perkins Bridge, about two miles down the Ohio River, enables cars and trucks to avoid downtown Portsmouth. What drivers wanting to go north on Route 23 will take the new Portsmouth bridge and negotiate the ten or so traffic lights on the short stretch of Chillicothe Street, when they can go two miles south to the Carl Perkins Bridge and avoid downtown Portsmouth?


$38 Million Bridge to the Past

It was hoped that a new university would revive downtown Portsmouth. Shawnee State has been downtown for almost twenty years, but it has not revived downtown Portsmouth. There are those who say gambling casinos could revive downtown Portsmouth, but that would not be the downtown of the past. Portsmouth may already have more prostitutes per capita than any city in Ohio, and gambling would only increase their numbers. Downtown gambling casinos would create a hooker’s heaven. And as for political prostitutes, Portsmouth already has enough of those, and gambling gravy would only increase their numbers.

The “downtown” mentality, the view that the city’s recovery must be focused on and begin in downtown, is one of the things holding the city back. The “downtown” mentality and, specifically, treating the Marting’s as a sacred cow is one of the things that led to the Marting’s scandal. Do our over-privileged know the difference between a sacred cow and mad cow? Portsmouth’s downtown is decrepit, and trying to recycle century-old commercial structures like Marting’s as public buildings while destroying the historically significant public-use buildings, such as the N&W railroad terminal and the Municipal Building, reflects Portsmouth’s lack not just of architectural conscience but of architectural consciousness. Patriotism, Samuel Johnson said, is the last refuge of a scoundrel, but in Portsmouth downtown is. The Marting building is the crown jewel of the downtown con.

What is to be done? I say let the police and the courts defend the constitutional rights of prostitutes to operate downtown as they do their right to operate in the John St. area, and I say let Neal Hatcher do his eminent domaining in downtown Portsmouth, and together, the prostitutes and the developer, might do for downtown Portsmouth what they did for the John St. area, which is to say level it. That is not the worst thing that could happen.

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Postscript: A blogger in Cincinnati has been tracking pork in Portsmouth in a special series. I recommend the series, and in particular the most recent installment. Click on http://porkopolis.blogspot.com/2005/04/pork-in-portsmouth-part-5.html

Dummy on the City Council





Aeh, JoAnn

Aeh began her political career campaigning for the recall of three honest councilmen back in 1980, and as long-time city clerk she has been obstructing justice and the recall of anybody ever since. She reportedly advised ex-felon Michael Malone (see below) he could run for and hold public office, and she may have been, along with her husband, a member of Ku Klux Klan.



Adelphia Building:

Originally the home of an American Motor Corporation dealer until AMC went out of business. The building was next the rented home of Adelphia Communications until the president and founder of Adelphia was convicted of massive fraud and imprisoned. After Adelphia went bankrupt and reorganized, it moved its Portsmouth office away from the sacred Downtown (see below) to the wrong side of the tracks of the 15th Street Viaduct area (see below). The Marting Foundation (see below) has dictated that the Adelphia Building should be the home of the Portsmouth Police Dept.




Bauer, Gregory:

Mayor of Portsmouth (1998-2004). A failed Portsmouth businessman who began a second career as a Political Prostitute (see below) serving the interests of the over-privileged (see below), Bauer, along with councilwomen Carol Caudill and Ann Sydnor, was recalled from office in June 2004 as a result of the Marting scandal.



Bauer Graphics:

A now defunct business on lower Chillicothe St., in the heart of Portsmouth's dead Downtown (see below), it is owned by former mayor Greg Bauer (see above), who lived high in the loft above Bauer Graphics, behind whose unwashed windows were unwatered potted ferns and an Easter Island-like carved head. When he was recalled in June 2004, Bauer told a reporter Bauer Graphics would reopen, but it has not yet.



Baughman, Howard:

The smarmy president of the Portsmouth City Council and relative of Clayton Johnson, Portsmouth’s Boss Tweedy (see below). Employed at Covert Funiture, Baughman is the chief advocate on the City Council for reviving Portsmouth’s dead Downtown district by moving city employees into a decrepit department store.

Bender, Stanley:

A Portsmouth attorney who is representing the Marting Foundation in its attempt to dictate what the city will do with the money it obtained illegally from the city before it will return any part of that money to the city. Bender is also the lawyer who is attempting to legally deprive one of his own clients, the mother of a child who was raped at the MRDD, of her right to decide what is best for that child.

Boss Tweedy:

One of the nicknames of local lawyer and Portsmouth’s leading deal-maker Clayton Johnson, head of the Marting Foundation.

Building:

Any Portsmouth structure made of wood, brick, or cinderblock that Portsmouth’s over-privileged males feel should be torn down as quickly as possible to the profit of everybody except the owner of the building if he happens to be an African-American.




Caudill, Carol:

The former Ward 3 representative on the Portsmouth City Council who went by the handle “Sassy Lassie” on the Internet, where she advertized herself as a politically conservative 63-year-old divorced "Woman seeking a Man" between the ages of 53-73 and who was at least 5'9" in height, but who could be either married or unmarried. Caudill was recalled from office in 2004 for her role in the Marting scandal and reportedly supported ex-felon Michael Malone as her replacement on the City Council.

Chaos:

What Mayor Bauer and Ward 3 councilwoman Caudill predicted would follow their recall from office.



Downtown Portsmouth:

Pictured above are empty storefronts and an empty Chillicothe St. at 4 PM on a sunny October Tuesday afternoon. The dead Downtown area of Portsmouth is sacred to Portsmouth’s over-privileged because that is where they used to do their Christmas and Easter shopping. The over-privileged and the Political Prostitutes (see below) in the Municipal Building (see below) think no sacrifice is too great and no scam too outrageous to perpetrate on behalf of the Downtown area. The holiest site Downtown is not the Municipal building, the seat of the city government, but the Marting building (see below), the cynosure of shopping and consumerism.



Fifteenth-Street Viaduct:

Also known informally as Shady Plaza, the Fifteenth-Street Viaduct area is the site of one of the scams of the Bauer era. After the Daily Times helped circulate the rumor that it would cost a fortune to clean up toxic contamination on the viaduct site, no one was willing to buy it. According to acting Mayor Kalb, the city could not give it away. Then the property was miraculously decontaminated and the city sold the property for a song to a local developer, who made a bundle by dividing it up and selling lots to others who built movie theaters and eateries on the once supposedly toxic site.



Hatchered House:

Through the threat and occasional use of eminent domain, or “imminent doom”(see below), hatchering is the systematic running down and neglect of property (such as the John St. house above) and the eventual bulldozing of neighborhoods by local developer Neal Hatcher. The most recent example of hatchering is the eminent domaining of the property of Joe Perry, the enterprising young African-American businessman whose rental properties in Hatcherville (see below) will soon bite the dust.



Hatcherville:

A name given by former residents to the 3rd St. area that Neal Hatcher acquired by threats of eminent domain and then bulldozed to build Campus View student dormitories in a sweetheart deal with Shawnee State University in which the university takes most of the risks and Hatcher most of the profits.



Imminent Doom:

"Imminent doom" is the Hatcher variety of “eminent domain.”




John Street:

The bulldozed bombed-out looking Portsmouth neighborhood that is within streetwalking distance of the Municipal building. John Street is where the sexual, as distinct from the political, prostitutes of Portsmouth practice the world’s oldest profession. John Street is the proposed site of a Neal Hatcher shopping center to be called “Hooker Haven.”



Loper, Tim

Dummies used to fill the display windows of Marting’s Department Store. That's what Ward 1 councilman Tim Loper said he had been, a dummy, for supporting the purchase of the Marting building. He had been elected last year because of his stand against the purchase of the Marting building, but then somebody had persuaded him to support the purchase, someone who had played him for a dummy. Loper, whose home was recently sold at a sheriff’s auction and who is rumored to be living outside of Ward 1, has flip-flopped and is again backing the purchase of the Marting building. He is again being played for a dummy.



Marting Building

A one-hundred-year-old leaking decrepit department store that the Political Prostitutes in the Municipal Building have declared the holiest shrine in Portsmouth’s dead “Downtown” district (see entry above). The Marting building is covered by a phony 1950-ish façade, or what architects call a “slip cover,” which is what clever property owners use to hide the run-down condition of an old building.



Marting display window:

In keeping with Marting’s status as a temple of commerce in Portsmouth’s sacred but dead Downtown shopping area, the display windows at Marting’s no longer feature dummies but flags, religious symbols, Hospice, Missing Children, MIA/POW, Ohio Daughters of the Revolution, and every other worthy cause that the Marting Foundation can sanctify the building with. The window displays, along with the phony façade, are an attempt to disguise the fact that the building is an unholy mess and "ain't worth anything," to quote Marty Mohr (see below), and should have been torn down years ago.

Marting Foundation:

A front group whose original mission was to unload the otherwise worthless downtown building off on the public for $2 million. The Foundation’s revised mission is to return to the city part of the $2 milliion that the courts have ruled it obtained illegally from the city. The Marting Foundation has agreed to return part of the original loot, but only if the city uses the building for a public purpose, such as a municipal building, which will enable the Foundation to obtain a tax write-off.



Malone, Michael:

Brother of “praying” Councilman David A. Malone, Michael A. Malone spent terms in jail and prison for passing bad checks, theft, forgery, DUI, and possessing drug paraphernalia before realizing he was in the wrong racket and decided to get into politics.



Mohr, Marty:

Noise pollution enthusiast and councilmaniac of Ward Six, Mohr avoided being recalled last year by denouncing the purchase of the Marting building, which he told a Columbus Dispatch reporter “ain’t worth anything.” This year Mohr became the biggest supporter of the Marting purchase, prompting the slogan of the current campaign to recall him: “Mohr is Less."



Municipal Building:

A Portsmouth house of ill-repute that has been deliberately and systematically allowed to slide into disrepair and where for several generations Political Prostitutes have practiced the world’s second oldest profession: screwing the public. To obliterate the scene of their crimes and accommodate a developer who reportedly has designs on the site, the Political Prostitutes are campaigning feverishly to hatcher the building.



Portsmouth, City of Prosperity:

The slogan and bumper sticker promoted by "praying councilman" David Malone (that's his car above) and his ex-felon brother Michael (see above), the phrase "City of Prosperity" was coined by a minister of the Deeper Life movement who preached at a 2004 tent revival sponsored by David Malone’s church. The Deeper Life minister prophesied Portsmouth would undergo a divinely inspired economic recovery. The Deeper Life movement was exposed by the Tampa Times in 2003 as a scam for raising money and keeping members in line by forbidding them to criticize their leaders.



Political Prostitutes:

In addition to being known for its sexual prostitutes, Portsmouth is also home to Political Prostitutes who do the bidding of the over-privileged of Portsmouth. The Political Prostitutes can be found publicly suffering like martyrs in the Municipal building when they are not privately performing their dirty tricks.



Porksmouth:

What author Jesse Stuart thought Portsmouth was turning into, as is evident in his novel about Portsmouth and porkbarreling, The Land Beyond the River.




Portsmouth Daily Times:

The incredibly shrinking local daily newspaper that has been screwing the public and covering up for the over-privileged of Portsmouth since 1852.




Running Sores

Beggars in the Middle East, seeking sympathy and handouts from tourists, used to expose their lesions to tourists. Portsmouth city officials flaunt festering leaks in the Municipal Building, such as the one in the corner ceiling of the council chamber, which they deliberately allow to get worse so that they can gain sympathy from taxpayers before they bulldoze the building and turn the land over to a developer.


Singer, Dr. Herbert:

The absentee landlord of the now empty so-called Adelphia building, in Portsmouth. Singer, who lives in Los Angeles, was delinquent in paying taxes on the Adelphia building, but he generously agreed to give it to the city if the city will forgive him his taxes and use the building for some public purpose, such as a police station, so that he can get a tax write-off.

SOGP:

The acronym of the Society for Obtaining Government Pork. Known locally as “Soggy Pee,” the SOGP is the agency that launders public funds and distributes abatements for the over-privileged of Portsmouth.

Tax Write-off:

What you settle for when your downtown building is worthless commercially but which you can still collect something on but only if the building can be converted at great public expense to some public use, such as a municipal building, a police station, a welcome center, or a comfort station.



Travel World Agency:

A fly-by-night travel agency formed by three of Portsmouth’s over-privileged, one of whom was in dentistry, another in furniture, and a third, in crushed rock. World became a favorite travel agency at Shawnee State., where the rock man was chair of the Board of Trustees and the furniture man’s wife was Director of Development. When World Travel crashed after 9/11, Clayton Johnson engineered a deal whereby the agency got a tax-write off by donating its dubious assets to a public entity, the Ohio University branch in Ironton.