Ex-Mayor Bauer at his final Council meeting
Next Wednesday evening, March 16, at 7PM in Flohr Hall of the SSU library, there will be a showing of Recall, a 60 minute video on the recall of Mayor Bauer. The showing will be followed by an open forum on the recall and on the issues that prompted it, including the sale of the Marting's building.
What follows are a some quotations from the video.
Asked if he had ever seen a more intense division in the city than the one developing during the recall campaign, Jeff Barron replied, “No, I haven’t. For years there were maybe four of five people in City Council meetings. Now, there are maybe sixty to seventy people.”
Jeff Barron, Portsmouth Daily Times
“The guy at the top [Mayor Bauer] is actually a bottom dweller.”
Lee Scott, Recall organizer
“The most significant thing about a recall is if that person is recalled . . . they cannot run for that office for a period of time.”
Frank Gerlach, former mayor of Portsmouth.
“We were recalled [in 1980] not because we were opposed to a downtown mall but because we were opposed to the actions of the City Manager [Barry Feldman].”
Harold Daub, former City Council member
“Lawyer C. Clayton Johnson, a foundation trustee involved in the sale [of the Marting building] could not be reached for comment and did not return calls.”
Reporter for the Columbus Dispatch
“He [Mayor Bauer] misled council on the value and condition of the [Marting] building. It ain’t worth anything.”
Marty Mohr, current City Council member
“If people were upset and concerned about the Marting building, one would think that when it was being discussed in council meetings that citizens would have come forward then. So to give you a valid reason why it’s become a factor now, I don’t know.”
Ann Sydnor, former City Council member.
“I’m writing a letter to the editor right now trying to figure out why in the world a man would pay three times the amount for the [Marting] building. When we could’ve got it for $800,000, we paid $2,000,000. It don’t make sense.”
Tim Loper, current City Council member
“My council person Mr. Baughman and I have not seen eye to eye on a lot of things, and I refuse to go to him when I have a problem. I call somebody else.”
Dee Penix
“The city lost out on that stretch of land [15th St. Viaduct] because it was reported that the property had been contaminated, but when it was sold there was nothing on the deed that said it was contaminated. The buyer started selling the property off in sections . . . and we’re finding out the city sold it to him for $60,000 and he has already sold one parcel for about $150,000 and another parcel for roughly $150,000 and another for a few hundred thousand . . . The city lost out on a lot of dollars that were going into someone else’s pocket.”
Bob Mollette, current City Council member
“He [Mayor Bauer] has been caught with his hand in the cookie jar . . . He’s kind of stealing and just turning around and laughing about it. . . . So we’re recalling him.”
Joe Ferguson, Ward 1 resident
“I’ve even had people come to me and tell me they’re his [Bauer’s] drug-dealer – that he came to them to score cocaine and his wife buys marijuana from them. But they’ve never come to me. I’ve never seen them do anything. . . . But, yes, it’s very well known in the city.”
Lee Scott
“I think the recall movement is a divisive way of tearing down the community. But I do feel our prayers have somewhat given a positive side to the entire situation.”
David Malone, minister and current City Council member
“A lot of people are angry here, and I think the angry people will be out and vote. They have a reason to go to the polls this time.”
Austin Leedom, editor Shawnee Sentinel
POST-RECALL COMMENTS
“People have computers. Twenty years ago they may have gotten away with it. But today computers will tell on them. . . . David just slew Goliath.
Bob Mollette
“I think the city, the community, has spoken, and right now Bauer does not have control. His people, who have had him as their puppet these many years, do not have control right now.”
Teresa Mollette
“This is probably the turning point in this town. These men threw everything they could at us. They tried to change the attention away from the issues to our past records. I think it speaks volumes that the people of this town decided to come to us, people they knew they could trust, to find out what the truth was.”
John Welton, “Doug Deepe”
“Mayor Bauer was recalled last night. Voters decided to give him the boot by quite a large margin.”
WSAZ Channel 3
“I still stand behind our record. We’ve done a good job. We’ve been very successful in preparing the city for future industrial expansion. I think we’ve done a good job. . . . I will survive in one form or another. I had a business in Portsmouth before I became mayor, an advertising and design business, a background in printing also. And we have opportunities out there that we’ll follow up on. We will survive.”
Mayor Bauer, speaking to a reporter after he was recalled.
“FIRED”
Headline in the Daily Times the morning after the recall of Mayor Bauer.
Bauer Graphics, still closed as of March 2005
