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Politically Speaking is WVXU Senior Political Analyst Howard Wilkinson's column that examines the world of politics and how it shapes the world around us.

Analysis: Sittenfeld's conviction closes big chapter in 'culture of corruption' at City Hall

City Hall in Cincinnati, Ohio, Wednesday, May 12, 2021.
Jason Whitman
/
WVXU
City Hall in Cincinnati, Ohio, Wednesday, May 12, 2021.

P.G. Sittenfeld's once-burning passion to climb up the ladder of politics is a heap of dust now, as the former Cincinnati councilman prepares for an inevitable prison sentence after his conviction last week on bribery and extortion charges.

He has no one to blame but himself.

But the irony of Sittenfeld's precipitous fall is this:

He may have unwittingly ended Cincinnati City Hall's descent into a culture of corruption, greed and hubris that, for years now, has been eroding Cincinnatians' belief that they had an honest, above-board government at 801 Plum Street.

Sittenfeld's rude awakening last Friday in a federal court could be the cure to a sickness that has pervaded City Hall for too long.

It is a sickness that has forced Cincinnati voters to watch as three of the council members they elected — Sittenfeld, his fellow Democrat Tamaya Dennard and Republican Jeff Pastor — were arrested by FBI agents on public corruption charges.

"This is an extraordinary time for the city," said Jerry Newfarmer, a former Cincinnati city manager who runs a consulting firm for local governments.

"It is a time of great opportunities, with a new council and a new mayor who had nothing to do with the problems of the past," Newfarmer said.

David Niven, associate professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati, said the new generation of leaders at City Hall will have Sittenfeld's situation to look to as an example of what an ambitious young politician should not do.

"P.G. is going to serve as an example," Niven said. "His example will serve as a 'scared straight' program for elected officials and developers who want to do business with the city. Everyone should know now where the line is drawn."

The example of Sittenfeld and his criminal conviction aside, the power-wash of City Hall began in the 2021 city elections. An enormous field of council candidates was on the ballot and Cincinnati voters elected eight Democrats and one Republican.

Six of the Democrats had no prior experience on City Council; they couldn't be blamed for any of the blurring or outright obliteration of moral, ethical and legal boundaries.

They were not Swamp Creatures.

Nor was the "outsider" candidate who was elected mayor, Aftab Pureval.

Pureval's political ambitions were clear from the start — as a candidate for clerk of courts, for Congress, for mayor.

But he had none of the pay-for-play stink of City Hall on him. Neither did his opponent, then-council member David Mann, but Cincinnati voters were clearly looking for someone from the outside of 801 Plum, and Pureval, with his charm, his intensity, his reputation as a policy wonk, fit the bill perfectly.

"There is a new, young mayor and a council that is almost entirely brand new, all poised to take control of city government and do good things," Newfarmer said. "The primary foundation of good government is leadership; and I think Aftab has done a good job showing that. That's what you want in elected officials."

And, Newfarmer said, the new leadership at City Hall will go a long way toward restoring the public's faith in city government — a faith that was there for most of the nearly 100 years Cincinnati has had a council-manager form of government.

The indictment of three council members on corruption charges pretty much destroyed that faith.

"I think the public support will come back," Newfarmer said. "People want to be proud of their town. People want to have a government they can be proud of. I think they can now."

These new council members — and the new mayor — are simply not going to get personally involved with negotiating deals with would-be city developers, the way Sittenfeld, Dennard and Pastor were accused of doing.

Dennard has already served her prison time and Pastor is still awaiting trial.

The difference between Sittenfeld and the other two council members is that Dennard and Pastor, allegedly, put bribe money in their own pockets. Sittenfeld didn't do that — he was raising money for a Super PAC that would support a 2021 run for mayor.

"Dennard and Pastor — that's old school corruption," Niven said. "What P.G. was doing was new school corruption — not for personal gain, but political gain."

We can probably drop the curtain on City Hall's "culture of corruption" era.

First of all, it's unlikely anyone in this new City Hall crowd would do something like that.

And, if they did, they'd know that there is a cell next door to Sittenfeld waiting for them.

Howard Wilkinson is in his 50th year of covering politics on the local, state and national levels.