By Mark Painter

Attorney Mark Painter, a Fairview resident, has served as a judge on the Ohio Court of Appeals, the Hamilton County Municipal Court and the United Nations Appeals Tribunal.

The people of Hamilton County want to restore Music Hall and Union Terminal. But our good intentions have been frustrated.



The blue-ribbonest committee ever, chaired by an ex-P&G head (now a Cabinet member), and including four Fortune-500 CEOs, the largest area construction companies and facilities operators, and many other experts, developed a detailed plan to save two major historic buildings. Countless hours of time were donated to the "most-vetted" plan ever.

But our commissioners won't even let us vote on it.

Any responsible board — after studying the issue, weighing the evidence and making a rational decision — would have adopted the plan and thanked this group of expert volunteers for doing their job for them.

Instead, in a breathtaking display of chutzpah compounded by ignorance, two Commissioners, Chris Monzel and Greg Hartmann, at the last minute concocted a back-of-napkin alternate scheme that even they can't explain. And Monzel is not even sure he will vote for his own plan!

How could this happen? We have ourselves to blame. By county voters too often voting by party label, we let the Republicans run knaves and fools, and discourage the Democrats from running anyone. (It's not party-specific — other counties have the opposite problem.)

So now we have a county government run by people with the intelligence of a soap dish and the fortitude of a mouse. Who, in turn, are influenced — some might say bullied — by the unelected Chris Finney (who just moved his office to Clermont County to take advantage of tax breaks he scorns for others), COAST and other assorted Mad Hatters opposed to the 21st century.

Though too late to prevent the present fiasco, we must begin to recruit qualified officeholders. Perhaps some business leaders and philanthropists, seeing what their blind support of Republicans has wrought, will become involved. Both parties can be reformed, or perhaps another path taken.

But the process can't be left to others — the only thing necessary for the Finneys to win is for good people to do nothing.