Jason Williams | Cincinnati Enquirer

Wochit

The Enquirer/Cameron Knight

Apparently Cincinnati's floundering streetcar is going well enough for the top government official overseeing the rail line to receive a $22,000 raise.

SORTA has promoted streetcar director Paul Grether to a vice president's role and bumped his annual salary from $103,122 to $125,000, according to public records obtained by Politics Extra.

Come on, is SORTA really this bad at timing and public relations?

The transit agency made this decision amid telling the public it needs money and might ask voters to support a countywide sales-tax hike this fall. These are the same voters who are generally skeptical about the streetcar, which doesn't run in extreme cold weather and which few people ride when it does work.

SORTA says the potential levy would only be for fixing the Metro bus system. The bus and streetcar budgets are indeed separate, but the optics and timing of Grether's 21 percent raise aren't good.

Grether continues to oversee daily operations of the streetcar, plagued by a plethora of problems ever since the conductor sounded the first whistle on Sept. 9, 2016.

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Although Grether has worked on streetcars during his career, he now will also start working on bus-related issues, transit agency CEO Dwight Ferrell said.

"His role is slated to expand to include bus," Ferrell told Politics Extra on Thursday. "We’ve obviously still got things we have to work through with the streetcar."

Yeah, no kidding.

A day later, a SORTA spokeswoman put out this statement: "Paul's promotion to VP, Transit Operations will primarily focus on Metro bus operations. He is continuing to fulfill streetcar duties until a replacement is found."

Grether came to SORTA in 2012 to work on the streetcar and is regarded as one of the transit industry's rising stars. He certainly isn't the sole reason why the streetcar is in disarray. In fact, most of the problems are probably out of his control. This mess has been a total team effort between SORTA, City Hall and streetcar manufacturer CAF USA.

But decisions like this can't help SORTA's public perception. Streetcar aside, it's already an uphill challenge for SORTA to gain buy-in from voters across Hamilton County. Taxes and transit might as well be four-letter words, especially in the suburbs.

And don't forget this: Suburban voters will decide the fate of a transit tax – not the transit-loving urban progressives who make a lot of noise on Facebook but are way outnumbered at the polls.

MICRO-SCOOPS & MORE

• Questions linger about whether FC Cincinnati will pay the full amount of property taxes to the public schools if the soccer club builds a new stadium in the West End on the site of Taft High's current football field. Keep this in mind: The club has talked about the port authority owning the new stadium in what's called a sale-and-leaseback. The whole point of such a deal is to get a huge tax break. In fact, property taxes aren't required to be paid since the quasi-governmental port authority would technically own the stadium. FC Cincinnati would still have the option to voluntarily pay the full portion of property taxes to Cincinnati Public Schools.

• Speaking of FC Cincinnati, some public speakers at Monday night's school board meeting asked whether any board members received campaign donations from the team's ownership group last year. PX checked campaign finance records. Board members Ericka Copeland-Dansby, Mike Moroski and Melanie Bates each received money from FC Cincinnati officials. Owner/CEO Carl H. Lindner III ($2,500) and owner Scott Farmer ($5,000) donated to Copeland-Dansby. Moroski received contributions from team president/owner Jeff Berding ($125) and Farmer's wife, Mary Farmer ($1,000). The Farmers also gave $1,000 to Bates, as well as $1,000 each to Daniel Minera and Marcia Futel. Neither Minera nor Futel won.

• Cincinnati police continue to investigate a stalking incident at Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Aftab Pureval's Hyde Park house earlier this month. The Democrat is running against Steve Chabot in the 1st Congressional District, which does not include Hyde Park. Pureval says he has moved Downtown into the district, but Chabot's campaign is making a big deal about his opponent being a carpetbagger. Considering residency has been such a big issue, it initially seemed curious that the Feb. 5 police report listed the Hamilton County courthouse as Pureval's home address. Pureval's campaign declined comment. But police spokesman Lt. Steve Saunders said it's "pretty common that government officials would list their place of work as their residence. It’s more of a security thing."

• Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper will release his second political thriller, "The Wingman," during a kickoff and signing event 7 p.m. Monday at the Rookwood Commons Joseph-Beth Booksellers, 2692 Madison Road. Pepper's 2016 novel, "The People's House," received high praise from The Wall Street Journal and readers on Amazon.com.

• Bipartisan birthday announcements: Congratulations to Republican state Rep. Tom Brinkman and Democrat Alex Linser, chief of staff for Commissioner Denise Driehaus, on the recent new additions to their families. Mount Lookout's Brinkman became a grandfather with the arrival of a granddaughter. Linser and his wife, Joie, welcomed their sixth child, Charlie, who has been affectionately nicknamed "The Caboose."