Neither Perkins nor Ginther can be trusted to put the interests of Columbus citizens first. I urge the responsible members of the Columbus City School Board and the Columbus City Council to find new leadership for 2013.
By JONATHAN C. BEARD
President and CEO Columbus Compact Corporation
Columbus is suffering from a dearth of political leadership. Over the next two weeks, both the Columbus City Council and the Columbus City School Board of Education will be choosing their respective Presidents. It is time for both organizations to change their leadership.
The School Board leadership issue is self-evident. Ms. Perkins has absolutely mismanaged the disaster of the school enrollment data scandal and appears to be complicit in a cover-up. She has lost all credibility, and while she can’t be un-elected, her fellow members must remove her as president through the coming vote. Perkin’s leadership has been so God-awful, no further commentary is needed.
There are many reasons current City Council President Andrew Ginther should be removed from the council presidency, including his demonstrated disdain for an open democratic process as shown most notably through his charge to push through the ill-advised arena bailout without any public hearings – despite the failure of public arena proposals at the ballots on five occasions prior – and by his role in funneling obscene amounts of campaign funding to his peers on council for their elections. In controlling council money – moving over $325,000 to support the candidacies of those he appointed to office -- Ginther has positioned himself as an old-style political boss.
In addition, Ginther was the person who had the responsibility and position to have unearthed the CCS data scandal in 2004 when specific and credible information of wrong-doing was brought to his attention as Chair of the school’s Audit and Accountability Committee. Ginther failed to provide the leadership to address the issues raised and abided by the firing of the Internal Auditor who was poised to investigate at the time. Had Ginther executed his duties responsibly, the fraud would have been stopped at the time, and next eight years of fraud would not have occurred. The CCS scandal is the biggest public scandal of our generation – attracting the attention of the F.B.I., which has now opened a public corruption unit in Columbus. Ginther’s lack of action back in 2004 presaged his absolute inability to stand up for the citizenry, instead of the powerful, and negatively impacted tens of thousands of Columbus children and families. Ginther’s was a failure of epic proportions, and it should be an automatic disqualifier for further community leadership.
Finally, the voters are luke-warm to Ginther, at best. Although he has been elected to local offices since 2001 and raised and spent the most of any candidate for the 2011 re-election to council, he did not lead the ballot, coming in second to a first-time council member. There is clearly no public mandate for Andrew Ginther's leadership of council.
Neither Perkins nor Ginther can be trusted to put the interests of Columbus citizens first. I urge the responsible members of the Columbus City School Board and the Columbus City Council to find new leadership for 2013.
