Tension that had been simmering between Commissioner Jimmy Dimora and the Plain Dealer escalated Tuesday, when Dimora accused the paper of being in cahoots with the Ohio Republican party in a plot to take down county democrats. The outburst at a commissioners' meeting was sparked by a reform plan proposed by fellow commissioner Tim Hagan – ostensibly at the request of the Plain Dealer. Hagan proposed restructuring county government to eliminate and consolidate a number of positions. That plan quickly gained the support of the Republican Speaker of the Ohio House, Jon Husted, who promptly set about fast-tracking a bill permitting Hagan to float the idea to voters on the November ballot. According to the Plain Dealer, Dimora sees the move as a Republican attempt to subvert heavily-Democratic Cuyahoga politics. And, in a scathing editorial, the paper called his objections “asinine”. Dimora hasn’t replied to numerous requests for comment. Hagan was traveling and unavailable for reaction.
Until Dimora’s opposition, Hagan’s plan received a generally warm response. The most common criticism was that the plan didn’t do anything to the three commissioners’ jobs at the top. Jim Rokakis is county treasurer.
ROKAKIS: Kind of curious: he wants to get rid of all the offices, but wants to keep the county commissioners. I think if you want to reform county government, you have to look at the whole thing.
In an interview last week, Hagan said he wanted to keep his plan realistic.
HAGAN: It isn’t the three county commissioners that are at the heart of the problem with county government. It was the government that was established in 1850, 150 years ago or so, and it’s inadequate for today’s world and we have to face up to it.
Under Hagan’s plan, voters would still choose the three county commissioners, who would then appoint most county officials who are currently elected – such as the coroner and the sheriff. The county recorder, auditor, and treasurer-–also currently elected—would be combined into one appointed position called Assessor. That’s OK with treasurer Rokakis, who’s in his 3rd elected term.
ROKAKIS: I’ve really enjoyed my time in government, but sooner or later I know that it ends, but if I could end it by helping to abolish the position I hold, I’m all for that.
Despite Jimmy Dimora’s opposition, these ideas are not new. In the 1990s, retired professor Kathleen Barber headed up a bipartisan committee that proposed replacing the county commissioners with an executive and council.
BARBER: I remember the day we presented it to Tim Hagan at the county commissioner’s office. He said ‘thank you’ and turned around and put it on the shelf behind him. That was kind of symbolic of the result.
Clearly Hagan has reconsidered the idea of reform, even if he would keep his own job intact. Barber says change is most likely to happen in Ohio following scandal, and that the recent resignations of Attorney General Marc Dann and Cuyahoga Recorder Pat O’Malley could help push Hagan’s proposal forward. Whether Commissioner Jimmy Dimora’s objections will help or hinder the effort remains to be seen.