COASTer Mark Miller has settled his suit against Cincinnati City Council member Laure Quinlivan over her outrageous abuse of City staff and equipment to run her re-election campaign for Cincinnati City Council.
As part of the settlement, Quinlivan re-paid the City $1,500 for the mis-use of 30 hours of staff time and Judge Steve Martin issued a permanent injunction preventing Quinlivan from further abusing City tax dollars for political purposes.
The Enquirer has the story here.
"COAST's objectives in this matter were several, said COAST Chairman Jason Gloyd. "First, we wanted to stop the abuse by Quinlivan -- in 2011 and going forward. Second, we wanted to get the City re-paid the monies inappropriately taken. And third, we want to send a signal to elected officials state-wide that they need to fund their campaign with private donations, not tax dollars. We achieved all three objectives."
COAST is grateful to our members Mark Miller, Jason Gloyd and Brian Shrive, as well as our attorneys Chris Finney and Curt Hartman for bringing home this win.
You ought to include the fact that COAST's General Counsel Chris Finney, a shareholder in Finney, Stagnaro, Saba & Peterson (see link here: http://www.fssp-law.com/attorneys/finney/), got paid $10,000 for literally cents in actual waste in taxpayer dollars.
ReplyDeleteIt's dishonest--and immoral--to include only the facts that make you look good in articles like this. COAST is against wasteful taxpayer spending, and in that capacity serves a useful function, but in this instance, it absolutely blew it.
Finney ought to donate the $10k to a charity (or heck, even to a suitable Republican presidential candidate--this isn't about ideology, this is about integrity). Right now, it looks like COAST is an organization that exists to line the pockets of its lawyer, and NOT to look out for the beleaguered taxpayers of the city of Cincinnati.
What a disappointment to Cincinnati fiscal conservatives. We have no one to turn to. The organizations that are supposed to police waste end up causing it and lining their own pockets.
Don't change the subject to the Freedom Center, or the transit center, or any other spending. This is about COAST, and COAST's integrity. That is literally the only thing I'm talking about. Donate the money--to OxFam, to Rick Santorum, to the Catholic Church, to an art museum. It literally doesn't matter. But if you keep it, you create the impression that you care more about lining your pockets at taxpayer expense than preventing wasteful spending. Donate the money publicly, and show that YOU have the moral high ground. Don't, and show that you just want money, and you're not afraid to take it from taxpayers.
God bless.
What's dishonest are people like poster #1 who think that people should work for free. Tell me Mr. Anonymous, how many hours do you put in at work without pay? Tell me. I'd like to know your name, your occupation, and proof of your free labor.
ReplyDeleteIf suing governments for breaking the law was so lucrative, why aren't more lawyers engaging in this? The answer is because it's not a big money-maker. If you lose, you get nothing. And when you get a win, the fee is usually a discount to your normal rate.
If the government doesn't want to pay these fees, all it has to do is obey the law. You seem to think it's ok for government to break the law, because you sure don't want anyone holding them accountable.