Prediction

I’ll go on the record. There’s a juicy appointment awaiting P.G. Sittenfeld as reward for taking one for the team, in the tradition of Bob Bedinghaus. Sittenfeld ran for city council this year when a polarizing issue has been the floundering streetcar project. A plank of his platform was that he opposed continuing the project because the financial plan didn’t make sense. This appeared unequivocally in his position statement to the local newspaper and elsewhere, although he’s now denying what was in print. Even if you’re not a financial genius, you can understand this. When the council originally voted approval of the project plan, it was stated that it relied, in large part, on raising $31 million in private capital and couldn’t be built without that. The city manager was charged with the responsibility of raising those funds. My web search today indicates that you have more money under your sofa cushions than he’s brought in. So, even without the other unresolved issues, anyone can see that a $31 million shortfall ratifies Sittenfeld’s campaign position. Joining the other streetcar opposition candidates, he was swept into office with the mandate to curtail the project. But, before he’s even seated, he announces that he will vote to move ahead on the project. He’s spoken out against the project, voted against it and ran for office on the platform to oppose it. But, barely after the ballot counters have been unplugged, he reneges. What causes a politician to self-inflict this black eye? In the short period between the election and his flip flop, he attended a conference in Washington for up and coming Democratic politicians. It was subsequently stated that this had nothing to do with the streetcar issue. This pronouncement should get the attention of anyone with two brain cells to rub together. The Cato Institute and other reputable research organizations have probed the advent of the “streetcar craze,” motivated by the question of how prior century technology suddenly came to the fore. What they found was that consultants, car manufacturers, etc. lobbied (a polite word for incentivized) the administration to put up public money as seed capital to motivate cities to build streetcar systems, spending hundreds of millions with the lobbyists. They’re all out there hard-selling the “benefits” reaped by those who got on board, concealing the fact that they are suffering financial setbacks and attributing economic development to the streetcars instead of the billions of additional dollars those cities had to put up as incentives to developers. If Cincinnati backs off, citing the financial folly of it all, it would cause others to exercise additional scrutiny of the program from the top down. It’s easy to surmise that Sittenfeld was taken aside during his visit to Washington and told to reverse his position and make the project happen. But, is a bright young man going to go back on his word so soon after the election while his words are still ringing in the ears of his voters? The timing is necessitated by an impending vote. Not unless there are assurances of his future. Something would have to be promised. I’m predicting it’s an appointment to a plum job.