Joe Motil, former Columbus City Council candidate and longtime community advocate who has begun circulating petitions to run for Mayor in the 2023 Mayoral primary election attended today’s Little Turtle “Thumbs Down” save the Turtle event. Mr. Motil was approached by Little Turtle community leaders in March of 2021 to assist them in fighting this corrupt and unethical roadway project and has been at their side ever since.
Motil says, “It’s heartbreaking to witness the destruction of this grand boulevard that has stood here for over 50 years when Little Turtle became Central Ohio’s first planned housing development. And it is all being wasted for the benefit of a developer who used his money and political influence to fatten his bank account.”
Mr. Motil further comments that, “The Little Turtle Roadway project has been ripe with corruption, unethical practices and political favoritism since then Columbus City Council President Zach Klein accepted an invitation from developer Mo Dioun to meet with him at his Little Turtle Country Club along with touring the Little Turtle Community with Mr. Dioun in March of 2016. Along with the alleged ethics violation I filed with the City of Columbus against Public Service Director Jennifer Gallagher in November of 2021 regarding the awarding of a $350,000 professional services contract to Carpenter Marty Transportation for the Little Turtle Way project (Ms. Gallagher’s husband John Gallagher was the Director of Traffic and Planning for Carpenter Marty and headed the Little Turtle Way project) the corrupt and unethical politics of Columbus puts Chicago’s political corruption to shame.”
Motil states that, “because of the never ending unethical and corrupt activities that have taken place without anyone being held accountable (Redflex, Centerplate, former Mayor Michael Colemans house sale to a Chinese businesswoman, SR 315 Ohio Health ramp, Little Turtle Roadway project) when I am elected to Mayor next November I will be dissolving the city’s existing Ethics Office and replacing it with a Department of Anti-Corruption. The Department will include but not limited to the following:"
1. Dissolve the city’s existing Ethics Office which is currently non-functional when it comes to addressing and enforcing the city’s Ethics and Conduct Policy. Replace the Chief Ethics Officer with a non-partisan Inspector General who would investigate alleged unethical and corrupt behaviors of city employees and city elected officials.
2. I will establish a confidential whistle blower hotline and also include disciplinary action of city employees and elected officials who are privy to unethical and corrupt activities and who do not report such activities.
3. Prohibit the solicitation or acceptance of campaign contributions from persons having a financial interest in city business while such business is pending before City Council.
4. Prohibit former elected city, county, state and federal officials and former directors and administrators from serving as city legislative lobbyists.
5. City campaign finance filings are an additional burden to grass root challengers and another undemocratic hurdle for them to deal with. City campaign finance filings were put into place by Ginther and City Council to give the public the false impression that they were actually taking action to prevent scandals like Redflex, Centerplate and the selling of former Mayor Colemans house in Berwick. In which Mayor Ginther was a participant in two of those scandals. I will remove the redundancy of city of Columbus candidates filing campaign finance reports to the city. These reports are already required to be filed with the Franklin County BOE and easily accessible to the public.
Motil concludes that, “Unethical and corrupt practices have to stop if the citizens from communities like Little Turtle and other neighborhoods throughout Columbus are ever going to have a seat at the table and truly participate in a democracy. City officials need to be held accountable for their unethical and corrupt conduct.”
*See the attached document that provides a timeline of some of the highlights of how the Little Turtle Way project came to be.
