At yesterday afternoons Columbus City Council Columbus Metropolitan Club Debate, City Council candidate Joe Motil stated in his opening comments that, “The musical chairs appointment process is in place to keep control and power over the people and to benefit councils campaign contributors. And if Ms. Brown wins and completes her 4-year term I will remove the words tax abatement from my vocabulary”. Motil has been the city’s most outspoken critic of Ms. Brown and her City Council colleagues on handing out tax abatements over the last 4 ½ years and having called City Council’s appointment process a ‘farce.”

Motil says, “Ms. Brown’s reluctance to refute my comment is a clear signal that if she wins in November, she will be giving up her seat soon to yet another appointed puppet who will follow the orders of political bosses and The Columbus Partnership. 35 out of the 39 Columbus City Council members have been appointed. This undemocratic process is in place to keep control of power for the benefit of City Council members and the Mayors campaign contributors. This causes our tax dollars to be disproportionately spent to protect the investments of privately-owned sports arenas, luxury real estate developers in the Short North and our downtown business district. All the while our distressed neighborhoods in the Hilltop, Linden, Near East side and elsewhere continue to suffer.”

Motil concludes that, “I am predicting that as the daughter of highly respected U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, party officials realize her presence on City Council for four more years is pointless. They can get anyone to continue to rubber stamp legislation and follow orders. They have much bigger plans for Ms. Brown and it’s time for her to move on. And the musical chairs system of hand-picked appointees will continue.”