Bill cunning Him the Great America. Welcome this Friday afternoon in the Tries date. In about thirty minutes, Steve Rowley will be here to talk about the weather coming in. We might have seventy five mile per our wins which is on the hurricane force later today. I'm going to keep you informed about that, plus to fall out from Pete Rosen Moore. And of course the Reds play the Battle of Ohio with the Cleveland Guardians starting about six forty tonight, which means first which means we begin the
coverage of five point forty. But until then, until then, we have Connie Pillage joining us. There was a bombshell announcement yesterday in front of the county commissioners who are changing the legal team that's been representing in a sense him in the county for about twenty five years or so. And Connie Pillach Welcome again to the Bill Cunningham Show. And Connie, can you first tell the American people what your announcement was yesterday and where did this things go from here?
Well, first of all, thanks for having me, Willie. It's always a pleasure. Yesterday I did make a recommendation to the county Commissioners that we make a big change in our negotiating team against the Bengals, and instead of retaining the guy who's been there for I think it's twenty nine years now, I wanted to move into a bold new direction because I think the county needs to step up and have some have some good negotiating cards in
their hands. So I recommended that as as you know, i'm their lawyer as prosecutor, I'm the lawyer of the Bank of the County commission. But I recommended that we move into move Dinsmore, which is a local law firm. It's been it's got deep community roots. It was founded here in nineteen oh eight, so for more than a century. It's well known for its high level of professionalism and accountability, and it will bring a fresh set of eyes and negotiating shops to the legal team. So I recommended that
the Bengals do that. Pardon me, Gosh, William, I think it's.
Right, Tornadoes, but it's it's the county.
It will help the county a lot, who have a very strong negotiating and legal team going forward with the Bengals.
Now, for those listening prosecutors in Ohio anyway, I don't know. I think the same thing with Kenton County. They have criminal responsibility. You have criminal felony responsibility, and also you have civil responsibilities, which mean you serve as the attorney in this case, for the for the elected officials in this case Hamiliny County commissioners. Did you consult with them before you made this decision as your client or not?
Oh? Absolutely. First of all, it's the commissioner's decision. I make recommendations. But I started meeting with them. Of course, I had to meet one on one to so I could talk about legal issues with them, and I started doing that in early January, and I got to tell you, I heard a lot of frustration from them about the
negotiation progress or lack thereof, against with the Bengals. I heard a lot of concerns about communications issues, a lack of clarity on what was happening, and lack of focus on the desired results that the commission wanted to achieve. And so after having some of these conversations, I started to work with my team here in the office, because you know, I have one hundred and twenty lawyers here.
I worked with my civil lawyers to try to figure out what we could do to make this better so that the commission would feel like they had some ability to try to get the best deal for the taxpayers.
And as as far as the new team, I've known George Vincent for most of my life and he's one of the partners there. And for those who may not know, he was a chairman of the Republican Party in Hamley County for many years.
But this is a nonpartisan matter.
So as far as what the commissioners told you, they expressed may use the term dissatisfaction of the direction the negotiations we're going.
And now we're about.
Six weeks from the conclusion and the Bengals have issued a press release that I have in front of me from yesterday expressing dissatisfaction with the other aspect to this is engaging this other firm in order to say inner Sports Circle, shall I say to remain the lead negotiator and explain the differential between Dinsmore on one hand and Inner Circle Sports on the other. What are the activities and functions of each of them?
Well, yeah, I'm happy to do that, and I am very happy that George Vincent is on this Dinsmore team. He certainly got a lot of connections and a lot of smart were really excited to work with him and the other members of the team. So Inner Circle Sports actually I looked into the background. The County did start discussions with them back in twenty twenty two as they were starting to figure out how they would approach the looming lease deadline, and in twenty twenty three they did
a little bit more refined discussions. I signed the final contract with Inner Circle Sports in January of this year, So for the Bengals to come out and start complaining months later, it is a little disingenuous to me. And they have no absolutely no business telling us who we can have on our negotiating team. I would never tell them who they can have on theirs, and it's just not appropriate.
Yeah.
Well, one thing the Bengals have said in their press release that this Inner Circle Sports, and by the way each party selects their own lawyers, it'd be great to have for you to pick the lawyers for the Bengals or vice versa.
That's not the way it works.
But the Bengals are saying that the Inner Circle Sports group is connected to the Browns, and that somehow being connected to the Browns is wrong because they'll be serving two masters. How would you respond to that press release?
Well, I think the Bengals may have been misled into with their their so called research. There was one member of Inner Circle Sports that did do some work or may continue to do some work with the Cleveland Browns, but he left Inner Circle Sports, so there's there's no conflict there. And the man that we're working with, David Abrams, has not done any work with the Cleveland Browns. So but I do appreciate the Bengals trying to look out for the for us in their own way.
Yeah, David Abrams has as I understand it. I read a press release that Abrams and this group also works for like two or three other NFL cities enfranchises, and it tends to look as if the goal is to have the Bengals pay at least fifty percent of the freight, which might be up to eight hundred and fifty million dollars.
And by saying that we're unhappy with who the county is picking to negotiate with us, that seems to me saying we're going to extend the least two years because this abrupt change six weeks before the culmination of the lease is too close to become familiar. Is this deployed by the Bengals. Do you think to stretch this out another two years which keeps the county on the hook for these improvements under the old lease.
Well, look, the county is absolutely intent on getting a deal. We want a win win resolution, so everybody's happy. And let's think about this. These contracts when they're written, they've got hundreds of day It's like, what David Abrams' skill is is that he's a nationally recognized expert in negotiating with municipalities and cities as well as with the NFL and other sports teams. That's why we chose to bring him on three and a half months ago. So it's
not a new thing. But here's what the commission wants. They really basically want three things. They want a long term market rate lease. They want a diverse funding stack and that means contributions from the county and the state, the team and the NFL. And three, they want more community benefits. So it's basically community access to the stadium. And frankly, let me tell you this, Willie Commissioner Alisha Rees has been asking for that for a long time, and she is not wrong.
Do you have a sense when I had on Denise Treehouse and Alisha Reese, they they were saying, we're working together.
It looks great.
About two weeks ago, we had a document that came out that said, if we have a lease, the Bengals going to pay two thirds of one hundred and eighty million, in the county was going to pay one third. I had a sense doing this that they things are in the right way. Another things we're moving in the right direction. And then this bombshell hit yesterday. Do you have a sense that the negotiations at this point are not in a good place to renew the lease in six weeks?
I know I don't. I think we're in an excellent place because by taking this step forward, bringing in a Backerjack legal team, continuing to use the lead negotiator that we've been using for several months now to come up with that little memorandum of understanding a couple of weeks ago. Look, I think this just tells the Bengals and the county and the taxpayers that we are very serious about getting a win win resolution.
And you're saying you don't want the Bengals to pick your representatives.
You went the county negotiator. We have one too.
Well, they've done very well, by the way, Mike Brown can take down the Irs and tax Court for God's sake, and so yes, I mean.
They're pretty good at this.
So at this point, Tom Gableman, I've met him a couple of times.
Nice guy. What would you say about the representation of Tom Gableman.
I really can't say much about it other than from my conversations with my clients at the County Commission. They were ready for a change. And sometimes of change is like a holiday and it's just a breath of fresh air. You get a lot of new energy and excitement. Mister Gableman did pledge to make sure the transition was smooth and complete, and I appreciate him for that.
What wasn't he paid like twenty six million dollars or some amount of money about a million? Explain the financial resources given to Tom Gableman.
Well, I did get a print out from the county esterday that just had It was very vague, but it did have a summary of what he'd been paid each year, and it did total twenty six million for the last twenty nine years. So I think he made a lot of money off of taxpayers and it's time to change, change our our arrangement.
And you know, Tom's not happy about this.
I haven't spoken to him, but I imagine he's not pleased with this decision of the county commissioners.
I got the impression that he's not. I met him for the first time yesterday. He was waiting for me in the lobby of the County Administration building. But look, I've called him multiple times before I took office, and he never called back, never tried, never sent an email, as far as I can tell, was.
That a frigid meeting in the lobby outside after he was fired?
Was that somewhat frigid?
No, I met him before, well, I met him before the meeting, but we had given him a heads up phone call that this was going on.
All right this point, as we sit here this Friday afternoon, at this point, there's a new negotiating team that is a George Vincent Dinsmore and you hired a couple months ago. This other group, Inner Circle Sports, that have negotiated six other deals in which the NFL slashed the team paid about fifty percent of the whole deal, and you look forward to a deal being completed, hopefully in six weeks.
But if it's extended by two years by the Bengals, which is they're right, that wouldn't surprise you.
It'd be fine. I know these things take time, and certainly they're stinging for some reason. I'm not really sure why. We're just changing our legal team, and we have every right to do that. But again, I know the county is one percent in favor of getting a deal at the earliest opportunity.
In county pillage that Bengals do not pick your representatives.
That's exactly right, Willy. I.
Now, lastly, since this other issue came up, this is about the killing of Ryan Hinton. This is completely unrelated. Put on your county criminal hat instead of your civil hat. The county corner. Last me, some Marco was going to hold a news conference today. We were going to cover about I guess the results of the autopsy. I would think of Ryan Hinton and maybe Larry Henderson. I'm not sure that the dead police officer and you issued a
grand jury subpoena. Can you explain what's happening in that case?
Well? As is typical in cases like this, when there's a case coming up, the grand jury will subpoena all kinds of things. A subpoena the surveillance video in the area of a subpoena the black box from the car, the so called black box from the vehicle. They'll subpoena born cam, and they'll subpoena the results of toxicology and autoxies. This is pretty basic stuff going forward. And I know that the community is hoping that we do a very thorough and account a pull job on this case.
And you told me a month or two ago in another police shooting, that it's up to the county prosecutor criminally to submit or not to submit to the grand jury all the evidence. In order to submit it to the grand jury, you must believe that there's a viable case here of maybe police misconduct or not. This is a very high profile case. It was one of the
stories national news. Are you going to make a decision before you give it to a grand jury whether to indict or not the police officer involves CINCINNTI police or if the evidence comes out a certain way, may you not submit the case at all?
Of the grand jury.
It's just too early to say. I haven't seen enough information yet. And I know people are eager. We always want everything immediately, especially in twenty twenty five, But sometimes you got to let the police department do their job and do their investigations. And as you know that there'll be a homice investigation, and they also have their oh, their internal investigations, and the citizens investigation. There'll be three
investigations going on at any given time. I got to let them do their job before I make a decision.
Have you seen any information to date that the Cincinnati police officer should be criminally.
Charged with anything?
No, I have not yet.
All right, Connie Pillage, thank you very much, and this is interesting. We hope the Bengals lease works out. I hope that Joe Burrow leads the team to the super Bowl. I hope there's a long term lease. I hope the money, diverse funding mechanisms, community benefits.
I want it all there, we all do.
And I know Denise Treehouse has said to me she's not going to submit it to the taxpayers ahead of time because she doesn't have to.
And so we hope this deal works out.
And once again, Connie Pillage, thanks for coming on the Bill Cunningham Show.
Thank you, Connie, my pleasure, God, God bless you. Let's continue with more.
There you have it, so another twist and turn in the Bengals lease in the Bengals relationship with the hamble In County. It continues on news radio seven hundred WLW