Mayor's call for changes questioned
Former Moraine mayor: Leonard 'Sonny' Johnson is trying to institute government that takes care of family, friends first.
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By Jim DeBrosse
Staff Writer
Monday, February 04, 2008
MORAINE — Mayor Leonard "Sonny" Johnson says he and his three voting colleagues on the council majority want to return Moraine to a "more community-friendly" government that doesn't include city manager David Hicks and other key members of Hicks' staff.
Johnson says it's nothing personal.
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"We simply have a different vision than they have," he said.
But in Moraine, separating the personal from the political can be a challenge. Three members of the new council majority have relatives who have been arrested by Moraine police. Both of Johnson's brothers-in-law and council member Jack Sexton's first wife were arrested by Hicks when he was a Moraine police officer in the 1980s.
Two years ago, Johnson's daughter Lisa resigned as Moraine's clerk of council after West Carrollton police charged her with tampering with financial records as treasurer of the West Carrollton Pee Wee Football program. Johnson believes she was treated unfairly.
Bob Rosencrans, the former mayor recalled last March then re-elected as a council member in the fall, believes the new majority wants "somebody that will go back to the good old boy system" of taking care of family and friends first.
That theory could soon get a test. Johnson's long-time friend, local developer and West Carrollton resident Byrl Hill, helped finance the campaigns to recall three of the past majority council members. Now, Hill wants the city to spend millions of dollars to extend sewer and water lines to hundreds of acres of developable land he owns, according to Jim McGuire, the former head of the zoning board of appeals removed by the majority last week.
Johnson insists Hill will "absolutely not" get special treatment, but McGuire isn't so sure.
"It's cheaper to buy a council than it is to pay for sewer and water," McGuire said.