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Mallory sues city over car allowance, health benefits 3:12 PM, May. 2, 2011 Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory sued the city Monday to find out whether it’s legal for him to get his $500 monthly car allowance and health benefits. Mallory requested an injunction to stop the city from paying the car allowance and insurance until a court answers the question of whether either constitute “compensation,” as set out in the city Charter. He wants a judge to declare that both do not constitute compensation and that, in the charter, compensation means salary only. The car allowance – which dates back to 1984, when Charlie Luken was first mayor - is paid quarterly. Mallory did not take the $1,500 he would have received in April because he wants the charter issue resolved first, said Jason Barron, his director of public affairs. The mayor’s not trying to ensure he keeps getting the money, Barron said; he’s merely using the only route available to get a definitive answer on whether he should get the money or not. If the payments continue until that decision is made, attorney Paul DeMarco wrote in court documents, the mayor would be subjected to “irreparable injury” if the car allowance and health benefits are ultimately considered compensation. That means he could have to pay back the money he already has received. Roughly calculated based on $1,500 a quarter, or $6,000 a year, since he was first elected in 2005, the total owed would be about $30,000. The anti-tax group COAST announced last month it would sue the city if the car allowance payments didn’t stop, alleging the payments are illegal because they are in addition to the mayor’s $121,000 salary. Chris Finney, COAST founder, called the payments “$500-a-month theft in office.” Finney often sues the city and other area governments about issues he thinks shouldn’t be kept from the public. He and fellow lawyer Curt Hartman, sometimes working together, have won more than $200,000 in judgments on open-records issues in the past seven years. About 85 percent of the money is in attorney’s fees. Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Norbert Nadel will hold a 10 a.m. Thursday hearing on Mallory’s request for a temporary restraining order. The mayor’s suit is an insult and “unbelievable,” said Councilman Wayne Lippert, a Republican. The city, he said, likely will have to retain an outside lawyer to defend itself against its own mayor. “We are facing a structurally imbalanced budget and the Mayor is concerned about his car allowance,” he said in a statement. “ Suing the City clearly shows the Mayor’s lack of understanding or concern for the taxpayers of Cincinnati.” Councilwoman Leslie Ghiz, also a Republican, said via Twitter that Mallory should be ashamed for wasting the city’s time and money defending the suit. City Council members do not receive car allowances. Mallory, a Democrat, is the only elected official who does; he spends it on a Lincoln Town Car, which he bought the day of his errant Opening Day pitch in 2007. Council members also can have their health benefits paid by the city. The charter also sets their salaries at half what the mayor earns. The mayor’s car allowance comes out of the city’s general fund, the same fund that had a $54.7 million deficit for this year. City Manager Milton Dohoney and City Council filled the hole with a combination of layoffs, service cuts and $27 million worth of one-time cuts. Cities across the country handle the perk differently, some giving flat rate allowances, others paying mileage or, as in Akron, giving the mayor a city-owned car to use. The Toledo and Dayton mayors drive their own vehicles to the office – in the Toledo mayor’s case, it’s sometimes a Harley - then use a city vehicle. The Columbus mayor drives his own car sometimes, and is sometimes driven by his police security detail officer around in vehicles owned by the police department. Cincinnati used to have a city-owned limo and a driver for the mayor, but that changed when Luken first took office and it was determined that a car allowance would be more cost effective. |