Sheriff's Chief Deputy Runs Drinking Establishment

Dear fellow tax hikers, we have spent the last several weeks investigating the inner workings of the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office.  We have discovered some fascinating information which we know you will enjoying reading.  In the name of ethics we must disclose our biases - we are HUGE fans of Sheriff Simon Leis and have fully supported his past campaigns to raise our county's Sales Tax and spend $200 million to build the Cincinnati streetcar.  Our findings only further our love and admiration for our great Sheriff. 

We tax hikers have secured a copy of the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office Operating Procedure Manual, which "establishes guidelines and standards for Sheriff's officers working outside employment...."  One of these guidelines states with no exception: "Certain types of outside employment are prohibited as follows:  1) Work for a liquor permit premise (bar), where the primary business is the sale of liquor."  Sheriff's Office General Rules and Regulations further state that, "Sheriff's Office Employees shall not engage in any other employment or business without the permission of the Sheriff."  So to sum it up, the Sheriff must approve outside business or employment, and absolutely no involvement with a liquor permit premise. 

We found it extremely interesting, then, that Hamilton County Chief Deputy Sheriff Sean Donovan is an owner of............a liquor permit premise, City Cellars.  Evidence of the liquor permit can be found by going to this site and searching for Donovan. 

This is the kind of integrity that we expect from Sheriff Simon Leis.   We're sure the Sheriff and Chief Deputy Donovan will claim they are in compliance with the rule because this place serves pizza too, or maybe they serve more of one thing than another, or his wife is the real owner.  We would call this defense Ethics by Technicality, if we could even claim that.  As tax hikers, we find this standard to be an incredibly compelling measure of Simon's character. 

But let's make sure we keep an eye on the important issues.  We need higher Sales Taxes.  We need streetcars.  And we need more Sheriff's employees running drinking establishments regardless of what the rules say.  These reasons and more are why we admire our beloved Sheriff Simon Leis and applaud his strong sense of integrity.  Tax us more!