Working for the city and university

by Joe Atkinson
THE POST

At last week's public Athens City Council hearing regarding the Hooper Street project, it was mentioned that the proposed apartment complexes could pose a conflict of interest for Council members whom also work for Ohio University. The Post sat down with Councilman and OU political science Professor Ed Baum, R-At Large, to find out if a conflict truly does exist.

POST: Have you ever, as a member of City Council, faced an issue that you felt put you at a conflict with your job as an OU professor?

BAUM: No, I don't think there's a conflict of interest. A conflict of interest means that you will gain something personally, or that your business or your family will gain something from your dealings with the city, and in (the Hooper Street) case, that's not likely to happen. I'm not likely to get a better position or more salary - especially because I'm semi-retired - by working for the university and doing good things. So I don't think that's ever really an issue for university people on Council.

POST: How about the issues coming before Council in the future? There have always been issues that drive a stake between the people of Athens and the university. Do you see yourself ever having to pull away from an issue?

BAUM: I don't think so. I think if we look at the Hooper Street project, there are a few people who might be upset with it, but I think if you took a survey of the people of the city as a whole, they'd be all in favor of it. For example, the near-east side neighborhood association would generally be in favor of such a project because it relieves the pressure on them to have single-family buildings turn into rental housing. The issue that the south-side neighborhood association has focused on is traffic, and they have a legitimate concern about the traffic intersection of Highway 682 coming from the south. They're concerned that it will increase traffic, which is a legitimate concern. I think it's one we can deal with, however. The report of the traffic study indicated some things that we can do and, although it will cost money, I think it's something we can do over the next two or three years.

POST: So what do you think of the suggestion that the Council members who work for the university should abstain from voting on the Hooper Street project?

BAUM: I don't think that's appropriate because I think, in virtually all cases, the people on Council look at the best interests of the city as a whole, and I think their relationship with the university is immaterial. They can't be hurt by their votes one way or the other, and they can't be helped. In my case and in Nancy Bain's case, we're faculty members; our position at the university is not helped or hindered by any vote we have in Council.

POST: You mentioned that you are a faculty member. Some of the people on Council work with the university at the administration level. Do you see their position as being compromised by this, or any other, issue?

BAUM: Not really, because I don't believe the university has ever applied pressure to anybody because of their position one way or the other. I think someone could raise it as an issue, but I think it's really a non-issue.

When I first came on Council, a lot of the members had property interests in town. I was the only member of Council who had no rentals in town. Another member of Council only had one, but most of the others had lots of rentals. So if anything came up that had to do with rental property, for instance the housing code, would they all have to vote to abstain? Fortunately, it never came up, because, by the time we got around to adopting the housing code, we had a vast majority that did not own rental property. But I don't think there's a real problem.