Charter Committee

Councilman Bortz was elected in November 2005 and is serving his first term on Cincinnati City Council.

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Councilmember Chris Bortz announced the formation of Go Cincinnati, a public-private economic development initiative to promote growth and opportunity throughout the city. Go Cincinnati is charged with devising an economic growth strategy that uses the best of existing plans and programs as well as new ideas. It will be chaired by Chris Bortz, chairman of City Council’s economic development committee, and Ellen van der Horst, president and chief executive of the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber. Bortz said the committee will develop an economic growth strategy to effectively allocate the city’s limited resources, set priorities, and set the stage for an increase in government revenues by expanding its tax base. It will concentrate on three areas: job attraction and retention, workforce development, and neighborhood development.

Councilmember Bortz has been attending safety summits with other members of Council in an attempt to reduce crime in the City of Cincinnati. It is hoped that Council can work together on this important issue while listening to valuable input from the public.

In addition to working on economic growth and crime, the Councilmember is advocating for a Streetcar system inspired by the City of Portland. The City is currently undergoing a feasibility study to determine the impact of a similar system for Cincinnati. There is tremendous potential of this type of project to link the urban core, spur business and residential development, provide parking relief and reduce congestion and air pollution.

Environmental issues are an important topic to Councilmember Bortz. Along with Councilmember Laketa Cole, Councilmember Bortz initiated two pieces of legislation that provide tax and other financial incentives to develop buildings to Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) standards. New municipal buildings and renovations to existing municipal buildings will also incorporate green building elements. Additionally, a fund will be created to provide loans to developers of low and moderate income housing to build LEED certified. He is currently working on Green Streets Legislation modeled after Portland's Green Streets project, which reduces storm sewer runoff by using landscaped storm water planters to infiltrate street runoff.

Fighting blight and nuisance is also a topic of concentration. Councilmember Bortz is working to analyze city owned property and its possible potential in an attempt to reduce blight. He working towards empowering the Department of Buildings and Inspections to aggressively pursue the elimination of blight through increased funding for demolition, blight/hazard abatement and adding additional inspectors.