Thursday, February 25, 1999
Convention center's unsung hero
How N. Ky. got money from state
BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Last Saturday night, the region's glitterati, the tux and evening gown crowd, attended the event of the season and partied the night away at Northern Kentucky's new convention center.
Sunday, it was the kids' turn to see the $38 million center, which offered free admission and the opportunity for hundreds of children to play games, bounce on giant air bags and spill soft drinks on the carpet.
Never mind that the crowd was far more interested in watching the Rugrats perform than hearing about seating capacity and event floor space.
It was a nice gesture and the chance, as center Director Charles Wheeler put it, “for the community to see what their tax dollars purchased, to see and enjoy their convention center.”
The weekend was a time to celebrate the center, to take pride in a major accomplishment for Northern Kentucky, to remember and thank those who worked hard to get the project conceived, funded, built and open.
Money coup
But there is an aspect in the center's history that can't be overlooked. Getting the money from the Kentucky General Assembly marked one of the greatest Northern Kentucky political battles in recent memory, and certainly one of the most hard-fought struggles in this decade.
Northern Kentucky, because of its lack of a central government and its proximity to Cincinnati, has never had a whole lot of luck landing bucks from Frankfort.
There was a parochial attitude among some leaders in these three counties of Kenton, Campbell and Boone that didn't help that cause much, either. Government was operated in some county courthouses and city halls the way the mob used to run things in Newport. Turf was carved up and everybody got a small piece of the action, but the region as a whole didn't get much attention or money from the Capitol.
So it was unusual when former Northern Kentucky University President Dr. Leon Boothe attended a 1992 legislative committee meeting in Frankfort and said that while he'd love some money to build a new science center, he would throw in with the other community business and political leaders who were pushing for money to build a convention center in Northern Kentucky.
Unity above all
“When Leon Boothe stood up in that meeting and very vividly supported funding for the convention center because he felt it was the best project for the region at the time, that helped change things,” said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Jim Callahan, D-Wilder. “The region wanted the convention center, and Dr. Boothe wanted the region to stay united.”
The center got $1 million that year — and in 1998, NKU finally received $35 million to build that science center. The $1 million seeded the planning and design of the center, but the fight was only beginning.
A group of leaders who helped persuade Dr. Boothe to get behind the center started working lawmakers here and across the state for the $30 million or so it would take to build the 200,000-square-foot center.
Momentum builds
Getting downstate legislators to vote to send money to Northern Kentucky has always been tough. But center advocates were surprised when Republican lawmakers in their own back yards started questioning the need for the center and the plan to finance it.
To understand the situation is to remember the times. The GOP had been on the rise for years in Northern Kentucky, but just as Republicans across the country and in Washington rose to power in 1994, so did local Republican candidates.
The GOP took over control of the Northern Kentucky Legislative Caucus in that Republican Revolution, and almost immediately began to take on the center.
To this day, Republicans such as Sens. Dick Roeding of Lakeside Park and Katie Stine of Fort Thomas say their concerns and questions about building and funding the center weren't motivated by politics.
Somebody had to ask the tough questions. So they asked.
That touched off a nasty fight that lasted weeks. Gov. Brereton Jones, a big advocate of the center, called a special legislative session in January 1995 so lawmakers could approve paying for the center.
Still some questions
Yet it was Northern Kentucky Republicans who were not only asking questions but who also appeared to be standing in the way of the project.
“We told them over and over that there was no way the rest of the legislature was going to vote for the project if the lawmakers from Northern Kentucky weren't united,” Mr. Callahan said.
Even as that special session began, it was unclear how the Northern Kentucky lawmakers would vote on the project.
A group of local business leaders led by People's Bank of Northern Kentucky President John Finnan hired a lobbyist and a public relations firm and spent days and nights in Frankfort, trying to sway Republicans. A group of pro-convention forces nearly followed Mrs. Stine into the women's restroom as they worked for her vote.
The group pushing for the center included Mr. Finnan as well as: Fort Thomas businessman Wayne Carlisle; Day Fay, president of Commonwealth Hotels in Covington; Mike Rozow, the former president of the Northern Kentucky Convention and Visitors Bureau; Joe Wind, a public relations ex pert and lobbyist now working for NKU; Steve Stevens, director of government relations for the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce; and former chamber director John Garman.
In the end, all but two local lawmakers voted to fund the center: Sen. Gex “Jay” Williams, a Boone County Republican who lost last year's 4th District U.S. House race to Ken Lucas, and Rep. Charlie Walton, R-Florence.
Former Rep. Ken Harper, a Crestview Hills Republican who helped win funding for the center, believes lawmakers were truly concerned about how the center would be paid for and weren't playing partisan politics.
Democrats, of course, believe the exact opposite.
Mr. Harper, Mr. Callahan, former Sen. Joe Meyer of Covington, Mr. Jones and Gov. Paul Patton were all honored at Saturday's gala for their work on bringing the center to Covington. Meeting rooms were named after the five.
Yet old wounds are apparently still festering.
When it was announced that a room would be named for Mr. Meyer, a group of doctors at the party gasped. They were among the local physicians who worked to defeat Mr. Meyer in the 1996 election.
Patrick Crowley covers Kentucky politics for The Kentucky Enquirer. His column appears Thursdays and Sundays. He can be reached at 578-5581, or 502-875-7526 in Frankfort, or by e-mail at crowleys@cinci.infi.net.
Patrick Crowley covers Kentucky politics for the Enquirer. He can be reached at 578-5581, or (502) 875-7526 in Frankfort.
CROWLEY ARCHIVE
