Thursday, May 06, 1999
Cincinnati council dumps beauty-school plan
BY LISA DONOVAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The plan to use taxpayer dollars to kick-start a Cincinnati beauty school was trimmed from the city's budget Wednesday.
Cincinnati City Council clipped from the city's $1.8 billion 1999-2000 budget the $150,000 funding to buy the Moore University of Hair Design in Pleasant Ridge.
In turn, the school was to provide a “welfare-to-work concept” program, including training in salon management and hair care.
Specifically, the money was supposed to help the non-profit organization — the Professional Cosmetologist and Barber Association (PCBA) — buy the school. But Marvin Gentry, PCBA president, apparently failed to turn in the proper paperwork to the city's economic development department, said Vice Mayor Minette Cooper, who sponsored the spending plan.
“We as a council, we protect our city's money, and if we're not getting the information we need in a timely way, we're not going to fund it,” said Mrs. Cooper, who also chairs coun cil's Finance Committee.
Mr. Gentry could not be reached for comment.
Even before council voted 8-0 to withdraw the funding, Councilman Phil Heimlich - absent for the vote - was praising the expected results.
In January, council was poised to vote for the school, along with $14.5 million for pet projects that would fold in to the biennial budget.
Mr. Heimlich was crying pork. To demonstrate his distaste, he held a press conference and brought in a 3,000-pound plastic pig.
“I'm glad that my colleagues have come to realize that funding a beauty college is not a proper use of tax dollars,” Mr. Heimlich said.
Mr. Heimlich said that when the plan was introduced, council was told the beauty college would be operated by the PCBA. The lawmaker said on the same day that the PCBA was incorporated, its owner separately incorporated a for-profit company to distribute hair supplies.
For now, the money will sit in a budget for economic development projects.
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