Columbus Mayor loses mum

Columbus City Mayor Andrew Ginther Tuesday, July 2, 2019 announced that his mother, Norma Ginther, passed away peacefully in the morning after a lengthy battle with dementia.

“My mother never met a stranger,” said Mayor Ginther.

“She spent her life caring for others, far beyond what anyone could ever give her in return. She gave me comfort and strength throughout my life and sparked in me the desire to serve. I am who I am because she showed me the way every day, until the very end, by example.”

The family will hold a private celebration of life at a later date.

Northland Columbus celebrates July 4^th

Residents of Northland Columbus, Ohio celebrated the 4^th of July National Independence Day at the Karl Road/Morse/Dublin Granville Roads axis with the City of Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther and the President of the Columbus City Council, Shannon Hardin in attendance.

Mayor Andrew Ginther, who lost the mother few days ago, thanked people for coming out for the parade, wishing all “happy 4^th of July anniversary.”

Many residents participated and lined up on both sides of Karl road, beginning from the Morse/Karl road to the Dublin Granville end.

Also, in attendance were Ohio House Representative David Leland of 26^th District, former Northland Community Association Chairman and now Councilmember Emmanuel Remy, Councilmembers Rob Doran and Shayla Favor and Ohio House of Representatives’ aspirant for 25^th District, Dr. Kofi Nsia-Pepra. Civic associations, faith-based organizations and groups of Americans of Latino/Hispanic, Bhutanese/Nepalese and Ghanaian descents were represented at the parades.

ICE depots 37 Cambodian nationals

Thirty-seven Cambodian nationals were repatriated to Cambodia, Tuesday, July 2, 2019, in accordance with their final removal orders following immigration court proceedings.

Their combined criminal convictions include: three counts of murder, two counts of rape, two counts of aggravated assault, five counts of aggravated assault with a weapon, two counts of assault, sexual assault,  three counts of attempted murder, burglary, child abuse, lewd act on a minor, driving under the influence, larceny, stolen property, two counts of firearm possession, two weapon offenses, traffic offence, forgery, three counts of robbery, resisting arrest, auto theft, and seven drug convictions.

Among these 37 individuals were 35 convicted criminals, who traveled via a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) ICE Air Operations (IAO) flight from Dallas, Texas to their home country.

“ERO carries out its mission to remove aliens who present a danger to national security or are a risk to public safety, as well as those who undermine the integrity of our immigration laws with the utmost professionalism daily, and often in the face of adversity,” said Acting Assistant Director for Removals, Jeffrey Lynch.

“This most recent removal flight took 35 criminals, many convicted of the most heinous possible crimes, off our streets and made our communities safer.”

The flight arrived in Phnom Penh, Thursday, July 4, where the Cambodian nationals were turned over to Cambodian authorities.

As a result of ICE’s continued diplomatic efforts in coordination with our partners at the Department of State, the implementation of visa sanctions, and the tireless efforts of the ERO Removals Division, removals to Cambodia increased 279% from Fiscal Year 2017 to Fiscal Year 2018. However, there are still approximately 1,900 Cambodian nationals present in the United States with a final order of removal, of whom almost 1,400 are convicted criminals.

Franklin County Commissioners raise minimum wage for Employees to $15/HOUR

The Franklin County Commissioners voted unanimously to increase the lowest wage paid to their employees to at least $15 per hour.  The move is one of the first steps taken under the commissioners’ new Rise Together poverty initiative, which was announced on June 11, and will be retroactive to the pay period that ended on June 10th.

The Board of Commissioners oversees 1,293 employees, of whom 169 currently make less than $15.00 per hour.  Additional raises to address “wage compression” caused by increasing the lowest pay rates could also see hourly raises for another 850 county employees.    The commissioners’ action today affects non-bargaining unit employees and authorizes the Director of Human Resources to make the same offer to the unions representing the county’s other employees.

“Our employees are the county’s most valuable asset.  They work hard every day to make life better for our neighbors and they deserve fair wages in return,” said Board of Commissioners President Marilyn Brown.

“This is the right thing to do for our employees and their families.  I am proud to join my colleagues in taking this step and putting the hard-working employees of Franklin County first.”

Affected county employees are those up through pay grade 14 and will receive either a raise to $15 per hour or a raise of $.50 per hour, whichever is greater.  This action is expected to cost the county about $1.3 million per year, and the commissioners are also offering to adjust the budgets of other county elected officials so that they can make the same offer to their employees.

“Franklin County is a great place to work,” said Commissioner John O’Grady.

“From our excellent benefits package to our healthy workforce initiatives, and now a rising minimum wage, actions like this not only take care of our people, but they help us to attract the strongest workforce possible and the best and brightest employees for every position.”

In 2016, the Board of Commissioners engaged the consulting firm of Clemons Nelson & Associates to determine an appropriate living wage for Franklin County and study the commissioners’ entire pay scale.  At that time, the living wage, defined as one that would allow a family of four including two working adults maintain a typical standard of living in our community, was determined to be $13.69 per hour.

In June of 2016, the commissioners raised the amount of their lowest hourly wage to $13.69 and adjusted other pay throughout the pay scale to appropriately spread the wages out to avoid “wage compression”.

“Raising the minimum wage of Franklin County workers to $15 per hour is a step in the right direction and our hope is that other government entities, corporations, and businesses will do the same,” said Commissioner Kevin L. Boyce.