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And from the Ohio education Association, representing 120,000 educators who are united in their mission to create the excellent public schools every child deserves.

More at OHEA.org The state steps in to help 16 kids removed from what's been called a dangerous home in southern Ohio.

And two well-known former elected officials step back into the government arena in an effort to boost public health policy.

That's this weekend.

The state of Ohio.

Welcome to the state of Ohio.

I'm Karen Kasler.

Help is headed to the child welfare agency that serves Benton County in southern Ohio.

After a panel of state lawmakers agreed to send $1 million to take care of the 16 kids removed from a home in Hamden, the children were found in what law enforcement called deplorable conditions.

Many of the kids were hospitalized and two were near death.

The Ohio Department of Children and Youth Services asked the state controlling board for the money, saying the county's children's service agencies saw its caseload double overnight when it took in the children.

The children's parents and grandparents were arrested and charged with child endangerment.

Details are largely still unknown, but there are questions about how the children went unnoticed for years.

Tech billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican candidate for governor, got the endorsement of the state's largest business group, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.

And at that announcement, he said again that he plans to eliminate Ohio's income tax and the tax on profits from sales of real estate stocks and investments, which bring the state a total of $10.4 billion a year.

A memo from legislative researchers showed more than half of the overall benefit of a capital gains tax repeal would go to Ohio, making over $1 million a year.

Those under $100,000 a year, or about two thirds of Ohio households, would get 7.3% of the benefit.

The campaign of Democratic candidate for governor, Amy Acton, said Rama Swamy is only looking out for his billionaire buddies and himself.

The Ohio Chamber of Commerce's endorsement of Ramos is not a big surprise.

The business group has never backed a Democrat for governor, since it first endorsed a candidate for that office in 2010.

Two well-known Ohio politicians have teamed up in a somewhat surprising bipartisan effort to urge elected officials and experts to work together on public health policy.

When they were in office, Republican former Governor John Kasich and Democratic former Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley were political combatants after Kasich cut money for the local government fund in 2011.

Local leaders were furious, and Cranley eventually helped create the Ohio Mayors Alliance in 2016 to fight back against state policies that cities opposed.

Kasich is leaned far into moderate territory since he finished his second term as governor in 2018, two years after he was the final candidate in an initial field of 17 to suspend his presidential campaign, leaving only Donald Trump.

Cranley, who's now at a law firm, finished his second term as Cincinnati mayor in 2022 and that year ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for governor.

Now they've joined up with the de Beaumont Foundation, which funds programs that focus on public health through an endowment set up by the late Pierre de Beaumont, who founded the Brookstone company.

This week, they announced what they're calling a roadmap, with five actions for local health departments and elected officials to shore up public health.

I talked to Kasich and Cranley about it.

So first of all, tell me about the de Beaumont Foundation which brought you to together.

Who are they?

Who funds them?

What should people know about that foundation?

Well, look, they they come from somebody who really wanted to do public good.

And these were successful business people.

And I guess the senior person said, let's do some good and let's have a focus on public health.

And I actually have met them because I was on a thing called the Bipartisan Policy Council dealing with behavioral health.

And they saw me and they said, could you participate with us?

And I said, sure.

And so this is sort of my second foray.

The first one was to figure out what could be done to what did what did Republicans, particularly conservatives, think about public health?

And it was was it was interesting to find out, Karen, that that Republicans were not they they understood the importance of public health, but what they didn't want a bunch of public health officials trying to tell them what to do.

They wanted more collaboration.

So I didn't find any real strong objection that I thought I would find.

And so I told them what that was all about.

And then they came back and said, well, we'd like to form a commission and we'd like you to head it, and we'd like you to find a Democrat and make it truly bipartisan, which was going to be regardless, and see if we can come up with a process by which we can actually elevate public health.

Again, because, Karen, we don't think much about it until there's a crisis.

You know, now people running around saying, how do I avoid getting sick here with this, this virus that's going around?

Well, we don't really even know.

We know what we went through with Covid, where people were walking around and didn't know what to do.

They didn't have good data, anything like that that we wanted.

Then we had the cruise ship, you know, where everybody got sick on the cruise ship, and now we have Ebola.

And the reason I went to John Cranley is, you know, mayor of Cincinnati in the middle of Covid.

Very smart guy, good guy, strong willed.

And, you know, he's added a great amount to the commission.

And by the way, the commission is filled with some of the most distinguished people.

Former surgeon general, first African American woman, head of the American Medical Association, a number of people from the CDC.

I mean, these this was really, really top notch.

Let me stop and let John jump, kind of talk about what he thinks about it.

Jump right in there, mayor.

Look, first of all, big picture.

Governor Kasich and I worked together when I was mayor, and he was governor on a number of issues.

But the we were in the midst of the opiate overdose, fentanyl, Narcan, where we had to spend millions of dollars on Aachen to save lives.

And Governor Kasich really led the effort to change public health policy, to try to reduce the opiate prescriptions, which often lead to street drugs and addiction.

So we had worked together on public health.

And then, as the governor mentioned, I obviously, you know, have the scars of having led a major American city during Covid.

And so, you know, I had the great fortune of serving in difficult times and was honored when Governor Kasich asked me to join up, because, you know, whether it's opioid overdoses or a pandemic or styrene leak out of a train, public health always rears its head back, and public officials and health professionals need to work together to solve problems.

The roadmap that you've released encourages local leaders to commit to five concrete actions to improve collaboration around public health in their communities.

That's from the release announcing this.

Mayor Cranley, you're quoted in that as saying, there is an incredible opportunity at the local level when a health director and a mayor are working from the same playbook, communities respond to crises faster, smarter and more efficiently.

I think a lot of people would agree with that statement, but is there a concern that this could get political, that responding to crises could get political?

No, because when a crisis hits, it's practical, not political.

So, you know, when our firefighters are having to deliver Narcan to opioid overdoses, that's an emotional trauma and that's an expense.

And if you don't have the Narcan ready to go, people die on the street.

And so it's not an ideological left wing, right wing for drugs against drugs.

It's just the job of a firefighter.

Similarly, during Covid, in the beginning, when everyone was afraid and didn't know who would affect, ultimately it affected elderly people.

But at the time, we didn't know that our police and firefighters didn't want to go out without masks, and yet we didn't.

Most places didn't have enough masks.

So having strategic reserves, you know, backups, having supply chains ready to go.

We all remember having a hard time finding toilet paper.

But the more extreme examples were people providing essential services, whether it's utility worker, water worker, garbage worker, police, fire nurses.

Hospitals tend to have these reserves, but most cities and counties do not.

Governor, you want to add anything?

Well, you know, John, John brought a focus to two, I think, critical areas.

One is this area of supplies.

You might recall we couldn't get the masks.

Okay.

And we don't know what's coming.

But we also know that there are there are folks locally that have access to these kinds of supplies.

And so whether it's probably mostly hospitals that we need to figure out decision when it gets down to Karen and you ask the question, could this become political?

Let me tell you why it is not.

No politician wants to get get caught behind the curve where they don't know what's going on.

They don't know what how?

It doesn't mean this commission solves a problem.

But by bringing both public health and decision makers together, if they actually have a relationship, they can make good choices.

Now, one of the other areas that John pushed, and I supported him as much as I possibly can, was the issue of data, because we want people to make decisions not based on some some theoretical thing, but the most up to date data that we can get our hands on.

And that doesn't mean there's always an answer.

I was just reading a thing today, John, that was really interesting about, you know, this, this meniscus surgeries and how they're finding more data about are they really necessary?

But the key is to have up to date data.

We don't want old stuff sitting somewhere and we're yanking old stuff off.

So what John and I have worked with in the entire commission is how do we get the most up to date data?

How do we share it among local governments so that when we get a problem, a crisis, we don't want to be running around like chickens or their heads cut off?

We want to be in a position of where together we can act to show the public that, that their health is a prime importance to us.

So if it gets political, it's because we got knuckleheads that are involved in everything.

But but most nine out of ten times, I don't think we're going to have a problem there.

The key is to get people who are John Will.

I want him to talk about this.

You know, as a governor, there's 18 million priorities you have.

The same is true with being a mayor.

I think, mayor, in terms of the local health, is probably more important than the governor because they're right there at the street level.

The key is, can we build this trust in these relationships where public health becomes a priority and not an afterthought?

And that's what this really, frankly, I think is all about.

And it's a long road to get this done.

John, I want to ask you both, though, about whether you feel like there's work to do in terms of getting more confidence in public health officials, because we saw coming out of the pandemic that people got suspicious of data.

They got suspicious of public health announcements.

People are now suspicious of some of the things coming out of Health and Human Services.

Is there an issue in trying to gain back some of that confidence in public officials and public health officials and data?

Absolutely.

So it's critical.

First of all, it is important to go back to what I call the greatest hits.

You know, the number one reason life expectancy has been extended in America over the last 100 years is because of public health, clean water, better sewage, garbage collection, vaccines.

These are things that have led to the longevity that we all take for granted and reduced infant mortality.

So public health has accomplished so much of the good.

And most people forget that.

And if you ask people you know, you know, because the right wing didn't like some of the, you know, the Fauci stuff and now the left wing doesn't like Bobby Kennedy general.

So both sides have reasons to be mad and public health officials.

But if you ask elected officials, do you want clean water?

The answer is yes.

Do you want Flint, Michigan happening?

No you don't.

Do you want to have masks for your police and fire?

You know, for the next styrene leak coming out of a train?

Yes.

And so I think people retreated to their corners on both sides.

But the practical issues that local governments and local health officials face require a pragmatic approach that talks about supplies and services.

And then, as the governor said, open data that can help identify trends and hopefully solve problems.

But, Karen, the other thing is, so if you have a crisis, okay, and some man or woman shows up at your doorstep and says, I'm here to fix this for you and you don't know them, it doesn't work very well.

The real key to this, and you know, it sounds a little boring, actually, but the real key to this is people got to know one another.

They got to have to trust one another.

And I can tell you that if you I would suggest to you that if you checked around, that's the by the way, that's the new John Kasich guys compared to the old, I'll tell you is the old consider is the new.

So anyway, so here's the thing, Karen, I, I believe that if you were to check around with elected officials and ask them, how's their relationship with public health people, they probably would say they don't have much or they would try to make up something.

But I think in most cases they don't have those relationships.

The public health people also have to understand that they're not here to make the rules.

They're here to offer guidance.

And this is where the friction comes in.

They're not here to make law.

They're here to advise those who do make law, whether they're mayors, city council, county commissioners, school superintendents, any of that.

And so we have to have an adjustment on both parts.

We have to have elected officials who are willing to spend the time to make this a priority, and public health officials who realize their advisors as as opposed to the people that carry out and execute these things.

And one of your other recommendations in the roadmap, you talk about building a working foundation between elected officials and public health officials and then creating partnerships with businesses, education, transportation, agriculture, public safety, health care, social services, and faith leaders, all of whom are affected by whatever happens in public health.

But there could be some opposition or some resistance if you start talking about things that affect that have a cost to business or taxes might have to go up.

How do you advise communities and public leaders deal with that?

Well, I think first of all, the the the hospitals all have existing reserves in place.

And, you know, you've got to be you don't want to go buy a bunch of stuff because then it could just sit and get old and become obsolete.

So it's really about having, you know, 30, 60, 90 days of additional supply ready on the margin.

And there can be bulk purchasing opportunities between local communities and hospitals, which I think practically is how how it can get done.

But I can tell you this, that you won't be proud that you didn't spend a little bit of money on those reserves if another crisis happens and you can't equip your first responders with the equipment that they deserve.

I just heard a story, unfortunately, about this.

I don't know much about it, about these children who are found in this home in southern Ohio and understand the legislature is passing something to provide assistance to that community.

Karen, if there are resources that are needed, I mean, really needed, then I think there's a process to do that.

I have to also tell you that I just recently checked, and most of these local governments have, John, believe it or not, over 50% of reserves.

So it's not like they don't have any money.

They do have money.

But if there's something that's extreme or something that's necessary, local people figure out how to do it.

It's not that we need somebody, you know, a couple thousand miles away to tell us what to do.

They'll figure it out.

It sounds like the task force really is focusing on practical issues, like you talk about here with acquiring PPE and setting up data so that it's it's accessible.

I think that's been a criticism of of task forces and groups like this in the past that the their work just kind of sits on a shelf and doesn't go anywhere.

How do you make sure that what you're going to be doing here actually gets pushed out and starts to be acted upon?

Well, ultimately, it is up to the responsibility of local elected officials and public health officials.

We're just trying to encourage both sides to talk to each other to get ahead of the curve.

I do want to spend an extra second on the data.

So, you know, and I was listening to a podcast earlier today about sort of the closed command and control system of China.

And I think ultimately we will win as long as we remain open and free and de-identified.

So it's anonymous.

Sharing a public health data was important to us to know back to opiates, where what part of our communities were having the overdoses on fentanyl.

So then we knew where to be ready, but also where to go after the drug dealers.

You know, similarly, knowing that old people died of Covid meant we got to take care of our senior centers.

This data is so important on a daily basis to good public policy, but it also in the world of AI, in great research and development institutes like the University of Cincinnati.

And I hear they have one up in Columbus, can take the big open source data and maybe find patterns, maybe cure diseases, maybe solve cancer.

And and I think that openness is what makes America great, but it also is a secondary benefit for those concerns on the more right coded right now, which is don't tell me what to do, let me decide for myself what open source gives people an opportunity to have access to data and to draw their own conclusions.

And so I think that is the key not only to better public health, but is also key American principle of letting the consumer decide.

Karen, I think you raised a critical point that we want is this thing to be put on a shelf.

That's why we want to have these tabletop exercises where we actually have people working together and where we can measure it.

And John and I are committed, as well as the rest of the commission, to going forward and seeing if we can actually get these things started.

And if we do, I think they'll grow because I think they're critical.

Now, infectious disease is an issue out there all the time.

And building that trust those relationships.

We our goal, the decision makers frankly, don't get caught, you know, with not knowing what's going on.

Don't get caught behind the curve because it's going to happen and you're going to pay the price for it.

So there's a self-interest in terms of of public officials paying attention to this in terms of public health people, they don't care and kind of know how to approach lawmakers.

It's hard for them.

And that's why we give them the toolkit, because they don't know what these people do.

It's like mysterious as to how they operate.

But look, I'm optimistic that this will continue.

If it doesn't, we will have done good work.

And if the good work can turn into something that's real action, then we will have achieved our goal.

It sounds like you've brought up the pandemic several times.

It sounds like some of these things were really kind of informed by what happened in the pandemic.

But Ohio's reaction to the pandemic and to the orders for Doctor Amy Act and of course, backed by governor Mike DeWine, really started in one area and kind of veered off in terms of people's opposition to them.

So how did what happened in the pandemic, especially in Ohio, inform what you folks are working on here?

Well, look, I think as I mentioned earlier, not only did you see reaction against some of those, but frankly, the big backlash wasn't until the fall of 2020.

And by then Amy Acton was no longer the the director.

So but nonetheless, those oppositions came from the right.

But now, as I mentioned earlier, the opposition from the left against Bobby Kennedy Jr.

What he's doing to HHS and I share those concerns.

So I think you're going to get backlash when you make when you make these big decisions.

But that's why we want to focus on the pragmatic, regardless of who's right or wrong.

I'm telling you, if there's a benzene styrene leak in East Palestine, Ohio, you need people exited from that area.

You need cops and firefighters to go in.

They're not going in without protective gear.

So the pragmatism of, hey, we need to, you know, put the politics aside.

We need the ability to function in crises.

And those aren't just COVID's, but they're opioid overdoses.

They're environmental leaks like we saw in East Palestine in so many other places.

So it really is trying to get beyond the big ideological debates and focused on the things that we can do at the local level.

You know, we think about our police and our fire, and there are priority and they always have access to decision makers.

But think about the public health.

If you don't, if you're not practicing good public health.

So there ought to be a natural inclination to realize the police are critical.

Fire is critical, but so is public health, because we can lose lives because we don't know what we're doing on public health.

So yeah, a lot of the lessons do come from Covid because it created ideological problems.

The data wasn't, you know, was always changing.

There was there was no relationship or very little relationship between public health and decision makers.

All the things that we noticed.

Yeah, we've improved and I'll bet there'll be things that will be improved on the basis of what we do, but we'll see.

And we appreciate your interest in this.

And you think all this is possible in a partizan environment like we're living in right now?

Yeah.

Because I don't think it's that Partizan.

I mean, it's what if you can get the public health people to realize that their advisers and the decision makers to realize they need that advice, you're okay.

It's when one tries to get too far along.

I'm not going to is a public official.

I'm not going to be telling the health people they don't know what they're doing, and the health people are not here to tell me what I'm supposed to do.

If those two parties can interlock here by getting to know one another will be fine.

May or you want to add anything.

I agree with all that.

I think that's right.

are you to planning on endorsing either the candidates for governor?

You know, of course I'm not getting involved in all that.

I've had my time.

I'm now into other things.

We'll have to see what happens.

I don't know, I don't know what the heck will happen.

Let's let tomorrow take care of itself.

But everybody just needs to know that, you know, I kind of had my time and it's sometimes it's time to move on.

But you never say never to anything.

Of course, I've already endorsed Amy Acton and David Pepper, and David and I served on city council together.

I've known him for a very long time and and am nothing against the other candidate.

He went to my high school when I'm proud of that.

But I'm for Amy and David.

You can read the roadmap at de Beaumont in the What's News section.

And that is it for this week for my colleagues at the state House News Bureau of Ohio Public Media.

Thanks for watching.

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Support for the Statehouse News Bureau comes from the law offices of Porter, Wright, Morris and Arthur LLP.

Porter Wright is dedicated to bringing inspired legal outcomes to the Ohio business community.

More at Porter Wright.com.

Porter Wright.

inspired every day.

And from the Ohio education Association, representing 120,000 educators who are united in their mission to create the excellent public schools every child deserves.

More at OHEA.org