Residents say Dayton corruption probe takes some of the shine off the Gem City

DAYTON — Many residents and political leaders worry a corruption probe puts a damper on a lot of positive momentum the city’s been building.

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“I hope not, I hope not, but it probably will,” said Andrea Layne of Dayton.

“It kind of puts a negative light on the city. There’s a lot of other stuff going on and you got corruption or whatever and it’s just not good,” Jay Jones of Dayton said.

As part of an FBI investigation, the Department of Justice has charged former city commissioner Joey Williams, former state Rep. Clayton Luckie, Dayton city employee Roshawn Winburn and businessman Brian Higgins. Some of the charges center around the awarding of construction contracts.

Local GOP leaders are taking a hard line against the city’s leaders, mostly Democrats.

“When you have one voice in government and there’s no one else at the table, it breeds corruption,” Tom Young of the Montgomery County Republican Party’s executive committee said.

>> DAYTON CORRUPTION PROBE: Read the indictments here

The county’s Democratic party leader said, not so fast.

“To sit there and make an excuse that it’s one party rule, if they want to compete in Dayton that’s their problem,” Mark Owens, chairman of the Montgomery County Democratic Party.

Another thing the GOP asks is where has Mayor Nan Whaley been? She has not made any public appearances since the story broke, and has not agreed to talk to News Center 7 despite multiple requests. Instead, she released a brief statement saying she was sad for the city and promised a full investigation.

Politics aside, there’s one thing on which Owens and Young can agree: The allegations leveled by the FBI and DOJ have, at least temporarily, taken some of the shine off the Gem City.

“Just the day before we had the celebrating of the closing of the Arcade deal and all the housing downtown. There’s a lot of things not only in Dayton but across Montgomery County that are good things. This kind of puts somewhat of a damper on it,” Owens said.

RELATED: Gov. DeWine doesn’t believe there is a ‘culture of corruption’ in Dayton politics

“Those are projects that people have invested in over a long period of time that people took the risk to come to the city and that’s a really positive thing. This overshadows that at the moment,” Young said.

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