Krings' moves on stadium questioned By Mike Rutledge, Post staff reporter Hamilton County Administrator David Krings may have violated Ohio sunshine laws when he informally polled the three commissioners about a $710,000 change to Paul Brown Stadium to widen it for soccer, said a Kent State University journalism professor and lawyer who specializes in Ohio's open- meetings law. By informally polling the commission - Krings told The Post he ''walked it around'' to all three commissioners, who agreed, and he moved ahead - the county administrator said he felt he had the necessary authority to approve the change. ''That's astounding,'' said Timothy D. Smith, director of Kent State's Center for Privacy and the First Amendment. ''I cannot conceive of that kind of shenanigans going on. That would really seem to me to be a major-league violation of the law. ''That flies in the face of any kind of good government I'm familiar with. That kind of information really does require public scrutiny.'' Krings today declined to estimate what percentage of the estimated $45 million in stadium cost overruns were handled in a similar fashion. Change orders have included a 94 percent increase to a contract to add ''all piling work related to the Elm Street extension.'' That raised the value of a contract with Richard Goettle Inc. from $1.36 million to $2.6 million. Commissioner John Dowlin said today he was unable to say how often Krings performed such behind-the-scenes polling. ''From my standpoint, what we did was to say, 'Gee, here's the budget, here's the estim ate, we're going to be under budget, we can afford to have this change, which will allow us to play soccer if there is a team that wants to play soccer there.' '' Dowlin said he had the perception the Paul Brown Stadium project was under budget because of information from construction officials. County officials say it may now be $45 million or more over budget. But Krings recently said he realized as early as August that the project was facing cost overruns. County taxpayers learned about it last month. Dowlin said, ''I was told, as a former soccer player, that the field, as originally designed, without the cutouts, was large enough to play so-called Major League Soccer. Then, primarily at the time that the Olympic issue came up is when I know that Nick Vehr came and said, Gee, if you're going to compete for the Olympics and so-called World Cup Soccer, you'r e going to need more space at the corners for corner kicks and things of that nature. ''I don't know that many of the change orders have been because of something of this nature,'' Dowlin told The Post. Former City Council Member Nick Vehr is leading an effort to bring the Olympics here. Publication date: 03-01-00
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