CINCINNATI — Iris Roley, a consultant for the City of Cincinnati, got a new contract worth $664,300, which City Manager Sheryl Long signed two days after the election on Nov. 6.
The contract authorized a Summer in Cincy program to help youth and prevent violent crime from June to August, and expanded the Government Square Initiative from mid-August through October. The city agreed to pay $94,300 for that work, which was performed months earlier.
“The contract has been controversial and it should not be surprising that the city administrator or the city manager held this until after the election to avoid any more controversy before the election,” said Todd Zinser, retired U.S. Inspector General who fought fraud and waste in the U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. Department of Transportation, before retiring and taking on the role of citizen watchdog.
The WCPO 9 I-Team reported in September that Roley hired her son to work with young people at Government Square, a part-time job that paid $4,400 a month.
In August, the Fraternal Order of Police demanded that Roley be fired for allegedly harassing several on-duty police officers and posted body camera videos of the incidents.
Roley did not respond to several requests for comment.
The I-Team obtained new records showing the city spent more than $1,300 for t-shirts, hoodies and performance shirts for Government Square workers purchased from a company registered to Roley's husband.
Roley submitted invoices dated March 25, from BLG Accessories and Apparel, at 2206 Langdon Farm Road. The bottom of the receipt also stated, “Thank you for choosing RoSho Awards & Graphics!”
The two companies, RoSho and Black Lives Golfing, are registered to Jesse Roley, under the same Langdon Farm Road address, according to Ohio Secretary of State records.
“It does make it look like it’s a family business,” Zinser said. "This kind of transaction doesn’t make it look fair.”
A city spokesperson provided this statement in response to WCPO’s questions: “The city has found no violations or conflicts of interest. The contract was executed once terms were agreed upon.”
“At the end of the day, this is patronage,” said Steve Goodin, a former city council member and head of the Charter Committee of Cincinnati, an independent political organization dedicated to good government. “If she were an actual (city) employee, none of this would have been allowed. She would not be able to give this business to her husband’s company or to hire her son or to engage in the kind of political activity that she engages in.”
The city's nepotism policy states that employees should avoid influencing or participating in personnel decisions involving close family members, such as recommending them for work. The purpose is “to maintain public confidence that employment decisions and personnel actions are based on principles of equal employment opportunity and merit rather than favoritism shown to a relative of a city employee.”
Those rules do not apply to city contractors.
"What she’s doing here is not illegal, I want to stress this. But my point of view is it should be illegal," Goodin said.
Roley has been a community activist for 25 years and was inducted into the Ohio Civil Rights Hall of Fame in 2022.
The city hired Roley as a consultant in 2022 to advise on issues related to the Collaborative Agreement. Her role eventually expanded to oversee the Government Square Community Care Initiative, to address youth violence at transit centers after school.
Many city leaders have praised her work for bringing food, personal care products and a safe space to young people. Roley said the program was a finalist for a Goldstein Award for excellence in problem-oriented policing.
But Cincinnati officials made a drastic change in their approach after a double shooting in Fountain Square in October. Mayor Aftab Pureval brought CPD's Civil Disturbance Response Team and SWAT to Fountain Square and Government Square from 2 to 10 p.m. every day. He created an earlier curfew, and police said they would intervene with people smoking marijuana or fighting.
“Whatever (Roley) was doing didn’t work, it failed, and the idea that she gets paid for it after the fact, I think, just stinks,” Goodin said. "The contract ... there are no real metrics at all. Part of her job was supposed to be to provide food to folks at Government Square ... and to help reduce violence in those areas and also on Fountain Square. And we had a disastrous summer and fall in both of those locations."
Regardless, both Goodin and Zinser predict that Roley will continue to get new city contracts for future work.
“The value of the contract has increased almost 800% since 2022 … it’s on its way to a million dollars,” Zinser said.
Yet Zinser warned that city contracts could attract the attention of outside auditors.
“These are red flags that outside parties can take a look at and start raising a lot of questions about how the city is operating its contracting operation,” Zinser said, adding that the city is “playing fast and loose with contracting rules.”
Iris Roley invoices by webeditors
Iris Roley contract by webeditors
