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The Intercommunity Cable Regulatory Commission (ICRC) of Southwest Ohio is a non-profit consortium of 23 communities in the Greater Cincinnati area. ICRC-TV records all of Harrison's City Council meetings, Harrison Planning Commission meetings and many of the special events that occur in our community, like the Summer Concerts, the 4th of July parades and "The Wall the Heals".

Recently, ICRC-TV gave each Harrison City Council candidate the opportunity to sign up for a free five minute video. Through the month of September we were given several one-half hour timeslots to record our videos.

On Tuesday, October 12, I received the following text from a long time firefighter and Harrison area resident: "Good evening Mike, Hope your week has started off well! I'd like to ask a question, what is your official stance on qualified immunity?"

On Wednesday Oct 13, the following came out in the Harrison Press: "We've got candidates right now that are running and saying they want to take away the immunity of the police and fire when they're at work and I don't believe in that either." - Jerry Wilson

Back on April 17th I attended the Accountability Now Ohio - Hamilton County Signature Drive, and I gave a speech about ending qualified immunity, Ohio's restrictive ballot access laws and Ranked Choice voting. I spoke specifically about Libertarian congressman Justin Amish's simple 3 and ½ page bill to end Qualified Immunity. It's my understanding that this bill was the first ever to receive tri-partisan support with Amash as the sponsor, along with Republican Tom McClintock and several Democrats as co-sponsors.
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Joe Combs and I sat down face-to-face with our concerned resident and former firefighter on Thursday to discuss qualified immunity. For many of you this may be the first time you may have heard the term. For me I really didn't know anything about qualified immunity until the summer of 2020 and Justin Amash's introduction of the bill. In the United States, qualified immunity is a legal principle that grants government officials performing discretionary (optional) functions immunity from civil suits unless the plaintiff shows that the official violated "clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known".[1] As it has been explained to me, qualified immunity is used to protect first responders from frivolous lawsuits, and allows them to know they have the protection they need to do their job and not be worried about losing their home and life savings. The challenge about this doctrine is that it can also be used to protect government employees and elected officials that have clearly violated a citizens civil rights. During our discussions we all agreed that we want to protect the many great first responders and government employees in our community and make sure that the very few "bad apples" are held accountable. We agreed that simply ending qualified immunity would be much like "throwing the baby out with the bath water". Did we come up with a solution to the problem? Unfortunately no, but we all agreed that simply ending qualified immunity without finding a way to not throw good first responders under the bus was not the solution.

I appreciate our concerned Harrison area resident's willingness to come and talk to us, share the many challenges of being a first responder and educating both Joe and me on his perspective on qualified immunity. It was also great to hear how we were aligned on many libertarian principles of small government and individual freedom.

In the end, I want the citizens of Harrison to know that I would never jeopardize the ability of our first responders to do their jobs nor put them or their families at risk of a frivolous lawsuit. We must protect the many great first responders and find a better way to remove the very few bad 'actors'. I want to take this time to apologize to the residents of Harrison in jumping hastily into a position of supporting the end of qualified immunity, that would potentially put our first responder's safety and security in jeopardy, and cripple their ability to do their jobs. Let's all work together to find a better solution to reform our criminal justice system. My first term as a council member demonstrates my commitment and dedication to making sure our first responders and our streets department have the tools they need to be successful. While not serving on the police or fire committees, I do often attend those meetings and I have voted in favor of all ordinances related to first responder contracts and equipment purchases. I had the great fortune of being able to participate in a training session with our fire department at the old Junior High School earlier this year. Wearing the full turnout gear in a dark smoke simulated stairwell and hallway was an eye opening and claustrophobic experience that helped me understand just how difficult the work our first responders undertake.

Going forward, always know that Joe Combs and I are available and want to hear from the citizens of Harrison. Sometimes talking politics can be a difficult thing to do, but when together we sit down, listen and really hear each other's side of the story, we learn, grow and find the best solutions to the challenges that face us.

May God bless your families this autumn season and may God bless the great city of Harrison, the State of Ohio and the United States of America.

Sincerely,
Mike Mains
Harrison City Councilman

1. Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818 (1982).

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...As background, in 2001 a movement, named the Free State Project was created to try and encourage 20,000 libertarians to move to a single low-population state in order to make the state a stronghold of libertarian ideas. In 2003, New Hampshire was selected, not only because of its relatively small size, but because the state was also liberty minded. The Cato Institute's: Freedom in the Fifty States has ranked New Hampshire as number 1 or 2 since the inception of its rankings. Coincidently, our neighboring state of Indiana has consistently ranked in the top ten and currently sits at #3 overall. If you're keeping track, Ohio has gone from a low of 44 in 2002, to a current rank of 25th and climbing.

Joe Combs and I have not signed up to move to New Hampshire, but have obviously decided to stay in Harrison, OH, run for city council as Libertarians and ask the question: What does a free city look like? During the city's Taste of Harrison we asked some of our libertarian minded friends and members of the Harrison area community this question. Check out their responses. We would encourage you to listen what they had to say and think about what your response might be.