Cincinnati Council Member Kevin Flynn has resigned a position in the local Democratic Party, but told WVXU this morning that rumors that he is also about to resign from council are not true.
Flynn said the first he heard of rumors circulating around City Hall that he was about to give up the office he was elected to in 2013 was when he saw published reports on his smart phone while at Tuesday night's Jimmy Buffett concert at Riverbend.
"I was at the concert, and I saw that and said, 'Whoa, what's going on here?,'' Flynn told WVXU. "The fact is I am not resigning from council. I have no imminent plans to do so."
Flynn said he may make a decision as early as next month on whether or not he will run for a second term. He was elected in 2013 as a Charter Committee candidate. In March, he ran for a Democratic precinct executive's seat in the city's Ward 23.
He told Hamilton County Democratic Party chairman Tim Burke in an e-mail Tuesday that he was resigning from the precinct executive's position "for personal reasons and recent events."
Flynn's term runs through 2017. He told WVXU that if he decides not to run for a second term, there is a possibility that, sometime closer to the election, he would step aside early for another candidate.
He has designated three of his fellow council members to choose his replacement should he leave early – Democrats David Mann and Yvette Simpson and Republican Amy Murray. All three ran for council in 2013 with Charter Committee endorsements.
But Flynn said repeatedly that he does not plan to leave council in the near future.
He and Mayor John Cranley agree on many budget issues, but Flynn and the mayor have been at odds at times. Shortly after taking office, Flynn voted to restart construction of the streetcar – something Cranley opposed.
