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Board of County Commissioners

Commissioner Todd Portune

Commissioner Todd Portune was elected to the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners on November 2, 2000, after having served eight years on the Cincinnati City Council. Commissioner Portune has been re-elected three times and is currently serving his fourth term.

Commissioner Portune currently serves as Chair of the County's Emergency Management Agency Executive Committee and chaired the County Homeland Security Commission. He has also served as President of the Hamilton County Family and Children First Council. Commissioner Portune currently serves as President of the Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana (OKI) Regional Council of Governments Board of Trustees and is continuing his leadership on transportation issues as Chair of the Hamilton County Transportation Improvement District.

Commissioner Portune served as President of the Board of Hamilton County Commissioners on two separate occasions spanning three years - first from 2007 through December 31, 2008 and again in 2010 from June through December.

While President of the Board, Commissioner Portune spearheaded a county agenda focused on fiscal discipline, economic development and strategic and prudent transportation enhancements. In order to meet serious budget challenges brought on by the recession, Portune introduced zero based budget principles, mandates reviews, and aggressively pursued shared services and government reforms. Portune's budget and government reforms have produced a reduction in the size of county government by 25% while the county maintained its full menu of services. Despite a 30% drop in revenues, the county has annually balanced its budgets, improved its reserves and strengthened its financial picture.

Portune's growth agenda for the county focused on sound land use planning, regional transportation enhancements and strategic economic development investments. At his lead, the promise of The Banks riverfront redevelopment project gained new life with a development agreement being struck within months of Portune's presidency commencing after almost a decade of delay under others. The Banks is now rising like a Phoenix from the ashes with 90% of all housing and commercial retail space under lease and a second phase about to commence.

Portune proposed the creation of a Land bank for the county with a reformed Port Authority at the helm. He successfully renegotiated the creation of the Port Authority. His proposed Land Bank has now been enacted into law, and with funding sources identified by or proposed under Portune coming into play, the Port and the Land Bank are commencing the redevelopment of blighted and abandoned properties all over Hamilton County for large and small scale commercial development and new residential construction. Portune's Home Improvement Program has leveraged over $40 million in new private investment fixing up the aging housing stock of the county with 75% of the improved properties benefitting middle class homeowners and over 2,500 local contractors receiving jobs.

Portune led the reformation of the local transit authority, converting it into a regional entity focusing on multi-modal transportation service. In his many lead roles at the TID and at OKI, Portune is leading a regional transportation agenda that will introduce commuter rail options to area residents, will put the already constructed Transit Center to use, and will provide for transportation corridor improvements for people and freight that are generating transit oriented economic development projects along all of the region's transit corridors- highway, rail and river.

Portune has led the way for improvements in public health, public safety and the environment - all the while emphasizing the potential in each for growing Hamilton County. As previous Chair of the County Solid Waste Policy Committee, the county aggressively reduced the impact on landfills; increased recycling options for residential and commercial customers alike, and pursued new environmental initiatives that still today are reducing energy consumption and the county's carbon footprint, while increasing business and individual spending power and creating jobs.

As Emergency Management and Homeland Security Chair, Portune introduced a process that has secured over $63 million in needed homeland security and first responder needs. The county now has a state of the art Emergency Operations Center; an active Regional Hazmat Response Unit and a county-wide emergency warning system providing 100% coverage for the county for the first time. These safety improvements have made the county a more attractive place to live, work and play and are reducing costs of living and costs of business, and have secured new investments in the region, expanding available jobs and options for safe and secure investments in the county to occur.

Portune's leadership in attacking infant mortality, in pursuing reimbursable revenues for public and behavioral health, expanded oral and dental care and ensuring medical homes for all county residents are saving lives, reducing costs and improving overall public health.

Commissioner Portune has been recognized on a national level as well. His leadership in creating the "Perfect Storm" coalition of communities affected by the high costs of Clean Water Act compliance have generated a model new policy of enforcement for EPA that will save local ratepayers as much as $1 Billion in costs of sewer repairs. His work in the area of recycling initiatives garnered him National Legislator of the Year by the United States Recycling Coalition of Communities and Organizations.

On a personal note, Commissioner Portune attended public schools, graduating from Colerain High School as National Merit Scholar in 1976 and was named a "Colerain Distinguished Graduate" in 2002. Commissioner Portune went on to study political science at Oberlin College in Ohio. He graduated from Oberlin in 1980, and was inducted into the college's Athletic Hall of Fame in 1998. He was accepted to law school at the University of Cincinnati where he became president of the Student Bar Association, received Order of the Barristers honors and graduated in 1983.

Commissioner Portune resides in Green Township with his three children.