Auditor Dusty Rhodes, never one to mince words, reflects on 50 years of public service

From the Beatles to Biden, Dusty Rhodes has never been shy about voicing his views.

That’s not always worked out well.

Rhodes, the Hamilton County auditor for 32 years and a Delhi Township trustee for 21 years before that, turned 83 this month. In recent years, he has gotten a lot of attention with his Tweets. He’s a lifelong Democrat, but his Twitter timeline shows considerable criticism of Democratic President Joe Biden, defenses of Republican Donald Trump and right-wing commentary, and scorn for the Black Lives Matter movement and abortion rights advocates.

The Hamilton County Democratic Party declared it’d had enough in 2021 and deemed him “not in good standing."

Rhodes, who’s been praised as auditor for openness and being informative on property taxes, didn’t seek election to a ninth term this year. He will be succeeded in March by Ohio Rep. Brigid Kelly, also a Democrat.

He’s been taking some time recently to talk about his six-plus decades as a Cincinnati public figure, which date back to the early 1960s. That’s when he was a WSAI-AM radio deejay who helped draw the Beatles for a Cincinnati Gardens concert during the height of Beatlemania in 1964. He recalled the Fab Four “as great people, not demanding at all, very pleasant’ as he spoke Dec. 2 to the Western Economic Council near Cincinnati.

Here are 5 questions I posed to Rhodes:

How do you want your 32-year tenure as auditor to be remembered?

I would like to be remembered for cleaning up the property appraisal process and changing a patronage-oriented public office to one that is merit-based in employment and committed to citizen service. I ended the political party dues check-off and never asked for or checked a potential hire’s political affiliation or preferences.

I gave citizens an opportunity to participate in the property appraisal process by giving them advance notice of new values and providing for a way to comment, first through neighborhood conferences and then through email and letter. These informal reviews, before the state approved our values, helped us catch errors before the final values were set.  

I reduced staff, through attrition, from over 200 when I was elected to 70 today; I instituted one of the first property search websites in the country, and gave back close to $50 million in unspent Real Estate Assessment (REA) funds to local governments, school districts and taxing entities. The REA Fund comes from a small portion of every property tax and is spent at the sole discretion of the County Auditor.    

What is your best advice for Brigid Kelly? 

To maintain her independent spirit, to value our great staff and to work with the County Prosecutor to follow the law. To use her great contacts and goodwill from her service as a State Representative to assist the Legislature in passing necessary legislation to help County Auditors, such as fuel quality testing and eliminating the LLC loophole in property transfers. 

You’ve been at odds with the Democratic Party in recent years, but have remained a Democrat. How would you describe the current state of the party and its outlook?

How quickly they forget. I was the first Democrat to win a county administrative office in 20 years when the party asked me to run in 1990. I kept the office, ran unopposed twice, was elected and re-elected, most recently by 2-to-1, and never dishonored the party and my supporters by breaking the law. I had hoped to set an example and make this a competitive two-party county. Unfortunately, it seems to still be a one-party county now, not Republican but Democratic.  

I think that is partly a result of weak Republican candidates and bad campaigns as much as some good Democratic candidates and demographic changes. I believe the party, both here and nationally, is controlled by the extreme, radical fringe. For example, I’ve seen surveys that show up to a third of Democrats consider themselves pro-life, yet party leaders demand candidates support abortion up to the moment of the birth. 

I was publicly called a “misogynist” and “racist” by Party Chairman Gwen McFarlin, in spite of my warm support for her, an African-American woman, every time she ran for office. My “sin” was criticizing the street art in front of Cincinnati City Hall on behalf of Black Lives Matter, an organization with leaders who spent all the money they raised from woke corporations and none of it helping the people who were seriously harmed by the major city riots they promoted.   

What are your favorite memories of the Beatles’ 1964 visit to Cincinnati?

I was receiving about 300 letters and postcards a day at the radio station prior to the Beatles concert here. I was happy with the way the Beatles’ appearance dominated the local news and established WSAI as an important part of local media and culture. My favorite memory of the show was 14,000 happy kids and not one behavior problem.    

What are your retirement plans?

I am looking forward to spending more time with my wife, sons, daughters-in-law and grandson; writing, producing and recording more radio programs covering all types of music; maybe doing some writing, and catching up on my reading.

Dan Sewell writes a weekly politics column for The Enquirer. He can be reached by email at dsewellrojos@gmail.com.