April 23, 2026
The Future of Cincinnati
Class Description
Learn first-hand tonight about what Christopher Smitherman thinks needs to be done with the City of Cincinnati for it to be successful and moving forward. Christopher’s experience with the City is unmatched and you will hear from him on many subjects. Learn about his thoughts on the current “Anti-Police”, “Anti-Cop” policies in the City. What about the current mayor, Aftab Pureval?
What about Immigration? Will the City’s position as a Sanctuary City cause it to lose important funding from the Federal Government? How about the current form of Government—does it work? Has the City Manager been successful with all the controversies involved with the Fire Department leader being fired, and now the Police Chief being shown the door. Christopher will discuss with us a new petition initiative he is advancing to take away from the City Manager the ability to Fire Police and Fire Department Employees.
After several violent attacks in downtown Cincinnati, find out about Smitherman’s Town Hall meeting with Governor candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. What were the results of the meeting? Should citizens be scared to visit downtown Cincinnati? What practical steps need to be taken to curb crime? How bad is the crime in downtown? Will the City and County ever be able to elect more conservative leaders? Tonight is your chance to meet Christopher Smitherman at EmpowerU. Christopher will speak from 7:05-7:45 PM.
Greg Lawson from the Buckeye Institute will join us tonight from 7:45-8:30 PM. He will be discussing Ohio property taxes which is a very hot issue right now given that the General Assembly has passed various pieces of legislation. The passed legislation will be discussed and what the expected outcome of that legislation is. Also, we will discuss what would happen if the potential constitutional amendment to end property taxes in Ohio would pass in the November election.
Data Centers are also a very important issue in Ohio right now. There are a lot of issues associated with Data Centers, including energy, energy price spikes, local opposition, and national security implications. Greg Lawson has been a frequent guest at EmpowerU and is always ready to share with us important information about the State of Ohio.
Speaker Bio
Meet Christopher Smitherman who has a long history of serving The City of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. Christopher is well known as a three-term past member of the City of Cincinnati Council where he was a fiscal conservative and fought for proper funding of police and fire.
Christopher was elected to Cincinnati City Council on November 4, 2003, as a member of the Charter Committee where he ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility. He served as the Vice Mayor of Cincinnati and has been a member of the Cincinnati City Council and the Cincinnati Planning Commission.
A former President of the NAACP, learn about what needs to happen in Hamilton County and the City for us to make it great. You will also learn about important grassroots initiatives that Christoper has lead to improve our County.
This is your chance to meet Christopher and find out if he is your best choice for Hamilton County Commissioner. Christopher will be speaking from 7:05 PM to 7:45 PM.
Greg R. Lawson is a senior research fellow at The Buckeye Institute, where he specializes in Ohio’s budget, local government, state and local taxes, education, education funding, transportation funding, and occupational licensing. He serves as the liaison to state government policymakers, educating them on free-market solutions to Ohio’s challenges.
Lawson has nearly 20 years of experience working on 10 state budgets and is a recognized expert on Ohio’s budget. He is also the co-author of “Principled Spending: Using Ohio’s Capital Budget to Benefit Ohioans” and has authored the “Piglet Book,” which outlines areas of government waste. Lawson has a background in fundraising, grassroots organizing, and communications, and has served on the boards of two Columbus-based charter schools.
He is a frequent speaker across Ohio and is regularly quoted in media outlets throughout the state. His writings have appeared in major Ohio newspapers and national publications, including Forbes. Greg will be speaking from 7:45-8:30 PM.