Former Portsmouth Mayor Sean Dunne vehemently denied that he intended to reference Chinese Communist leaders when he said people were referring to Mayor Charlotte Gordon, Vice Mayor Lyvette Mosely, and Councilmen Cole and Sandlin as a “Gang of Four.”
Instead, the First Ward Councilman said he was referring to five Cincinnati City Councilmembers who faced criminal charges back in 2018 and eventually admitted they had admitted they had broken Ohio’s Open Meetings law by conducting city business in private text messages and emails. Only one council member was criminally charged in that case. Local Cincinnati news outlet dubbed them the “Gang of Five.”
In political terms, ‘Gang of Four’ commonly refers to a group of four Chinese Communist Party officials led by Jiang Quin, Mao Zedong’s wife, who spearheaded the Chinese Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 70s. During that time, the Red Guards tortured, imprisoned, and killed intellectuals and artists and destroyed books and other cultural artifacts. It is estimated that between one and two million people died during this time.
Portsmouth City Council members have denied Dunne’s allegations that they violated Ohio’s Open Meetings laws by planning together in private to vote him out of the mayor’s office back in January.
“There is no Gang of Four; there is a council of six,” Councilman Joey Sandlin said.
Councilman Andy Cole said, “It’s unfortunate that he is disappointed by the outcome of the vote. However, his feelings haven’t altered my commitment to advancing Portsmouth in a positive way.”
Vice Mayor Mosely said, “I was straight upfront with Councilman Dunne. I’m sorry he feels this way.”
**Publisher’s Note: Dunne viciously attacked and insulted me during the discussion that led to this article. The conversations were off the record, so quotes will not be included. The fact remains that we gave him a 30-minute video interview as well as a feature-length article. In his political career, he has never received more coverage from a news outlet. People took exception to one statement out of that entire interview and reacted to it. Our team reported it.
This is not the first time we’ve had issues with using Dunne’s exact words. Previously, he spent over 2 hours demanding changes to our reporting of a quote where he was cited verbatim. In yet another instance, Dunne refused to give a quote on an important issue until we wrote an article about basketball. In that case, he flatly refused to speak to our journalist until the article was written. We did not publish the basketball story, and the article went through without a quote from Dunne, who was the sitting Mayor at the time.
In spite of Dunne’s adamant declarations that we’ll never speak again, I want to remain neutral and impartial. Report without Bias. Tell the Truth without Compromise.
Review the reports that led up to this point.