Dorrian, Pfeiffer built legacy of integrity

Alarge measure of integrity will leave Columbus City Hall when two leaders who collectively hold the conscience of city government retire this month.

Hugh J. Dorrian and Richard C. Pfeiffer Jr. are check and balance. Dorrian has been the city auditor since 1969. And Pfeiffer, the city attorney since 2003, has served his community in many ways, including through military service and as a state senator and Municipal Court judge.

Both are Democrats, but neither wears that on his sleeve. For decades, they have put city above party politics and the people of Columbus above self-interest.

You’d be hard-pressed to find two people in government today who are as driven to fulfill the purest sense of the words “public servant.”

I first met Dorrian around 1989 when I started covering city government and urban affairs for The Dispatch. As he did with virtually every City Hall reporter before and after me, he welcomed me to the beat with a warm smile and an invitation.

“Alan, I’d like you to come spend an hour or so with me so that I can explain the city budget to you,” he said.

To be honest, at that moment, I couldn’t imagine many things more boring than a lesson in city finances. Or more important.

So I jumped at the opportunity, and Dorrian graciously spent closer to two hours poring over the budget and talking about his role in making sure that city leaders taxed fairly, saved wisely and spent only what was necessary to maintain a high quality of life in Columbus.

By virtue of being the person with his fingers on the purse strings, he had to be the proverbial bad guy at times, warning mayors and council presidents — sometimes

sternly — when they were proposing something that would endanger city finances. Dorrian is the consummate professional, and he never made it personal, but he wouldn’t hesitate to politely scold a fellow elected official of either party when he felt that person was heading down a bad path.

In that role, Dorrian has been the protector of the city’s bond rating, which is a municipal version of your credit score. A high bond rating means that the city can borrow money for priority projects and initiatives at the lowest interest rates, saving taxpayers millions of dollars compared with that paid by cities with lower bond ratings.

And for both Dorrian and Pfeiffer, it is clear by the way they live their lives that their priorities are not rooted in dollars and cents or the law, but in how those fundamental elements of their jobs affect people.

They get out of their offices and talk with people unlike themselves and their neighbors. They both dine regularly, for example, at Tommy’s Diner on East Broad Street in Franklinton. On most days, you’ll find Dorrian dressed in a suit and tie sitting on a stool at the lunch counter — a greasestained pipefitter to his right and a burly biker to his left. And they’re all enjoying lunch and a good conversation about life in Columbus.

I arrived there for a late lunch one recent day as Dorrian was heading back to City Hall, and I couldn’t get close enough to say hello because he had been mobbed by folks thanking him for his service and wishing him well in retirement.

I walked into Tommy’s one Saturday morning to find Pfeiffer finishing breakfast. He was on his way to the office to catch up on some work.

Pfeiffer is quick with a smile and has a wonderfully dry sense of humor, but he’s not much for chit-chat. He moves fast, is full of questions and doesn’t mince words. That was delightful to watch when he was elected as Franklin County’s first Environmental Court judge.

That position was created in Municipal Court after a Dispatch series showed how slum-property owners could work the system of code enforcement and the courts to operate substandard, unsafe, eyesore properties without much more than a slap on the wrist.

Judge Pfeiffer not only grilled the owners, he also got in the car and went to the properties to see for himself how well the owners were complying with his orders.

He gets to the point, and he doesn’t try to sugar-coat a bad situation or deflect or obfuscate. We journalists have appreciated that about him.

In addition to his many other duties as city attorney, he has been a champion of open government — not because reporters pushed for it, but because he knows and believes that it is the right thing to do.

Yes, a large measure of integrity will leave with Dorrian and Pfeiffer. We can all pray that those who hold the public trust in those offices going forward, along with all others in City Hall, also will live their lives as true public servants and maintain the conscience of city government.