Rep. Brent Votes Against Bill That Fails To Address The Needs Of County Fairs

CLEVELAND– State Rep. Juanita Brent (D-Cleveland) Tuesday evening spoke on the House floor and voted against the Senate amendments to House Bill (HB) 665, which would address agricultural societies and amusement ride safety.

“We all want to look after our county fairs, for most of us they have been our crown jewel growing up, so this is a very personal bill for most of us. The problem with these amendments is that we are still not really getting down to business in taking care of our county fairs,” said Rep. Brent. “We’re dealing with the surface level, but we aren’t dealing with the ongoing public health crisis, which our county fairs are struggling to deal with, and we aren’t taking other necessary steps such as banning the Confederate Flag at our fairs. We need to get back to the drawing board. It’s been more than 40 years since we’ve updated these rules for the Agriculture Society for our county fairs. This is the time for us to really take a deep dive and take seriously what we need to address. We have not done that with this bill. This obviously isn’t going to happen in this General Assembly, so we need to get to work in the 134th General Assembly.”

The Ohio House voted to concur with the Senate amendments made to House Bill 665 on Tuesday, December 22, 2020, which passed with a vote of 59-23.