SAY IT AIN''T SO, C.J.!

Like everyone else, I learned from Thursday's Plain Dealer that my State Senator, Minority Leader C.J. Prentiss, quietly voted a month ago for Senate Bill 82, which strips Cleveland and other Ohio cities of the right to impose residency requirements on municipal employees. Cleveland's other Senator, Dan Brady, actually co-sponsored it.

To be fair, Brady said he wanted to get rid of residency when he ran for mayor back in 2001, so give him points for honesty. But I don't recall Prentiss ever mentioning this issue.

Senate Bill 82 is now in the House, where it will probably pass easily. Then Cleveland and other cities will challenge it in court and probably succeed in overturning it. For the reasons why it shouldn't withstand a court test, see the comments in the Legislative Service Commission analysis.

If it does become law, however, expect a rapid exodus of thousands of Cleveland's better-off homeowners -- police, firefighters, City Hall managers and professionals -- from Old Brooklyn, West Park, Collinwood, Lee-Harvard and other neighborhoods East and West. Look for a headlong race to get out early, before the exodus flattens the city's home values. Expect new house construction in the city to come to a screeching halt.

Go ahead, tell me I'm an alarmist. I don't think so.

As the PD points out, the police and fire unions have been trying to get this bill passed for years, but it's been stopped in the Senate. Why did Democrats Brady and Prentiss, along with Dann of Youngstown and Fedor of Toledo, decide to give the GOP leadership the votes and "bipartisan" cover to pass it this year?

Prentiss' office told me this morning that she voted for SB 82 because "people have a constitutional right to live where they want." Uh huh. That's good. C.J. Prentiss supports constitutional protection for white flight.