Sunday, May 02, 1999
A couple of time-tested reasons to vote
BY LAURA PULFER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Like good, gray bookends they face each other across a table. Made of something fine and durable, they have served this community nearly a hundred years — 95, to be exact — mostly from opposite sides of the table. This time, they agree.
We need a change.
Bobbie Sterne, Cincinnati's mayor twice in the '70s, started as a volunteer for her Charter Party in 1947 and served on Cincinnati City Council for 25 years. Eugene Ruehlmann joined the Republican Club in 1956 and was elected to council in 1959.
Pure motives
They are public servants. Clean Gene and Nurse Bobbie. You can probably think of a few others. A few. Charlie Taft. Ted Berry. Jim Luken. Leonard Sive. Myron Bush. Dorothy Dolbey. They were not on their way to someplace else. This was their town, and they owed it something.
I wish they were all sitting around a table right now, running things. I'll bet we wouldn't be firing public school teachers and buying hot tubs for professional athletes. But, anyway, I am sitting with two of them, listening to what they have to say about Issue 4, a proposed amendment to Cincinnati's city charter.
The amendment would allow voters to directly, specifically choose their mayor. Until 1987, the mayor was selected by fellow council members. After that, the top vote-getter in the council race automatically became mayor. And all the council members automatically became competitors.
“We lost the teamwork you need to get things done,” Mrs. Sterne says. And the leadership.
“The present system absolutely thwarts leadership,” Mr. Ruehlmann says.
Neither of these two classy people would put it exactly this way, but it sounds as if the problem is that nobody can twist anybody else's arm. The new plan lets the mayor veto council actions and appoint the city manager and committee chairs.
It puts somebody in charge, somebody voters elect. And can blame. That person can make a promise to, say, a developer from Texas or a company from Germany and know they have the political clout to make it stick.
And when you think about it, politics is the alternative to hitting each other over the head with rocks to determine who's in charge. So, if we vote yes on Issue 4, we give the mayor of this city the opportunity to say no to the city council unless it forms a coalition — a team — of six to overrule the mayor.
Bad hair day?
Meanwhile, the city manager will still make sure the garbage is collected. We get to elect our mayor. On purpose. Not just as the most popular of nine council members. We will be able to vote for people for council whom we do not necessarily think should be mayor.
I am nearly giddy with power.
Now it must be said that to accomplish these things, we must pass Issue 4 on Tuesday. Or if you are amused by a contentious and ineffective governing body, if you want to keep things exactly as they are, then you can vote no.
But you must vote. It is your duty.
If it rains Tuesday and you're afraid to get your hair wet dashing from your car to the voting booth, picture a woman who has sat through thousands of hours of committee meetings for you, whose narrow aching feet have endured hundreds of receiving lines.
If you have an important day of bread-winning on Tuesday and wonder if you can spare a moment to vote in a primary election, remember a man who served this city for $12,000 a year when he had eight children and a law degree.Gene Ruehlmann and Bobbie Sterne are out stumping — these two dignified and gallant public servants — asking for a change, something they believe will be good for you and me and our kids.
The least we can do is give them a yes or no.
Laura Pulfer's column appears in the Enquirer on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. She can be heard Monday mornings on WVXU radio (91.7 FM), and as a regular commentator on National Public Radio's Morning Edition. E-mail her at laurapulfer@enquirer.com
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