Cincinnati is getting a new municipal investigations director and the agency will become a separate office, City Manager John Shirey said Friday.
Ernest McAdams
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Ernest McAdams Jr., chief assistant city prosecutor, will become head of the Office of Municipal Investigations (OMI) and will report to Mr. Shirey.
''It will focus exclusively on investigative functions,'' Mr. Shirey said in a memo to City Council.
James Johnson, the head of the city's Office of Contract Compliance and Investigations (OCCI), asked around late March to be transferred to a new city job. He will become a senior assistant solicitor.
Mr. Shirey said he took the request as a chance to re-organize. OCCI, which includes municipal investigations, contract compliance and equal business opportunity functions, will be split.
OMI will be one office and other OCCI functions will be merged with the office of administrative hearings.
The changes were announced days after an Enquirer investigation that raised questions about use of force in the city's police division and oversight of police.
The series found that OCCI forwards the bulk of citizen complaints about police that it receives on to the police division. One reason cited was inadequate staffing and funding.
Mr. Shirey's one-page memo said nothing about added resources for OMI, and Mr. Shirey couldn't be reached for comment.
OMI was previously a separate office. It along with other functions were combined to create OCCI in 1995.
''It was just time for me to move on and seek other challenges,'' Mr. Johnson said. ''I'm looking forward to a more normal schedule.''
Mr. Johnson has been in the job since 1991, serving as head of OMI and then of OCCI.
Mr. McAdams said he views the new job as ''an opportunity to do something new.''
Of the OMI, he said: ''I think it's something the community will always need.''
Mr. McAdams, 44, started with the city in 1987 as an assistant prosecutor. He previously worked as a public defender and in private practice.
''This is the right move in the right direction,'' said Councilman Charles Winburn, who earlier this week called for OCCI's functions to be separated.
Councilman Tyrone Yates, chairman of council's Law Committee, called it a constructive step, but said council needs to advise Mr. Shirey on other ways to restructure the office.
Mr. Shirey said he will give council a report for its Wednesday meeting on the reorganization and ordinances needed to carry it out.
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