Thrusday, January 14, 1999
Qualls says city must change faster
Mayor gives last State of City speech today
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Mayor Roxanne Qualls today will urge the city of Cincinnati to change the way it does business in order to thrive in the next millennium.
While cheering the approval of two new sports stadiums, redoing Fort Washington Way and planning for light rail along Interstate 71, Ms. Qualls cau tions that resistance to change will crimp the city's potential.
“(The city) operates as if this were the end of the 19th century and not the beginning of the 21st,” the three-term mayor says in a draft of her final State of the City speech, to be delivered todayat a Rotary Club luncheon downtown.
As she has in previous speeches, Ms. Qualls will call for a cease-fire between the city and the county, and the city and region.
“The city must approach the rest of the region as a partner, and the rest of the region must overcome its history of hostility that is sometimes rooted in the fear of Cincinnati's diversity and complexity,” she says.
Ms. Qualls urges partnerships among business, neighborhoods and the city to speed development without sacrific ing communities and the environment.
“I do not believe this is an effort that should or can be led by the city,” she says. “It is too radical a departure from the status quo.”
She wants entrepreneurs who are highly trained, skilled and aggressive to take the lead in developing housing and job opportunities that are responsible to the taxpayers.
“The nature of bureaucracy is such that these are neither values or skills that are valued,” she says. “Entrepre neurship and private-sector values must be introduced.”
Ms. Qualls also supports changing the city's system of government by directly electing a mayor.
“Only a directly elected mayor who has legislative power and shared executive responsibilities can preserve and protect the professional management of the city from outright political manipulation and protect the citizens from outright bureaucratic obstruction,” she says in the draft.
She gives qualified support to a charter reform movement that would directly elect a mayor with executive powers. She opposes a plank of the reform that has council members elected from districts.
Ms. Qualls also says initiatives must be taken to build a new convention center, build a light-rail system and ensure the viability of the arts.
Because of term limits, Ms. Qualls will leave city council at the end of the year. She has not announced her plans after leaving office.
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