Sunday, January 31, 1999
Charter reform efforts tabled
Democrats kill planned May vote
BY HOWARD WILKINSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
If Cincinnati voters are going to have a chance to change the way they elect a mayor and city council, it won't happen in May as reformers had hoped.
Build Cincinnati, the bipartisan group that has been working on a charter reform plan for more than a year, had hoped to place its plan on the May primary ballot with support from both the Democratic and Republican parties.
But deep divisions over the plan among Cincinnati Democratic Party activists have made it apparent the issue won't be ready for the May primary ballot.
“It's clearly not going to happen in May,” said Hamilton County Democratic Party Chairman Tim Burke, who wants to see a change in the way council and the mayor are elected.
Build Cincinnati has proposed direct election of a mayor who would be the city's “chief executive officer” and an 11-member council, including three elected at-large and eight from districts.
Party leaders decided to table further discussion of the ballot issue after two hours of debate Saturday morning at a meeting of the Cincinnati Democratic Committee.
Build Cincinnati leaders said they plan to continue trying to create a plan that the political parties and other interest groups can agree on. They want to come back with a ballot issue either at a special election in August or at November's general election.
If voters adopt a charter reform plan, it would not go into effect until the 2001 council elections.
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