Sunday, February 14, 1999
New electoral plan stirs activists
Build Cincinnati revives own effort
BY HOWARD WILKINSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The fiercest battle in this council election is not so much about who will be mayor but what kind of mayor the city will have.
Six members of Cincinnati City Council appear ready to put a charter amendment on the May 4 primary ballot. It would not only turn the current two-year council terms into four-year terms but would return the city to the pre-1987 method of choosing a mayor — where council does the job itself.
If that plan were approved by voters, Cincinnati would have the same kind of mayor it has had since the 1920s — one who is basically just another member of council, with only the added duty of presiding over council meetings.
Republican Councilman Charlie Winburn surprised nearly everyone in Cincinnati politics by coming to Wednesday's council meeting with just such a plan. It appears to have the support of five other council members, enough to place the plan on the May ballot.
But the Winburn move lighted a fire under Build Cincinnati, a bipartisan group of political activists who have been working for a year on a much different plan, but who have had a hard time getting broad-based support, especially from parts of the Democratic Party.
Build Cincinnati had been spinning its wheels lately, and it had become apparent that the group would not be able to get an election reform plan on the ballot in 1999. Now, the group is working furiously on its plan.
Build Cincinnati wants a directly elected mayor who would not be a member of council, but the chief executive officer of the city, and an 11-member council with three elected at-large and eight from districts.
Democrat Jeff Berding, one of the leaders of Build Cincinnati, asked Mr. Winburn after Wednesday's council meeting to hold off on his plan and give Build Cincinnati some time to work out its own plan.
“I told him I thought it was unfortunate that he was pushing the issue in the other direction,” Mr. Berding said.
Build Cincinnati wants a plan that would have broad public support, not only from the Democratic and Republican parties but from African-American leaders, organized labor and election reform advocates who want to preserve the city manager form of government.
But it has proved a difficult task. Last month, Democratic Party leaders in Cincinnati decided that there was too much disagreement within the party about the plan to allow it to formally back Build Cincinnati.
There has been general agreement in Cincinnati political circles that the city's electoral system is broken, and that the method of electing the mayor — the top vote-getter in the council field race becomes mayor — creates artificial competition among council candidates, grandstanding by council members and spiraling campaign costs.
Mr. Winburn, a Republican, said he made his proposal to “jump start” the discussion of election reform, even though it puts him at odds with his party leadership, which backs a “strong mayor” form of government.
Build Cincinnati leaders may present an alternative plan, but Mr. Winburn says that if it includes district elections for council, he is not interested.
“As far as I am concerned, we're going ahead with what we've got,” Mr. Winburn said.
The Winburn plan will be the subject of a public hearing before council's law committee at 3 p.m. Tuesday in council chambers; and some Build Cincinnati leaders are expected to show up to argue against going back to the selection of the mayor by council.
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