Friday, March 05, 1999
Most on council won't campaign for mayor-reform plan
BY HOWARD WILKINSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Six Cincinnati City Council members have voted to put a plan to radically change city government on the May 4 primary ballot, but most won't be out campaigning for it.
Of the six council members who voted in an unusual Thursday morning session to put the Build Cincinnati plan for direct election of the mayor in 2001 to a referendum, only Democratic Mayor Roxanne Qualls and Republican Phil Heimlich say they are ready to actively promote its passage.
The three Democrats who voted against the charter reform package — Tyrone Yates, Minette Cooper and Paul Booth — can be expected to continue to speak out against it in the 60 days between now and the election.
For Build Cincinnati, the bipartisan group that put the plan together and endured two weeks of council indecision over the ballot issue, the active sup port of Ms. Qualls is significant. Ms. Qualls has been mayor since 1993 by virtue of being the top vote-getter in the past three council elections.
“Voters are going to be looking to political leaders for a signal in this campaign,” Ms. Qualls said before Thursday's vote. “I am willing to do whatever they ask me to do to convince voters this is best for the city.”
Ms. Qualls said she and other supporters believe that a directly elected mayor, with more legislative and executive powers, will provide the city with “more accountable politi cal leadership.”
The mayor's role could well be on television, appearing on campaign commercials.
Her popularity, particularly among women voters in Cincinnati, has been used before. The successful 1996 campaign to pass a sales tax increase for stadium construction featured a TV ad in which she told non-sports fans that they, too, had a stake in stadium construction.
Supporters credited the Qualls ad for driving up the numbers among women voters.
The mayor was a factor on
the other side the last time a “strong mayor” plan went before Cincinnati voters. In Aug. 1995 the Cincinnati Business Committee failed to sell a plan that would have given even more power to the mayor than the Build Cincinnati proposal.
Ms. Qualls was in the front row of the opposition and women's groups, Democrats and her supporters in the Charter Committee lined up behind her to defeat the plan.
Term limits prevent her from seeking another term, although she could run for mayor in 2001 if the charter amendment is adopted.
Ms. Qualls said Thursday that when Build Cincinnati won the backing of the Charter Committee, the independent political party whose founders created the current council-manager form of government in the 1920s, “the deal was done.”
Council's lone Charterite, Jim Tarbell, went back and forth on the plan in the final week before passage, but ended up voting for the plan, one he says he is not enthusiastic about.
“But, in the end, I believe it is something the people should be allowed to decide,” Mr. Tarbell said.
Mr. Tarbell and most of the others who voted for the plan will not campaign for it actively; they say they do not agree with all provisions of the plan, but say they are willing to let the voters decide.
Republican Charles Winburn, who voted for the plan and helped spark the push to get it on the May ballot, said he hasn't made up his mind about campaigning for its passage.
“If it's going to be a negative, anti-council campaign, they can count me out,” Mr. Winburn said.
But Build Cincinnati organizers are as much interested in getting political and civic organizations to support the campaign as they are about getting council members involved.
Keeping Charter on board during the campaign will be a key to getting the issue passed May 4, Build Cincinnati leaders say. Charter signed on to the plan after being convinced by Build Cincinnati that it keeps the council-manager form of government — although, under this plan, the mayor would hire and fire the city manager with the consent of council and have considerably more power over council affairs.
A majority of Charter's governing board supports the plan, Charter leaders say, but individual Charterites, such as former council member Marian Spencer, will speak out against it. Dissension in Charter is not Build Cincinnati's only problem.
The Cincinnati Democratic Committee is split over the issue, as is the Cincinnati AFL-CIO Labor Council.
A number of black civic and political organizations have come out against the plan, most significantly the politically potent Baptist Ministers Conference, an organization of black ministers.
The Rev. Donald Jones, head of the conference's political action committee, denounced the Build Cincinnati plan before Thursday's vote.
“This is about money; this is about power,” Mr. Jones said. “I feel cheated as an African-American, because it is clear that this plan will make it more difficult for an African-American to be elected mayor.”
Black candidates for mayor will not have access to large sums of money to run for mayor, Mr. Jones said, because they will not be supported by the business community, which will fund the Build Cincinnati campaign.
Chip Gerhardt, one of the Republican organizers of the Build Cincinnati campaign, said supporters of the ballot measure will continue to try to convince the Baptist Ministers Conference and other opponents of the merits of the proposal.
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