Wednesday, March 31, 1999
Big names push direct-elect mayor plan
Campaign gets three-party kickoff
BY HOWARD WILKINSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Supporters of a May 4 ballot issue for direct election of Cincinnati's mayor put on a show of tripartisan support Tuesday to kick off their campaign.
Leaders of Cincinnati's three political parties — Democratic, Republican and the Charter Committee — were front and center at a press conference Tuesday morning in the City Hall office of Mayor Roxanne Qualls, along with a roomful of other elected officials and civic activists.
“We want to show that there is a diverse group of organizations and citizens who have come together for this change,” Ms. Qualls said.
Hamilton County Democratic Party co-chairs Tim Burke and Mark Mallory, GOP chairman H.C. “Buck” Niehoff and Charter Committee president Margie Rauh spoke in favor of the charter amendment, which would substantially change Cincinnati's form of government.
Leaders of all three political parties say they see the proposed system as a way of bring ing political accountability to City Hall. The present system of electing the mayor, where the top vote-getter in the council field race wins, leaves no one in charge, they say.
Under the ballot issue, known as Issue 4, the mayor would be elected through a nonpartisan primary followed by a runoff of the top two vote-getters in the primary.
For more than 70 years, Cincinnati's mayors have held a largely ceremonial position, but under Issue 4 the mayor would
have greatly enhanced powers. The mayor would have veto power over council legislation (subject to override by six council members) and would appoint council committee chairs.
While leaders of all three political parties were at Tuesday's press conference, two of the parties — the Democrats and Charterites — are split over the issue.
Last week, high-profile Democrats such as council members Tyrone Yates, Minette Cooper and Paul Booth, along with former Charterite Councilwoman Marian Spencer and others, held their own press conference announcing formation of the an ti-Issue 4 campaign.
Opponents of the plan say the proposed system would give too much power over council to the mayor, who would not be a council member. Council, Mr. Yates said, “would be left in a greatly diminished state.”
Tuesday, Coming Together for Cincinnati, the pro-Issue 4 campaign committee brought out some of the best-known names in Cincinnati politics over the past 40 years in a show of support for the ballot issue. Among them were:
• Former Ohio Gov. John Gilligan, who served on council in the 1950s.
• Republican Eugene Ruehlmann, mayor in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
• Former Charterite Councilwoman and Mayor Bobbie Sterne, who ended her 26-year run on city council last year.
Mrs. Sterne said one reason she supports the plan is that it will “require that a working majority on council work with the mayor on an agenda for the city.”
African-American organizations are split over the ballot issue, with the NAACP in support and organizations such as the Baptist Ministers Conference and the Urban League in opposition.
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