Sunday, April 11, 1999
Most mayors like Issue 4
City vets say office needs boost
BY HOWARD WILKINSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Since the 1920s in Cincinnati, “power” and “mayor” are two words that haven't often been used in the same sentence. Mainly because they haven't had any.
Cincinnati has seemed to like it that way. But all that could change if voters on May 4 pass Issue 4, a charter amendment that would not only create direct election of the mayor but give the mayor substantial powers over council business.
Some of the men and women who have held that office over the past 30 years — Republican, Democratic and Charterite — disagree over whether they would have wanted that kind of power when they sat in the big ground-floor office at Cincinnati City Hall.
Two men, two views
“It would have made the job of getting things done a lot easier,” said Arn Bortz, a developer who was the Charter ite mayor in 1983-84. He, like all mayors until 1987, was selected by a majority of council. Since 1987, the top vote-getter in the council election becomes mayor for two years.
The new system would have a mayor elected out of a nonpartisan primary for four years, while council terms remain at two.
“I can't say I'm totally above the fray, but I don't think I would have wanted to operate under this,” said Democrat Thomas Luken, the former congressman who was mayor in 1976-77. “It's too much influence over council for one person.”
If Issue 4 passes and a mayor is elected in 2001, that mayor would not be a member of council as in the past.
But the mayor would have substantial influence over the nine-person council. He could choose chairs for council committees, pick the vice mayor and veto legislation, subject to an override by six council members.
Supporters say that would force the mayor and a council majority to work together. Op ponents say it would allow the mayor to run roughshod over a weakened council.
Springer intrigued
Jerry Springer, the syndicated talk show host who was Cincinnati's Democratic mayor in 1977-78, had not heard much about Issue 4 in Chicago, where his show originates.
Told that most of Cincinnati's business community was backing Issue 4, the former mayor — long known as a liberal Democrat — joked that “maybe I'll come back and run for mayor. I don't think I'm what they have in mind.”
But Mr. Springer said the charter amendment sounds like a “generally good idea for an activist mayor who wants to get things done.”
“Generally, Cincinnati mayors have been too weak politically to screw things up terribly,” Mr. Springer said. “The problem with the system in Cincinnati has always been that things move so slowly.”
No power seats
The argument that allowing the mayor to appoint council committee chairs gives the mayor too much power “doesn't ring true,” Mr. Springer said.
“Unless things have changed over the years, com mittee chairs don't have any power anyway,” Mr. Springer said. “They're toothless. It's not like Congress, where a committee chair can bottle up legislation.”
The incumbent mayor, Democrat Roxanne Qualls, also supports the charter amendment. As mayor since 1993, Ms. Qualls has often struggled to lead a council with Democrats in the majority. She thinks Issue 4 will make city council more accountable to voters.
When majorities ruled
Two former mayors — Republican Eugene Ruehlmann (1967-71) and Charterite Bobbie Sterne (1975-76 and 1978-79) — say they would not have needed the extra powers given the mayor by Issue 4, although both think it is needed today.
“The system worked well back in the '60s,” said Mr. Ruehlmann. “When I was mayor I had a Republican majority to work with; and if I needed an extra vote on council I could pick up a Charter (vote), like Charlie Taft or Myron Bush.”
Mrs. Sterne, too, had a working majority in the late '70s — a coalition of Democrats and Charterites who ran council until 1985.
“The issues I advocated almost always had majority support,” Mrs. Sterne said.
But, Mrs. Sterne said, in the 1990s, with council members competing to win the mayor's job by being top vote-getter, “collegiality” fell apart and it became every man for himself.
“The reason I can support this is that it would force the mayor to put together a working coalition with council members,” Mrs. Sterne said. “What we are trying to do is restore what we had.”
Mr. Ruehlmann agreed, saying the proposed system “would not allow the mayor to run rampant. Any Democratic mayor would be foolish not to work with Republican council members, or vice versa.”
David Mann, the Democrat who was mayor 1980-82 and 1990-92, said he will vote against Issue 4.
“Once again, I think we're going to face the law of unintended consequences,” said Mr. Mann, now a lawyer in private practice.
Balance of power
Like Mr. Luken, he believes the proposed system could create even more conflict between council and the mayor.
“This plan assumes we will always have a benevolent, rational and emotionally stable person in the mayor's office wielding that legislative power,” Mr. Mann said. “I don't think that's a very good assumption.”
But, to Mr. Bortz, the greatest benefit of the new system is that it would give the city a political focal point.
“People would know who could get things done,” said Mr. Bortz.
Mr. Bortz said that if he had operated as mayor under the proposed system in the early 1980s, “I think we could have prevented things like jobs from Midland and Ohio National picking up and leaving the city. And Fountain Square West wouldn't have sat there empty for 13 years.
“A mayor with some power can sit down with business people and say, “Tell me what you need; I can get it done,'” Mr. Bortz said.
Republican Ken Blackwell, the Ohio Secretary of State who was a Charterite mayor in 1979-80, has endorsed Issue 4, although he says he has misgivings about giving the mayor the ability to appoint council committee chairs.
It is an idea, Mr. Blackwell said, that sounds “goofy.”
“It's tantamount to letting a governor or president pick committee chairs,” Mr. Blackwell said
But overall, Mr. Blackwell said, Issue 4 would give city government the political accountability the current system lacks. “It'd be better than what we have,” Mr. Blackwell said. “That's the bottom line.”
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