The same group that spearheaded the Cincinnati strong mayor campaign now wants to scrap the way city employees are hired and fired.

        Members of Build Cincinnati say the current system, which promotes based on test scores and offers lifetime protection to city employees, has contributed to stalled developments, bureaucratic roadblocks and a lack of administrative control over employees.

        Next week they will introduce a proposal to City Council that, if approved by voters in November, would change the city charter and scrap the 75-year-old civil service rules.

        “We hear the same thing over and over,” said Councilman Pat DeWine, who helped drive the successful campaign to directly elect the mayor three years ago and is now pushing for the reforms. “People love the city, but they know city government doesn't work.”

        The latest plan is a spinoff of a proposal to give the city manager new power to hire police and fire chiefs that council members endorsed shortly after the April race riots.

        But Build Cincinnati members say that is like sticking a bandage on a severed limb and that the reforms need to go much further.

        “Neighborhood Services is almost nonexistent,” said Jeff Cramerding, Build member and executive director of the Charter Committee of Greater Cincinnati. “The city doesn't work with neighborhoods. There is no plan, no vision.”

        Under the group's plan, all professional employees in the neighborhood services and economic development departments could be hired and fired at will.

        It would also give all department heads, including the police and fire chiefs, the ability to choose their assistants instead of promoting city employees based on test scores.

        Neighborhood Services Director Peg Moertl said, at face value, the proposal has many positive aspects.

        “It would allow us to move out people whose skills don't match,” she said. “My concern, though, is that these position don't end up being filled through political pressure.”

        City Manager John Shirey unveiled his own plan for changing the civil service system on Tuesday. While it differs from the one proposed by Build Cincinnati, Mr. Shirey's proposal could also go before council next week.

        Mr. Shirey supported a similar move in 1997 that was overwhelmingly defeated by voters. Because charter amendments require voter approval, at least six council members have to agree to put the plan on the ballot by September.

        Mr. DeWine said that if council won't agree then he will organize a petition drive to get the issue on the ballot.

        The city's civil service system, which determines how employees are hired, promoted and disciplined, is required by the city charter to mirror the state system.

        Build Cincinnati members say Cincinnati is the only major city in Ohio to use state guidelines, and they want to lift those restrictions so the city can enact local guidelines.

        “It sounds like most of the people affected by it would not be in our bargaining units,” Robert Turner, regional director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Union said Wednesday.

        The proposal would have to be reviewed before the union takes a position, he said.

        Build Cincinnati member Elizabeth Korosec, director of Cincinnati Bell Communications, said Cincinnati's employment system is archaic and is at least partially to blame for why Cincinnati is lagging behind other cities in economic development.

        “It's a closed system. There is no fresh blood,” she said. “You can't build new life into the system.”

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