An unusual coalition of conservative Republicans and labor unions kicked off a campaign Thursday to oppose Issue 5, a civil service reform measure that they said would “inject politics into the police department.”

        Standing in front of the Cincinnati Fire Museum, opponents denounced the plan as “political opportunism” and “pure baloney.”

        The charter amendment would let the city manager hire and fire at will 98 people, mostly bureaucrats in economic development and housing. Current employees in those positions would keep civil service protection, however.

        But opposition is mostly aimed at a provision that would give the city manager the power to hire police and fire chiefs and assistant chiefs from outside the city, although they could only be fired “for cause.”

        “I don't think it's going to do us any good to hire in a politically appointed hack — an outsider — who knows nothing about Cincinnati, nothing about our neighborhoods and nothing about the Police Division,” said Fraternal Order of Police President Keith Fangman.

        Opponents of Issue 5 will be going up against a broad coalition of business interests and civil rights groups that say the civil service reform plan will restore accountability to City Hall.

        The pro-Issue 5 group includes 13 City Council candidates, both mayoral candidates and a broad cross-section of community leaders that includes the Rev. Damon Lynch III, former Gov. John Gilligan, and Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell.

        So opponents have put together a broad coalition of their own, led by Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen. Their group includes labor unions, law-and-order advocates and two Republican candidates for City Council.

        Perhaps the most adamant opponent of Issue 5 is Police Chief Tom Streicher, who said politicians were making civil servants “scapegoats” for their own failure to move the city forward.

        “If there is not a political agenda here afoot, then there is nothing here afoot,” he said.

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