Issue 5, which critics have tried to twist into a referendum on the Cincinnati police chief, really is all about how competitive the city will be in the 21st century.

        This issue is a long-overdue attempt to break through the calcified management of Cincinnati's bureaucracy. It will give the city manager the chance to fill the top 98 spots in the administration with the best professionals he can find in the country.

        Let's first be honest about what Issue 5 will not do: It will not affect Police Chief Thomas Streicher, Fire Chief Robert Wright or anyone else now occupying positions the issue seeks to declassify. They all will be grandfathered in their jobs until they choose to leave them.

        What the issue does do is give the city manager the ability to build a management team that will allow Cincinnati to compete for development and jobs and provide the most efficient service possible for the citizens.

        It is true that Issue 5 will make it easier to fire these people. But protecting these positions under civil service, as we do now, makes eliminating malingerers and incompetents from the city's management a near impossibility.

        Those who think the city manager will just be a tool of the soon-to-be-installed strong mayor of the city, and that therefore these key positions will be politicized, should take another look at the “strong mayor” system.

        The mayor will not in fact be all that strong. The city charter gives him the right to initiate the hiring and firing of the city manager, but requires that five members of council confirm those moves. Hiring and firing everyone else is the job of the city manager, just as it is under our current system.

        To argue that Cincinnati could turn into Cleveland, with its revolving-door police chiefs, is to ignore the fact that Cincinnati and Cleveland have very different systems. Cleveland is run by an executive mayor — a real strong mayor with almost unlimited power to kick sand in anyone's face. Unencumbered by a city manager, Cleveland's mayor operates more like a king and he doesn't need council's approval to hire or fire anybody.

        Finally, look at the argument of those who say that our current system is not broken, so why fix it? Our current system is broken, or hasn't anyone else noticed the parking lot where a department store was supposed to be, the undersized convention center, the crumbling housing stock, or the vibrant Kentucky riverfront that snatched one development prize after another from Cincinnati?

        These are problems that can be traced to an inefficient management — management that doesn't have to work well because there are no consequences for managers who don't perform.

        It is true that the issue is on the ballot this year because the April riots, with their anti-police fervor, spurred city council to agree to change the way the chief is picked.

        Therein lies the irony of the issue: Chief Streicher has done nothing to warrant removal. His performance during the riot was exemplary. He reacted to the crisis with calm and an intelligent but restrained use of force. His poise and command contrasted sharply with the bumbling of the rest of the administration.

        Those who have called for his dismissal, such as the Rev. Damon Lynch III, do the city a disservice and seek his head only as a trophy to their own aggrandizement.

        In short, if we could be sure Tom Streicher would always be around, or that all top managers in the city were of his caliber, there would be no need for Issue 5. But he won't be and many of them aren't. The riots opened a window for much-needed change in this city. We must beg the chief's pardon and take advantage of the opportunity before us.
       

        Contact David Wells at 768-8310; fax: 768-8610; e-mail: dwells@enquirer.com. Cincinnati.Com keyword: Wells.
       

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