At the polls Tuesday, Cincinnati's police officers and firefighters hope voters' thoughts are on a different place:

        Cleveland.

        That's where the police department has been led by eight chiefs in nine years.

        Opponents of Cincinnati's Issue 5, the initiative that would remove 98 city employees from civil-service protection, have focused on Cleveland as an example of the system they say could come here. They make dramatic claims that if Issue 5 passes, Cincinnati cops and firefighters might not know from one day to the next who their boss might be.

        Their opponents say that's a stretch. In fact, what Issue 5 would deliver here, they say, is a system that would allow the city manager to make the best hires possible, not just the best among insider candidates.

Check candidates and issues in four counties

        “Cleveland has a completely different system,” said Betty Hull, organizer of the A Better Cincinnati campaign for Issue 5. “The executive mayor there fires at will. This is not the same thing.”

        If voters pass Issue 5, Cincinnati's city manager would be able to hire outside candidates for the police and fire command staffs, and for more than 80 other top positions in other city departments. Those hired would not have the same civil-service job protection those employees have now and, if fired, could appeal only to the same city manager who fired them.

        “The point is here that the community needs to hold the council and the city manager accountable and needs to give them the flexibility to make those choices,” said Scott Johnson, Cincinnati's city manager from 1986 to 1990. “Now, the assumption is that the only person in the entire universe capable of managing the Cincinnati Police Division is someone from within.”

        In Cleveland, Mayor Michael White has the power to fire employees at will. Cincinnati would be different in that Issue 5 would force the city manager to have a cause for any termination. Supporters say that's a key difference. But opponents say the possible causes, like “unsatisfactory performance,” are way too vague.

        Keith Fangman, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, is fond of saying a chief could be fired “if the city manager didn't like the tie he wore that day.” He and other opponents acknowledge that the Cleveland mayor has more power than the Cincinnati city manager will, but they say it's ludicrous to believe that the city's new strong mayor won't hold great political influence over his city manager's hires.

        “It drives morale into the ground,” said Lt. Roy Rich, president of the FOP in Cleveland. “You feel like you have a rudderless ship. I see this as a return to the bad ol' days.”

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