From: Richards, Donna (Department of Neighborhood Services)

        Sent: Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, 1:31 p.m.

        To: Cranley, John (Cincinnati City Councilman)

        Subject: Motion for more police ... Send yourself back to school

        Do you have any idea how understaffed we are in DNS, and overworked? We have been taking cuts for years. Your lack of thoughtful deliberation is beyond bounds ... Where does this crap come from? Can you hold off your legislation until after the election, and we have a new council? Let's see if you get re-elected first ... Are you just a panderer at election time? Or (former GOP councilman) Phil Heimlich in Democratic clothes? ... I am amazed, and devastated, by your ignorance and immaturity.

        The e-mail from Ms. Richards, a mid-level staffer in what is now the Department of Community Development, was written last fall in response to Mr. Cranley's campaign proposal to hire 75 more police officers.

        But it took on new interest last week, as City Council and the department battled over a city contract to ReStoc, an Over-the-Rhine housing agency.

        Mr. Cranley complied with a public records request and released the e-mail, but declined to comment on it.

        But Councilman Pat DeWine called it evidence of an “out-of-control bureaucracy,” that has “contempt for City Council and contempt for the voters.” And he said he was amazed that an “overworked” city employee found time to compose it — on Sept. 11, of all days.

        Ms. Richards' boss, development director Peg Moertl, said she had never seen the e-mail before last week. She said it doesn't speak for her or the department.

        “I don't appreciate her tone,” she said. “It's certainly not a professional communication.”

        Ms. Richards did not return calls seeking comment.

        Epilogue: Former City Manager Sylvester Murray, the $1,400-a-day adviser to the mayor's race relations commission, ended his four-month stint last August.

        But his final reports landed on Mayor Charlie Luken's desk just last week.

        Knowledgeworks Foundation President Chad Wick, who commissioned Mr. Murray's work, forwarded the reports to Mr. Luken after The Cincinnati Enquirer asked around for them.

        The 4 1/2 pages reveal little. (Sample paragraph: “On July 27, the consultant made arrangements for a team to visit Boston and paid for their $7,000 in airline tickets with his personal American Express card because of difficulties in Knowledgeworks procedures. This cost was reimbursed....”)

        Mr. Murray had three final recommendations:

        • Police officers should use clear judgment before firing their weapons.

        • The race relations commission should be more open to the public.

        • The city's religious and civic organizations should “redouble their actions geared toward promoting understanding and communication between the races of people living in the city.”

        The reports also suggest that Mr. Murray's contract was not renewed because of differences with commission co-chair Ross Love.

        On the job: The city's contract with Affiliated Computer Systems, a Texas-based company that runs the One-Stop Employment Center in Roselawn, is less than two months old.

        Already, things aren't going well.

        Warren and Butler Counties bailed out of the regional job training effort in 2000, and Clermont County is threatening to do the same because of a disagreement with Cincinnati's choice of contractor.

        Then Tuesday, the president of the company failed to show for a meeting of City Council's job training committee, sending lower-level staff instead.

        Chairwoman Alicia Reece felt snubbed.

        “I am very disappointed that the president is not here today, when the city is spending $3.5 million on this project,” she said. “I don't think it's too much to ask that those who sold us the product come back and tell us what we're getting for our money.”

        Civility watch: Fourteen people — mostly ReStoc supporters — took advantage of a new public forum before the City Council meeting last week.

        But council didn't see the improved civility hoped for in the new rules.

        Kabaka Oba, a frequent protester, used an anti-Semitic slur — prompting Mr. Luken to have him removed from the meeting and banned for a month.

        The mayor then chided the cheering “ReStocians,” as he calls them, for applauding Mr. Oba's remark.

        Cincinnati City Hall reporter Gregory Korte can be reached at 768-8391 or gkorte@enquirer.com.
       

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