Cincinnati City Manager Valerie Lemmie hasn't turned City Hall upside-down overnight. Anyone who expected her to, say, fire the police chief on her first day has been sadly disappointed.

        Though she has a reputation for being a decisive and demanding boss, Ms. Lemmie has spent her first three weeks taking stock of City Hall. She has met with city officials, listened to business leaders and given speeches to community groups — but nothing so much as a routine report to City Council has escaped her office.

        That period of quiet deliberation will end today.

        The city manager is expected to inform City Council about appointments to several top administrative jobs:

        • A replacement for John F. Deatrick, the director of transportation and engineering. Mr. Deatrick is leaving for a similar post in Washington, D.C.

        • An assistant city manager. David Rager, who has been acting in that job since Dec. 1, wants to return to his previous job in Water Works.

        • A finance director. Tim Riordan, who was acting city manager before Ms. Lemmie arrived, still has that title now, but has been acting as deputy city manager. Bill Moller is the acting finance director.

        • A new post that will coordinate the implementation of the Justice Department agreement on police reform. That job will go to S. Greg Baker, who was acting safety director before the department was abolished.

        But while she begins to shuffle six-figure salaries, Ms. Lemmie has already made one important but little-noticed personnel change.

        Cheri Isaacs, who has been the administrative assistant to three city managers over 12 years, has been reassigned to the Metropolitan Sewer District.

        She was replaced Monday by Michelle S. Myers, a veteran of the Department of Buildings and Inspections.

        Ms. Isaacs had served as chief gatekeeper for city managers C. Scott Johnson, Gerald Newfarmer and John F. Shirey.

        But after eight years of Mr. Shirey, Ms. Lemmie's management style was much more demanding. She accepted nearly every speaking engagement, packed meetings into an already tight schedule, and insisted on having information at her fingertips.

        And she sometimes expected her staffers to work 14-hour days.

        During a discussion of economic development with the Enquirer's editorial board Monday, Ms. Lemmie recounted her first day at the office April 2. She arrived to find that staffers had failed to give her a key to her office, or even a pen to write with.

        “Little things like that, they just don't think about,” she said. “And if they don't think about that for their new boss, who they're trying to impress, you can imagine how they treat citizens.”

        Ms. Lemmie later made clear that she's not blaming Ms. Isaacs, who learned of her reassignment when it showed up on a Civil Service Commission docket.

        “It wasn't her fault,” Ms. Lemmie said. “It's me.”

        One-stop, two-stop: Ms. Lemmie also seems to be moving toward making some structural changes to kick-start housing and development in the city.

        While City Council debates a motion by Councilmen John Cranley and David Pepper to empanel a group of business leaders to study the city's lagging economic development efforts, Ms. Lemmie seems to already have some ideas.

        “When I first came to City Hall, I took a tour and I asked the staff if we had a one-stop permit center. And they said, sure. You stop here once, you stop there once, and you stop there once. And they were being serious,” Ms. Lemmie said.

        When Ms. Lemmie instituted such a center in Dayton, she said, housing starts soared.

        Mayor Charlie Luken said that's the kind of thinking that led him to select Ms. Lemmie as city manager.

        “A lot of times around here, a department head feels like they've done a good job because their piece of it is completed,” he said. “There's no sense of the bigger picture.”
       

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

Alton Coleman finally faces justice
Builder target of inquiry
Transplant ends need for insulin
Catholics cheer pope's statement on sex abuse
Church blames racial climate for concert delay
Cop called sometimes overeager
Dayton grand jury seeks priest records
Lemmie prepares to shuffle top posts
'Lesson' author speaks to crowd on novel's origins
Park-tax fight all about green
Police recount Vine St. incident
Tristate A.M. Report
BRONSON: No excuses
HOWARD: Some Good News
AMOS: Survivors' march
City to buy flood-prone home
Conspiracy case goes to grand jury
Drive-by shooting damages house, car
Ex-athlete gets 5 years on probation
From interim to top o' heap
Lakota rejects mediation idea
Since when is Law Day a big deal?
Teacher's case in court
Warren County receives grant for its children
Ohio bicentennial won't be quiet one
Traficant seeks new trial, says judge violated rights
Boone taking plunge on pools
Death penalty joins budget debate
Keeping the boss on track
Kentucky News Briefs
Learning Center raises fears
Suit may delay runway plan
Trial begins in death of airline pilot