Just three days after Ms. Lemmie made that speech to the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, the Cincinnati-Hamilton County Community Action Agency voted to move its annual dinner out of downtown because of the boycott.

        Those voting for the move included the city's two representatives to the agency's board: Councilwoman Minette Cooper and Vanessa McMillan-Moore, a city planner appointed by Ms. Lemmie this year.

        Agency officials have refused to discuss the decision, but minutes of its Aug. 26 board meeting show the vote was 14 to 1, with former Councilwoman Bobbie Sterne as the holdout. The minutes say only that, “Taking into consideration the recent events with organizations in the city being challenged for holding their events downtown, motion was introduced to relocate the annual dinner.”

        The tax-supported agency's executive committee quickly reversed itself after retired federal appeals court judge Nathaniel Jones resigned in protest from the board's $5 million fund-raising campaign.

        Ms. Cooper said she changed her mind once she realized the decision would have a detrimental impact on the agency's fund raising.

        Ms. McMillan-Moore did not return calls seeking an explanation of her vote, which — needless to say — conflicts with the city administration's attempts to fight the boycott.

        More boycott: Boycott leader Damon Lynch III was exaggerating when he said, in his now-infamous boycott letter that got him kicked off Mayor Charlie Luken's race-relations commission, that Cincinnati police officers are “killing, raping (and) planting false evidence.”

        Who says? The Rev. Mr. Lynch's own lawyers.

        In their defense of a libel lawsuit filed by former Cincinnati police Officer Robert “Blaine” Jorg, lawyers Ken Lawson, Scott Greenwood and Al Gerhardstein say such statements are “the type of hyperbole and invective that public officers must simply endure.”

        They cite court cases holding that hyperbole and invective against public officials is constitutionally protected, so long as they are made without malice.

        And, according to an affidavit by the Rev. Mr. Lynch: “I had no malice toward any member of the Cincinnati Police Department in making the statements that are the subject of this case. I hate oppressive actions, not people.”

        Brown town: It's an old story.

        Mayors from rival cities bet on the outcome of a sporting event. The losing mayor sends the winning mayor a package of local delicacies and agrees to wear the winning team's colors.

        So that's why Mayor Charlie Luken will be wearing brown on Friday.

        Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell is rubbing it in, saying, “Charlie Luken is a great mayor but a bad gambler.”

        Responded Mr. Luken following the Bengals' 20-7 loss in Cleveland Sunday: “I know. We stink.”

        City council in action: City Council is expected to pass a resolution today honoring Chicken Dance Elmo as an “ambassador” for the city, in advance of this weekend's Oktoberfest downtown.

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

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