By Gregory Korte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Tension over the pace of progress marked the first meeting of Cincinnati's new police watchdog agency Monday.

The Citizen Complaint Authority is supposed to be up and running by Jan. 6, hearing complaints of police misconduct and making recommendations to the city manager. But board members complained Monday that they can't get started because city officials, the police union and the plaintiffs in a racial profiling lawsuit can't agree on what its rules should be.

"Our hands are tied, and I'm concerned that we're approaching this at a great disadvantage," said the authority's acting chairwoman, Nancy Minson. "The clock is ticking, and we have four weeks to get this done."

CCA MEMBERS

Members of the Citizen Complaint Authority, meeting formally for the first time Monday, are: • Walter T. Bowers II, physician, Clifton • Sandra A. Butler, real estate agent, Oakley • John Eby, electrical engineer, Westwood • Marta Camille Anderson Haamid, retired federal probation officer, Clifton • Nancy Minson, mental health advocate, Walnut Hills • Richard D. Siegel, lawyer, Clifton • Justin Wolterman, college student, University Heights<

The seven-member board is one of the many sweeping police reforms contained in two historic agreements signed in April, one year after the police shooting of a fleeing, unarmed man in Over-the-Rhine sparked four days of riots.

Unlike the court-appointed monitor who will oversee the reforms for three to five years, the Citizen Complaint Authority will be a permanent, semi-independent agency of city government.

For that very reason, it's important to make sure the agency is set up right from the beginning, said S. Greg Baker, the city's executive manager of police relations.

He said parties to the police reform agreements - including the plaintiffs in a racial profiling lawsuit against the city - were still meeting to iron out key details.

"A collaboration is an often slow and sometimes painful process," Mr. Baker said.

By getting everyone to agree on the ground rules up front, he said, the board could head off disagreements when it deals with emotionally charged cases.

The city, the Fraternal Order of Police and the plaintiffs, which include the Cincinnati Black United Front and the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, have yet to agree on key issues, including:

• The time frame for resolving complaints. The plaintiffs want all cases closed within 90 days; the city believes the 90-day requirement should apply only to the staff investigation, with additional time for board hearings and action.

• The board's ability to set its own rules. Some want a "supermajority" of five or six board members in order to change or suspend its rules and procedures.

• Whether investigators should enjoy civil service protection.

While lawyers hash out those issues in secret meetings, board members complain that they're being left in the dark. Ms. Minson seemed almost embarrassed at the board's lack of information about basic issues of how it will function.

Also underlying the dispute is the board's independence itself. Under the Collaborative Agreement, the authority should set its own rules, not have them set for it, board members said.

"If the agreement says we develop our own policies and procedures, and we develop our policies and procedures, what's the dispute?" said attorney Richard D. Siegel. If the city and the plaintiffs can't agree by the next meeting on Dec. 16, he said the board would move to decide its own policy.

Staffing issues also need to be resolved, Mr. Baker said. City Manager Valerie Lemmie has yet to hire a full-time executive director for the agency, and Mayor Charlie Luken hasn't submitted his 2003 budget that would include funding for the new agency.

The oversight board replaces the Civilian Police Review Panel, which many viewed as ineffective.

Mr. Luken proposed the CCA as part of a package of reforms settling a racial profiling lawsuit against the city and a separate "patterns and practices" investigation by the U.S. Justice Department into alleged excessive force by Cincinnati police.

E-mail gkorte@enquirer.com