The bills are in for the much-lauded Economic Development Task Force, which spent 10 months and $237,287 studying ways to bring jobs and businesses to Cincinnati.

Here's the breakdown:

John Alschuler Consulting and Cooper Robertson & Partners, for the city's contribution to a closely related downtown study that recommended the city refocus its efforts around Fountain Square: $115,000.

KMK Consulting, for Chip Gerhardt to serve as the primary coordinator of the task force's work (at $97.49 an hour): $102,854.

Ben Graham Consulting, to study how to streamline the 473 steps it takes to get a building permit: $14,273.

International Economic Development Council, to advise the city on best practices elsewhere: $5,000.

Printing the report: $160.

Total: $237,287. (That doesn't include private sector contributions of $240,000 from the Cincinnati Business Committee, $200,000 from the Greater Cincinnati Foundation and $6,000 from Downtown Cincinnati Inc.)

Look at it this way: The city would need to create 226 jobs - at $50,000 a year - just to generate enough earnings tax to pay for the consultants to study ways to create those jobs.

Your tax money: In the spirit of keeping friends close and enemies closer, Democratic Mayor Charlie Luken named Republican Pat DeWine chairman of the Law and Public Safety Committee - on the theory that it would then be difficult for Republicans to complain that City Council hadn't done enough to curb crime.

But that hasn't stopped DeWine from blasting wasteful spending - from the $184,172 Empire Theater fiasco to abuses in city cell phones, travel and take-home cars. Last week, it was Luken's proposal to spend $25,000 on the Queen City Blues and Gospel Festival, $17,000 on the Mobile Skatepark Series, $15,000 on the Midpoint Music Festival and $8,000 for a salute to King Records.

So when DeWine proposed spending $50,000 on a social worker to help panhandlers downtown, Luken pounced on the opportunity to give him a taste of his own rhetoric.

"I refuse to be admonished on wasteful spending by someone who voted last week to spend $50,000 to hold the hands of panhandlers," Luken said, ending the debate.

Campaign trail: Councilman David Pepper has hired a Democratic pollster to assist in his re-election bid. Lake Snell Perry & Associates of Washington, D.C., specializes in young and women voters.

"It's a way to get a better sense of where the community is. I've frankly never done one before, so we'll see," Pepper said.

News from elsewhere: What's court-appointed monitor Saul Green doing when he's not working for R-E-S-P-E-C-T between police and community in Cincinnati?

He's working for the Queen of Soul.

Aretha Franklin has hired the former U.S. attorney from Detroit to represent her in the investigation into an arson fire that destroyed her $1.8 million suburban Detroit home.

E-mail gkorte@enquirer.com