John "Four Days" Mirlisena was my all-time favorite Cincinnati politician.

He didn't favor social causes close to my heart. John was a conservative Republican until he became a conservative Democrat. He wasn't a great political speaker or a charismatic leader. John had a bare-knuckled way of addressing public issues and when out on the stump he was about as charismatic as - well, a stump.

But what Mirlisena understood during his eight years on city council, was that when some member of the public got desperate enough to call City Hall, they wanted service, not bureaucracy.

That was the basis of the nickname Mirlisena hung on himself. If you with a problem, he would get it taken care of in four days. Mirlisena had no patience with the bureaucracy. He figured if somebody called to complain about a pothole, they wanted it filled, the sooner the better. They didn't want to be fobbed off to Public Works, which might not get around to patching that particular axle-breaker anytime soon.

Mirlisena didn't come to council from a law firm or another public office. He came from his west side plumbing business. He knew that when customers called, they expected a response or they called someone else.

He challenged voters to hold him personally responsible.

This was heresy to the "good government" types on Plum Street who used the City Charter to insulate themselves from any real public accountability. Mirlisena gave the administration fits. Council members weren't supposed to tell city workers what to do. Complaints were supposed to be requests that were filled out on forms that were routed through channels. Mirlisena wouldn't have any of it. He came to the at-large council with all the instincts of a ward heeler. While on council from 1985 to 1993, he treated every voter in the city as if they lived on his block. It was an attitude that set him apart from a lot of his council colleagues and endeared him to a lot of voters.

It's also an idea that gives traction to several proposals now swirling around about ways to finally do away with the nine-X, at-large system. Nine-X means that candidates for all nine seats on council run at-large, selected by voters from all over the city. It means that council members aren't responsible for, or answerable to, any specific neighborhoods. Those who favor the system say council members shouldn't be parochial. They should be concerned about the city as a whole. The flip side to that is being elected by everybody means you don't have to please anyone in particular, so it is easy to ignore problems you don't want to be bothered with.

The at-large system also means it is possible to elect a council that doesn't represent the city, geographically or racially. The cost of running a citywide campaign is far more expensive than running in a single ward, making it harder for newcomers to crack council's lineup. This year eight of the nine incumbents are running again, and all eight have good chances of re-election. That's more a result of inertia than universally acclaimed good government.

On Wednesday, Mayor Charlie Luken and Vice Mayor Alicia Reece proposed forming a commission to study new ways of electing members of council. The proposal by Luken and Reece comes on the heels of a proposal being circulated by Republican Pete Witte and Democratic Don Driehaus to divide the council into seven wards, and three at-large seats. The wards would ensure representation of specific neighborhoods, which many feel is the only way to guarantee adequate racial diversity on council. The at-large seats, theoretically, would look out for the interests of the city as a whole. Witte and Driehaus want to put the proposal on the ballot, maybe as soon as this fall.

Witte, a Republican candidate for council, accused the mayor of stepping on his idea.

Maybe, but who cares? Ballot initiative or commission study, it's time to get this debate out in public. Council needs to be required to give the kind of accountability that John Mirlisena volunteered every four days.

Contact David Wells at 768-8310; fax: 768-8610; e-mail: dwells@enquirer.com. Cincinnati.Com keyword: Wells.