By Kevin Aldridge
The Cincinnati Enquirer

COMMISSION MEMBERS

Municipal Election Reform Commission members: Appointed by Mayor Charlie Luken: Don Mooney Jr. chairs the Cincinnati Planning Commission Jeff Berding, works in the Bengals front office E. Lynn Brown, an Episcopal bishop* Elijah Scott, an Avondale activist* Appointed by Charterites: Chris Bortz, lawyer Marilyn Ormsbee, a staffer for former Councilwoman Bobbie Stern Bobbie Sterne, former councilwoman Art Slater, longtime activist and NAACP member * Appointed by Democrats: Sally Krisel, Board of Elections worker John Marrone, United Food & Commercial Workers Union Bernadette Watson, co-chair of the Cincinnati Democratic Committee and the mayor's chief of staff* Appointed by Republicans: Tom Brinkman Jr., a state representative and author of a proposed district plan Carl Stitch Jr., of Mariemont, a former assistant county prosecutor Rick Witte, brother of council candidate Pete Witte, who has his own district plan *African-American

The Cincinnati branch of the NAACP wants Mayor Charlie Luken to appoint two more African-Americans to the Municipal Election Reform Commission, a panel looking at changes to the way City Council members are elected.

The 13-member commission has four blacks - about 30 percent - but the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said that does not adequately reflect the city's African-American population, which is 43 percent.

NAACP President Calvert Smith said the commission "simply fails the good faith test."

"One of the key issues that needs to be addressed in any reform effort in Cincinnati is the historic disparity between the demographics of the Council and the demographics of the city residents," he wrote in an Aug. 22 letter to Luken.

The commission is studying whether the city should adopt a ward or proportional representation system - and whether to move to an executive mayor form of government that would eliminate the city manager.

Luken said Friday that his hands are tied with regard to adding any more members. A resolution passed by council this year stipulates that the Republican, Democratic and Charter parties each get to appoint three members, while the mayor chooses the remaining four.

Luken said two of his four appointments were African-American. The Democrats and Charterites each chose one. The Republican Party appointed no blacks to its three seats.

"I've expressed publicly that I'm not happy with the balance provided by the political parties," Luken said. "I appealed to the political parties to have more African-American representation and they declined."

Smith said the NAACP wants to pick the person to fill one of the two additional seats. The other should be chosen by a second major black civic or religious organization.

He that added one of the two should be a woman.

"As currently constituted, we believe this commission is ideally designed to maintain the status quo of electing a Council that does not reflect the larger community," Smith said in his letter.

E-mail kaldridge@enquirer.com