Since the first soldiers and settlers landed on the banks of the Ohio River in 1788, the community that was to become the Cincinnati we know has undergone repeated governmental transformations. Each change was prompted by a perceived public need - protection from hostile native Americans, keeping the public order, regulating commerce, raising taxes, providing for public works, accommodating the rapid growth of population, stamping out public corruption, streamlining administration and reinvigorating growth and development. Where will it end? It probably won't. As long as the community continues to evolve, the urge to "fix" the way we govern ourselves will continue.

1788 - Cincinnati is founded as Fort Washington on the country's frontier. As civilian settlers arrived, the community was named Losantiville. It was governed first as a military post, then as a township under the Northwest Territories.

1802 - A dozen years after being renamed Cincinnati, it is a bustling burg of 750 with streets and shops. The Territorial Legislature passed an act incorporating the village. A lot of control remained with the military, but there was a president, recorder, assessor, tax collector, town marshal and seven council members.

1815 - The population is now 6,200. Ohio, now a state, passes an act of incorporation making Cincinnati a town with four wards, each of which elected three trustees to two-year terms. The president becomes the mayor, and is chosen by the council from its membership. Meetings were held in a tavern.

1819 - Continued growth resulted in Cincinnati being incorporated as a city. More wards were added as the population grew and the boundaries expanded. A city prosecutor is added and council is allowed to start regulating the landing of boats on the river and licensing taverns.

1827 - The city charter is amended to make the election of mayor and other officials biennial, with Election Day being the first Monday in April. Previous restrictions that said only property owners could vote are lifted. The voting franchise is opened to all white males over 21 who had lived in the city for at least a year.

1851-53 - The city has grown to 115,000 people. Charter changes restrict the power of the mayor, substituting a police court with a judge for mayor's court. Council now has the power to regulate water and gas rates. City marshal, engineer, treasurer, fire engineer, auditor, solicitor, police judge, and superintendent of markets all become elected offices.

1870 - Council becomes a bicameral body in which legislation has to be passed by both boards. The mayor is given veto power and the power to appoint the police and fire chiefs, the superintendent of markets and the civil engineer. Council appoints the clerk and auditors. That lasts until 1891, when council merges its two boards back into one in the interest of efficiency.

1880s to 1924 - A complex arrangement of a separately elected board of public works and a city council controls everything with an increasingly corrupt patronage system that gives rise to political "Bossism." Elections are held annually and ballots are not secret.

1924 - A reform movement led by Murray Seasongood passes a new city charter that creates the city manager form of government and does away with the wards and executive powers of the mayor. The nine-member council is elected at large and selects the mayor, now with mostly ceremonial powers, from its members. The reformers, campaigning under a slogan of "Business methods in government," win by a landslide of 92,510 votes to 41,015.

1931 - Republican Frank A.B. Hall is the first black man elected to City Council. Proportional representation, a weighted voting method adopted six years earlier, is credited with Hall's success.

1957 - Voters abolish the proportional representation method of voting.

1987 - Voters approve a "top vote-getter" system, in which the council candidate with the most votes becomes mayor.

1991 - Voters approve term limits for council members.

1995 - A Cincinnati Business Committee proposal to strengthen the mayor's powers and do away with the council-manager form of government is defeated.

1999 - In a May election, voters approve a charter change that allows for the direct election of the mayor and gives the mayor powers to appoint heads of council committees, initiate the hiring and firing of the city manager, veto legislation and review the budget before submitting it to council. The change was made in response to calls for stronger executive powers to make the city more efficient.

2001 - Charlie Luken is the first directly elected mayor under the new system.