Life in "Progress" City

From the Queen City of Cincinnati, who hasn't had a conservative run the city since John Glenn orbited the earth......

Cincinnati voters may assume that city policy is crafted by the mayor and the nine members of City Council they elect.

Unfortunately, they're only a little more than half-right. During 2009, Cincinnati in effect has had a five -member council on decisions that really matter.

• Tough calls await city - after election

The council majority, controlled by Mayor Mark Mallory, makes the key calls among themselves, often in a round-robin of private meetings that circumvent at least the spirit of laws intended to keep government decision-making open and public.

They cut off debate, twist council's own rules, hold items off the agenda then rush them to a vote without discussion. And if anyone steps out of line, the Democratic party and unions are there to bring down the hammer, as they did recently by un-endorsing Councilmember Jeff Berding.

The Favored Five includes Democrats Laketa Cole, David Crowley, Cecil Thomas and Greg Harris, along with nominal Charterite Roxanne Qualls.

The Forlorn Four - a multi-party mix of Republicans Leslie Ghiz and Chris Monzel, Charterite Chris Bortz and recently excommunicated Democrat Berding - can't get so much as a sniff at having a proposal considered or a discussion held.

"There's a fundamental difference between the two sides," Ghiz says, "and I don't know if it can be married up again."

Council's outward appearance as an efficient, smoothly running body under Mallory's watch contrasts favorably with the chaotic councils of past decades.

But the reality behind the scenes points more to dysfunctional control-freakery.

The Aug. 6 hearing on proposed police layoffs in which majority council members' questions - and reactions - were scripted in advance has come to symbolize this council.

"Everything is tightly scripted, designed to stop dissent," Berding says. "They use the rules to avoid discussion and controversies. It's almost pathological. But government is supposed to be about having disagreements, working through controversies openly and finding answers openly."

The current scheme is hardly representative democracy at its best. And it's up to city voters to correct that in this fall's election, which starts Tuesday when Ohio's early-voting season opens. With term-limited Crowley leaving council, there's an opportunity for the dynamics on council to improve.

Only the city of Detroit's government makes this look somehow functional.

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