January 2006

One Gov., One Heart
Louisville and Jefferson County’s example not impossible, not likely for Cincinnati/ Hamilton County

By Marc Beechuk
Queen City Forum Magazine staff writer

At the heart, mind and soul of issues that involve planning or development lies cooperation. Cities have opted to try regional government, a style of government based on major city and county cooperation as an approach to tackling metropolitan-wide concerns. Louisville is one such city that went the collaborative route three years ago and has not looked back.

Joan Riehm (right), vice mayor of Louisville

  

Regional government is a political system in which the entire metropolitan area is run as a larger city. In essence, it makes the metropolitan borders and the city borders one and the same. The purpose of such consolidation can be to eliminate bureaucracies, increase the tax base or generally just to have everyone pay for the city when they exist because of it. A local example would be if the people of Indian Hill would pay the same tax as everyone else across the region under the context that there would be no Indian Hill without Cincinnati proper.

Citizens for Civic Renewal (CCR) brought Joan Riehm, an architect of the Louisville plan, to Cincinnati recently. She professed that the change is not as necessary as having the discussion, which requires asking the basic questions of where a city/county are going and what it wants to be. It was a search that brought up many options, but settled upon this cooperative approach.

Mrs. Riehm mentioned that one of the best outcomes from the consolidation was that everyone looked at the city through a new pair of glasses. The operations and day-to-day services were amended for the better because people found more choices. One simple case involved the county and city police forces, which had been using different grades of gas. One asked the other if the lower grade was fine, found out it was and the city now saves six figures annually. It seems that Cincinnati, needing money, should be asking the same types of questions: How can new communications between city hall & court street, Mallory, DeWine, Heimlich & Portune; Mallory, the Cincinnati Police Chief, the Commission, etc.) streamline our operations?

Louisville saw the option of combining many services and taxes as well as the opportunity to move from 67 th most populated city in America to 16 th. The debate had raged for more than fifty years before they finally voted it in and that is due to a search for success.

  

Regional government is not likely to exist in Cincinnati because of the neighborhood loyalty, splintered citizenry and fragmented political situation. This should not, however, prevent Cincinnati from figuring out ways to save money as a region.

Politics also play a major role because many elected officials use local government as a springboard to federal service. It is hard to ever get anyone to “rock the boat” in Cincinnati largely due to the politics of popular issues—that is to say, they may never get elected again. Some consequences prevent politicians from promoting such dicey subjects.

The situation in Louisville came about after dire circumstances. Louisville’s city schools were forced to combine with the entire region due to pressing problems. One direction suggested during the meeting was that Cincinnati let a problem fester until fundamental change is the only hope left. This was not in all seriousness, but rather a point that a dire situation may need to occur in order for the Queen City and its county to seriously consider cooperation.

The core values of regional government are better exercised at the federal level as that would even the playing field. Cities employing regional government currently run the risk of alienating a large constituency that believes in individual rights. Walking the line of cooperation, but not dominating, is a task that cities face constantly and is one way for them to separate from the pack. This suggests that some type of hybrid system be used to benefit from all of our resources, yet still allow freedom at the individual level.

Cities cannot just find simple solutions for all of their problems; it takes involvement, cooperation and foresight to give itself the best possible chance. Regional government is one option, but just considering it would be a sign that improvement is on the way.

 

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