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Roxy Returns!
Love for city lures Qualls
In Cincinnati, for most of the 1990s, nobody got more votes than Roxanne Qualls.
She held the mayor's office from 1993 through 1999, during which she created Mayor's Night In to give residents more access to City Hall, started CitiRama to promote urban home-buying and was instrumental in turning around public opinion to pass the sales tax that funded Paul Brown Stadium and Great American Ball Park.
Now, after turning down multiple requests over the past seven years to return to public office, she's back. She'll fill a seat on council starting next month, and plans to run for a full term in November.
And that news, by most accounts, throws out any previous expectations about the outcome of the fall council election, in which all nine seats are up.
Qualls, 54, was introduced Wednesday as the replacement for Jim Tarbell, whose resignation - effective Sept. 3 - comes three months before term limits would have forced him to leave council. Tarbell, 64, agreed to leave early and give another Charter Committee member some incumbency because that's exactly how he first got the seat, too - in 1998 from term-limited Bobbie Sterne.
"I agreed to come back into public service," she said, "because I love this city."
She brings back to City Hall her experience as an activist, councilwoman and three-term mayor, she said. But having spent three years studying at Harvard University and three years at Northern Kentucky University, she brings experience as a student of public policy and as a teacher.
Here's her suggested motto for every neighborhood, including downtown: "Safe, clean, green and beautiful."
Charter passed up two already-announced candidates, Joan Kaup and Melanie Bates, to pick Qualls partly because "obviously, we think she can win and keep this seat," said Michael Goldman, Charter president. Qualls was the top vote-getter in three straight elections; then, the top vote-getter automatically became mayor.
"People like (council members) Leslie Ghiz, Jeff Berding, Chris Bortz, Chris Monzel - they're going to have to work their butts off now just to get re-elected," said Pete Witte, president of the Price Hill Civic Club and organizer of a West Side political action committee. "Because Roxanne is a lock to take one of the seats."
Qualls said she was pleased, honored and humbled to get the Charter appointment, but that she still considers herself a Democrat at the county, state and national levels. The Charter Committee, unique to Cincinnati, started as a reform movement in the 1920s as a reaction to Republican bossism. It has remained an independent political party, standing for good government, supporting the council-city manager form of government and encouraging council to concentrate on policy-making rather than the day-to-day operations of the city.
She also addressed questions about the possibility of running again for mayor. She was the first person to endorse Mayor Mark Mallory. Saying she has "tremendous respect" for him, she claimed no plans to run for anything but council and that she hopes to work with him for the rest of his four-year term and another.
Qualls acknowledged she's getting into the race late and said she'll be pushing hard this weekend to get as many as possible of the 500 signatures she needs by Aug. 23 to get on the ballot. She'll have fundraisers later, she said, but now her fundraising will be "mostly one-on-one, with me calling people."
She said she talked with Kaup and Bates about working together on some issues and campaigning together.
Kaup was at Wednesday's announcement, where she hugged Qualls and said she was happy to have her on the ballot. Bates said she had a prior commitment and couldn't make it. She said earlier in the day that she thinks there's room on council for both her and Qualls because there are some "weak incumbents."
Qualls "would draw a base that would support me," she said. "So that might enable me to bump someone else. Her being there, it may be just fine for me. How it happened is a different story."
Councilman Chris Bortz, the only other Charterite on council, had the legal authority to appoint Tarbell's replacement. At the beginning of each council term, each member officially designates which colleague or colleagues should appoint his or her replacement if he or she leaves council. Bortz said he and Tarbell made a deal that if either of them left council, the other would appoint whomever the departing councilman chose.
"Within reason, of course," Bortz said. "It's Jim's right to choose his successor. It's all Jim's call."
As for Qualls, he said, she brings leadership, vision, an understanding of urban planning and experience in engaging community groups.
"She sees the big picture," Bortz said.
Charter officials chose Qualls first when they started talking to possible replacements more than a year ago, Goldman said. Then, she said no.
Things changed as Qualls and Tarbell talked about it in recent weeks. She became more open to the idea, she said, because of her involvement with Go Cincinnati.
That's a public-private effort led by Bortz and Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber of Commerce President Ellen van der Horst that aims to devise an economic growth strategy. It sparked again Qualls' interests in transportation and infrastructure, which she said she knows "will sound really geeky."
Berding, a Democrat, said he expects her to be elected in November and welcomes that. With the Banks deal coming to a head soon, it's a good time for her to return, he said, since she was heavily involved in promoting the new stadiums as part of the riverfront's future. Qualls called all eight of her new colleagues Wednesday before the news conference.
"She's well-respected," Berding said. "People like her. I think she was a very effective leader for a long time."
Tarbell is also vice mayor. Mallory has not yet announced who will replace Tarbell in that role. Because council is on a limited summer schedule, Tarbell will be gone before council meets again Sept. 6.
The fact that council members are limited to four straight terms "is really the only reason I'm leaving City Hall," Tarbell said. "I feel so lucky to have been part of this family."
Wonder what she's got planned this time around?
You know, she did a pretty good job of things when she was in charge.
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Back in 1998 when she ran against Steve Chabot for his congressional seat, I put her in the HOT SEAT. I went to one of their debates, and during the question/answer session I grilled her on why had she ignored my 5 letters to her office in re Phoenix International (a valid official to target, it was doing business in the city limits and had received over $1 million in city tax incentives). By the time I was finished grilling her Chabot was coming to her defense stating it was probably someone on her staff, not her personally. To that riposte I answered "And we should send someone to Washington DC who has such bad judgment in choosing her staff?" Everyone in the audience applauded me for it, I also got some handshakes as I left. She stammered her excuses but I would be willing to bet she lost a number of votes that day... I waited for Chabot to leave and we walked out together and discussed the stonewalls he was encountering too on my behalf. Roxanne just kept watching me from a distance LOL.
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Now I'm sorry I didn't know GL back then, I would loved to have seen that exchange. Truth be told, I'd have voted for Roxy over Chabot (but that's no different than saying I'd root for the Cowboys over the Steelers).
Although I'm going to send Roxy an email and tell her to brush up on her Napoleonic Wars, if she happens to be quizzed by GL again sometime she can break out that rap and see if he takes the bait [img]wink.gif[/img]
