If you think voters always determine who occupies a seat on Cincinnati City Council, think again. Some of the most memorable names in Queen City politics got their entry to City Hall by means other than winning at the ballot box, including Jim Tarbell, Todd Portune, John Cranley, Roxanne Qualls and Dwight Tillery, among others. Now City Councilwoman Leslie Ghiz is asking her colleagues to place a charter amendment on the ballot that would seek to change how council vacancies are filled. She says her proposal is fairer to voters than the current system for selecting replacements.  

A diverse coalition of groups led by the NAACP's Cincinnati chapter that blocked Hamilton County officials from increasing the sales tax in 2007 to build a new jail has set its sights on another project: the city's proposed streetcar system. A petition drive has been launched to place an issue on the November ballot to prevent Cincinnati officials from spending money on the streetcar project without first getting approval from city voters.