The City Says No More In-House Racism There are plenty of reasons to like or dislike the notion of a local police force; this year, those on the “dislike” side may have had theirs reinforced. The Cincinnati Police Department dealt with a number of instances in which officers used racist slurs while on the job. We’re not talking teensy “Oops!” moments, either (not that those should be excused). No, officers said big words. The words. Loudly. The cases of Rose Valentino (who used the N-word while patrolling near a school) and Kelly Drach (who was on the phone and used a derogatory term for people of Middle Eastern descent) particularly caught Cincinnati's attention, leading to city manager Sheryl Long implementing a new policy in October that terminates the employment of city workers who use such language.”I want to make it clear to everyone – the city's employees and our citizens – that the use of any hateful or hurtful language by our employees while they are serving the public is completely unacceptable to me,” Long said. The situation is something incoming police chief Teresa Theetge will have to contend with, as in December, Long selected Theetge to take the position after a nationwide search. Theetge has more than 32 years with the CPD and had served as interim chief since Eliot Isaac retired in March. Her swearing-in date had not been announced as of press time. Read CityBeat's story about Theetge's ascent and what she'll deal with in 2023. Photo: Nick Swartsell

Cincinnati’s City Hall will see some fresh faces. Photo: Nick Swartsell

City Hall soon will see a mix of old and new faces.

Three Cincinnati City Council members will be returning to their positions after the Nov. 2 general election: Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney, Greg Landsman and Liz Keating.

The other six seats will be filled by newcomers Reggie Harris, Meeka D. Owens, Victoria Parks, Scotty Johnson, Jeff M. Cramerding and Mark Jeffreys.

All nine council members are Democrats except for Keating, who is a Republican.

Kearney led with 28,161 votes (7.46%), as of the 11:18 p.m. update from the Hamilton County Board of Elections. Landsman had 26,532 (7.03%), Harris 25,305 (6.71%), Owens 23,707 (6.28%), Parks 22,443 (5.95%), Johnson 19,888 (5.27%), Cramerding 19,356 (5.13%), Jeffreys 18,443 (4.89%) and Keating 17,156 (4.55%).

Landsman is the only elected incumbent to make the new council. He assumed office in January 2018.

Kearney and Keating both had been appointed to their positions before running to retain them on Nov. 2. Kearney was appointed to Cincinnati City Council in 2020 after Tamaya Dennard was arrested on corruption charges and later resigned. Keating was appointed in 2020 to replace P.G. Sittenfeld, who was arrested on bribery charges.

Two other incumbent appointed council members did not succeed on Tuesday: Republicans Steve Goodin and Betsy Sundermann.

The 2021 race for Cincinnati City Council was one of the largest in the city’s history, with 35 candidates running for nine seats at two-year terms. Voters could choose up to nine candidates on their ballots.

All 190 precincts have reported. All results are preliminary until certified.

Earlier Tuesday, Aftab Pureval defeated David Mann to become Cincinnati’s next mayor.

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This article appears in Oct 27 – Nov 9, 2021.