City Releases Police Chief Blackwell’s Proposed Severance Agreement
The city of Cincinnati on July 10 released documents showing what it would have offered Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell had he left the department last May after discussions with City Manager Harry Black.
The departure contract included a year of Blackwell’s $136,000 salary plus a $5,000 lump sum, a year extension of benefits, payout of any accrued vacation and repayment of some of his moving expenses.
In exchange, Blackwell and Black could not disparage each other in the media, and Blackwell was not allowed to sue the city.
The Cincinnati Business Courier noted the city’s timing in releasing the documents, which happened when much of the city’s attention was focused on this weekend’s All-Star Game activities.
According to the city, the dispute dates back to May 20, when Blackwell told Black he was thinking about quitting. At the time, he had served as the city’s police chief for less than two years. Blackwell was handed the drafted contract, which he did not sign, and has since assured the city that he’s happy to stay.
“No one wants to be where they’re not wanted, and me included. And we had a conversation about whether I was a good fit for this job. I think I’m doing a good job. I love this city. I want to stay,” Blackwell said last May, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer.
Mayor John Cranley and Black have also waved the disagreement aside and assure the city of their support of Blackwell.
“I am committed to supporting Chief Blackwell and the city of Cincinnati as they work diligently to maintain a safe city,” said Black in the memo obtained by the Cincinnati Business Courier in an Ohio Public Records Act request.
Blackwell was hired as police chief in September 2013 from the Columbus Police Department by former City Manager Milton Dohoney, Jr. despite objections from then-mayoral candidate Cranley, who wanted to hire a new chief after the election.
Dohoney stepped down when Cranley took office in December 2013, and his replacement, Black, took office last August.
Speculation about Blackwell’s departure comes during a focus on crime in Cincinnati. City Manager Harry Black last month asked Blackwell to present a 90-day violence reduction plan to address a spike in shootings in the city. Though violent crime is down overall in the city in recent months, shootings are up 29 percent from last year.
Other major cities, including New Orleans, Baltimore and Chicago have seen similar or much more severe spikes this summer, and part of Cincinnati’s spike stems from an unusually low number of shootings last year. Still, city leaders have called the increase unacceptable and have put pressure on Blackwell to address the issue. (Natalie Krebs)
NAACP National Office Sues Cincinnati Chapter
The national office of the NAACP has filed a U.S. District Court lawsuit against former leadership of Cincinnati’s local chapter, advancing long-running controversy over the city’s branch of the civil rights organization.
The NAACP is asking federal judge Susan Dlott to strip the local chapter of its incorporated nonprofit status and to order its former leaders to pay back money it has fundraised under the NAACP name.
The drama started when Cincinnati City Councilman Christopher Smitherman resigned as president last year. Ishton Morton stepped in to take his place, but the national NAACP suspended Morton, his wife and another member, Lettie Reid, from the organization, saying they weren’t focused on civil rights work. That suit alleges that the three have continued to present themselves as local NAACP leaders despite the fact they are no longer members of the organization, conducting fundraising and spending the branch’s money without national authorization.
The national group has asked a federal judge to yank incorporation from Cincinnati’s chapter and order its former leaders to pay $300,000 in damages.
Morton and his allies say the national office is trying to dictate local affairs at the Cincinnati branch, and he’s vowed to fight the lawsuit. There’s a deep political element in the fight: Some within the local chapter have bristled at the rightward drift of the branch, which started under Smitherman and saw the civil rights group allying with staunch conservative groups like the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes.
A more liberal group, including chapter presidential candidate and union leader Rob Richardson Sr. and his son, lawyer Rob Richardson Jr., have attempted to wrest control of the group from Smitherman’s allies, but have been unsuccessful in recent years. Last year, local elections for the chapter’s president were postponed after accusations from the chapter’s conservative faction that the board’s election committee postponed the date and time of voting on leadership in order to suppress voters.
The legal fight comes a year before the civil rights organization is set to have its 107th national convention here in Cincinnati. That convention looks to be a major political event as attention focuses on Ohio ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Then-presidential candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney both spoke at the group’s 2012 convention in Houston. Cincinnati last hosted the convention in 2008, another pivotal presidential election year. (Nick Swartsell)
This article appears in Jul 15-21, 2015.