If you follow Cincinnati politics, you know that various city and regional boards and commissions have been in the white-hot political spotlight over the past couple years.
Last week’s drama over a recent mayoral appointment to the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority’s board, last month’s long-stewing fight over the Cincinnati Park Board and past battles over the city’s Historic Conservation Board are just a few recent examples of times board appointments have been at the center of city political arguments.
But who are these appointees?
A new, voluntary survey by the city sheds a little light. Though not an exhaustive study of every appointee the city sends to more than 60 boards, respondents to the survey were more wealthy, more likely to be white and more likely to be male than the city as a whole.
The city administered the survey, first proposed in a motion by Cincinnati City Councilman Chris Seelbach back in June last year, between Jan. 8 and Feb. 12. One hundred of the 228 city appointees have responded so far, according to a memo from City Manager Harry Black. Given that sample size, the margin of error for the survey is roughly 6 percent.
Assuming the survey is representative, here's how city board appointments diverge from the city's demographics:
- More than 45 percent of appointees in the survey make more than $200,000 a year, and another 40 percent make more than $75,000 a year. About 10 percent of city appointees answering the survey make less than $49,000 a year. Cincinnati’s median household income is $34,629 a year, according to Census data.
- About 65 percent of appointees identify as male and 35 percent as female. Cincinnati is about 52 percent female and 48 percent male.
- More than 70 percent of appointees who responded to the survey by the city are white, while less than 30 percent are black. Cincinnati is about 51 percent white and 43 percent black, Census data suggests.
- The majority of appointees — more than 90 percent —identify as heterosexual. A small percentage did not specify their sexual preference.
- Most of those appointed to boards and commissions by the mayor or city manager — 80 percent — work in Cincinnati, according to the survey. About one-third of all appointees who responded to the survey live in Clifton, Hyde Park, Kennedy Heights, Mount Lookout, North Avondale or somewhere in Northern Kentucky.
- Roughly 90 percent of those who took the survey are home owners. Forty five percent are older than 54 years old, and another 40 percent are over 40.
A number of factors unrelated to age, race, gender and income go in to choosing board appointments, depending on the board and the role it plays in overseeing various institutions. Expertise and experience in financial oversight or special knowledge in a specific field is often prioritized, with the city touting the particular credentials of various appointees from previous work or volunteering experience. Board memberships are generally unpaid volunteer positions.
Cincinnati City Council approves appointments made by the city — a practice that in the past hasn't resulted in much scrutiny, but which could change given recent political dustups over appointments.
Many, for example, have pushed for a regular, day-to-day bus rider to be at least one of the city's seven appointments to SORTA's 13-member board. That's a step toward a currently-unfulfilled requirement under city legislation passed in 2008 that calls for three regular bus riders on the board.
But even that is complicated. Mayor John Cranley's most recent SORTA appointee, Rayshon Mack, is a regular bus rider. Council turned down his appointment — an exceedingly rare situation — citing Mack's tone on social media. Cranley and Mack's conservative supporters on council say his opponents played politics by turning him down.
Cranley himself faced similar charges about playing politics with board appointments when he moved to replace former Park Board Chair Dianne Rosenberg with new appointee Jim Goetz, who is more aligned with Cranley's wish to bring private foundation spending by the Park Board under city control. Some members of council saw Goetz's appointment as a political move by the mayor and city administration.
Politics aside, will board appointments get more representative of the city as a whole? The city could take steps to make it happen — when it comes to race at least — as it launches a wide-reaching study on racial disparities in city government. Cincinnati City Council members have called for the city to bring in an outside consultant to look at any number of city functions to root out systemic racial bias. Officials could push to include appointments made by the city in that inquiry, though it wouldn't cover other areas like income and gender.
