BY HOWARD WILKINSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
In the end, former Cincinnati Councilwoman Bobbie Sterne left City Hall last week for the sake of the Charter Committee.
It was not that the Charterites, the political descendants of the group that established the council-manager form of government more than 70 years ago, wanted her to leave.
But, by turning her seat over to fellow Charterite Jim Tarbell, Mrs. Sterne said Wednesday she was giving her party its best chance of surviving into the new century. Mr. Tarbell, a restaurant owner, came within 350 votes of winning a council seat as a Charter candidate last fall.
"Charter has had a very positive influence on this city for over 70 years. I want more than anything to see that continue," Mrs. Sterne said. "That was important enough to me to resign now." Mrs. Sterne, in her first interview since leaving council a week ago, said she had also become tired of the contentious atmosphere at City Hall.
"The atmosphere has not been good in recent years," she said. "We get things done, the business of the city goes on, but there has been this atmosphere in recent years where so many council members are spending their time trying to be mayor in the next election," Mrs. Sterne said.
The resignation ended a 25-year career on Cincinnati City Council for the 77-year-old Mrs. Sterne.
Cincinnati's term-limits law means that Mrs. Sterne and three other members -- Roxanne Qualls, Tyrone Yates and Dwight Tillery -- cannot run for re-election in 1999.
Since 1991, Mrs. Sterne has been the only Charter Committee council member. She said Mr. Tarbell, the principal advocate for a Reds ball park at Broadway Commons, was an "obvious choice" as her replacement.
"He came so close to being elected the last time," Mrs. Sterne said. "I don't think there is anyone who is in a better position to keep the seat."
Mrs. Sterne, who ran fifth in her last council campaign last fall, said Mr. Tarbell is not the "typical" Charterite. Mr. Tarbell has been known in Cincinnati for decades for his flamboyance and ability to attract attention to himself -- a trait not many Charterites have displayed.
"But he is very loyal to the city and he believes in the things that Charterites believe in -- good, clean government and a council that does not try to run the day-to-day operations of the city," Mrs. Sterne said.
A public health nurse before her council career began in 1971, Mrs. Sterne made a reputation on council as an advocate of funding for city health care services.
And she could always be counted on to defend the city's council-manager form of government, devised by the Charter Committee in the 1920s. A bipartisan charter reform group, Build Cincinnati, is pushing a package that would do away with the council-manager form of government and replace it with a directly elected "strong mayor" with broad executive powers.
Mrs. Sterne said that, on council or off, she will fight that proposal.
"I hope the citizens aren't hoodwinked into thinking that a "strong mayor' system will solve the city's problems," Mrs. Sterne said. "We have a good system, but it has been corrupted by the changes that have been made in recent years."
The worst change, she said, came in 1987 when Cincinnati voters adopted the "top vote-getter" system of electing the mayor. That, she said, "created this constant atmosphere of grandstanding, because you end up with all these council members who think they should have been the top vote-getter and think they can be the next time.
"It is a horrible system," Mrs. Sterne said.
Mrs. Sterne said she plans to continue to be involved in community affairs, including the Charter Committee.
When people think back on her time in City Hall -- including her two years as mayor in the 1970s -- she said she wants them to think about the kind of council member she tried to be.
"All I want is that people think that I was honest and I tried to be fair," Mrs. Sterne said.
