It may be too soon to measure the political fallout from Cincinnati's latest all-consuming, headline-grabbing, talk-show-feeding controversy, the investigation into Police Lt. Col. Ron Twitty.

        But one thing is clear: While the political marriage between Mayor Charlie Luken and his hand-picked city manager, Valerie Lemmie, is sound, the honeymoon is over.

Lemmie

        “I am embarrassed to say to the public that I didn't know anything about this investigation until 11 o'clock” the day it was made public, Mr. Luken said last week.

        It's an age-old complaint at Cincinnati City Hall: no sooner does the city manager make a decision than the mayor and council members are publicly griping that they weren't kept in the loop.

        Except this time, the complaint comes seven months into a “stronger mayor” system that was supposed to reinforce the lines of accountability between the mayor and the city manager.

Luken

        By the time Mr. Luken learned of the Twitty incident July 12, the police chief had already placed Lt. Col. Twitty on administrative leave, and asked the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office to investigate why the assistant chief's report of damage to his 2001 Ford Taurus didn't seem to match evidence at the scene.

        Only afterward did the chief tell his boss, City Manager Valerie Lemmie. And while she told Mayor Charlie Luken almost right away, it was just three hours before Chief Streicher would hold a news conference to tell the whole city.

        For many, the news conference itself has become one of the more troubling elements about the episode. Lt. Col. Twitty is the department's highest-ranking black officer, and some African-American groups — including the Sentinels, the black police organization — feel the city needlessly humiliated Lt. Col. Twitty in public.

        On Friday, still upset by how the situation was handled, Mr. Luken took the unusual step of calling on the city manager to reconsider a personnel decision.

        “We do need to have a conversation about whether Ron Twitty should go back to work, and if so, when and for how long,” he said. “To have this situation hanging out there indefinitely is unacceptable.”

        While he's careful not to criticize Ms. Lemmie or Police Chief Tom Streicher by name, Mr. Luken said administrators failed to understand how the Twitty investigation would crack the city's already fragile race relations.

        “This was an administrative and law enforcement decision that had political and community implications. Those implications needed to be considered and dealt with,” Mr. Luken said.

        Had he known sooner, Mr. Luken said, he would immediately have explained the decision to members of his race-relations commission, the Human Relations Commission, and other community leaders.

        Ms. Lemmie has defended the way the incident was handled. But she also struck an apologetic tone.

        “We can often look back on what transpired and find better ways of doing it,” she said. “In this case, there was a desire to move forward expeditiously and not have any disparate treatment, but also recognize that there were some rumors swirling around the department.”

        “We didn't want anyone to think there was anything hidden here,” she said. “All those things the community said they wanted — an open and honest police department where officers are disciplined swiftly and fairly — is what we're trying to do here.”

        Mr. Luken has asked City Council to put the issue of council-manager communication tops on the agenda when the council holds a three-day retreat in September.

        Councilman David Pepper, who's organizing the retreat, campaigned last year as an outsider promising to reform the way City Council does business. He was the top vote getter.

        “As a council, we need to come to a consensus about when we want to be notified of something,” he said. “And not just to hear about it, but have a reasonable, meaningful input.”

        Mr. Luken said the Twitty incident shows that no system — even the “stronger mayor” system he's championed — will work flawlessly.

        “I recognize that I'm held responsible for how the system works,” Mr. Luken said. “There were many times in the last six or seven months that it's worked well. It hasn't worked particularly well in this case.

        “I can't blame it on the system. The communication should have been better than it was.”

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