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Cranley: Dohoney out as city manager

Staff
City Manager Milton Dohoney, Mayor Mark Mallory

Cincinnati City Manager Milton Dohoney Jr. will leave his job by Dec. 1, Mayor-elect John Cranley announced Wednesday night.

Cranley told reporters at a Wednesday night press conference he had met with Dohoney and that the decision for Dohoney, who was hired by out-going Mayor Mark Mallory in 2006, to leave was a mutual one.

"We just felt it was better to move in different directions,'' Cranley said at a downtown press conference.

Dohoney will leave office Dec. 1 - the day Cranley and the new city council is sworn into office. One of the powers of the mayor in Cincinnati is to choose a city manager who is then confirmed by city council.

"I voted to hire him when I was on city council,'' Cranley said. "I wish him all the best."

During the campaign, Cranley had said Dohoney would be able to apply for the job if he were elected mayor, but would not commit to keeping him. But the firing came only eight days after the election in which Cranley defeated Roxanne Qualls for the mayorship.

With his resignation, Dohoney will be entitled to a severance package which includes one year of pay.

The city manager's spokeswoman, Meg Olberding, said Wednesday night that Dohoney had no comment on the firing.

Cranley said Wednesday night he would go with a yet-to-be-named interim city manager until he chooses a permanent replacement. The mayor-elect also said he would choose a vice mayor and council committee chairs before the Dec. 1 swearing-in.

Mallory selected Dohoney in August 2006. He worked closely with the mayor on the controversial streetcar project. Dohoney also proposed leasing most of the city's parking assets to a private operator. Cranley campaigned against both projects in his race for mayor. Cranley and the Port Authority, which was going to lease the parking assets, agreed Tuesday to suspend that program.

Howard Wilkinson is in his 50th year of covering politics on the local, state and national levels.