David Mann

Updated: 3:20 p.m.

Cincinnati Council Wednesday set in motion a plan for investigating complaints of misconduct against City Manager Harry Black.

It quickly became evident that Black was not pleased with the process. 

Updated 3:15 p.m.

The unprecedented stand-off in Cincinnati City Hall continues over whether Cincinnati City Manager Harry Black stays or goes.

For Cincinnati Vice Mayor David Mann, the proclamation he presented Wednesday at City Hall was very personal. Mayor John Cranley honored Mann's mother, Faye, who will celebrate her 100th birthday Thursday.

A deeply-divided Cincinnati City Council committee will allow the full 9-member council to decide the fate of a proposed $650 million expansion of Children's Hospital Medical Center in Avondale.

Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley has used his veto power to fix what a council ordinance he believes would have resulted in a structurally unbalanced city budget.

On Wednesday, council voted 5-4 to reject a plan from City Manager Harry Black to boot cars with three or more unpaid parking tickets, a move that would have generated $600,000 for the city.

In Black's proposal, that money would be replaced with a $600,000 withdrawal from the urban development fund.

Newly-elected Cincinnati council member David Mann has held the mayor's office before, and now he will serve as new mayor John Cranley's vice mayor.

Cranley announced Mann as his vice mayor Monday afternoon in a press conference at Mann's downtown law office.

Mann served on council from 1974 to 1991, and had three years as mayor at a time when the mayor's office was mostly a ceremonial position.

Both Cranley and Mann are Democrats. Cranley said Mann is someone he can work well with.

One thing is certain in this year’s Cincinnati City Council election – there will be at least one new member taking office on Dec. 1.

Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls is running for mayor; and that opens her seat to one of the 13 challengers in a field of 21 candidates, which includes all eight incumbents.

Tuesday's mayoral primary election, with its record low turnout of 5.68 percent, has convinced former mayor and congressman David Mann that Cincinnati needs a new way of electing its mayor.

Mann, who is now running for city council with Democratic and Charter Committee endorsements, said that if he is elected, he will introduce a charter amendment that will replace the direct election of the mayor system that has been in place since 2001.

Now that the Cincinnati Democratic Committee has endorsed 10 Cincinnati City Council candidates, the trick for the party will be to let loyal Democrats know that they can only vote for nine of them.

“Yes, we need to develop a message on that,’’ said Hamilton County Democratic Party chairman Tim Burke said. “And, yes, it is a highly unusual situation.”

What happened was this:

Former Cincinnati mayor and congressman David Mann was snubbed by the Cincinnati Democratic Committee's nominating committee for an endorsement of his city council campaign, but he is not taking it lying down.

Mann sent a letter Friday to the full membership of the Cincinnati Democratic Committee (CDC), which will meet Saturday, May 4th at the Letter Carriers Hall in Northside to vote on the nominating committee's recommendations.

Now that Democrat David Mann is a declared candidate for Cincinnati City Council, he has stepped down as co-convener of Beyond Civility, a project aimed at promoting more civil discourse and understanding among people of different political views.

Mann will be replaced by U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Black, who was appointed to the federal bench in 2010 by President Obama.

Black joins U.S. District Court Judge Sandra Beckwith, who was appointed to the federal bench in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush, as co-convener of the organization.

David Mann - former Cincinnati City Council member, mayor, and congressman - is running again for Cincinnati City Council, 20 years after he left that legislative body.

About three dozen supporters crowded into the lobby of Mann's downtown law office Tuesday morning to hear him officially announce his candidacy.

"I am not running for mayor again; I'm not running for Congress,'' the 73-year-old Democrat said. "I'm running to be  the best city council member I can be."

Mann served on that body from 1974 to 1992, with two stints as the city's mayor - 198-1982 and 1991.