This edition of City Government 101 is designed to give a general overview of several city departments and provide links to resources where you can do a deeper dive on your own. Not all departments, divisions or offices are included here, especially ones that are primarily internal — like IT, human resources and retirement.
Most city departments are under the city manager’s jurisdiction, and the manager hires each director.
While many cities have a combined parks and recreation department, those are separate in Cincinnati, and each one is governed by an appointed board. The two have similar goals and share jurisdiction over some outdoor areas, like Ziegler Park in Over-the-Rhine. Ziegler also is one of a few public spaces managed by the private nonprofit 3CDC; the others are Washington Park and Fountain Square.
Other departments overlap, too, like the responsibility of maintaining street pavement along the city’s nearly 3,000 lane miles. The Department of Public Services fills potholes and does some preventative maintenance, while the Department of Transportation and Engineering handles some preventative maintenance and full re-paving.
It’s helpful to know which department is responsible for what, but you can use the city’s 311 service to report issues or request help even without knowing who will end up responding. You can reach the 24/7 call center by dialing 311 from within the city, or 513-765-1212 from outside the city. You also can use the 311Cincy website or mobile app.
Four departments are not under direct authority of the city manager. Each is governed by a board that chooses a director: Health, Parks, Recreation, and Retirement.
Click to jump to a specific department:
City Manager’s Office
Police Department
Fire Department
Citizen Complaint Authority
Health Department
Cincinnati Parks
Recreation Commission
Public Services Department
Transportation and Engineering
City Planning and Engagement
Opportunity and Resident Services
Buildings and Inspections
Law Department
City Manager’s Office
This department includes offices like Communications, Performance and Data Analytics, Procurement, Budget and Evaluation, and the Emergency Communications Center.
A violence reduction manager leads the city’s ACT for Cincy effort, which is a “holistic approach to gun violence” with five pillars: thriving neighborhoods, reduced accessibility of firearms to youth, improved wellbeing, improved youth support and policing innovations.
The Office of Strategic Growth is new (as of June 2026); it partially replaces the former Department of Community and Economic Development. Work within this office will include tax incentives, capital programs for neighborhood development (including affordable housing), real estate transactions, job creation tax credits and business attraction and retention.
The Office of Environment and Sustainability is the home of the Green Cincinnati Plan, which sets goals for reducing the city’s carbon footprint and preparing for long-term climate change consequences.
Police Department
The Cincinnati Police Department accounts for about 35% of the General Fund, the largest single slice of that fund.
The city manager is responsible for hiring — and firing — the police chief. The chief can choose assistant chiefs.
CPD is budgeted for 1,059 sworn officers, but the city has not reached that number in several years. Hiring new officers through recruit classes is not keeping up with the loss of officers through retirement and other natural turnover. CPD also has 160 civilian employees.
CPD includes several divisions, including a Patrol Bureau, Investigation Bureau and Strategic Innovations Bureau. Patrol is the largest; it’s responsible for general policing like neighborhood patrols and responding to calls for service.
You can learn more about the Cincinnati Police Department here: cincinnati-oh.gov/police
Fire Department
The Cincinnati Fire Department, founded in 1853, is the country’s first fully paid professional fire department. CFD is responsible for responding to fires, medical emergencies, hazardous material spills and rescue operations. The department also works on fire prevention and safety education.
The Cincinnati Fire Department accounts for about 27% of the General Fund, the second largest single slice of that fund.
The city manager is responsible for hiring — and again, firing — the fire chief. CFD is budgeted for 859 sworn fire fighters and also has a couple dozen civilian employees.
You can learn more about the Fire Department here: cincinnati-oh.gov/fire
Citizen Complaint Authority
The Citizen Complaint Authority is an independent police oversight board — one of the first in the country. The city manager chooses the director, who hires investigators that look into complaints about police misconduct.
An advisory board considers the investigation reports and approves recommendations for action based on the findings; that could include recommending discipline of a specific officer or recommending CPD change a policy.
The CCA investigates “serious interventions by police” such as shots fired, death in custody, and major uses of force. People can also file a complaint based on interactions with CPD. Some complaints are referred to CPD’s Internal Investigations Section.
You can learn more about the Citizen Complaint Authority here: cincinnati-oh.gov/ccia
Health Department
The Cincinnati Health Department is led by a health commissioner who is appointed by a nine-member Board of Health, which is the governing body for the department. Board members are appointed by the mayor and approved by City Council.
Ten of the 15 highest-paid city employees are part of the Health Department; six are dentists, and one is the dental director (as of June 2026).
CHD operates six community health centers in the city, providing preventative and primary health care to residents who are uninsured or underinsured; all but one have a dental clinic, and all but one have a pharmacy.
This department operates public health programs focused on specific concerns, like tobacco-related health disparities, infant vitality and food equity. A school-based program offers immunizations, vision and hearing screenings, and other health services to children at 43 targeted Cincinnati Public Schools.
The Communicable Disease Prevention and Control Unit includes nurses and epidemiologists that respond to infectious diseases.
CHD licenses and inspects businesses like restaurants, grocery stories, swimming pools, food trucks and tattoo and piercing studios. The city monitors mosquitos for the presence of viruses like West Nile and Zika. CHD licenses and monitors tobacco retailers to ensure people under age 21 are not illegally buying tobacco products.
A lead poisoning prevention program monitors and reports blood levels in children and offers education and financial resources to remove sources of lead poisoning from the home, especially paint.
CHD helps administer the federal Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program. The department maintains vital records and provides birth and death certificates.
Learn more about the Cincinnati Health Department here: cincinnati-oh.gov/health
Cincinnati Parks
Cincinnati Parks is governed by the Board of Park Commissioners; the five members of the board are appointed by the mayor and approved by City Council. They choose the parks director.
The department manages five regional parks, 70 neighborhood parks and 34 natural areas. Parks range in size from the nearly 1,500-acre Mt. Airy Forest to the 0.1-acre Thorton Triangle in Sayler Park, and many in between.
Most city parks and other Parks' properties are free to visit for anyone, not just city residents. The Krohn Conservatory in Eden Park charges admission, as does the pool at Ziegler Park.
Cincinnati Parks has a Division of Natural Resources that includes conservation and land management, and maintenance of city street trees. Parks also manages greenspaces like medians and flower pots. The education division offers field trips and summer day camps.
Cincinnati consistently ranks as a top 10 city for parks nationwide in the Trust for Public Land’s ParkScore index. According to the index, Cincinnati spends about $260 per person per year on parks and other greenspaces, well above the national average of $154. That includes greenspaces maintained by other agencies like the Recreation Commission.
A separate nonprofit, the Cincinnati Parks Foundation, raises private money to support parks and provide programming.
Learn more about Cincinnati Parks here: cincinnati-oh.gov/cincyparks
Recreation Commission
Cincinnati has 23 community recreation centers, 24 public pools and 14 spray grounds, all managed by the Cincinnati Recreation Commission. Rec also maintains two boat ramps, more than a hundred playgrounds, outdoor sports fields and courts, and six golf courses.
Rec offers before and after school childcare at some rec centers and schools; summer day camps; mini-camps during CPS breaks; and competitive and recreational athletic leagues for adults and children.
The Cincinnati Recreation Commission is governed by a Board of Commissioners: three board members are appointed by the mayor, one is appointed by the park board, and one is appointed by Cincinnati Public Schools. The Board chooses the department’s director.
A separate nonprofit, the Cincinnati Rec Foundation, privately fundraises to supplement Recreation Commission programming.
You can learn more about the Recreation Commission here: cincinnati-oh.gov/crc
Department of Public Services
The Department of Public Services (often called DPS) handles many of the most noticeable city services, like filling potholes, plowing streets and picking up trash.
The Traffic and Road Operations Division includes filling potholes and some preventative pavement work, plowing and salting streets during the winter. Some work is shared with the Department of Transportation and Engineering, like making and installing street signs, painting crosswalks and lines, detours and traffic signals.
The Neighborhood Operations Division includes curbside waste pickup (trash and recycling), street sweeping, bulk item collection (on request) and litter control. The city also partners with a couple outside organizations to help with litter pickup — 3CDC in Downtown and Over-the-Rhine, and Keep Cincinnati Beautiful city-wide.
The City Facility Management Division maintains 88 city-owned buildings, including City Hall. This includes regular maintenance, rehab when necessary and managing energy efficiency.
The Fleet Services Division is responsible for purchasing and maintaining the city’s fleet of vehicles, which range from police cruisers to snow plows to fire trucks. The city owns nearly 3,500 vehicles.
Learn more about Public Services here: cincinnati-oh.gov/public-services
Department of Transportation and Engineering
The Department of Transportation and Engineering, often called DOTE (pronounced one letter at a time, D-O-T-E), is responsible for public streets, bridges, sidewalks, bike paths, steps, traffic signals and streetlights. This department also includes maintenance of the street car and the city-owned Lunken Airport.
DOTE handles full street repaving, but not temporary fixes like filling potholes (that’s the Department of Public Services).
Each of the city’s 52 neighborhoods is scheduled for road work every three years, but only a few streets will be rehabbed each cycle.
Streets are chosen for rehab based on a Pavement Condition Index (PCI) score. You can look up your own street’s PCI score on the city website here.
Sidewalk maintenance is the responsibility of the property owner, not the city.
DOTE handles street calming and other pedestrian safety projects. Once a year, each community council can submit two streets for consideration for new traffic calming infrastructure.
The submissions are ranked using criteria like crash data, speed data, proximity to places like schools and libraries, bus ridership and equity (based on census tract data showing underserved populations and areas with limited access to vehicles. Of those, speed data is weighted at 60%, with each other category weighted at 10%.
The city then goes down the line of ranked streets and completes as many pedestrian safety projects as possible before running out of money. In the most recent funding cycle (fiscal year 2026), the city funded nine out of 40 requests for traffic calming on a major street, and funded eight out of 32 requests for minor streets.
You can learn more about the selection process and see the full list of rankings on the city website: cincinnati-oh.gov/dote/safety/traffic-calming
You can learn more about the Department of Transportation and Engineering here: cincinnati-oh.gov/dote
City Planning and Engagement
The Department of City Planning and Engagement is responsible for developing and administering the city zoning code, which dictates how land within the city can be used.
Zoning ranges from very broad (like, “this plot of land can be used for housing but not for a factory”) to very specific (like, “a residential building on this plot of land can include no more than X housing units, must provide X number of parking spaces, can be no more than X feet tall, must be X feet away from the property line, etc. etc.).
This department processes requests to change zoning for a specific project; most changes have to get approval from the independent Cincinnati Planning Commission, which is made up of volunteer board members appointed by the mayor and approved by City Council. And many of those changes need further approval from City Council.
Planning and Engagement also staffs the Historic Conservation Board, which has seven members appointed by the city manager. At least one member must be a historic preservationist, one must be a historian, two must be architects, one must be an attorney, one must work in real estate or development, and one must be an economist.
The Historic Conservation Board considers property owners’ requests to make exterior changes to buildings within a local historic district, or to a building with individual historic designation. If the Board denies the requested changes or additions, the property owner can appeal the decision to the Zoning Board of Appeals.
“Engagement” was added to Planning in 2021; the department now has two fulltime community engagement specialists. You can read the city’s community engagement policy here.
You can learn more about City Planning and Engagement here: cincinnati-oh.gov/planning
Department of Opportunity and Resident Services
This is the newest city department, created in spring 2026 amid restructuring. The city manager dissolved the Department of Community and Economic Development to create the Office of Strategic Growth and the Department of Opportunity and Resident Services.
DOORS will focus on workforce opportunity, small business and women-owned/minority-owned business support, homeowner support (down payment assistance, residential tax abatements), tenant and renter support (eviction prevention), human services, community council support and homelessness.
Buildings and Inspections
The Department of Buildings and Inspections (often shortened to B&I) handles code enforcement and building permits.
B&I manages all permitting for construction, including new buildings, remodeling and repairs.
Property maintenance code enforcement is often complaint based — a resident will file a complaint with the city (usually through 311), prompting a B&I inspector to investigate the reported problem and take action. Sometimes code enforcement is directed through “concentrated code enforcement” in a specific area. The city requires landlords to register their rental properties, and sometimes a rental housing provider will be subject to targeted monitoring based on previous significant code violations.
B&I monitors known vacant buildings through a couple of programs aimed at preventing empty buildings from becoming a nuisance or public safety concern.
You can learn more about the Department of Buildings and Inspections here: cincinnati-oh.gov/buildings
Law Department
The Law Department provides legal services to city government, including representing the city when it or public officials are sued. .
The city solicitor leads the department as the city’s top-ranked attorney, with several divisions.
The City Prosecutor’s Office prosecutes misdemeanors, including traffic and criminal cases. A part-time domestic violence victim advocate assists domestic violence victims. A Community Prosecution Section addresses safety and quality of life issues, like prosecuting large landlords who do not maintain their properties. This section also deals with liquor permits within the city.
An Economic and Community Development Section works with other city departments on contracts and other legal documents related to development and zoning. A separate Property Management and Real Estate Section works with city-owned and city-leased property. Labor and Employment works with city departments on labor contract negotiations, arbitration and workers’ compensation claims and lawsuits.
Litigation involves representing the city in civil lawsuits, both when the city is sued and when the city files legal action against another entity.
General Counsel is tasked with protecting the city from lawsuits by providing legal advice to city officials, including elected officials. General Counsel manages public records requests, including through training city employees in public records regulations.
The Law Department staffs the Cincinnati Elections Commission, a five-member board appointed by the mayor. This commission enforces the city’s campaign contribution limits for municipal elections.
The Office of Ethics and Good Government maintains the City Business List to ensure people who are involved in active business with the city — like seeking a zoning change, property sale, or tax incentive — do not make political donations to the mayor or city council members.
You can learn more about the Law Department here: cincinnati-oh.gov/law
<< Revisit Lesson 4: How Cincinnati officials spend your tax dollars
