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CINCINNATI – Alan Kalmanoff, the man appointed to oversee police-community relations as Cincinnati recovered from race riots in 2001 resigned Wednesday after city officials complained that his bills were excessive.  

Kalmanoff, who heads the nonprofit Institute for Law and Policy Planning in Berkeley, was hired by a federal judge last month to oversee Cincinnati's agreement with the federal government to improve police operations and a separate settlement of a lawsuit that accused police of harassing blacks. 

The City Council voted unanimously last week to challenge Kalmanoff's appointment. City officials objected to a $55,000 bill that Kalmanoff submitted for three weeks of work.  

Rioting broke out over three nights in April 2001 after a white police officer shot and killed an unarmed black man wanted on misdemeanor charges.  

Kalmanoff did not immediately return a call to his office. Mayor Charlie Luken, one of Kalmanoff's harshest critics, called the resignation “good news.”  

“It puts us back on track in terms of getting a monitor that all parties can live with,” he said. He said Kalmanoff “had the wrong chemistry” for Cincinnati. U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott, who appointed Kalmanoff, said only that she had accepted the resignation.