CPT • BREAKING NEWS: Marty Sweeney to join County Council after winning County Dems' unit vote

Cuyahoga Politics Today

By R. T. Andrews

Martin Sweeney at Cuyahoga County Democratic Party District 3 Executive Committee Meeting on Zoom

Former Cleveland city council president Martin J. Sweeney was selected to fill the Cuyahoga County District 3 seat left vacant by the resignation last month of County Council president Dan Brady. The closely contested vote was conducted this morning over Zoom.

Sweeney won a second ballot victory over attorney Brendan Heil, 35-27. Ryan Ross came in third with one vote.

33 votes were required to win the nod. On the first ballot, Sweeney led Heil 32 to 26, with Ross getting five votes; there was one abstention.

In a telephone interview with The Real Deal Press earlier this week, Sweeney, also a former state representative, said that he greatly missed public service and that if elected, he would dedicate himself to constituent service.

It is widely anticipated that Heil, who is the Cleveland ward 15 leader, and also president of the county's young Democrats, will challenge Sweeney when an election is held to fill the unexpired term.

The Heil-Sweeney contest was seen by many as a harbinger of what may be a changing of the guard in Cleveland's political climate, with so many key positions — the 11th Congressional District, Cleveland mayor, county executive — coming on the ballot in the next two years. And there are no doubt many Cleveland city councilmen anxiously awaiting to see how far the shoe drops when results of the 2020 Census become known. An expected steep decline in the city's population will trigger an automatic reduction in council's size, with some estimates that 4-6 seats will be eliminated.

Adding some intrigue to the contest was speculation by some that Sweeney was encouraged to enter the race against Heil by to deter Sweeney from challenging Cleveland ward 15 councilman Brian Mooney this fall. That encouragement was thought to come from forces aligned with council president Kevin Kelley, who is expected to announce soon his candidacy for the mayor's job this fall. 

Sweeney denied such speculation, although he did acknowledge in our interview that he was alerted to the county council vacancy by former county executive Ed FitzGerald, a known Kelley confidant.

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BREAKING NEWS: Karrie Howard to become next Cleveland safety director

Former federal and city prosecutor Karrie D. Howard to be sworn in today as safety director

Karrie Howard, appointed by Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson as deputy safety director for operations earlier this year, will be sworn in as Cleveland's Safety Director this afternoon at 1:30PM. 

Howard has been Acting Safety Director since June 1 when Michael McGrath went on vacation. McGrath officially retired this week.

Howard's appointment is seen by some as the culmination of a two-step process that was likely initiated when Howard was promoted from chief prosecutor to assistant safety director earlier this year. The sense is that Jackson wanted to give Howard some experience before promoting him to the top post in the safety department.  It is highly likely that McGrath gave a head's up to Jackson at least at the start of the year that he would retire. 

Some would have preferred Jackson either conduct a national search for a new director, and others stumped for the promotion of an internal candidate. But Jackson is most likely a lame duck, not likely to serve past the end of his record fourth four-year term. He is already the longest serving mayor in Cleveland's history. He has declined to announce whether he will seek a fifth term next year, but several likely candidates are already running unannounced campaigns, including at least two of his allies — City Council president Kevin Kelley and State Senator Sandra Williams — who would be unlikely to be running if Jackson were seriously considering trying to retain the seat.

Under these circumstances, it is highly unlikely that a national candidate would have accepted a job, not knowing to whom he might be reporting in little more than a year. 

Howard is a former Marine and Assistant U.S. Attorney. He ran for a county judgeship in 2018. A few months later he joined the Jackson administration as city prosecutor.

The swearing-in will be televised on TV-20 and also on the city's Facebook page.

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Editor's Note: Today's swearing in ceremony took place ahead of the time originally scheduled. It took place before the time it was first scheduled to be broadcast on TV-20.

CPT • Council President calls Tony George's bluff; George blinks; Voters stiffed once again

Cuyahoga Politics Today

Citizens Group takes City Council reduction off the ballot to "study" issue

Clergy group rides to restauranteur's rescue

Groundhog Day came two days early in Cleveland this year as voters ready to speak truth to power once again had their ballots snatched away in last minute negotiations conducted at a table where they had no seats.

Two proposed charter amendments — one to reduce the size of Cleveland City Council from 17 to 9 members, the other to slash the pay of council members from about $83,000 to $58,000 — were all set to be on the ballot on the March 17 primary election, when Clevelanders First, the group sponsoring the charter initiatives, agreed to withdraw their petitions for the equivalent of $24.00, some moth-eaten blankets and two nose-bleed seats to a Monsters hockey game.

Reducing Council's size could lead to a realignment whereby for the first time in history, Cleveland would have a majority black council.

Restauranteur and Busi-
nessman Tony George

The deal was announced Friday afternoon by Rev. Aaron Phillips at a hastily-arranged press conference on Friday afternoon at Greater Abysinnia Baptist Church on the city’s east side. Phillips is executive director of the Cleveland Clergy Coalition, which he describes as an “amalgamation of most of the city’s clergy groups”. Clevelanders First, an ad hoc assembly of mostly west siders, was represented by its spokesmen and by businessman Tony George, who clearly runs the group. George funded the effort to secure the 22,000 petition signatures submitted to city council in December. Once the petitions were ruled valid by the Board of Elections, council was required to put the issues on the ballot.

Also present were east side councilmen Mike Polensek and Joe Jones.

Noticeably absent from the press conference and seemingly not party to the deal was council leadership: President Kevin Kelley, Majority Leader Phyllis Cleveland and Majority Whip Blaine Griffin.

George backs down

How and why this deal came together is not altogether clear. In fact, Phillips said on his Monday radio show that while he favored a resolution that would keep reduction off the ballot, he feared it wasn’t going to happen. By the end of the week, he was proclaiming its accomplishment. He also made some comments about race that bear scrutiny.

While the Clergy Coalition’s actual size and strength is not apparent, what is clear is that Phillips has become an important player in local politics. His political consulting firm, Engagement Consulting LLC, is regularly contracted for service, especially by white west side judicial candidates without bona fide crosstown community connections. His ability to get these candidates in front of black preachers adds to his credibility, if not necessarily to that of the ministers.

Phillips has also become an adept multi-platform communicator. He has a Monday drive-time radio show on WERE which he simulcasts on Facebook. Recent guests have lined up precisely with candidates endorsed by Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, who Phillips touts as the indisputable leader of the black community.

Phillips is also reputed to have a close relationship with George, who may have overplayed his hand in this council reduction issue. It was widely reported that George wanted Council to switch the city’s electricity contract from NOPEC to First Energy, and that Kelley’s refusal to go along led George to push council reduction as payback.

But as George himself acknowledged at the press conference, he pushed a similar council reduction issue back in 2008. Then-council President Marty Sweeney was willing to negotiate city charter changes that George thought reasonable.

Rev. Aaron Phillips, shown above with County Prosecutor
Michael O'Malley and County Executive Armond Budish, right,
at October 2019 fundraiser for the Cleveland Clergy Coalition.

George told me months ago that he was willing to negotiate this time as well, that he was open to a reduction in council size to perhaps eleven or thirteen. Kelley, however, was intractable, perhaps because one of George’s conditions was that Kelley resign from council, or at least step down as president. Kelley, who is expected to run for mayor if Frank Jackson ever retires, of course found George’s position wholly unacceptable.

Rev. Aaron Phillips with Cleveland City CouncilPresident Kevin Kelley at October fundraiser. The event was held at Crop Restaurant on Lorain Ave. in Ohio City. The restaurant is one of many owned by Tony George.

Phillips said at the news conference that a reputable organization, most likely Cleveland State University, would be asked to perform a comparative study to establish what council’s optimal size and configuration should be.

While George praised the idea as brilliant, and repeatedly thanked Phillips for the Coalition’s intervention, the study seems like a fig leaf to cover George’s total capitulation. When Kelley refused any deal, George chose to fold, despite holding what was likely the whip hand, given the voters’ rampant displeasure with City Hall. Speculation in some circles is that George didn’t want to fund a campaign that he had thought he could win for what it cost to gather sufficient petition signatures.

When George belittled Kelley and his leadership team at the press conference for their refusal to accept the deal whatever recommendations may come out of the study, his combative tone belied the fact of his total surrender. Neither Jones nor Polensek, the two councilmen who spoke at the press conference, is a staunch Kelley supporter; their presence seemed designed to suggest that George actually had a negotiating partner.

Winners and Losers

The obvious winners in this ballot issue cancelation are Phillips, council members, and Mayor Frank Jackson, who recorded two “e-newsletters” that essentially said cutting council in half would make council even more distant from the voters.

George was not the only big loser in this deal. Any Cleveland voters looking to reform a legislative body that has circumvented their efforts to secure a living wage, stop the unpopular decision to expand the Q [now Rocket Mortgage Arena], and had to be forced to address the lead poisoning crisis, by threat of yet another voter initiative, have once again been deprived of an opportunity to be heard. Their choice has been taken away, and this time they don’t even have a villain.

And possibly rubbing salt in the wound, the ballots are already printed so voters will see the two issues. If Clevelanders First follows through as expected and notifies the Board of Elections to withdraw the petitions, the board is required to post signs at the polls saying votes on the issue will not count.

Early voting begins February 19.

When is race NOT a factor?

With Cleveland’s hyper segregation, no discussion of representation can take place without considering the impact of race. In fact, when we spoke with black opponents of council reduction, they typically focused on the diminution of black power since there would be fewer black council members. They seemed not to consider whether a reduction process might lead to a realignment whereby for the first time in history, Cleveland might have a majority black council.

Both on his radio show last week and at the press conference, Phillips suggested that the council reduction issue would in effect lead to a race war between the east and west sides of town. This hoary argument apparently had some effect on the west side Clevelanders First, because they said they were unaware of these tensions and wanted to avoid them.

What’s more likely is that some black councilmen were ready to play the race card in order to scare their constituents into believing that council reduction was a strategy to contain black political power.

Implications for redistricting, 2021 mayor’s race

The 2020 census may prove us wrong, but we believe it likely to show some surprising demographic shifts in the city’s population. We suspect the city’s proportion of people of color has shifted westward in the aftermath of the foreclosure crisis that hollowed out much of the city’s east and southern sections.

What this means for the redrawing of ward lines is totally unknown. Council presidents have usually had a large say in how this has been done in the past. But Kelley, who paradoxically is seldom challenged by his caucus, is not a strong president. In a secret ballot he likely would not be favored to retain his post. And if Jackson decides not to run for a record fifth term, Kelley is expected to run to succeed him. Will he be able to control the reshaping of ward boundaries in an election year?

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CPT: Beachwood surprise, Progressive Caucus, precinct battles, Patmon redux

​June Taylor swearing-in highlights Greater Cleveland’s cultural challenge

June E. Taylor is sworn in
as member of Beachwood
City Council, Feb. 5, 2018

After June Elizabeth Taylor was sworn in as the newest member of Beachwood City Council last night, she took the citizen’s podium to thank her supporters and to share some thoughts about her life, her appointment, and her philosophy.

Her new council colleagues selected Taylor last week after an open and transparent process to fill the vacancy created when then-council president Martin Horwitz defeated longtime mayor Merle Gorden.

Following the November election, Taylor was among 17 people who responded to an open call for applicants. Every applicant was granted an 18 and 1/2 minute interview.

When Taylor finished speaking, there was little if any doubt among the 100 or so people gathered in council chambers that the best candidate had been selected. She thanked a small battalion of friends and mentors for their friendship and support. A few of the more recognizable names she mentioned and that we were able to capture illustrate the depth and breadth of the support she carries, both within the city and across the state — Mal and Barbara Mixon, Jim and Debbie Wert, Ed and Mary Crawford, Amy and Rob Frost [County GOP chair], Shontel Brown [County Dem chair], Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, former Ohio House Speaker Jo Ann Davidson, Gov. Kasich]. 

New councilwoman June E. Taylor, center, is surrounded by well-wishers,
L-R, Leon Anderson, Patricia Anderson, Tayloria Anderson, and Flossie Brisker.

None of these were idle or puffed references. In addition to her day job as president of the tech company, MAC Installations, Taylor chairs the Ohio Casino Control Commission and sits on the board of trustees for Cleveland State University. The public agency positions are both courtesy of Kasich appointments.

Taylor was also profuse in her appreciation of her neighbors, her daughter’s friends parents, and a host of others, including of course her family. Her prepared remarks were gracious throughout, and by turns politic and direct. She spoke of her own family values — her remark about her father wanting her to be smart in terms of book sense, common sense, and dollars and cents found an audible responsive chord — including education, preparation and excellence. She showed a respect for the city’s public employees and her own understanding that she was now an official public servant.

Conspicuous by its absence was any direct mention of Taylor’s race. There were likely more African Americans in council chambers last night than perhaps ever in that city’s history, but I heard not one reference by anyone that Taylor is the first African American ever to sit on Beachwood City Council.

That is more than likely something traceable directly to the candidate. As some good church folk say, the new councilwoman is unmistakably and unapologetically black. But Taylor chose in her remarks to focus on personal relationships, values, and standards, and the room took heed from her stance.

James Pasch, council vice president, seemed to confirm as much in a telephone call following the meeting. He added that he felt Taylor came to the applicant interview extremely well prepared and full of creative ideas on ways to improve municipal performance.

It seemed a rare moment in the county's Byzantine politics, when matters of race and ethnicity were subsumed by discussion of standards and values and community benefit.

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Progressive Caucus holding forum today for eastside State House candidates

Group also preparing to file for 100s of Dem precinct slots; Bill Patmon files for District 21 Senate seat

The Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus continues what has become its leadership role in presenting candidates to the public at numerous public forums all over the county.

Today at 6p, the Caucus is sponsoring what it had announced as a forum for State Senate District 21 and House Districts 10 and 12. The event is being held at the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Community Center, 3450 Lee Road, in Shaker Heights.

The event may have broadened significantly because last-minute requests for CCPC endorsements have come in from State Sen. Kenny Yuko [D-25] and State Rep. Kent Smith [D-8].

A caucus spokesman said the deadline for seeking CCPC endorsement is tomorrow, which is also the filing deadline for candidates wishing to be on the May 8 primary ballot.

Yuko is Senate Minority Leader but was recently denied the Cuyahoga County Democrats’ endorsement in the primary, at least partially because of issues being churned by the unsettling alliance between US Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-11 and regressive political forces best represented by former county prosecutor Bill Mason and his allies, most notably Cleveland City Council president Kevin Kelley. 

The Fudge-Mason alliance seems to be clashing for primacy with new forces within the Democratic Party, represented in part by the Caucus and also with the emergence of new candidates who don’t always feel the need to kiss the rings of party elders. The results can be be seen in how the endorsements came down late last month and in the shifting of lanes in county judicial races that may continue until tomorrow's 4PM deadline.

And of course the ever-present elements of race, class, gender and geography are always a part of these party dynamics. It certainly makes for more exciting and complicated politics than the Republicans experience. For them, underneath all the high-falutin’ discussions of states’ rights, limited government, individual freedoms, and strict interpretations, it’s almost always just about the Benjamin$.

At least until the summer of 2015, when, thanks to a certain candidate, it began to be more about race, ethnicity AND money.

But tonight, there will likely be a steady effort by almost all of the candidates to introduce themselves or in the case of Yuko and Smith, remind their constituents of what great service they are providing. Rep. John Barnes, D-12, who is challenging Yuko for his Senate seat, told RDP he is in Columbus preparing for a committee hearing tomorrow and will not attend tonight.

The following candidates are expected to participate this evening:

Senate District 21: Jeff Johnson [his opponent, Sen. Sandra Williams, did not RSVP.]

House District 8: Kent Smith

House District 10: Kyle Early, Aanand Mehta, Andrew Schriver, Billy L. Sharp

House District 12: Yvonka Hall, Dmitri McDaniel

 Democratic Central Committee contests

Every four years, all precinct committee seats appear on the ballot. GOP central committee seats are on the ballot in even years, alternating with the Dems.

With the filing deadline for all races at 4pm tomorrow, insiders are looking closely at files for the roughly 920 seats available countywide. It is these central committee slots that can influence a party’s direction.

The Progressive Caucus may run as many as 200 candidates for these seats. And we are hearing that the Mason forces are up to their old tricks. When Mason served as county prosecutor, his office served as a political factory. Despite electoral promises made in 2016 by then candidate Michael O’Malley, we are receiving reports that Prosecutor O’Malley’s office is doing a brisk business circulating candidate petitions during business hours.

LATE BREAKING NEWS:

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State Rep. Bill Patmon, D-10, who is term-limited from running for the House again this year, filed today for the 21^st District State Senate seat currently held by Sen. Sandra Williams. 

In other news, we hear Mueller Tire is doing a brisk business in retreads.