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.

Election Day in Cuyahoga County: What We're Watching

Here are some of the storylines we are following as Primary Election Day unfolds in Cuyahoga County; what happens today will go a long way towards setting the stage for even more decisive public choices in November. 

U.S. Senate

• Will turnout in the black community be so miniscule as to persuade the incumbent Sherrod Brown that he must find new ways to strengthen his connection to African Americans?

Governor 

• Will the relatively fresh face and true blue conservatism of Lt. Governor Mary Taylor appeal to enough GOP trumpettes to puncture the tired facade of Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine?

• Will lifelong populist and pretend progressive Dennis Kucinich upset the earnest but unexciting Rich Cordray, whose mild manner shades a true dedication to effective public service?

Ohio Attorney General

• How might the unfolding charter school scandal currently centered on the apparently-criminal-but-in-any-event appalling behavior of ECOT officials affect voter perceptions of State Auditor Dave Yost?

Ohio Treasurer 

• Cincinnati Attorney Rob Richardson is perhaps the most promising black candidate the Democrats have fielded statewide in a non judicial race in memory. How will he fare in northeast Ohio?

State Senate 

• The District 21 race is filled with familiar names. Is this the last time voters will see the names of Jeff Johnson (backed by Congresswoman Marcia Fudge) and Bill Patmon (supported by Mrs. Patmon) on the ballot? Will the quiet but competent Sandra Williams cruise to renomination with the endorsement of Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson?

• Will State Rep. Marty Sweeney get a twofer? The notorious backroom brawler is trying to defeat fellow state Rep. Nickie Antonio for the open 23rd District state senate seat while sliding his daughter, Bride Sweeney, into office as his successor. Two Sweeney successes would confirm that old boy politics remains dishearteningly alive on the westside. 

• State Rep. John Barnes seems to do enough behind the scenes to keep him in the good graces of local municipal officials such that he has their endorsement at election time, notwithstanding his thoroughly uninspiring record in Columbus. Will he win sufficient support in his District 25 primary challenge to Senate Minority Leader Kenny Yuko to convince him to hang around and try again in 2022, when Yuko will be term limited?

Was there an establishment bias in the PeeDee choice to advance the callow ahead of the competent?

Ohio House

• District 10 is an open seat with a boatload of candidates vying to succeed the term-limited Bill Patmon. Can community organizer Kyle Earley ride the support of his mentor Nina Turner and the Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus to victory? Will former Cleveland city councilman T. J. Dow get his career back on track, abetted by councilpersons Kevin (city) and Yvonne (county) Conwell? Or will city councilman Anthony Hairston be able to install his protege Terence Upchurch?

• The most interesting candidate in this race is Ivy League-educated Aanand Mehta,  The Jones Day attorney is one of a growing cadre of second-generation Indian Americans entering the political scene. The Ohio Legislature already boasts one Indian American member [a Republican]. Hamilton County clerk of courts Aftab Pureval, now running for Congress, is one of Ohio Democrats' most promising stars. But in a diverse district that is predominantly African American, it is unclear that Mehta has made substantive connections with those he wishes to represent.

• District 12 is also an open seat. Juanita Brent is the endorsed Democrat and Dimitri McDaniel is a promising newcomer. But we hope voters support Yvonka Hall. We like candidates who educate themselves and the public on  important issues, who work outside politics to serve the community, and who thereby establish their community credentials before declaring their desire to "serve the people". As founder and tireless executive director of the Northeast Ohio Black Health Coalition, Hall checks all those boxes. She is not a go along to get along person and would take a new spirit to Columbus.

County Council

The Plain Dealer endorsement of Michael Houser for county council was concussive for thinking people. There simply is no way at this time that he measures up to the outstanding record of public service that Cheryl Stephens has compiled over three decades as an elected official (mayor and council member in Cleveland Heights), civil servant (economic development official for City of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County) and in the private sector. She is knowledgeable on the issues, well respected in development circles, comes to the table prepared, and is strong willed yet collegial. She is just the sort of thoughtful representative that a mostly meek county council needs around the table.

One might be tempted to think there was an establishment bias in the PD choice to advance the callow ahead of the competent. We hope the voters of County District 10 choose the independent Democrat Stephens over the machine-oriented Houser.

Common Pleas Court

We have written extensively about the highly contested races for the four open seats on the county trial court bench. We have endorsed Michael Rendon and extolled Karrie Howard, who we formally endorse here and whose election to the bench we think is of fundamental importance, both to the community as a whole and the black community in particular. We think both William McGinty and Andrew Santoli are qualified; our choice will be made in the ballot box.

The one race we have not discussed is the most troubling. Andrea Nelson Moore has been raked over the coals for a minor campaign misstep she made in a prior judicial race. Her convoluted and tin-eared explanation for that misstep earned her a zero rating from local bar associations and the Plain Dealer’s scorn. But the fact is she broke no law and, though suspended pending an inquiry, she was never sanctioned. Our problem is that her opponent, blessed with only a modest record of her own but a popular ballot name and an ample war chest, has blasted Moore as if she were a felon. The attacks have been relentless, pervasive, and in the aggregate, offensive. We prefer Moore in this race. 

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Finally, there are some underlying storylines that we are keen to follow. The Democrats are electing precinct committee representatives today. (The Republicans do it in presidential primary years.) A number of insurgents are on the ballot, though likely not enough to affect the party hierarchy. But there is a battle underway for the soul of the county party, and the precinct committee results may offer some markers as to how that is progressing.

The second underlying storyline has to do with endorsements by Cleveland’s most prominent black officials, Congresswoman Fudge and Mayor Jackson. They have backed competing candidates in several races in this cycle. Fudge’s choices often seemed tactical, that is to say, political, while Jackson’s appear more personal, rooted in his appreciation of loyalty.  What will today’s results say about the relative value of their respective endorsements? What will they say for the future of local black politics, especially among increasing speculation that Cleveland's next mayor will be white?

Dixon's long tenure at GCRTA speaks to Cleveland's sub-par political culture

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​Our low standards are killing us

The forced resignation of George F Dixon III two weeks ago as board chair of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority at the behest of his fellow trustees comes across as an urgent carbon monoxide detector. He resigned as his fellow board members investigate whether Dixon may have improperly failed to pay his share of premiums for his GCRTA subsidized health insurance.

The situation points once again to a Greater Cleveland political culture that recycles and rewards a collection of undistinguished political insiders — both elected and appointed — whose chief assets seem to be a general affability accompanied by a reluctance to rock the boat.

The administration and management of GCRTA seem at this moment to reflect the same political culture that enabled the Jimmy Dimora-Frank Russo era of just a decade ago.  Blessed with a high school education, Dimora epitomized the archetype of the jovial back slapping, deal-making public official.

Even after the FBI raid on their county administration offices and homes in July 2008 — Dimora was one of three county commissioners and Russo the county treasurer — most local Democratic Party apparatchiks were reluctant to challenge the duo’s leadership of the party. Over and over, when asked how they could tolerate the indicted pair’s continued party leadership, people would recite some favor or kindness rendered to them or a family member by Dimora as a rationale for enduring an unconscionable situation.

Our preference for affability and comfort over a commitment to excellence and service is one of the key hindrances to our community advancement. It is not the kind of cultural attribute one expects would appeal to a corporate giant looking to expand to a new community.

We don’t know George Dixon personally, nor have any facts emerged thus far established that he has broken any laws. People we respect describe him

George Dixon was appointed to GCRTA board
in 1992 and served as chairman from 1994
until he resigned under pressure last month.

warmly as an intelligent guy with an engaging manner. He did enjoy a reputation as the King of GCRTA, however, with an aura reinforced by the fact that board meetings took place in the George F. Dixon III Board Room.

Yet on the face of it, something is wrong when a person serves as chairman of a public agency for nearly a quarter of a century. As former judge and county council president C. Ellen Connally has written, such long uninterrupted tenures are breeding grounds for threats to the public interest.

Dixon’s departure opens the door for a major overhaul of the ten-member GCRTA board. Not only did the terms of Charles P. Lucas and former East Cleveland mayor Gary Norton expire on March 31, but two other trustees continue to serve after their terms have expired. Valerie McCall’s term expired in March 2017 and Leo Serrano’s term expired in March 2016.

Three of Cleveland’s appointees are serving past term and the fourth just resigned. It does not speak well for the appointing authorities — the Jackson and Budish administrations — to be so lackadaisical about making timely appointments to a vital public agency with more than 2000 employees and a $300 million budget.

Mayor Jackson likes to say Cleveland will not be a great city unless and until all its neighborhoods share in the prosperity of the city’s renaissance. Most of the people who live in those “least of these” neighborhoods don’t have cars and are dependent upon public transit to get to work, to the doctor, and to shop.

It would behoove Mayor Jackson and County Executive Budish to consider appointing some regular bus riders to the board. We see little evidence that the current board members identify with workers who face two hour commutes each way to jobs that pay less than a living wage.

Frank, if you want Cleveland to be great, start by giving us some great board members. Even better, do it with a sense of urgency and transparency. 

Don't keep letting it be "what it is".

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[Cleveland appoints four members of the RTA board. The County appoints three, and the Cuyahoga Mayors and Managers Association appoints three.]

Cleveland's mayor race: when is change gonna come?

Area voters are heading to the polls today to participate in what could be a transformative election both locally and statewide. It is a great misnomer to call this or any other non-presidential year an "off-year" election. Believing that democracy has off years or even off months, is a prescription for its demise. Back in the day when civics was taught in public schools — hell back in the day when there were common public schools — we learned that “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”

There is no shortage of communities in Cuyahoga County where cities face a key choice: keep on doing the same thing or chart a new course. Of course the biggest local race is Cleveland's mayoral contest between 12-year incumbent Frank Jackson and longtime city councilman Zack Reed. 

It seems clear that Cleveland voters want change from top to bottom. Jackson has accumulated a ton of baggage over his three terms: an abysmal record on lead abatement; virtual silence on matters of public safety, even in the face of outrageous police misconduct; a school system stagnant in too many areas; an unconscionable failure to apportion city resources equitably among city neighborhoods, most conspicuously between downtown and the more traditional residential neighborhoods. 

Throw in his advocacy for a dirt bike track, his coziness with the rich and powerful, his disdain for any real effort to make himself understood, and his general aloofness, not to mention his willingness to deny the people a voice on whether to expand Quicken Loans Arena deal, and it would be an open and shut case for voters to show him the door.

But to open that door and kick Jackson out means to select Zack Reed as his replacement; many voters are uncomfortable with that choice. They perceive Zack to be all churn and no butter, too unreliable and immature, even at age 56, to replace the old man and manage the billion dollar enterprise of city government, even though he seems to have effectively confronted and thereby corralled his acknowledged alcoholism for the last several years.

This race was Zack's to win or lose. For better or worse, the voters are tired of Frank, ready to kick him to the curb. We heard that pre-campaign polling showed a majority of likely voters didn’t even want Jackson to run again. So Reed's task was to demonstrate his capacity to govern and his readiness to lead, to make people understand his passion for public service, to show how he gained the reputation as city council's hardest worker, and to get buy-in for his vision of a better Cleveland.

Whether Reed successfully did enough to define himself and achieve those goals, or was beaten down by the hot tarring of relentless pro-Jackson assassins, is the question of the day.

We say if Reed wins, Cleveland will have a stronger champion for equity and a more attentive voice in City Hall. If he proves unable to close the deal, the cold hands of the Jackson Administration will carry the city's pulse for another long four years.

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