CPT • Tensions mount in Garfield Hts. over police conduct, council behavior

Cuyahoga Politics Today

Citizens disturbed by Ward 2 councilman’s behavior, want him to step down

A growing number of citizens are beginning to ask
how much the city cares about them or, alternatively,
which residents their public officials care about.

A group of residents calling themselves "Aggrieved Citizens of Garfield Heights" plans to present a letter at tonight’s city council meeting expressing “great concern” over recent behaviors attributed to Ward 2 Councilman Charles Donahue Jr.

Their petition, signed by nearly 80 residents, says that they “do not feel safe, and … are not confident in his ability to fairly represent and make ethical decisions for the community.”

The group references recent police brutality in the city and community protests for racial equity. Their petition also refers to reports that Donahue allegedly pulled a revolver on another driver in an incident two months ago in a Giant Eagle parking lot, in addition to several other incidents of “poor behavior choices” where he has been antagonistic to black people, including on social media, resulting in “egregious pain”.

We reported last week on a Facebook post by Donahue in which he characterized NFL players who protest police brutality by kneeling  during the playing of the national anthem as “bitches”.

The letter cites the city charter provisions that permit council to expel any member for gross misconduct, and “demands a response from city leadership as well as that this letter be read on the council floor” at tonight’s meeting.

One resident, Lanene Jones of Ward 6, wrote an email to Mayor Vic Collova and every member of council about the incident involving Officer Malek. She spoke at the June 22 council meeting and participated in a June 25 community program on racism and policing issues.

Jones does not believe that city officials are responding adequately to citizen concern. Last night she wrote an extensive and detailed letter to the mayor and council “expressing her concerns about the growing racial tensions in our city and the lack of interest or urgency to address it from some of our leadership.”

The letter echoes the concerns of the citizen’s group in calling on Donahue to step down or be removed. It expresses dismay that Collova and Ward 3 Councilman Nenadovich said they were behind the police department 100% and that the mayor would refer to the police as “his boys”.

Jones’s letter goes on as follows:

“Your message to the black community is that you will back a rogue police officer 100% regardless of how they treat us. You will keep them on the payroll terrorizing us in our city while they spend their paychecks in the cities where they live. You will pay out thousands of dollars of taxpayer money to keep someone in power that is a threat to our civil liberties.  I am asking you again to remove him from his duties to protect your integrity and to protect the safety of the black community that lives here, raises children, shops, and pays taxes in this city. We should be your greater concern.”

During the current pandemic, council meets by conference call. The public may attend by calling 978.990.5000 and using access code 530352#. The regular council meeting starts at 7 PM, preceded by a caucus, which starts at 6:30PM.

• • •• • •