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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CPT: Cuyahoga Politics Today

Challenger emerges in Cleveland’s Ward 3

CLEVELAND — The list has dwindled to two.

Logan Fahey

Social entrepreneur Logan Fahey pulled petitions last Friday to enter the Ward 3 Council race, becoming the first open challenger to the incumbent Kerry McCormack, who was appointed last April to succeed Joe Cimperman after the latter resigned to head up Global Cleveland.

Only councilmen Tony Brancatelli in Ward 12 and Brian Kazy in Ward 16 remain without at least one declared opponent on Board of Election records for either the September 12th primary election or the November 7th general election. The filing deadline for Cleveland's council, mayoral, and judicial races is June 29.

Council races are nonpartisan, meaning that if fewer than three candidates file for a seat, there is no primary contest in that race.

Potential candidates often pull "blind" petitions, meaning their names do not appear on the election board's rolls unless and until they file with the required number of signatures. This is generally done for strategic or tactical reasons. For instance, as we noted last month, while former councilman Joe Jones is circulating petitions to regain his old seat in Ward 1, his name is not listed with the Board of Elections.

Ward 3 includes the downtown district, which means it's fertile ground for campaign donations. It also includes the Tremont, Ohio City and Flats neighborhoods, as well as a portion of Clark-Fulton and the Stockyards.

Fahey pulled petitions to run for the Strongsville Board of Education in 2015 but does not seemed to have filed for the election, possibly because he had or was moving into Cleveland. We were unable to reach Fahey for confirmation by our deadline.

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With so many candidates running for Cleveland City Council and to challenge Mayor Frank Jackson, many will place a greater premium on this year's Democratic Party endorsements. While most incumbents generally get endorsed as a matter of course, given that Ward 2's Zack Reed and Ward 9's Jeff Johnson are each running for mayor, there will be at least two open seats. And widespread anger with Ward 14's Brian Cummins' waffling on the Quicken Loans financing deal, coupled with rising determination of Cleveland's Latino population to reestablish its presence on council, is fueling speculation that Cummins may not run for re-election. That would be a cruel irony, given that Cummins' reason for supplying the important 12th vote for the deal was to sustain his leadership position and benefit his ward's status in the pecking order. [See this excellent piece by Sam Allard for a full discussion of Cummins' professed angst.]

Cleveland members of the Party's executive committee will meet July 8 to endorse in this year's primary races. With early primary voting starting in mid-August, the endorsements will be closely watched, as they may the first public signs of the relative strengths of major candidates in the mayoral and high profile council races.

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Coalition forms to put Q Deal on the Ballot

A newly formed coalition has come together to challenge the $282 million deal to expand Quicken Loans Arena by putting it before Cleveland voters.

Announcement of the coalition came less than 36 hours after Cleveland City Council approved the deal Monday night in council chambers packed with supporters and opponents of the controversial legislation.

The coalition, comprised of Greater Cleveland Congregations, Service Employees International Union Local 1199, Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus, AFSCME Ohio Council 8, and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 268, will need to collect 6,000 valid signatures from registered Cleveland voters within the next 30 days to bring the Q deal before Cleveland voters through the referendum process permitted by the city’s charter.

Given the membership bases of these groups, and their organizing skills and experience, collecting the necessary signatures could probably done in a matter of days. It is likely, however, that the coalition will take longer, possibly to make a show of strength by submitted considerably more than the charter requires.

Once the signatures have been gathered, the petitions must be presented to the clerk of city council. When the petitions have been verified, Council has the choice of either reversing its 12-5 vote or placing the issue on the ballot.

Council would set the date for any referendum vote. Possibilities include this year’s primary or general election dates [Sept. 12 or Nov. 7] or a special election.

The debate over the expansion of Quicken Loans Arena has centered on several issues. Proponents assert that the facility, built in 1994, must be modernized to keep it and Cleveland competitive among its peer groups: the National Basketball Association and the regional venues that seek to attract events ranging from truck shows, concerts, circuses, etc. They point to the Q’s importance as the area’s leading driver of economic activity with nearly 200 events a year. Without this bill, they say, promoters will bypass Cleveland and the Cavaliers could leave when their lease expires in 2027.

Critics have expressed many concerns. They say the deal was done behind closed doors without adequate representation of the public interest. They question whether Q expansion is an appropriate expenditure of public funds in this manner at this time and in this amount. Almost all of this expansion will be paid by public dollars, claims to the contrary notwithstanding. The city is committed to $88 million, Cuyahoga County will pay $16 million, and the quasi-public Destination Cleveland will contribute $44 million of tax revenues. The Cavs will pay the remaining $122 in the form of increased rent for the improved facility, the rent of course being public revenue.

Greater Cleveland Congregations has repeatedly sought to engage Cavaliers management and public officials in dialogue about a community benefits agreement that could enhance the entire community and not merely the arena. In this morning’s press release announcing the coalition, GCC co-chair Pastor Richard Gibson of Elizabeth Baptist Church said:

“From the beginning there has been an unwillingness to develop a deal that addresses the critical ills in our neighborhoods like high unemployment, inadequate mental health crisis centers, increasing gun violence, and persistent challenges in schools. More energy has been spent attacking our proposal than considering or developing a deal that would more broadly impact our city and county.”

Critics say beyond the deal’s finances are these larger questions: why are neighborhood needs consistently shuffled to the back of the agenda in favor of downtown? When will the corporate and political leaders abandon the discredited notion that “trickle down” economics works? How can we build a community that prioritizes human needs over athletic shrines and play palaces? How might we create a community where all voices are equally valued?

As the Q question moves towards a likely ballot battle, it may be hard for voters to keep these larger questions in mind. A court challenge to the referendum by corporate interests is a distinct possibility. Personal attacks are likely to escalate. And all of this will unfold in the midst of a citywide election that sees the mayor and all seventeen council seats on the fall ballots.

REPORT: Q ‘Transformation’ deal facing strong headwinds in crunch time

​If deal gets through city council, it will likely face referendum in an election year

The most intriguing year in local politics in a generation got even more interesting last night when Cleveland City Council president Kevin Kelley held up final passage of a bill that he and the Jackson administration want to pass as emergency legislation.

Last night Council meeting was to have been the third and final reading on the legislation to expand Quicken Loans Arena for a total public cost of $282 million. But Kelley postponed the vote with the thoroughly implausible explanation that some council members wanted more time to study the issue.

The controversial bill has already had more hearings than most city hall legislation gets. On April 4, Council’s six-member Development, Planning & Sustainability Committee, chaired by Ward 12’s Tony Brancatelli, found all but two of Council’s 17 members spending large parts of the day at the six-hour session.

The bill’s proponents assert that upgrading the publicly owned arena — they like to call it “Transforming the Q” — will enable Cleveland to keep pace in the escalating race among municipalities to retain or attract professional sports teams and various entertainment events. They claim that without the upgrades, the Cavaliers are likely to leave and bookings will wither, leaving the city with an expensive white elephant. The proposed deal extends the Cavs lease with the Q an additional seven years until 2034.

Six council members have announced opposition to the legislation: Zack Reed [Ward 2], T. J. Dow [7], Mike Polensek [8], Kevin Conwell [9], Jeff Johnson [10], and Brian Cummins [14]. Their “no” stance is supported by more organized civic outrage than any issue in recent memory, centered principally on two arguments: [1] the city has much greater needs than improving the arena, and [2] the deal is an inequitable transfer of wealth from poor, neglected neighborhoods and residents to downtown interests that are not only wealthy but already heavily subsidized.

Kelley’s delay in moving the bill final passage to final passage was not totally a surprise. Speculation was rife over the weekend that council leadership was seeking to inoculate the bill from a referendum challenge by securing twelve votes in its favor, meaning it would pass as “emergency legislation” by a 2/3 majority. While some doubt whether a 12-5 vote would achieve that aim — a court challenge by opponents would be all but certain — another reason for the delay may be closer to the truth: the measure may be more in danger of losing support than in gaining that crucial extra vote.

Indeed, the unpopularity of the measure among the electorate is widely acknowledged: the bill stinks to high heaven of privilege, greed, and disdain for neighborhood development. Arguments that speak to the Q’s value as an economic driver fall have little currency to an electorate that has been repeatedly sold the same trickle-down bill of goods even before the Gateway development that built the Indians a new ballpark and brought the Cavs downtown was first proposed in the early ‘90s.

While the Cavaliers and their emissaries have worked diligently behind the scenes to court wary members of both Cuyahoga County Council and Cleveland City Council, they have consistently refused even to acknowledge the concerns of the citizens groups that will likely drive the coming referendum effort. Instead, the team left it to county executive Armond Budish and the respective council presidents to carry their water. 

Budish was almost over the top in championing this deal, while county council president Dan Brady seemed to have his patience taxed by the organized opposition. Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson appeared at the December press conference announcing the deal and lent it his typical stylistically tepid support. Since then, however, he has been conspicuously absent from waving the flag publicly for the deal.

With good reason, no doubt. Jackson is running for an unprecedented fourth term this fall, and he will encounter the most intense opposition of his long political career. He’s been mayor for twelve years, long enough to have accumulated a long list of wounds and a resume with several major shortcomings that stand alongside a litany of accomplishments.

Budish and Brady managed to get the legislation past County Council by an 8-3 vote but Cleveland was always going to be a harder play. Its full time council people are collectively far more seasoned as a political body and they play a much harder brand of ball than their county counterparts. City council members are structurally much closer to the people — city wards average about 23,000 citizens, while county districts are each about four times that size. Moreover, city residents tend to be poorer and would be paying for this deal twice, as both city and county taxpayers].

Most importantly, however, getting this deal through city council would be a supreme challenge because every one of its members is on the ballot this year. Only two of them have not declared or signaled intent to run for re-election — Jeff Johnson is challenging Jackson’s reelection bid for mayor, and Zack Reed is widely expected to join that race as well.

The lobbying will no doubt intensify this week, but it is probably too late. Any council member who switches sides to support this bill would almost certainly be defeated this fall. And while Zack Reed told Scene magazine that Cavs owner Dan Gilbert lobbied him directly, there is no sign of any concession on the horizon that could lead to a compromise.

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Mansfield Frazier announces run for Cleveland City Council

Tossing hat into ring for Hough’s Ward 7 seat

The well-known journalist and community activist, Mansfield Frazier, has announced his intent to run for Cleveland City Council in Ward 7. His presence will further enliven a race that already includes the incumbent, T. J. Dow, several other newcomers, including Daniel Graves and Demar L. Sheffey, and Basheer Jones, who ran against Dow in 2013.

Frazier currently serves as the executive director of Neighborhood Solutions, Inc., a non-profit organization that has developed an award-winning vineyard and BioCellar in the heart of the Hough neighborhood that anchors the ward. He also is a columnist for CoolCleveland.com and hosts a weekly show, The Forum, Sunday evenings on WTAM 1100 talk radio.  

[Disclosure: I hired Frazier as a reporter in 1998 when I was editor of The Cleveland Monitor, at that time a weekly newspaper focused largely circulated on the county’s eastside. I have also been a guest on his radio show.]

In a press release announcing his plan to pull petitions at the Board of Elections tomorrow, Frazier, who has been perhaps Dow’s most vocal critic for the past few years, cited safety concerns, deterioration of city services, and lack of development among issues confronting the ward, saying, “the situation has become intolerable”. He also blasted Dow for his alleged failure to return phone calls in a timely manner, from both constituents and businessmen interested in investing in the community.

Frazier told The Real Deal Press that he will take leave from his radio show he in a month or so, after his petitions have been filed and verified, and his candidacy becomes “official”. He said he would return to the show “after I win”.

The nonpartisan primary election is September 12. The top two finishers will advance to the general election in November. 

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Update on 'Don King Way'

Update: This morning we wrote with uncharacteristic vehemence about the proposed redesignation by Cleveland City Council of a stretch of Cedar Avenue as “Don King Way”. We promised this update after we had reached out to the measure’s co-sponsors, council members Phyllis Cleveland and Mamie Mitchell. We emailed each of them this morning and called them this evening but were able to reach only Ms. Mitchell, alas too late in the evening to conduct an interview. 

We believe this issue merits thorough public discussion that goes beyond even our own excited outburst this morning. We will continue to report on this matter, which we understand will go before a council committee on Monday. Stay tuned!