Miesha Headen sees potential of a model Richmond Heights

 [Disclosure: I’ve known Miesha Headen for about 20 years. We have worked together on a couple of professional and civic endeavors but we’ve never socialized. I have known her husband Raymond even longer, pretty much on the same basis. I consider them friends.]

NOTE: we had hoped to offer a short video of Headen similar to the opportunity provided David Ali, but were thwarted by technical issues.

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Miesha Headen is both a policy wonk and a serious politician. She is an auditor, trained to follow and account for the money. She likes to analyze an issue or problem, formulate a plan to deal with it, implement the solution, and then reassess. This is a process she follows so invariably that it's become part of her character. Who she is is what she does. What she does is who she is. WYSIWYG. [1]

So my first questions to her when we sat down over coffee recently were put simultaneously: when did she decide to run for mayor of Richmond Heights, and why. The first question gave her more pause, because she could not pinpoint a defining moment. In struggling to answer the "when", out tumbled all the "whys".

The Headens moved to Richmond Heights in 2002. They both had grown up locally in stable households, gone away to school [Columbia for her; Williams College, Penn Law, and London School of Economics for him] before returning home to northeast Ohio and planting new roots.

Like many professional couples, they were impressed by the city’s solid housing stock, and an apparent safe, open and tranquil character that augured well for starting and raising a family that now includes two boys, ages 9 and 6.

Over time, as she was acquiring a master’s degree in finance from Ursuline College [with a concentration in socially responsible leadership], Headen’s auditing eye began to detect some red flags in her sleepy suburban community. These included a succession of failed school levies [the number would grow to seven before one finally passed]; a good old-boy network of long-term residents [albeit one with a few women members, perhaps grand-mothered in]; questionable public finance decisions, and changing city demographics to which elected officials and others of influence seemed ignorant or indifferent, if not hostile. And all of this seemed strangely blanketed in the community that comforted itself as being “The City with the Forward Look”.

Off the sidelines and into the fray

Headen decided in 2009 to become part of the solution. In straightforward fashion, she ran for an at large seat on city council. She won [for how, see here] and pretty quickly began to make waves that afflicted the comfort of the city’s entrenched and shadowy governing circle. She started a blog, aptly named Absolutely At-Large, began digging into the city’s finances and uncovering its loose and extravagant financial practices.

Her auditing skills paid off: she discovered that the city had not completed a bank reconciliation of the city’s books in at least ten years. This led to the state’s auditors coming in to examine the city’s books, and to the startling discovery that the city’s finance director had made a double-booking error in excess of a quarter-million dollars. [She later resigned under pressure.]

At Headen’s insistence, the city now acknowledges on its website the nearly forty land parcels the city has acquired under the Ursu administration. She is especially upset with what she sees as Ursu’s pet project, the purchase and maintenance of Greenwood Farms.

Headen’s energy seems to have inspired a number of other Richmond Heights residents to become more engaged in the civic process. A school board that housed a viper’s nest of socially and financially irresponsible members has been largely swept clean and replaced with a more thoughtful and less hysterical majority. And city council itself is flexing, in both in membership and style, towards a new openness. At a League of Women Voters candidate forum earlier this month, all four council candidates, including the incumbent Donald O’Toole, affirmatively responded to the idea of “streaming video of all public meetings so residents could be better informed”.

Tension surfaces as allegations fly

Headen's insistence on financial responsibility and accountability, and transparency, while producing results, have understandably not endeared her to all of her colleagues in city government or her rivals in this year’s mayoral contest. It is probably fair to say that she is the least favorite opponent of each of the other three candidates. The mayor, whom she regularly challenges on policy matters, has accused Headen of “smearing other candidates.”

Another candidate, Dave Ali, grows almost apoplectic when discussing Headen, calling her “racist” and saying, in reference to a June powwow of some black elected officials, that she formed a group to “intimidate” him into dropping out of the mayor’s race.

Headen and others say that the meeting Ali cites was an exploratory meeting designed to get to know Ali and assess his viability as a potential challenger to the six-term incumbent.[2] When it became apparent in their view in the first ten minutes of the meeting that the scope of the job was not a fit for Ali’s skill set [i.e., he was in their view, grossly unqualified to be mayor], they encouraged him to run for city council. He refused and filed his mayoral petitions as soon as the law allowed.

Speaking of law, what really frosted Ali were Headen’s allegations that he and Ursu are in cahoots over a potentially lucrative deal involving public land and public grants. [You can read about this here, here, and here.] Headen may have the last word on this however, as she posted this response from the Ohio Ethics Commission on Monday. As of yesterday, the State Auditor’s Special Audit Task Force had forwarded Headen’s complaint about the land deal to both the State Auditor’s Northeast audit region and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for further consideration.

Headen looks ahead 

Personal questions and conflict of interest allegations tend to overshadow the question of what Headen would do as mayor, and the questions posed at the beginning of our conversation. She says that she’s running to continue to “change the culture” of city government, to make it more accountable, transparent, efficient and open. She wants to modernize the city’s commercial districts, which she says are “crumbling”, and beef up enforcement of the city’s occupancy codes to deal with absentee landlords of both commercial and residential properties. She staunchly supports the reinstitution of various city services, including such recreational facilities as the city swimming pool and ball fields, which she notes are important to attracting home buying families.

Headen said there is an “urgency for new leadership” to accomplish these goals and others. It was only in mid-summer, after the meeting with Ali and her assessment of the other candidates, that she decided, in consultation with many constituents, that she was best equipped to address that urgency.

Headen sees herself as qualified by profession, study, and strength of character to help “lead Richmond Heights into the 21^st century”. She promises to recruit an “expert team” that includes many current Richmond Heights residents and reflects more closely the diversity that already exists.

She notes that in a city that is 57% female and that has become home to thousands of new residents since 2000, all fifteen of Ursu’s appointments to the vital governing boards — Planning, Civil Service, and Zoning and Appeals — are males who have lived in Richmond Heights for decades.

Headen sees bright possibilities for her city. Ursu, she says, “no longer sees a better world. … I want to make Richmond Heights a model community. I would love to be the community that shows how to get it right!”

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[1] What You See Is What You Get [“Wizzy-Wig”]

[2] This meeting included four members of the Board of Education and councilman Russell Johnson, in addition to Headen. Councilwoman Eloise Henry, who had already declared that she was running against Ursu, was not invited and did not attend. Although four school board members were in attendance, no sunshine laws were violated because school business was not discussed, according to those board members with whom we have spoken.

Conversations with a candid candidate: RIchmond Heights mayor's race

David Ali, following LWV forum

Dave Ali would make a great neighbor and friend. He cares about his community, whether that is defined as his Richmond Heights neighborhood around Chardon Road, or the Glenville area where he grew up, worked for nearly half a century, and became a successful business owner and financially secure private citizen. He starts most every morning by walking his neighborhood and picking up the litter he attributes to those who hell-bent on turning his town into a ghetto. If you were sick, he would probably come over and cut your grass. If you were broke, he’d probably lend you some money and help you get back on your feet. And his loquacity makes him a fascinating conversational companion. Martin Luther King Jr. stopped by his family store in 1963, and after he sold his business two years ago for several million dollars, he traveled to Saudi Arabia for 23 days in 2012. At age 62, he appears healthy, and radiates physical energy, great pride and a strong work ethic.

Ali announced his candidacy this past spring with no political experience beyond photo opportunities with Cleveland public officials. On the basis of a few random phone calls before the mayoral field was fully formed, he has pronounced himself the frontrunner with a buoyant naïveté that exceeds that of even the most optimistic political novice. With absentee voting already begun, and after several months on the campaign trail, Mr. Ali told us he has no idea of the size of the city budget and no idea how many municipal employees he would be responsible for managing.[1]

Ali sought us out for an interview on October 20, 2013. We spoke on the phone for about an hour and met that afternoon and talked for another two hours or so. He was forthright in all of his assertions, often speaking with intensity, never more so than when disparaging councilwoman at large Miesha Headen, one of his opponents in the race. Headen has called for an investigation [see here and here] into a land deal that Ali has been negotiating with Richmond Heights and county officials to acquire valuable commercial property at Chardon and Richmond roads.

It’s easy to understand Ali’s upset with Headen. She is essentially alleging that Ali is pursuing what would be an unlawful interest in a public contract were he to become mayor. She has further suggested that Ali and mayor Dan Ursu — who is running for reelection against both Ali and Headen, along with Councilwoman Eloise Henry — reached a secret agreement for Ali to enter the race in the expectation that he would attract votes that would likely otherwise go to Henry. Henry, Ali, and Headen are all African American; Ursu is the lone white candidate in the race.

Unsurprisingly, Ali views this as preposterous on several counts. He asserts that he was the first candidate to file officially, discounting that both Henry and Ursu had declared months before Ali expressed interest in the race. [See here and here.] In fact, he says Headen is the one playing racial politics, citing her attendance at a meeting in July with most of the city’s black elected officials, including three school board members and councilman Russell Johnson. [Henry was not invited] Ali says the purpose of the meeting was to drum him out of the race, and that his rejection of the idea was emphatic.

While Ali clearly has little respect for either Ursu or Henry as answers to the city’s crying need for leadership, he reserves his deepest contempt for Headen. And he makes it personal. He repeatedly said, “her husband doesn’t have a job” and would not retreat from this position even when it was pointed out that her husband, Raymond C. Headen, is an attorney in private practice, and former counsel to former Ohio Treasurer Kenneth C. Blackwell. He twice asserted that Headen was running for mayor with the intent to fire the city’s law director and replace him with her husband, though he could cite no evidence for this claim.

Ali leveled other charges against Headen, among the kinder of which was that she is “bipolar and power-hungry”.

Ali described himself to us as “a decent guy who wants to give something back” to his community. He would argue that acquiring and developing the property at Chardon and Richmond roads is a manifestation of that desire. In fact, he is hyper-focused on the redevelopment of Chardon Road, citing the deterioration of the thoroughfare [he lives on Chardon Road], as evidenced by its many abandoned storefronts and the trash he picks up daily. He cites the many commercial vacancies as evidence of how the current mayor and council are “destroying the city” and turning it into “a joke” because, he says, “none of them have any business background.”

Ali, who says that he will be “the people’s mayor”, also distanced himself from Ursu and current council members David Roche, Donald O’Toole, Mark Alexander, and Marcia Starkey Morgan, who he said had mutually resolved “we gotta stick together.”

Ali claims not to see race as a factor in his campaign while simultaneously saying, “America’s biggest problem is race.”

Following the League of Women Voters’ candidate forum on October 16, [see here, here, and here], Ali approached us to denounce Headen’s accusations against him. He had said during the forum that he was planning to invest $500,000 of his own money into the Chardon-Richmond project. When I suggested that would likely be a conflict of interest if he won the election, his immediate response was that his 29 year-old son would buy and renovate the property with his own money. It was that statement, coupled with his insistence that he was misrepresented by his critics, that led us to offer him the opportunity to speak directly to the voters. He did so in this video, recorded October 16, 2013 at the Richmond Heights Middle School.

We made the same offer to each of the mayoral candidates after Ali recorded his message, setting a deadline of last Friday at 5PM. Ursu did not respond; neither did Henry. Headen accepted our offer; we expect to publish her video later this week.

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[1] For the record, the current General Fund budget for Richmond Heights is $7.359 million. The current Total Budget, including all dedicated, special, and other funds, is $14,754 million. The city presently has 54 fulltime employees, including 22 in the police department, and 17 [fire], eight [service], four [building] and three [finance]. Additionally, there are 39 part-time employees. Source: telephone conversation this afternoon with city finance director Paul Ellis.

BULLETIN: ALERT for RICHMOND HEIGHTS Voters!!

A report posted online this morning at Cleveland.com and updated at 10:57AM, which may also appear in today’s Plain Dealer, incorrectly states that four candidates are vying for one open seat on Richmond Heights City Council. That report is both INCORRECT AND INCOMPLETE.

There are four candidates — Carl J. Carter, Juanita Lewis, Donald O'Toole, and Edyta Postolowicz — running for two at large seats on the council. O’Toole is the incumbent. The second at large council position is presently held by Miesha Headen, who is running for mayor. Therefore, voters may choose any two of the four candidates in the nonpartisan race for Council.

NOTE: we will be posting a report on mayoral candidate David Ali this afternoon. Make a note to return here after 4PM to read a profile you won’t want to miss!

Richmond Heights mayor's race shows candidates in stark relief

By their words and deeds ye shall know them

The four mayoral candidates at the LWV forum in Richmond Heights last week offered voters three starkly different visions of the city's condition and future.

One candidate seemed to think everything was hunky dory, the future was bright, the citizenry was content and might even wish to consider erecting a new municipal building on public land across from City Hall. He said repeatedly the city was solvent, “not broke”.

That candidate was Dan Ursu, the city's six-term incumbent who seems blissfully unaware of the economic and demographic challenges his city has encountered since he became mayor in 1989. He cited his biggest accomplishment as leading the successful fight to keep the city’s hospital open when the Cleveland Clinic acquired it several years ago and planned to close it. His plans for the city’s future include encouraging development along Curtiss Wright Blvd. Understandably, he was the only candidate who said he was opposed to term limits.

A second vision, that the city is heading straight to hell in a hand basket, was energetically trumpeted by longtime resident Dave Ali, who is in his first try for public office.  The former owner of several businesses in Cleveland's Glenville neighborhood, Ali sounded like an apprentice carpenter with one tool. He argued that the answer to every problem the city had was financial and could be solved only by was a full-time mayor with a forthright business approach. On several occasions, he added, “If it don’t make dollars it don’t make sense.”

Among these problems, according to Ali, are high property taxes, municipal insolvency, inadequate police protection, poor snow removal, an alienated citizenry and a declining school system. He cited his rebuilding of an entire block on St. Clair Avenue in Glenville and said he wanted to do the same for Richmond Heights.

A third approach was presented by first-term councilperson at large Miesha Headen. She was in general agreement with Ali on many of the city’s problems, especially relating to the city’s fiscal condition and lack of city services, but she also identified municipal assets on which to build. She touted the city’s fire department as one of the county’s finest, saying that all of its employees were trained paramedics and that the chief was expert. She suggested that Richmond Heights could take the lead in joint efforts with other cities in collaborating around this asset.

Headen, an accountant by training, was elected in 2009 on a platform of accountability, efficiency, and transparency in government services, attracting more commercial business and revenue to the city, environmental stewardship and investing in the municipal services needed to retain families. She said that she had uncovered the city’s clandestine purchase of 39 properties and forced the Ursu administration to publicize these properties on the city website.

The fourth candidate turned in an odd performance. Eloise Henry is an intelligent and capable councilwoman who can be insightful in discussing her city. She was the first to declare in this year’s mayoral campaign but the last to file, submitting her petitions at deadline. But on this night she appeared disinterested, unprepared, and more than once lost her train of thought when answering a question. She said her biggest accomplishment in public life was securing the county assistance in eliminating the flooding of residents’ homes.

NOTE: The Real Deal has extended an offer to candidates to share their vision for Richmond Heights directly to the voters via a short unedited video. Two candidates have agreed to participate so far.