Clash looms in Richmond Heights tonight as city council mulls cutting mayor's pay

Mayor Miesha Headen stands with her family as
Congresswoman Marcia Fudge administers the oath of office

Just before Miesha Wilson Headen was publicly sworn in December 2 as mayor of Richmond Heights on a bright but cold Sunday afternoon at Faith United Church of Christ on Richmond Road, Congresswoman Marcia Fudge warned her that this would be the most harmonious moment of her tenure. A sanctuary full of well-wishers chuckled at Fudge’s wry but rueful observation.

High hopes and good spirits were everywhere as
Mayor Headen is sworn into office December 2

On January 28, at a Committee of the Whole council meeting, less than two months after those few hours of good feelings, a majority of the city’s legislators was giving the nod to a seemingly innocuous ordinance that would change the classification of the city’s Director of Public Safety from an appointed position to an elected one. In Richmond Heights, as in many of this area’s smaller suburbs, the mayor appoints herself as safety director to supplement what would otherwise be too paltry a mayoral salary. Current ordinances set the mayor’s salary at $15,000 and the safety director’s salary at $16,000.

Supporters of the reclassification suggested that this was a mere tweaking of the city’s governance structure, a minor housekeeping matter that would align with both standard practice and reality: since the safety director was habitually self-appointed by the mayor, why not just call the safety director an elected official?

Well, it turns out, as Headen was quick to note, such a move would basically cut her salary in half, since the city’s elected officials are not eligible to have their health care premiums paid by municipal funds. Headen said her family’s monthly health care premiums would easily exceed a thousand dollars, essentially wiping out her director’s salary.

While neither council president David Roche, nor finance committee chair

Council President David Roche

Donald O’Toole, both of whom are long-standing city legislators, acknowledged the validity of the mayor’s objection, they seemed neither surprised or deterred by the prospect of dismembering the mayor’s pay.

The reclassification measure is on the agenda for tonight’s council meeting and could be passed without further discussion. Headen would of course be expected to veto the legislation, but Roche presently has the votes to override virtually any mayoral veto.

The city’s law director, Todd Hunt, could play a decisive role here. Changing the compensation of an elected official midterm is generally frowned upon, even where it might be legal. Hunt, who has worked closely with the council majority for many years, could slow down this looming confrontation or stand aside and allow this train wreck of a bill to proceed.

The how and why the mayor and council came to be so quickly at odds will be the subject of a post later this week.

Richmond Heights

Richmond Heights residents can be proud of their city tonight. All questions at tonight's mayoral candidate forum came from an audience of perhaps 200 people and were well conceived to draw out candidate positions in ways that enabled those in attendance to get a clear sense of each candidate.

Here are the questions:

1. Do you believe in term limits?

2. What is your giggest accomplishment in public office or in life?

3. What would you do to collaborate withother cities to save money?

4. What are your plans for improving community services for our youth to encourage more families to move to Richmond Heights?

5. What would you do to make RH more environmentally friendly?

6. What is your plan or vision for future of RH?

7. RH is city with a forward look. How do you plan to use civic engagement so that it is relevant in 21^st century context?

8. What plans do any of you have in place to keep pools open and to have more diverse activities around the gazebo?

9. What about allegations surrounding properties on Chardon Rd.?

I did my best to transcribe the answers and will report them in the next day or two. Part Two of the evening {council candidates] is about to begin.

Real Deal mini-pieces: Richmond Heights, Nina Turner, Nonprofit Thursdays

   1. Today’s Plain Dealer carries a piece by editorial writer Joe Frolik [“Surviving the suburban squeeze”, page A5] in support of old-line Richmond Heights city leaders proposing a tax increase. Frolik gives not even a nod to the strong opposition of half the members of the city council’s finance and audit committees to the tax increase at this time.

We don’t intend to debate the merits of the tax increase here [Issue 91 on the ballots of Richmond Heights voters], but to call attention once again to the paper’s establishment biases. No one appears to disagree on the city’s difficult financial circumstances but the people calling for the increased revenue have not shown themselves to be good stewards of the city’s finances. 

Councilwoman-at-large Miesha Wilson Headen has raised reasoned objections to the tax increase. She points out that the city has failed to reconcile its bank accounts for almost three years, producing an audit finding of $40,395 gone missing in 2007 and 2008. 

In arguing that Issue 91 is ill conceived, hasty, and premature, Headen also cites the city’s failure to file Annual Financial Statements since 2008, in defiance of state law.

Surely these concerns are worth at least a mention in a column that hawks the views of the city’s long-established leadership.

22. Frolik is also on the bandwagon for fostering regionalism in Cuyahoga County and therefore gives an even more direct endorsement of Richmond Heights Issue 90, which would amend the city’s charter to facilitate the sharing of critical services like police and fire with neighboring communities. This is indeed sensible, so I guess that makes it o.k. to omit any reference to the way the city’s school system is about to implode, thanks to a long succession of school board members run amok with political concerns to the detriment of the children whose education should be their principal focus.

33. For those who take note of such things, the website Politic365.com is reporting that State Senator Nina Turner has filed paperwork creating an exploratory committee to run for Congress. The Real Deal has been unable to confirm this report. Federal election law generally does not require the filing of such a report prior to a candidate’s declaration of candidacy.

44.We will launch Nonprofit Thursday here this week, inspired in part by the interest generated by our posts last week on the Huntington giveaway, but also by a recent conversation with our good friend Dick Peery. So for those of you executive director and trustee types who are not yet regular visitors, make a note to stop by here Thursday morning.