Silence in the Face of Outrages in Richmond Heights

It is increasingly apparent that the response to the initial outcry from members of the boys’ varsity basketball team a few months ago was the proverbial canary in the mine: a signal that there were poisonous elements in the air and that emergency remedial measures were in order.

More than the coach’s outrageous behavior and impermissible language [well, impermissible to most citizens of good conscience, if not to the majority of Richmond Heights school board members], it was the lack of an appropriate response that was a measure of the toxicity in the Richmond Heights public sphere.

It seems that while many if not most people in the sleepy suburb are still unaware of what is being done in their name, those who do have an inkling of what has been happening have either made personal adjustments [e.g., removing their children from the school system] or turned their backs to the odor emanating from the city’s school board.

We have tried over the past few weeks to restrict ourselves to more or less dispassionate reporting of the board’s public meetings, with some occasional contextual comments to explain some of the back-story.

But the back-story is now the story, or at least it should be. What is going on in Richmond Heights can no longer be confined to the sports pages of the daily paper or the fly-by coverage of local TV news seeking to capture the sound bites of human conflict.

And it certainly won’t be found in the weekly Sun Messenger, whose editorial and reportorial coverage is, to put it charitably, clueless. Earlier this month the paper called for Hardwick’s removal by the board, accusing her of being “more interested in carrying out personal vendettas … than in properly running the school district. “

Now let’s look at what the public has not been told:

1.     The board recently voted to give members of the district’s teacher’s union a two per cent raise retroactive for the school year just concluded.

2.     The superintendent claims publicly to have been improperly excluded from these negotiations.

3.     The school district has not been accredited since approximately 2000.

4.     Notwithstanding whatever public posturing has been going on, the operating board majority of Josh Kaye, Bob Fox and Aaron Burko is foursquare behind reinstating Jason Popp as basketball coach next season.

5.     The Kaye-Fox-Burko majority has consistently interfered in school matters well beyond their duties of policy-setting, interacted improperly with district employees on a regular basis, and gone so far as to inform several of them of their intent to fire the superintendent.

6.     The board president had to be backed into a verbal corner by a district parent at a public meeting before he would concede that the outrageous behavior alleged to have been committed by the basketball coach violated district policy.

7.     The board demanded in writing of a non-district employee assigned to the school to be advised of  the person’s personal relationship to the parents who are fomenting “racial” trouble.

8.     Basketball coach Jason Popp not only applied to coach the boys’ basketball team in 2011-12, he also applied to coach the 2011-12 girls’ basketball team.

9.     The board majority has failed to acknowledge the enormous impropriety of having the union president — Jason Popp — serve as party to contract negotiations while simultaneously contesting his discipline by the superintendent, discipline that they oppose.

10.  The board majority has thwarted or undermined virtually every educational initiative sought by the superintendent, fired key aides she brought in to assist her, rejected an offer by one of those aides — a Clevelander highly celebrated for his contributions — to volunteer his time and talent on behalf of the district, and stood by idly as the teachers union forced the return to the State of $100,000 in Race to the Top funds.

We could go on, and we will.

Come back tomorrow and we will let you know the real deal on what happens at tonight’s school board meeting and how the Kaye-Fox-Burko trio may try to block the superintendent’s recommendations of a new coach.

And for those of you are watched the video from the last board meeting: a major reason this trio — more than nine months before the law would require such action — resolved not to renew the superintendent’s contract , was to turn her into the lamest of lame ducks, and send an unmistakable signal of complicity to the teachers’ union with whom they are about to negotiate another raise.

Richmond Heights voters will have a chance to weigh in on all this in November.

Divided Richmond Heights school board fires another potshot at Superintendent

Hot debate precedes vote not to renew contract

Legal and ethical issues surround pair of 3-2 board decisions to dump supt., hire former board president as legal counsel

In a highly contentious and legally suspect fashion, the Richmond Heights Board of Education voted 3-2 at a 7:30AM special meeting yesterday not to renew the contract of Superintendent Linda T. Hardwick when it expires next year on July 31.

If the board does not offer Dr. Hardwick a new contract, it would continue the revolving door of district leaders that had one teacher in attendance estimate that at least nine superintendents have come and gone during her 20 years in the district, including three in the past four years alone.

Board president Josh Kaye introduced the resolution immediately after the board reconvened following the executive session it had entered as soon as the meeting starting. Only two board members — Bobby Jordan and Linda Pliodzinskas — registered surprise at Kaye’s motion, as did the superintendent, creating an inference that while the issue had not been discussed at the closed door session, the other board members — Aaron Burko and Bob Fox — had been apprised of Kaye’s intent.

Pliodzinskas, the senior member on the board, registered a number of objections to the resolution, especially pertaining to the timing of the resolution and the existence of many issues of much greater urgency.

Board president Kaye, aside from explaining the effect of the resolution, offered no rationale for its support, leaving that task to Burko. Bob Fox joined Kaye and Burko in supporting the motion, with Pliodzinskas and Jordan opposing. Video of the motion, discussion and vote here

Board member Fox then introduced a resolution that the school district add former board president Charles Tyler to its roster of attorneys. Tyler was board president last year when he resigned as a result of a job transfer out of town. 

When asked about his relationship to Tyler, Fox at first downplayed his connection to Tyler before eventually admitting that Tyler had represented Fox’s wife in litigation and was the family attorney. 

Fox defended his recommendation by saying that “the hiring of friends has gone on here forever.” Fox praised Tyler’s legal skills and suggested that Tyler could save the district money on its legal bills. After the meeting, Fox told The Real Deal that the district’s legal bill for the fiscal year ending this month could exceed $200,000.

The debate over Tyler raised questions of ethics, conflict of interest, and public perception. Pliodzinskas and Jordan opposed hiring Tyler at this time, citing ethical and professional concerns, the haste with which the issue was presented, incomplete information, and the departure from board norms in making decisions in June on organizational matters usually resolved in January. 

Jordan's motion to table the hiring of Tyler but his motion was defeated 3-2, as he and Pliodzinskas were on the losing side on all meeting long.

Several legal experts consulted by The Real Deal raised a number of legal questions about the meeting, including the Board’s possible non-compliance with Ohio’s Sunshine Law, with respect both to the adequacy of public notice for the special meeting, and appropriateness of the items presented under “new business”. 

After the meeting, Brenda Brcak, the district's chief financial officer, said that the Lake County News Herald  (an out of county publication) was the district's daily paper of record and that the Sun Messenger was its weekly paper of record. However, the Sun-Messenger did not publish an edition after the meeting was scheduled and it is unknown whether the News Herald published notice of the meeting. Brcak also said the meeting notice was published on the school district's website, but several people, including at least two city officials ,have said they looked at the site but did not see any such notice.

Of possibly greater concern was whether board member Bob Fox had a conflict in proposing and voting for the district to retain an attorney who has represented members of his immediate family.

“The hiring of friends has gone on here forever.”

— board member Bob Fox, in support of his resolution to hire former school board president Charles Tyler, his friend and former family attorney.

The board is scheduled to have yet another special meeting tomorrow night at 6pm to determine formally whether disgraced coach boys basketball coach Jason Popp will be allowed to return next season, or whether the superintendent's recommendation for his successor will be accepted.

* Three short videos on the portion of the meeting covering the discussion of Charles Tyler are being uploaded at Facebook as I post this. Each video carries "RichHts action on ChasTyler" in the title. The links will be posted as soon as they are available. 

Video Links added at 2PM: 
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFe9hzNO8cU

Richmond Heights School Board Tables Action but the Decision Has Been Made

 The fat lady hasn’t sung yet but you can hear her warming up just off-stage.

Officially, the Richmond Heights Board of Education tabled until June 22 the recommendation of School Superintendent Linda T. Hardwick to appoint Beachwood High assistant coach Jason Priah to coach the Spartans varsity boys basketball team for the 2011-12 season.

Unofficially, putting the decision off for a week was a clear signal to savvy board watchers that the struggle to save Popp’s basketball job is over and he is out. 

This result was not immediately apparent when board president Josh Kaye came out of what was surely a contentious executive session lasting about two hours and announced that the board would not be deciding on the boys’ coach at the meeting. His statement came just before 10:30PM, three and a half hours after the meeting had started.

Kaye attributed the board’s decision “not to decide” to the introduction at executive session of “new information” that had been brought to the Board’s attention and said the matter required further “research”.  He indicated that the Board was likely to decide by the end of the month.

The meeting then returned to the published agenda as the television news teams and the Plain Dealer reporter all began to withdraw.  Kaye’s announcement signaled to them that there would be no dramatic action to announce on the 11PM news or in the morning sports headline. As it turns out, they left prematurely.

The twenty-plus members of the public who stayed to the end included several parents of the boys who had protested coach Popp’s intemperate reign. Among the parents and relatives were Frank Barber, Nneka Slade Jackson, and Carlos Slade.

Waiting more than four hours for the public participation of the meeting was not going to deter them. After all, they had been waiting more than four months for a fair and final resolution. Last night, with boys and girls summer basketball leagues already underway, and every school in the conference reportedly participating but their own, and with the superintendent on record with her choice to replace Popp, the parents focused their fire on the Board and unleashed their frustration.

The brother and sister team of Jackson and Slade performed a pick-and-roll that pushed the board to advance its next meeting, promise to resolve the situation, and, after four months, to acknowledge, virtually for the first time, that Popp’s alleged behavior was inappropriate. We will be posting video of the public exchange later today.

Slade was even able to prod board member Aaron Burko into admitting that he had filed a report with fellow board members months ago about what his observations after sitting in on the February meeting where coach Popp was presented by the parents with the charges against him and denied nary a one.

Intelligent and affirmative citizen action is a beautiful thing.

Flunking the test in Richmond Heights

We have been digging into issues in the sleepy but deeply troubled Richmond Heights community for about the past two months. What we have learned — from the public record as well as from numerous conversations with public officials, past and present school district employees, parents of children in the district’s effective but critically-ill school system, other district residents, school volunteers and others with knowledge of the city’s schools — has so shocked us that we have had to work to maintain appropriate distance from the story to be able to tell it fairly.

Most county residents, your scribe among them, likely paid scant attention to the tiny suburb of Richmond Heights before the boys basketball coach became an advance ad earlier this year for the forthcoming Cameron Diaz comedy, "Bad Teacher". Aside from the occasional attention  the town may draw as home to the county airport, or for its Richmond Town Center at Wilson Mills and Richmond Roads, the place is easy to overlook. Tucked underneath the City of Euclid, its large municipal neighbor [the county’s fourth largest city] in the northeast part of the county, it is possible to drive through Richmond Heights without even knowing you have been there. Its roughly 10,000 residents live in a mixture of mostly ranch homes and a few large off-the-beaten path apartment complexes.

The city’s profile was raised in February when the entire high school boys varsity basketball team pushed their parents front and center to demand that the school district remove their coach because of his creation and maintenance of a racially hostile environment directed at them. The coach, Jason Popp, is a health teacher at the high school, and also president of the teachers union.  The all black team and ready to forfeit the balance of their then-undefeated season if the situation was not resolved.

School superintendent Linda T. Hardwick, when confronted by the parents, quickly confirmed the likely veracity of the boys’ complaints — which Popp appears not ever to have denied — and replaced the coach for the balance of the season. 

Hardwick later set forth certain conditions under which Popp might be permitted to return. When Popp, with the none too subtle back channel support of several school board members — even as a new teachers contract was being negotiated — defiantly refused to apologize to the students or to take other steps also required by the superintendent, Hardwick told the board  last month that she would not consider Popp as next year’s coach.

Tonight, according to various published reports, Hardwick intends to recommend Jason Priah as Popp’s successor. Priah has been an assistant basketball coach at conference rival Beachwood for the past four years and was highly recommended. He comes with the endorsement of both the district's athletic director and the high school principal who interviewed him.

It is expected that a Board majority, led by its twenty-six year old president, Josh Kaye, who less than a decade ago was a Richmond Heights High School student, will reject Priah as a candidate. They will likely cite for the record vague legal and technical concerns if they choose to comment at all. But Kaye has regularly signaled that he wants Popp to remain as coach even if, as seems likely, not one boy comes out for the team, and that the majority of the best team in school history transfers out of the district.

It remains a public mystery why Richmond Heights parents and taxpayers, have not descended en masse upon the board of education to demand answers to some very basic questions:

1.     Why isn’t the Board on record condemning the utter unacceptability of any district employee gratuitously demeaning, belittling, and/or insulting any other member of the Richmond Heights school community?

2.     How can the Board justify considering extending a new contract any district employee who has so flaunted federal and state laws, as well as board policies and the union contract, by engaging in such conduct?

3.     How does a majority of the Board reconcile its desire to reinstate Popp as coach for next season, knowing that Popp’s conduct is the basis for one or more of the several complaints that have been filed with the Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Education and are currently under investigation?

4.     What kind of legal advice is the Board receiving that would protect the District from heading down the expensive road of defending these claims in court?

5.     What makes Jason Popp more valuable to the District than the children he is charged with nurturing and protecting?

To pose these questions is important, even though the Board will likely duck and cover as best it can. All over Richmond Heights, and indeed throughout Cuyahoga County, these questions should be asked until the truth comes out.

The Board meets at 7PM tonight at district headquarters. Return to this space tomorrow for the skinny on what happens.

Video of Supt.'s Announcement on Richmond Heights Basketball Coach

This video was shot by The County Reporter for publication here at The Real Deal. The video speaks for itself but confirms the account published here in our last post. 

The video begins by showing the adjournment of the official May 16 meeting, followed immediately by Board President Kaye’s gestured invitation to Carlos Slade to pose his question. In the context of the evening as well as prior events, Kaye and everyone in the room knew that Slade was going to ask about the school district’s stance regarding Popp.

Slade is the father of a Richmond Heights middle school student and the uncle of a varsity basketball player. His pointed question, directed to  school superintendent Linda Hardwick, asked whether responsibility for inaction on Popp’s status  rested on her shoulders or on the Board of Education.

Her reply, made with the tacit approval of the Board, as indicated by their silence, was that she had made her decision in the best interest of the children, and that she would not consider an application by Popp to return as coach. Her response produced vigorous and agitated responses from board members Aaron Burko and Bob Fox.

• • •

Interested citizens may wish to compare the video with the account published by The Sun Messenger, which reads as if ghostwritten by the operating Board of Education majority.

That account invites readers to infer that the superintendent spontaneously began discussing her decision not to accept the application from health teacher  — and teacher’s union president — Jason Popp to coach the school’s high school basketball team next school year. Hardwick had relieved Popp as coach in February after the team refused to continue playing if he remained as their coach and the players’ parents had submitted a letter detailing Popp’s alleged verbal abuse and denigration of the team, their family members and the community.

The S-M account fails completely to acknowledge that school superintendent Linda T. Hardwick was responding to a question from a resident that board president Josh Kaye invited and permitted after the board’s official meeting had ended.

Let us know your views of the following account after watching the video:

http://blog.cleveland.com/sunmessenger/2011/05/jason_popps_coaching_status_re.html

See also:
http://mobile.cleveland.com/advcleve/db_96574/contentdetail.htm;jsessionid=F9D76EFCD402DA752CA46AC204D79FF8?contentguid=XFUOFAG5&detailindex=4&pn=0&ps=5&full=true

• • •

Next week’s board meeting promises to be as entertaining as any Spartans basketball game. If you care about education in Richmond Heights, you might want to be there early. The meeting is scheduled to start promptly at 6PM on Wednesday, May 25.

Superintendent Announces Decision on Richmond Heights Basketball Coach

Superintendent Announces Decision on Richmond Heights Basketball Coach

Disarray and Discord Dominate Richmond Heights School Planning Meeting; 
Board Member Fox Outraged

“Things are seldom what they seem; skim milk masquerades as cream.”

—   Gilbert and Sullivan

Shortly before the start of Monday’s special board meeting, Richmond Heights school superintendent Linda Hardwick placed an envelope on the table where each board member would sit.

The envelopes remained unopened throughout the regular meeting, perhaps because the board members sensed the contents contained political anthrax. After all, last Friday’s Plain Dealer had reported that Hardwick planned to announce her decision about whether to reinstate Jason Popp as high school basketball coach. She had removed him ¾ of the way through the team’s undefeated regular season when team members, supported by their parents, complained about his regular and repeated use of racial slurs. Popp is white; all team members are black.

The published agenda for the meeting called for the board to hear a report on family and civic engagement from Deniese Spencer followed by an executive session to discuss personnel, legal, and other sensitive matters that public bodies are allowed by law to consider outside of public view.

Neither of these events took place. Spencer was not present and the board scratched the executive session before proceeding to hear reports from senior staff about future plans for the district. For the most part, these reports appeared disjointed and not terribly useful, more living room discussion than serious information sharing or planning.

The staff reports came out in informal and more or less random  fashion. Topics discussed were varied, including: summer cleaning; the need for air conditioning at the start of school in August; the status of textbook orders; the need for a foreign language teacher at the elementary level; declining enrollment; progress on a master schedule for the school year; the challenges of special education; transportation issues including the need for new busses; school district collaboration, the insufficiency of the district’s supply of working computers; the oncoming need to name new coaches for the winter sports, whether there will or should be a reconfiguration of the middle school this year or next; the desirability of the district’s regaining its accreditation; the importance of behavior modification training to equip school staff to deal with problematic student behavior; the availability and cost of textbooks; the number of seniors at risk of not graduating; the concern that some students may be gaming the system of supplemental education; and the fact that not a single teacher had signed up to teach summer school.

If the foregoing seems complex and disjointed, it mirrors the impression this reporter had from the meeting. There was precious little planning being done at this “planning session”.

Important information was being disclosed however through this two hour and fifteen minute session. The district treasurer revealed that the annual allocation of funds for the purchase of new computers regularly went unused.  School enrollment is declining at a rate of about 50 students each year. Six nurses who applied for the position of school nurse rejected an employment offer once they learned the salary before one accepted. Her probable start date is July or August.

Almost in passing, spurred by its treasurer, the Board seemed to arrive at a consensus that a levy would have to be placed on the ballot in 2012 to deal with the enormous drop in state support to local school districts in the prospective state budget now being negotiated in Columbus. Members acknowledged a duty to propose the levy while publicly presuming a lack of voter support that would make attempted passage a vain exercise.

Throughout the meeting there was a palpable sense of tension between some members of the board — most notably Bob Fox, but also Aaron Burko — and the school superintendent. This manifested itself both in their respective tones when addressing one another and also in the way they repeatedly interrupted each other to dispute things that had been said or done in the past.

The discussions were most antagonistic around two issues. Fox and Burko were irritated by an alleged lack of accountability on the part of community liaison Deniese Spencer. They asserted that she was hired as a direct report to the Board but seemed to hold the superintendent responsible for Spencer’s failure to keep the Board informed. They were impatient and dismissive of Hardwick’s attempts to read and/or summarize Spencer’s reports to her.

For her part, the superintendent claimed she was being kept out of the loop as to the status of union negotiations. Discussion of this issue should have been staged at the elementary school as she and various members of the Board [I’m sorry, the three white men] traded accusations of irresponsibility. [“It’s your fault.” “No, it’s your fault!” “NO, It’s YOUR FAULT!”]

Before this meeting came to its official end, resident Carlos Slade spoke up from the audience. The father of a 7^th grader and uncle of a member of the high school’s basketball team., Slade asked the Board for 5-10 minutes to discuss an important issue. Board president Joshua Kaye attempted to parry the request, citing a legal limitation on the meeting, but Slade was persistent and would not be denied. Kaye then  proposed that if Slade would be patient, the entire board would remain after the meeting was adjourned to hear his question. Slade consented to this request and the meeting continued until 9:15PM as reported above.

During the unofficial continuation of the meeting, Slade directed his inquiry to the superintendent regarding the unresolved status of coach Popp’s suspension and possible reinstatement as basketball coach. Slade said the delay was doing much harm to the district, causing many parents to make plans to enroll their children outside of the district for the next school year.

Hardwick replied by saying she had made a decision, one she believed was in the best interests of the children, and that she had conveyed that decision to board members by letter.

As board members then recognized, opened and read the contents of the envelope in front of each [Fox did not open his letter, saying he would not be able to keep his composure if he read the letter — he lost it anyway!], Hardwick said she would not accept the application from Jason Popp to coach the boys basketball team next year.

The meeting broke up at this point with several board members crying foul. Aaron Burko said that Hardwick’s public statement subjected the district to potential legal liability and tossed out a likely cost of 20 to 30 thousand dollars. Fox did not read the letter but nevertheless verged towards apoplexy.

* This post to be continued. Video of parts of the meeting including the superintendent’s statement will be posted, hopefully within 24 hours. Stay tuned.

Ruminating in Retreat from the Rain

I’m sitting in the East Ninth Phoenix Coffeehouse waiting on a noon appointment, wondering what effect the rain — cold, nasty and nearly nonstop — will have on the suburban school levies voters are deciding today.

I especially have my eye on the outcome of the vote in Euclid and Maple Heights. The communities have different political dynamics but also share many key characteristics, including declining median incomes, a majority of students classified as economically disadvantaged, “continuous improvement” status for most schools, and a significant increase in each district’s African American population over the last decade. Of note is that each district has several brand new buildings coming on line in the next few years.

Race and class are the fault lines in American society. They are the 8,000 lb. gorillas in our boardrooms, living rooms, and legislative bodies. We won’t be competitive much longer as a nation if we don’t find ways to have honest, intelligent, informed and civil discussions about their impact upon our polity, our economy, and our society.

Cuyhaoga Dems & Repubs: Confluence and Contrast

  This week found me attending the annual dinners of both the Cuyahoga Democratic Party and the County Republican Party. I’m not sure if they typically fall in a four day-period but the contrast was instructive.

  It had been some time since I had witnessed a GOP function in the flesh, and as it was my first-ever Lincoln Day shindig, I was uncertain what to expect. 

  I was struck immediately by subliminal markers as I entered the GOP turf and moved towards the Grand Ballroom of the downtown Renaissance Hotel. First, all I saw were white people. A lot of them old. Thin. Wealthy in appearance. No identifiable Hispanics, or even Asians. There was a smattering of young professionals. 

  Whether I moved around or stood near a central vantage, I seemed invisible to most attendees. I was looking for either familiar or friendly faces but found only a few. One belonged to Bruce Akers, the ever-gracious mayor of Pepper Pike, a consummate political insider who is always ready to listen and engage in reasoned exchange. 
  Another friendly face belonged to Skip Claypool, an affably dogmatic Tea Partier from Geauga County.

  Once I received my media pass [the volunteer handling that chore was, to my delight, a regular reader of the irregular Real Deal] I moved around with a little more verve, confident that I would not be unmasked and expelled.

  I stationed myself at the ballroom entrance, the better to observe  the entering celebrants. Like the Democrats three days earlier, the main event was preceded by a VIP reception. The GOP crowd was more subdued, notwithstanding their  November victories that have them feeling entitled to remake Ohio. ["Give them an inch, they'll make it a mandate."] 
  There was a cash bar and a silent auction display that seemed to feature mostly Reagan adorabilia. Laura Bush seemed more popular than her husband, and there was a heavily discounted offering of books by Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi donated by “a former Democrat”.

  There were about 750 people in attendance, about the same number as attended the Democrats’ bash. The room was much bigger, however, so the evening seemed less intimate and the attendees were in the main less gregarious. The evening’s loudest roar came when final passage of Senate Bill 5 was announced.

  New Ohio Treasurer and hometown boy Josh Mandel was given a prime opportunity to speak. There seems little doubt that he will challenge Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown next year, as Mandel went out of his way to address standard GOP hot buttons like abortion that have little to do with state finances.

  The evening’s featured speaker was former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, who recently kicked off his campaign to be the Republican nominee in next year’s presidential campaign. While he was blunt, harsh, and direct in his assault on President Obama’s leadership, Pawlenty still managed to appear more reasonable and thoughtful than just about all of his rivals for the GOP nomination.
  Pawlenty denounced President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for not understanding that America is exceptional, and that “our place is to lead the world in everything”.

  I counted perhaps fifteen black faces in the crowd, exclusive of hotel staff, or about 2% of the nominal heirs to the party of the proclaimed "Great Emancipator".

• • •

  The foregoing account may fuel perceptions that I am race-obsessed. Rest assured that I did no racial counting at the Democrats’ bash last Sunday at the Intercontinental Hotel. The gathering was too integrated for that. In fact, by most demographic measure — race, gender, religion, geography — the Democrats were so thoroughly integrated as to render such considerations moot.

  A relaxed tone for the evening was set during the invocation by a priest who delightfully, naturally, enthusiastically and reverentially channeled his inner Father Guido Sarducci. Of course the mood of the Party was enhanced by numerous surprising touches initiated by new county party chair, Stuart Garson. There was  — gasp — an open bar [!], which adroitly shut down before relaxation could turn to mischief, and then reopened when the dinner ended exactly on schedule, as an inducement for attendees to continue mingling.

  The evening clearly reflected from beginning to end chairman Garson’s desire to obliterate any connection with the Party’s slovenly past, dominated by the hail-fellow-well-met atmosphere fostered by its disgraced former officials, Jimmy Dimora and Frank Russo.

  On this evening the effort was a complete success. Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson was characteristically brief, but several members of Congress spoke, and all were on and off the podium in record time. There was a professional video that radiated pride in Democratic core values, and a total orderliness to the entire proceedings at the Inter-Continental Hotel. The impression fostered was that of a party focused on its mission.

  The dinner was a pricey $175, in contrast to the GOP’s $50 affair, but the Democrats need operating cash.

  Keynote speaker for the evening was Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, who is the face of the new, leaner, inclusive, and effective party that Garson is intent on building. His demeanor — humble, professional, earnest, compassionate, and policy-oriented to serve county residents — seems to make him ideal for the role.

Of "Secrets" and Transparency, Part I

Far too much has already been written about the December 3 meeting at the home of county councilman-elect Julian Rogers, especially by our local daily. The Plain Dealer has led the chorus denouncing what they so obviously enjoy referring to as the "secret" meeting that resulted in the agreement -- now in tatters -- among six members-elect to support C. Ellen Connally for president and Dale Miller for vice president. The vote was to have been last Monday but that was scuttled under the PD's intimidating bullhorn and angry spotlight.

There has been too little analysis accompanying the outrage, however, so a week later we offer our assessment of this tempest. We do acknowledge however, that the paper did offer what was likely a fair sampling of public commentary on its website, even citing two of our favorite bloggers, Anastasia Pantsios here and Jill Miller Zimon here.

Our first observation is to note that calling the meeting "secret" is inaccurate. There is no evidence that the organizers or attendees intended to keep knowledge of the meeting hidden. That this was never a goal is clear, given that councilman-elect Chuck Germana was told about the meeting beforehand but not invited, pretty much a surefire way to get the word out.

Further evidence that the meeting was not secret was that we were able to report its results almost immediately afterwards. Our informant was not at the meeting but had received the news from one of the key attendees who had called to share it. So even after the meeting there was no press for "secrecy".

In short, the meeting was "secret" only if you define secrecy as being not broadcast via press release or open to the media and general public.

A better characterization of the meeting is to say it was "private", in the sense of not being open to the public.

Did the meeting violate what Cuyahoga residents voted for when they passed the new charter? I don't know, although there are lots of folks who are screaming "YES". But do not count me among the presumptive mindreaders who now speak with precise authority about what voters wanted last November.

The result of that election was clear. The vast majority wanted change. Heck, even many opponents of Issue 6 and/or supporters of Issue 5 [not necessarily the same people] wanted change. It is a near-certainty that most of us wanted an end to corruption and nepotism, more honesty and openness, greater efficiency, more transparency, fewer executive sessions and an end to backroom deals regarding the expenditure of public funds.

Did we even discuss how the council president would be selected? Did we want less partisanship? Arguably, but the drafters and promoters of Issue 6 gave us a complete charter, crafted behind closed doors, that did not call for nonpartisan primaries or elections.

Let's be clear. We also wanted smarter government than the 19th century commissioner system and the six council members-elect have gotten off to a poor start in assuring us that we will get it. They could have found a better way to select their leadership, and they most certainly should have been more courageous about it.

In my view, council members should never have promised a public process, only a transparent one. The difference: the Democratic members had a right to caucus, and should have explained the circumstances under which it was appropriate to caucus. They should have then announced that they were going to caucus, worked our their leadership, and then announced the results. Transparency achieved.

The larger point that needs addressing is where we go from here. We are a fragile and fractured polity, and we are like the generals fighting the last war, with too little regard for how the landscape has changed. We will talk about this tomorrow.

Breaking News: Connally to be new county council president

The Real Deal has learned that C. Ellen Connally, D-9 will be the first president of the Cuyahoga County Council.

Connally has been competing for the post with fellow Democrat Dale Miller, D-2. Each was understood to have been supported by several Democratic council members-elect. The two have agreed to work together, with Miller slated to become vice-president.

Among other things, their agreement means that the top two council positions will be headed by Cleveland residents. Connally's district comprises several inner-ring suburbs, while Miller's district includes some west side suburbs. The pact also negates the possibility that the presidency of the overwhelmingly Democratic council could have been decided by the three Republican members of the council.

The council members-elect will meet in public session at 8 AM Monday at Cleveland State University for an unofficial vote that is expected to ratify these results. The official county action will take place on January 3 following the New Year's Day swearing-in of the new county officials.

Miller confirmed this information when telephoned by The Real Deal this afternoon. He deferred any discussion of how the pact was reached to the putative new president. We have been unable to reach Ms Connally for her comment but did confirm the information with a public official who advised us that Miller had called her to share the news.

NAACP Misses a Moment, but Hope Lies Ahead

Yesterday’s NAACP election was a potential watershed moment in Cleveland political history. It was an opportunity to move beyond the representational politics that have come to dominate much black political activity, especially in communities still operating on old ethnic group patronage models of allocating political and economic resources. This obviously includes places like Cuyahoga County, where black political activity in the post-civil rights era often amounts to a kind of race relations management in which the have-nots fight in the trenches while the higher ups are busy allocating the spoils.







It helps us to understand events when we are able to see them in the larger contexts of structure and process. The political scientist Adolph Reed Jr. has written compellingly about black politics in the post-segregation era. He talks about the nonparticipatory politics enacted by the mainstream black politicians where the undifferentiated masses, the underclass, do not speak. The spokesman is identifiable, but his constituency can be defined only by inference.







The Plain Dealer account of yesterday’s NAACP election said that George Forbes won an easy victory over his opponent and quoted him and member Jocelyn Travis as attributing the victory to Forbes’ being essential to protecting the black community’s economic interests.  The story was incomplete as to facts, one-sided as to sourcing, disingenuous in its analysis, and devoid of context that would suggest why the election had any significance.







Forbes was indeed re-elected yesterday for a tenth term as president of the Cleveland Branch NAACP. To say, however, that he “easily defeated opponent Lawrence Floyd” or that his candidacy was “in response to a mandate” as the page 1 teaser put it, is to advance dubious propositions.







Forbes received 65 votes to 53 for Floyd. Nine contested ballots went unopened because they would not have affected the twelve-vote margin. When you consider that there were 18 unopposed candidates on the Forbes slate running either for officer positions or for executive committee seats, the race was more like 19 people against one. The size of the vote and the relative slimness of the margin against a solitary opponent, who was not a household name, actually attest to a tenuous victory and a rising chorus for change.







Forbes’ team includes several officers — Bishop F. E. Perry, attorney James L. Hardiman, Dr. Eugene Jordan, and Amos Mahsua, CPA — who average about 30+ years on the board. Unverified numbers provided to The Real Deal indicate that local branch membership has dwindled to less than 1500, including many churches, social organizations, businesses and others who hold Life Memberships that were fully paid decades ago. Attendance at this year’s Freedom Fund Dinner, the branch’s major fundraiser, was only about half of what it was back when Forbes was first elected president, notwithstanding the growth claims he made in a letter sent to the membership just last week.







The fall off in support for the NAACP is not just local. The national office is challenged regularly to defend its relevance in a post-segregated world. This is not a post-racial America even though we are a generation beyond the basic legal racial restrictions in voting rights, public accommodations, and the like. However, in critical areas — criminal justice, public education, voter disqualification, housing, police misconduct — there are persuasive arguments that far more sophisticated tools of discrimination and exclusion have been developed.







The need for a strong and vital civil rights organization will doubtless be coterminous with the history of the country. If you doubt it, ask pretty much any immigrant of color without a Ph.D. Neither wealth, power, status is any guarantee against arbitrary discrimination.







The Cleveland NAACP has become a model of exclusion where alternative voices are discouraged, debate is stifled in the false idol of racial unanimity, and power is concentrated in whimsical and tyrannical hands. The idea that only one octogerarian man can assure equitable treatment for 400,000 black people — is of course, ludicrous. The re-elected president has now attributed this irrational view to both the casino moguls and to the local NAACP lay leadership.







The same values of transparency, collaboration, accountability, dialogue and inclusion that motivated the best efforts of county reforms must become core within the NAACP. This is the surest if not the only way in which the Cleveland NAACP can once again become a trusted community partner.







The next branch election is two years away. Join the NAACP now, get involved and make a difference. That is the hope that lies ahead.

Time for a NAACP president who believes in Black People

There are moments when a speaker will say something that illuminates their core beliefs that is far more revelatory than they could have imagined or intended. It comes across with such immediate and astonishing clarity that all else the speaker says just fades away. For me, such a moment occurred when George Forbes answered a question at the NAACP Executive Committee meeting in September.


Under discussion was the local NAACP branch’s apparent inability to generate much publicity about its ACT-SO program [Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics]. ACT-SO is a student enrichment program to promote academic and artistic excellence among students of African American descent, culminating in a local and national competition.

Cleveland youth have had considerable success in recent years in national competition, bringing home several gold, silver and bronze medals, in addition to numerous scholarship awards. The concern at the September meeting was why the Branch had been unable to get a story about the most recent successes published in the Call & Post, a paper that targets the local black community.
Mr. Forbes’ offhand answer was direct: “Hey, look, it’s a black newspaper. You have to write it, take the pictures, and deliver it to them.”

The remarks were delivered with an avuncular sort of bemusement that the question even had to be asked. 'See here, he was saying, these are black folks. They can’t do any better. It’s not a real newspaper, you know. It’s not like they have real writers and editors.'

There it was: the emperor with no clothes. Here was the leader of the local chapter of the nation’s preeminent civil rights organization, charged first and foremost with defending and advancing the interests of African Americans, pretty much putting down his own race and proclaiming the incompetence of black people.
Is it any wonder that white power brokers in Cuyahoga keep going to him for deal-making about county reorganization, or protection from complaints about a lack of inclusion when multi-million dollar contracts are being discussed?
Keep in mind that Mr. Forbes’ name appears on the masthead of every issue of the Call & Post, advertising his status as “Chief Legal Counsel”. In front of fifteen or so presumed advocates of equality and inclusion, he is publicly, nonchalantly and gratuitously denigrating his incompetent client, owned by his good friend and client, the boxing promoter Don King. [Mr. King would not even be the owner of the paper but for his lawyer’s suggestion, but that’s a story for perhaps another day.]

How long can Cleveland’s black community allow George Forbes to speak for them and allow him to negotiate on their behalf when it is clear he does not respect them?

Mr. Forbes could be heard last week vouching for the integrity of a wealthy white businessman for the umpteenth time. Dan Gilbert can be trusted, he told a lunchtime group of mostly senior citizens – NAACP Life Members whose votes he will be looking for this Sunday to maintain his bully pulpit. Mr. Forbes had dealt with a lot of rich white men, he told the crowd, citing his friend and former client, the late Dick Jacobs -- and he knew which ones to trust. Therefore, the community could be assured that black people would be treated fairly.

One by one, three members of Dan Gilbert’s development team, stood up at the luncheon and assured the crowd in the most reasonable tones, that they would work closely with Mr. Forbes to insure a fair deal for the black community.

Newcomers to Cleveland figure out where Mr. Forbes is coming from after about five minutes of watching this act. They uniformly assert that this kind of “leadership” would not fly in Alabama, Georgia, New York, or wherever they have just come from. How long will we tolerate it here?

In a comment to yesterday’s post, david asked: “Nice as he is, are we to select [attorney Larry] Floyd primarily because he isn't Mr. Forbes? What is it about Mr. Floyd's vision and agenda that makes him the guy?

Fair questions. The first answer is “yes”. The answer to the second question is that Mr. Floyd has been an active member of the branch, volunteering both personal and professional time. He has offered the outlines of a strategic plan for the branch, parts of which at least he seems to have mailed to each eligible voter.

The Floyd plan cites the NAACP’s assets [its history, legal successes, etc.] its weaknesses [including “outdated image, low active membership participation, lack of collaboration with other organizations, etc.] and its current challenges/opportunities [restoring credibility, establishing accountability, fundraising, growing the membership, etc.].

An important sidebar to this race is whether the branch will retain executive director Stanley Miller if Mr. Forbes is re-elected. Longtime branch official Jocelyn Travis declined to run for re-election, fueling speculation that she would like to replace Mr. Miller in a new Forbes administration. Rev. Miller was recruited by Mr. Forbes four years ago following a successful corporate career, but some say that Mr. Forbes has soured on his choice, citing Mr. Miller’s less than wholehearted defense of the NAACP’s endorsement of the statewide ballot issue in 2009. Passage of that issue authorized Dan Gilbert to build and operate the Cleveland casino, the construction of which will has Mr. Forbes as the anointed gate-keeper of black Clevelanders’ interests, pending Sunday’s vote.

Results posted here Sunday as soon as available, possibly as early as 6PM.

Top Ten Reasons George Forbes Should Not Be Re-elected as NAACP President

George Forbes was first elected president of the NAACP in 1992, defeating former city councilwoman Mildred Madison, and the Rev. Larry Harris of Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist Church. Between 1500 and 3000 people turned out to vote one very cold day at the Martin Luther King Branch library in University Circle. Mr. Forbes has been unchallenged since his victory that day, as many principled members of the branch's executive committee grew weary of solitary struggle and moved on to other endeavors.

Mr. Forbes announced at the September meeting of the branch's executive committee that he would not be running for re-election. He said he had had enough and that he was tired. When the nominating committee submitted its report at the October meeting, Mr. Forbes was at the head of the ticket once again. He said that he had been persuaded to change his mind at the behest of Dan Gilbert. Mr. Gilbert, of course owns the Cavaliers and was given a license to become a billionaire by Ohio voters who guaranteed him a monopoly in perpetuity to own and operate casinos in Cleveland and Cincinnati. According to Mr. Forbes, Mr. Gilbert's Rock Ventures' Cleveland casino is to be a model of inclusivity and Mr. Forbes is indispensable to making that happen.

We don't agree, and herewith offer ten reasons why George Forbes should no longer run the NAACP.

10. The Cleveland NAACP has lost its credibility as an honest broker in civil rights. The branch is widely perceived to be an extension of of Mr. Forbes' political and business interests. [See # 2 below]
 
9. The Cleveland NAACP cannot lay claim to the high moral bround essential to its mission when its president has been repeatedly involved in ethical murky waters, including several occasions directly related to his role as branch president.
 
8. During Mr. Forbes' tenure, the branch has been unable to sustain the corporate and larger community support essential to its programmatic and financial success. Corporate support of the Freedom Fund Dinner has virtually disappeared and corporate representation on the executive committee is practically non-existent.
 
7. During his tenure, community interest in the NAACP has dwindled. Dues-paying membership has dropped and interest in the organization is at an alltime low.
 
[Personal note: I was once an active member of the Cleveland branch NAACP. At one point I ran for president of the local chapter and finished a very distant third to attorney James Hardiman and Fr. Austin Cooper. The sixty or so votes I got in that election [1978?] were more votes than the total number of ballots cast in 2006 and 2008 combined. Read that sentence again. Fewer than 25 people bothered to turn out to vote for NAACP officers in either of the last two elections. Nonvoters included many of the officers themselves.]
 
6. There has been a wholesale failure during Mr. Forbes' tenure to develop any meaningful new lay leadership. The same officers and executive committee members serve term after dismal turn. Some of the biggest offenders in this regard have been officers for FORTY YEARS.
 
5. Two decades as chief honcho of a nonprofit organization is too long for anybody, even if their accomplishments have been stellar. Organizations need to recruit and develop new talent to remain vibrant and relevant.
 
4. Mr. Forbes' best days as a leader are long behind him. At the very latest he should have retired when he was honored a couple of Freedom Fund dinners ago.
 
3. There is a total absence of programmatic leadership or planning by the NAACP board. Executive Committee members supinely follow whatever dictates their president announces.
 
2. Mr. Forbes has remained in power by posturing as the sole leader who can effectively represent the black community. He repetitively stands in front of black people and relates how he told this or that white person -- Bill Mason, Bruce Akers, Ted Strickland, Dan Gilbert, whomever -- that he is the arbiter of what is good for black people. He presumes to know the answer and is ever ready to tell black minions which white people are trustworthy. This straw boss role has greatly enriched Mr. Forbes and made it easy for corporate and political interests to do one-stop shopping to appease the black community.
 
1. Even when arguably effective at a given moment, there is in the longer term gross inefficiency and grave danger in the Messianic leadership model so prevalent in African American communities. We revere Martin Luther King Jr. for his role as leader in the civil rights movement. He may have emerged as first among equals but he had a mighty strong cadre of leaders who worked alongside and counseled him. We gravely misread history when we exalt Dr. King as a savior. The civil rights movement had many mothers and fathers. 
 
Any NAACP member who comes out this Sunday to vote for attorney Lawrence Floyd as branch president will be casting a vote against bossism, messianic leadership, and the plantation politics.
 
* * *
 
There is at least one other overarching reason Mr. Forbes should be replaced as branch president. I will write about that tomorrow.

Cleveland NAACP to hold election this Sunday, Nov. 14

The Cleveland branch NAACP holds its biannual election for officers and Executive Committee members this coming Sunday, November 14, 2010 from 2-5PM at Cathedral Church of God in Christ, 2940 Martin Luther King Drive, Cleveland OH 44104-4802

George Forbes, who is running for re-election as president after announcing at the branch's September meeting that he was tired and had had enough, is facing opposition for the first time. Local attorney Larry Floyd is also running for the post and has put forth a platform for action.

We will be writing more about this story in the next few days. If your membership was current on October 14, 2010, you should certainly be making plans to vote this year.

Post-Election Observations, Part One – Spaces and Places

The most telling image of post-Election Day coverage in the local paper was the map showing the partisan divide among the first-ever county council. Republicans won only three of the eleven seats, but the geographic extent of their districts comprises more than half of the county’s land. Of equal significance, the GOP districts surround the more densely populated Democratic center districts like a doughnut surrounds a hole.

The twin factors of space and place epitomize both much of the county’s history and the challenges to be faced by the new council, even as its members ready themselves for office in January.

Looking at “place”, the eight districts [2-4 and 7-11] comprise the inner core of Cuyahoga County: the City of Cleveland and its inner-ring suburbs. The three GOP districts [1, 5, and 6] constitute what could be considered a necklace of sorts. The back doors of these districts all touch adjacent counties. Without the exception only of tiny Oakwood Village, 32 the municipalities that make up this GOP turf are overwhelmingly white.

The “space” disparity – three outer districts have a greater land mass than the eight central districts – suggests that the occupants of those districts enjoy a less crowded sense of community, a fact likely attributable to greater household income and wealth.

We are discussing the obvious here, but we do ourselves no service as a community if we pretend the obvious does not exist. The Plain Dealer, for instance, points to Ed FitzGerald’s victory in the county executive race as evidence that the Democratic Party organization is still intact. Left undiscussed is the fact that Ed FitzGerald went looking for votes in Hough, Glenville, Warrensville Heights, East Cleveland, and Bedford Heights. How many of his five opponents honored these area with their campaign efforts? [Bus signage doesn't count.]

Why would the strapped and the trapped -- welfare recipients, struggling single parents, senior citizens, the outcast and the left-behind – and other hard-working citizens vote for some of the wealthiest candidates this community has ever had, when those candidates did not even bother to come meet them, nor offer any credible programs or initiatives that would address their issues?

Black people are often described, accurately, as “the most dependable” part of the Democratic Party base. Sometimes I think it’s because Republicans make them that way.

I will have more to say on this in the next installment. But I will add early on that we can’t begin to solve our complex issues unless we begin by acknowledging and naming them. And I will go on record as saying that neither race nor gender should play a role in the selection of the first council president.

Election Day 2010

I am a traditionalist when it comes to voting. I like walking to my neighborhood precinct — usually the library or the elementary school — and physically casting my ballot in our increasingly virtual world.



[Actually, I’m a deep procrastinator, so I wait until the last day, telling myself you never know what may happen during the campaign to change my assessment. [Only yesterday I read that a Seattle newspaper withdrew its endorsement of a judge who made public statements betraying his deep bias and limited understanding.



I also confess that, from the vantage of one who writes about politics and public affairs, I am less and less impressed with newspaper endorsements. They seem so after the fact. The paper’s decision makers favor this candidate, and then they set out to find reasons to convince voters who are undecided, wavering, harried, uninformed, preoccupied or lazy, why they should vote the paper’s way. Editorialists argue in a Mt. Olympus tenor that suggests they know best. Even if you know nothing about the candidates, it often comes across as so much b.s.



Much of the time it seems candidates are asked the wrong questions. Candidates talk about policies and what they intend to do. Their commercials bash their opponents. Too many exaggerate their virtues and demonize their opponents. When 80% of the electorate tunes out, the politicians get louder and more strident. This season, as the television blasted four, five, even six consecutive political ads in a single commercial break, I resorted to an old tack. I turned off the sound and observed their faces and body language, and looked for character clues.



Why is this candidate really running? Do they appear to have a real dedication to public service? Is their opposition to existing policy based on genuine analysis or the financial interests of their backers? Can they be counted upon to stay true to conviction when the discussions are private and compromises [“deals?”] are on the table? Are they special interest captives, reflexively parroting a party line? Depending on the nature of the office they seek, what evidence suggests they have the requisite components of executive, legislative, or judicial skills and temperament to be honest and effective public servants?



Seldom do I find my local papers giving me real help in discovering answers to these questions. And history tells us these questions mean more than platforms and promises, because the issues that arise during the term of service are often unforeseen. Bush 41 was elected president with presumed foreign policy expertise and was undone by domestic issues. Bush 43 had an intense domestic agenda that took a deep back seat to post-911 global issues. Lyndon Johnson had immense legislative skills that proved useless in charting a course in Southeast Asia. Neither Ike nor JFK was prepared to deal with civil rights.



The same considerations apply locally. Every current candidate for county executive proclaims that his administration will be honest, open, and efficient. I bet they all love their grandmothers too. Who among them, however, has the political and life experience to revamp effectively a huge public bureaucracy with requisite degrees of wisdom, tenacity, and fairness? Who is least likely to make critical errors that will erode the public support and confidence necessary for effective leadership? The “best” policies mean nothing without the ability to implement them. So who can work best with a new county council whose dynamics are totally unknown?



These are the kinds of questions I have been asking since the new county charter was approved. [I have been asking similar questions about state and federal races as well.] To answer them I have, like many of you, watched and listened to the candidates, read campaign literature, visited websites, reviewed platforms, talked with supporters and opponents.



So, for those of you are either undecided, wavering, harried, uninformed, preoccupied, lazy, or just curious, here is who I plan to vote for county exec when I go to Noble Elementary School Tuesday, November 2.



I think independent Don Scipione and Green Party nominee David Ellington are the "smartest" candidates. They are reasonable men who if elected, would serve in a true spirit of public service. If either were elected they would find themselves as unprepared as was Dennis Kucinich the day he was sworn in as mayor of Cleveland. This would only be slightly less true of independent Ken Lanci. His frustration would come as soon as he discovered that you can’t fire everybody who doesn’t want to do things your way, and that there are vast differences between running a company you own and having to pretty much negotiate everything you do with independently-based council members, civil servants, interest groups, media, and several score municipalities.



I respected Tim McCormack as county auditor and county commissioner and thought he got a political raw deal when business interests conspired to oust him in favor of pseudo-liberal Tim Hagan several years ago. He was an uncompromising commissioner in healthy ways. But his strong self-righteousness and thin-skinned persona would likely endanger the kind of coalition-building necessary to get our new charter experiment off to a successful start. I also have a sense that he is now a stealth candidate for some of the same business interests that consistently roam local corridors of power.



Republican Matt Dolan impressed me when he appeared this past April at an early nonpartisan forum sponsored by the Eleventh District Congressional Caucus. He was direct and surprisingly at ease in a gathering that was mostly black and Democratic. I am disappointed that he did not continue along the same path of positive engagement countywide. Instead, he seemed to retreat to his comfort zone in the mostly white, mostly wealthy corners of the county, from where he lobbed grenades attacking his Democratic opponent as a foe of charter reform and scurrilous attacks linking him to the county corruption.



I had never heard of Lakewood mayor Ed FitzGerald, the Democratic Party nominee, until after last year’s charter vote, even though he was mayor of one of the county’s largest and best run cities. I was initially cautious about him, especially because of presumed ties to the Bill Mason faction of his party. In twelve months of watching and investigating, I have found nothing to be concerned with on that score, even absent the mounting evidence that county prosecutor Mason’s political career is moving to a dead end with all deliberate speed.



FitgGerald’s charter opposition, rooted in a belief that a different process would have led to an improved charter, is not a reason to disqualify him from serving as County Executive, any more than it would be a reason to disqualify the more than half a million registered County voters who did not vote for the charter from voting for the new positions the charter created.



But I have found several positive reasons to vote for Ed FitzGerald. First, he has real leadership skills. He is a grounded individual, based upon his family, church, and community values. He has regularly articulated the clearest, most comprehensive, and positive vision of what Cuyahoga County can become, and he has done it consistently all across the county, with voters of every ethnic and class background. And no matter where he has been, or who he has been in front of, he has been himself, seeking to connect with people where there are, suggesting that a common journey to a better place is possible. He has done so earnestly, his message appropriately leavened by a deft sense of humor that the new county executive will surely need.


I think Ed FitzGerald is clearly the best choice to be our first County Executive.

If you haven’t voted, I hope you find the discussion useful. If you weren’t planning to vote, perhaps you will be persuaded to go to the polls and exercise your right and duty. And if you don’t vote, then in the words of a longtime friend, a true Republican, a retired judge who is still a feisty and active civic leader, “Nobody gives a damn what you think if you don’t vote.”

Giants in Our Midst

My thoughts about this post arrived with that pre-dawn clarity that emerges where lots of the things one has been wrestling with for a long time suddenly find resolution. For me, the last few months have been full of multiple re-connections, recapitulations and reconsiderations. A Journey to Sankofaland, as Alice Coltrane might call it.



Sankofa, as many of you know, is an African term/concept where one looks to the past to prepare for the future. That has certainly been my situation as my late summer and early fall were periods of reunion and reflection, both real and virtual.



The first look back was especially congenial. Four of my confreres from the epic 1960s came to Cleveland for a mini-reunion. We had met at one of America’s most liberal colleges in one of the nation’s most tumultuous times — President Kennedy was assassinated two months after I arrived as a freshman; Martin King was assassinated two months before I graduated. Coming of age at that time and in that space, we bonded in ways that have held firm through more than four decades and sometimes scant contact. We did the downtown happy hour, a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame concert, a Saturday morning excursion to the West Side Market, and a mini-tour that encompassed a passage through my old Glenville neighborhood and University Circle before settling in my backyard for well-lubricated repast and talk.



The second look back came with the passing of a family member, Mollye Virginia Jackson Williams, a remarkably joyous, talented, and giving woman who died at 99. Only Alzheimer’s could have dimmed her matchless vitality, which sadly it did for her last decade or so. She was the last survivor of ten remarkable siblings. Read her obituary at the end of this post for a glimpse of those who have worked to redeem America’s promise.



The reunion theme continues for me as the first Andrews Family Reunion in over 40 years takes place this Thanksgiving in Dallas. Not yet sure that I will be there, but I am charged with contributing a piece on my father’s branch. In preparation I pulled out a Texas Trailblazers account of the life of my great-great grandfather, Robert L. Andrews Sr. (1865—1933). A re-read of his story as audacious businessman and civic leader in Houston [he lived on Cleveland Street!] inspired me on a recent milestone birthday to incorporate a new business named for his signature success.



I am a word aficionado. One of my earliest memories is sitting at my father’s feet in the living room of our two-bedroom Howard Manor apartment on the Howard University campus in Washington, DC. I read the comics as he sat in his wing chair, reading the news and stealing a few moments of daily respite. Both my parents spoke and wrote with precision, but it was probably from my dad that I came so early to love the sounds and rhythms of the English language. I still recall in my mind’s ear hearing with fascination hearing the word “Mordecai”. The word never made sense to me but I loved it.



It was only decades later that I realized that Mordecai Johnson was the legendary president of Howard University, where some of my parents’ friends, like James Nabrit, Jimmy Porter and “Dot P” were employed. Very belatedly did I come to appreciate that these adults were world-class achievers.



This has me devouring In Search of the Talented Tenth: Howard University Public Intellectuals and the Dilemmas of Race, 1926-1970. Written by University of Akron professor and Cleveland resident Zachery R. Williams, the book examines and argues the important relationship between individual achievement and community culture. While my attraction to it is deeply personal and visceral, I cannot read it without considering its implications for my Cuyahoga arrondissement. I will be reviewing this book soon in this space. I will conclude for now by saying that the book — while focused on a single institution during a defined time —raises questions about race, class, achievement, education, identity, accessibility and community that are arguably more fundamental than our recent county governmental reorganization.

Footnote:

[1] Nabrit was a key member of the legal team in Brown v. Board of Education and later served two terms as Howard’s president. James Porter was a distinguished artist and professor at Howard. His wife, Dorothy, perhaps my mother’s closest friend, was a world-class librarian and archivist. She started and developed Howard’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, which has been described as “the finest collection of black research materials in the world”. My mother, Marjory J. Andrews, was an instructor in Howard’s School of Music.

Appendix:

Mollye Virginia Jackson Williams

April 25, 1911—6 September 6, 2010

Mollye was born in the Allegheny Mountain mining town of Pocahontas, Virginia on 25 April 1911 and died on 6 September 2010 at Judson Park, Bruening Health Center in Cleveland, Ohio. She had been a resident of the Judson Retirement Community since 1997.

Mollye was the ninth child in a family of ten, and the fifth daughter of Robert and Ida Perrow Jackson. Her father worked as a clerk and butcher in Elliott’s General Store, which was privately owned and was in competition with the local (mine owners) company store. Robert’s facility with the Hungarian language enabled Elliott’s to serve the immigrant miners and their families, thus providing a vital edge over the company store.

Mollye began her education in the public schools of Pocahontas and attended high school in Bramwell, West Virginia. In accordance with her parents’ ambition that all of their children attend college, Mollye became the family’s ninth college graduate, finishing West Virginia State College at Institute, W. VA. She later earned a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Columbia University in New York, and a second Masters (of Science) Degree in Special Education from Virginia State University. She was a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.

Blessed with boundless energy, high spirits, humor, and a generous nature, Mollye loved nothing better than engaging in talk, light-hearted pursuits and mischievous high jinks with family and friends. Yet, most of her adult life was devoted to helping others. As a young girl, fresh out of college in the 1930s, she took a series of teaching positions at ill-equipped one-room schools for Negro children, operated by the State of Virginia in its rural counties. Here, in addition to dedicated teaching, Mollye also raised funds from the community for books and teaching material, often supporting her work with her own meager salary. She became a one-woman civic committee, organizing and conducting small, makeshift “fairs” and bazaars to raise what funds she could. She also solicited donations of old clothes from adults and, using her sewing skills, set about cutting them down and remaking them to fit her children.

Upon her marriage to Rev. John Francis Williams, Mollye enthusiastically added the responsibilities of a Baptist minister’s wife to the demands of her teaching career. Tapping a deep well of kindness and charm, she assumed an active role in church affairs and became a valuable asset to her husband’s ministry as his calling moved them to Wheeling, WV, New Orleans, Newport News, VA, St. Paul, MN, and finally to Cleveland, OH. With each move, Mollye contributed her efforts to the activities of the local community, and continued her work as a tireless educator and organizer. She was a teacher of the deaf in Newport News. Her last position was with the Special Education Department of the public schools of St. Paul, MN.

In spite of her public responsibilities, privately this little dynamo of a woman remained the same girl who had grown up in a kind, close-knit clan, who never failed to come to the aid of a friend or family member in need. Mollye often said that her family “might not have been rich in material things, but was blessed with an abundance of love.” Although she had no children of her own, she took a benevolent interest in the raising of her eight nieces and nephews to whom she was their beloved, fun-loving “Aunt Mollye” of the brilliant dark eyes and the uniquely raucous infectious laugh. A perfectionist in all things, she was a patient but exacting taskmaster to this younger generation.

Raised to be the quintessential southern lady, Mollye maintained a seemingly effortless, yet impressive standard of living throughout her life. As mistress of the various parsonages she and her husband called home, she created attractive, immaculate surroundings, imbued with an atmosphere of style, whimsy, comfort, and ease.

Mollye Williams leaves behind a legacy of fond memories of loving devotion to family and friends, hard work, good deeds, and numerous lives made better for her having touched them.

She is preceded in death by her four brothers, five sisters and her husband of more than fifty years. She is survived by four nieces and nephews: Miss June Morgan of New York City, Clintona Jackson Hare, Esq. of Morristown, NJ, Stanley Jackson, Esq. of Detroit, and Elbert Hendricks, PhD, of Copenhagen, Denmark.