Retiring firefighter, Eagle Scout honored by Richmond Hts City Council

Snow removal, municipal finance, and political wrangling are not always the order of the day at Richmond Heights City Council meetings. On January 28, in the midst of a contentious meeting over council’s rejection of several highly qualified nominees to fill the vacant Ward 2 council seat, the entire council chamber turned into a love fest to

Lieutenant Robert "Bob" Armstrong

honor retiring firefighter, Lieutenant Robert “Bob” Armstrong. Colleagues and council members alike took to the podium to celebrate Armstrong’s distinguished 27-year career as a member of the Richmond Heights Fire Department, and the pioneering role he played in developing and modernizing emergency medical services in the city.

Also honored for exemplary achievement was Jashawn Molten, who recently

Eagle Scout Jashawn Molten and Mayor Headen

earned Eagle Scout status. Jashawn is the son of former school board member Tamitra Peavy.

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.

No real surprises at filing deadline for May primary; National Signing Day

The usual flurry of last minute filings produced no real news at today’s deadline. Most incumbents eligible to return to their seats [some state legislators are term limited], filed early to allow themselves a margin for error. 

Cuyahoga County leans so heavily Democratic that the Republican Party is unable to field even a single candidate, much less the two or more that would make a GOP primary meaningful.

Meanwhile, much of the suspense on the Democratic side was resolved last Saturday when the Party’s executive committee met at Euclid High School and endorsed candidates for the state legislature, county council, county executive, and county judgeships. Those endorsements are especially significant in primaries where turnout is relatively low, and challengers are usually less well known. The early endorsement process forces would be candidates to declare themselves early if they harbor any hope of winning the party’s stamp of approval.

Thus it may be that the biggest story coming out of last Saturday’s executive committee session is that some incumbents and big names who would normally be expected to snare an endorsement did not. State Representative John Barnes was one such incumbent unable to snare the 60% of present and voting executive members necessary to win endorsement. This result is at least partly attributable to the fact that his primary opponent, former Pepper Pike councilwoman Jill Miller Zimon, has been running hard and smart for months. This House District 12 race is likely to be closely watched for a number of reasons, including the fact the primary winner will have smooth sailing to Columbus, since the seat is one of four General Assembly seats that drew not a single Republican aspirant. The races for Senate Districts 21 and 25, and House District 10 also saw no GOP candidate file, even though both Senate seats will be open, that is without an incumbent. State Sen. Shirley Smith, D-21 is term limited and running for county executive, while State Sen. Nina Turner, D-25, bypassed a bid to retain her seat, choosing instead to run statewide for Secretary of State.

In addition to Zimon’s successful holding action against Barnes, a second noteworthy result from last Saturday was Cleveland city councilman Mike Sweeney’s failure to win endorsement in the race to represent House District 14. He will have to duke it out with two credible challengers.

We will report on the composition of all the races for both parties once the Board of Elections has ruled on the validity of those candidates who filed close to deadline.

• • •

A cautionary tale on National Signing Day

Today was the day on which high school seniors could, with unseemly fanfare, formally announce the college they will attend this fall in order to continue their education and play football.

While we rejoice with the young men whose athletic prowess has opened doors that might otherwise have remained closed in our increasingly unequal society, we nonetheless wish to offer this cautionary reminder of the pitfalls along the road. [h/t to Roger Jones].

Third Grade Tests may be trap door to Third World Living Standards; Education in America with K D Hale

W. E. B. DuBois famously wrote in his Forethought to The Souls of Black Folk [1903] that “the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line.” Half a century later, in a fiftieth anniversary edition of that seminal work, he updated that prescription with an analysis that stands to define the problem of the Twenty-first Century:

… today I see more clearly than yesterday that back of the problem of race and color, lies a greater problem which both obscures and implements it: and that is the fact that so many civilized persons are willing to live in comfort even if the price of this is poverty, ignorance and disease of the majority of their fellowmen …

The issue of inequality, its causes and cures, has become increasingly a part of our national discourse. It has become an elephant too large to ignore.

Whatever the causes of this inequity, and there are multiple causes, it is hard to imagine there are any solutions that do not involve solving our nation’s public education mess.

An understanding that we must find new and different way forward through our education crisis has perhaps helped fuel the strong local interest in the discussion series focused on a new book, Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools, by Diane Ravitch. Education writer Jan Resseger has been a part of these discussions, and reported on them as well. Nearly 100 people attended the first session on January 21, 2014. Even more impressive, seventy people showed up for the second session on a day so frigid that schools all across the region were closed for the day. You can read Resseger’s captivating account of those sessions here and here.

Lead sponsors for these community book discussions have been the Heights Community Congress and the Cleveland Heights-University Heights School District. The third session is set for Wednesday, February 5 from 7-8:30PM in the Cleveland Heights High School Social Room. It will address Chapters 21-31 of the book, which focus on the role of poverty and segregation in public schools.

This is the first year of mandated “reforms” under which a startling number of area third graders will be forced to repeat the current academic year, if they fail to pass standardized test that will be given statewide in April. The fallout from this outcome is likely to be painful, and could very well have political ramifications in this gubernatorial election year.

Whether you have read the Ravitch book or not [I have yet to], whether you have school age children or not [mine are grown and gone], America’s broken system of public education affects us all. We all need to get involved in the discussion and seek solutions. Our continued failure to do so will result in a punishment far worse than a rap on the knuckles.

For more information on the community book discussion or Wednesday’s session, call 216.321.6775 or visit www.heightscongress.org.

• • •

A new weekly radio show on education issues has hit the local airwaves.  “Education in America with K. D. Hale" debuted January 22, just a day after the first community discussion session mentioned above. That first show featured Dr. Belinda Miles, provost and executive vice president at Cuyahoga Community College, Dr. Terrence Menefee, principal of Cleveland's Valley View Boys Leadership Academy, and Ms. Annisha Jeffries, youth services manager of the Cleveland Public Library.

The second week’s show featured Phillip Schwenk, principal of Max Hayes Career and Technical High School in Cleveland.   The program focused on career and technical education as a viable option for many young people, as an option to the college prep pathway that is often promoted.

This week’s show, on Wednesday, February 5th, from 6PM-7 PM, on AM 1490 WERE, will feature Dr. Julian Earls, former director of NASA Glenn Research Center. Career opportunities in the STEM arena [science, technology, engineering and math] will be a centerpiece of the program.

K. D. Hale is the show’s producer and host. Hale is executive director of early college & outreach programs at Tri-C, but the program has no affiliation with the school.

Listeners are welcome to call in during the show with questions or comments. The call in number is 216.578.1490.