Reduce Cleveland City Council? Well, Let's Talk About That.
Submitted by Anthony Fossaceca on Thu, 03/05/2009 - 1:33pm.
Several hundred residents of Cleveland's west side attended a community meeting last night to discuss the pending reduction of Cleveland City Council from 21 seats to 19. The decision to reduce council occurred as part of the adoption of several charter amendments last fall. Over the last few months, council and consultants began the process of determining how to reduce council and what a future ward map might look like. Despite having limited input by the community to date, the plan to reduce the size of council and redraw ward boundaries is set to be adopted by April 1 for the fall elections. The process will take place again in just a few years after results of the 2010 Census are known.
[Editor's Note : For this complete article and the video from the meeting, please click here]
The meeting last night focused on the likely elimination of one west side ward. It is believed the city will remove only one ward from the east side neighborhoods despite having a greater population loss. Insiders tell us the final plan will likely merge significant portions of wards 14 and 15, resulting in a head-to-head (and probably head-to-head-to-head-to-head) primary fight between incumbents Joe Santiago and Brian Cummins. Both councilmen have been headaches for the Conucil President Martin Sweeney - Cummins for his outspoken opposition to Sweeney's agenda and leadership, and Santiago for his long list of questionable associations, shaky positions, and inability to avoid controversy. Santiago survived a recall election last year led by former Councilman Nelson Cintron, considered by many to be just as inept as the man who replaced him. The new ward, which will have a heavier concentration of hispanic/latino residents than any other ward in the city, could be a toss-up if Santiago, Cummins, Cintron, and a host of others enter the race. Petitions for the ward will be available in the spring with a filing deadline of June 25th for a September primary to narrow the field to two.
At last night's meeting, councilmen Kevin Kelley (Ward 16 - Old Brooklyn), Matt Zone (Ward 17 - Detroit Shoreway), Martin Keane (Ward 21- Kamm's Corners), Anthony Brancatelli (Ward 12 Slavic Village), Zack Reed (Ward 3 Mt. Pleasant), joined Santiago and Cummins to hear feedback from residents for the first time. What's unusual about this process is that this is the only meeting like this occurring in the city before lines are redrawn. There are no meetings scheduled on the east side where reports suggest that the eliminated ward will come from an area currently represented by Ward 1 Councilman Terrell Pruitt, Ward 2 Councilman Nate Wilkes, Ward 3's Zack Reed, and Ward 4 Councilman Kenneth Johnson. Insiders report that all 21 members of council expect to seek re-election, so someone on the east side is headed out the door as well.
So, here's some video from last night. Please note, the event took place in a gymnasium and with 200+ people talking, noise is a considerable factor in the quality of the audio on these recordings. As we at OhioDaily continue to add stronger coverage, we anticipate adding better equipment. In the mean time, enjoy! I've started with a little preview setting up the entire event...
The next three pieces are parts of the initial presentation by Councilman Kevin Kelley with some additional comments by other members of council and the moderator for the event. All clips are under ten minutes. The three part video series is followed by the Q & A period.
The following two videos include the Q & A period at the public meeting.
The next two clips were filmed during the break-out sessions used to gather additional feedback from residents. Because of the volume levels in the gym, it was virtually impossible to collect any decent audio from these sessions. However, we do have a clip of Councilman Cummins participating in one session while Councilman Kelley talks to television media gathered to cover the event.
Finally, these two videos capture the closing remarks of several councilpeople and the moderator as they recap the meeting and the steps toward council reduction.
So what was your sense
of the mood of the people there? How are they reacting to the idea of council reduction?
I think people are resigned
I think people are resigned to it happening, they just want better leaders and fewer political games. No one likes they way this process is being rushed through, and will be done yet again in a few years.
That makes sense
I'm uncomfortable with the way the "leadership" in this town, including the Plain Dealer, carries on ranting and raving about a deep-seated problem and then throws out a quick, unexamined fix that probably isn't going to solve the underlying problem. They're doing it with the Convention Center/Medical Mart, they're doing it with "regionalism" and county government, and they're doing it here. What concerns me is that this approach, which cuts people out of the process and doesn't address the real concerns they have, is only going to make things worse.