This one?

Okay, thank you.

All right.

All right, we'll go ahead and get started.

And uh first of all, good afternoon, and thanks everyone for coming today for this uh press conference.

I first want to start off by saying that our letter pretty much is self-explanatory.

I believe many of you have already gotten it.

Uh this is a very sensitive matter, therefore uh there's a lot of specific questions uh that we cannot answer because the people that are involved in these incidents, we want to make sure that we protect their privacy.

Um we take workplace violence allegations very serious, and when these allegations were made, we moved swiftly in order to um make sure that we investigated those allegations by independent third party.

As council president, I'm committed to creating a positive, safe and accountable work environment for all that participate.

Anyone from the council members to every staff person has a right to work in a safe and um accountable work environment.

The potential censure that was talked about in that letter uh is considering past legal precedent, and I believe it's worth the body's consideration.

We wanted to be very fair and professional and respectful to all parties as this was going along.

We wanted make to make sure that the councilman had his due process, and we also wanted to make sure that the employees that we were extra vigilant in order to protect the uh employees.

We've made sure that the employees had an opportunity uh to get the support that they need either by personal professionals or by professionals provided by the city of Cleveland because a lot of these employees have a lot of anguish around this topic.

So I will take questions because I know that this is very important, but I want everybody to understand that the gravity of this matter is enormous.

And any time that you can imagine if it's your mother, your father, your brother, your sister, your spouse, um, you would want them to be able to work in a safe and comfortable work environment.

So this is about accountability.

There is no political agenda here.

This is about doing the right thing.

I have had the good fortune of being an administrator in several organizations and institutions, and I understand personnel, and I understand when you have to be decisive in your actions, but I also understand that you have to be fair, firm, and consistent whenever you're um deliberating on these kind of issues.

I trust the uh opinions of the attorneys at McDonald Hopkins.

Um they've done a thorough investigation.

They have interviewed several witnesses.

Uh they did have an opportunity to talk to the uh councilman in the first time when the investigation took place earlier this year.

Uh they did not have an opportunity to talk to the councilman because the councilman um decided he did not want to have a conversation with the attorneys.

This time he did.

However, the uh facts of the matter were determined that um he did violate workplace violence policies.

Therefore, in the first letter, we made it clear to the councilman that any other unprofessional behavior or actions uh will result in a potential censure.

Council is a body.

I do not make arbitrary decisions on my own.

I consult with the body.

So just as we are a body, and this affects us all as a body, this is one of the toughest days because not only am I sympathetic and concerned about the um the workers who have experienced this traumatic who have had a traumatic experience.

I'm also very cognitive that uh the councilman has a family, and I am concerned uh at times that their family may not um understand things.

So I thought it was important to come here and to make myself available to the media.

Um, although I do want to reiterate as I take tip as I move to take questions that my letter is pretty self-explanatory.

With that said, I'll take questions.

Please announce who you are so that I can get to know you.

Hi, I'm Alan, I tell channel three, and I was wondering have you talked to Councilman Jones?

Is one of M Lesson's response to this letter?

Yes, I talked to Councilman Jones uh before the letter was released to make him aware um that the allegations that um we were accepting the findings uh that the uh that the uh report showed and uh you know, of course, you know the councilman had his version of the facts.

However, I made it clear to him that um we had to make we had to take action and uh we wanted to make sure that it was important that the staff most importantly that works for Cleveland City Council, every single staff person and also council uh understood that we were doing a thorough investigation and that um this is this is the outcome.

So, yes, he was made aware.

How soon is the potential century vote?

Our next council meeting, unfortunately is not until September the 15th.

Uh so uh we won't be able to vote until we actually have a um council meeting on September the 15th, as of right now.

There are council members who I've offered in that letter that they can come and have a conversation with me, even though I'm not able to share all of the personal matters, um, but I can share how I arrived at my decision, pretty much self-explanatory in that letter.

Um so I want to give council members the time to either come talk to me, they can come talk to our leadership team, which includes councilman Kerry McCormick and Jasmine Santana, or they can talk to the staff, you know, to get you know the legal team to understand how we arrived at this and what their options are.

Uh so now's the time for the body to uh respond to me, and that's what we'll be doing.

Now, it may be a if there's a special meeting or something here, this may um this may be something that many council members want to look at that.

But as of right now, our next meeting is not till September the 15th.

For the benefit of viewers and company, can you break it down for us?

Um the letter outlined that there were two employees that made allegations uh about a council person, that a councilperson threatened to kill them.

Um there were also allegations that a councilperson was in a direct proximity sitting next to an employee who he has already received instruction and have voluntarily agreed that he would stay away from.

However, uh he was, you know, in close in an intimidating manner.

And after viewing video and after extensive interviews with other people, uh the investigator found that the councilperson was in violation of workplace violence policies that we put in place.

Then the uh investigator uh went on to make recommendations, and one of the recommendations, it was several recommendations, but to get ongoing counseling, one-on-one counseling and training for councilman, the councilman, and then number two, uh to um look at a censure to pretty much back up what we said we would do in the first letter.

So let's make it clear.

In the first letter, in the first incident that took place, uh we made it clear that the next step will be censure.

Any employee and many people that are in this uh in this atmosphere, many of many employers know that you have to have progressive discipline, and you can't just have one side over the other.