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.

Uh so you have to be um clearly um unbiased, and you have to be able to make these recommendations uh without having any kind of personal tie.

And that's the reason why we got a third party person, and uh, you know, I've determined that I accept their recommendations, but it will be up to our entire uh body uh to uh actually determine if a censure will take place.

So why is council releasing this report now when the the complaints came in and that because the report actually just got finished uh Tuesday?

So uh part of that was because the councilman was unavailable because he hired attorneys, and when he hired attorneys, he said that his attorneys were not available, so it delayed, and I finally gave the councilman a call on Friday to say, hey, if you do not go and interview and bring the people that can um interview with you that you say you have witnesses, then uh we're gonna move forward with the report.

Subsequently, the councilman made an appointment to go on Monday and get interviewed.

And when the councilman went and got interviewed on Monday, the report was completed Tuesday.

It was submitted to me late Tuesday after I had a chance to review it, had a chance to go over with my legal team as well as the leadership of Cleveland City Council, and then talk to all of our council members to let them know what's coming.

And we wanted to make sure that we outlined clearly how we got to this point.

We've been trying to be very, very meticulous on how we approach this uh because at the end of the day, this is a duly elected official who an entire community of Ward One has elected.

And at the end of the day, we want to be sensitive to respect the will of the voters, but at the end of the day, it is imperative, imperative that I, as the council president, show leadership and um and act upon an issue of workplace violence allegations, and that's the reason why we waited to the report got done.

Once the report got done, we reviewed it, and then we released it to show how we got to this point.

Council president, how many would you ward one's constituents are still fully represented in committees and disappointments?

Ward one uh can always submit directly to me if there's questions or concerns that they would like to ask.

Um we will also make ourselves available through our um online media that if there's questions that they would like to ask, um, I am going to make myself available to Ward One.

Um when we had another council person that uh actually actually got into a little trouble.

Um I actually doubled down in that area and made sure that those constituent calls and everything else were still handled.

How was it with these allegations?

Uh I'm very troubled.

And the reason that I'm very troubled is because this, as I said in my letter, once again, I refer to my letter, it's been stressful to everybody involved.

There's been several conversations, several attempts to try to rectify and change the behavior.

Uh there's been several things done to make sure that the employees understand that uh, you know, we are going to make sure that they're able to work in a uh a safe environment.

But at the end of the day, um, you know, this is not personal.

Uh this is not, like I said, no agenda here.

This is just about doing the right thing.

How does the central process work with theory?

This is just gonna be a vote.

Uh it would be essential, but that's part of the reason why we're giving people time to deliberate because I'm sure that the councilman wants to talk and to some of his colleagues and tell his side and his version of the facts.

I can only go off of what the investigator gave me.

I did have conversations with the councilman, but at the end of the day, I turned it over to an expert in order to uh do the investigation.

There won't be a public hearing where there's a lot of you know back and forth about that.

It will be more so uh the councilman being able to, he'll probably be able to make it make his case, but at the end of the day, uh council is going to have to deliberate, and like I said, we're gonna make ourselves available uh to talk about any of the facts of the case.

Do you think voters should be able to hear this before the primary election to make their decision?

Uh the ultimate judge is going to be public opinion.

And the ultimate thing is going to be uh those uh those voters in ward one that get a chance to pick who they uh who they would like.

Uh so the ultimate judge is going to be public opinion.

It won't be necessary 601 Lakeside Room 220.

It'll be uh the voters of ward one.

Uh and you know, once again, that wasn't intentional to try to say, oh, well, this should be done to hurry up and do before the primary.

We're we know we didn't take politics into consideration on this.

What we took into consideration is the thoroughness of the investigation, the fairness of the investigation, the safety for first and foremost.

I should have started with that of the employees to make sure that they felt that they um were safe at the workplace.

Um, and and then we wanted to make sure that we gave the councilman a fair opportunity for due process.

So we were very we took our time to do it right, as opposed to just try to rush something out there that had you know too many holes in it.

So that's why we took our time to do it the right way.

And once again, the councilman, because he had an attorney, uh wanted to delay until his attorney got back in town or was available, and therefore uh wasn't able to interview right away.

If he was able to interview earlier, we might have been able to make actions, take action earlier.

Are you going to provide?

Sorry, are you gonna provide the actual investigation report?

No.

No, it's protected by attorney client privilege.

Uh but clearly the letter that we sent out clearly outlines the violations, what we believe are the allegations, the recommendations, and everything else.

Uh but really wanna really want to protect the identity, the identity of these workers.

One of the things that you have to realize, and I wanna say this in a very emphatic way.

These workers are human beings and are people, and they didn't sign up for the jobs that many of me and my colleagues signed up for to be public officials, uh, to be able to go out there and withstand the scrutiny of public opinion.

These are just hardworking people who come here to serve city council and the city of Cleveland every day.

And I don't think it's fair to continue to try to see reports that can put them and uh their families in an uncomfortable position.

So I'm very, very protective over the workers, and uh that's one of the reasons why they have asked me that they want to stay out of the newspaper, that they want they don't want the full reports released because at the end of the day, they want their identities protected and they want to make sure that they can work in a workplace environment that's free of retaliation or anything else.

So you do anything in the last time.

Uh I got Nick, yes, sir.

Uh to do anything in the last three months before this report to protect the employees or keep them away from Joe after they violate.

Yes, that's one of the reasons why one of the allegations is sustained, because the councilman had received strict um, you know, reprimand to say stay away from workers.

We gave him the path of where he needed to access staff, where and how he needed to go.

Um we also have, if you notice, removed the councilman from the committees.

Uh so he has not been at the committees.

He has received one-on-one training, and we also have received training as a body.

So there have been several things that we have done to really try to turn the tide of workplace culture.

Uh, but accountability is first and foremost that we have to do.

It's just it's very tight orders back there, you know.

I know.

And so just I mean, I'm just trying to imagine like how if an employee says councilman threatened my life, how do you keep those two people apart in such a small hall?

One of the things is is that that uh where the area is at, we were very vigilant and making sure that we monitored where those employees were at, that there was a no contact uh order in place, and then also at the same time, in conversations that I've had with the councilman, I instructed him that it's best for him to stay out in the neighborhood in his community, in his office, and not be at City Hall because we wanted to avoid uh that kind of workplace confrontation.

That's part of the reason why it's a little frustrating, as I said in my letter, uh, because we've tried to uh make sure that we mitigated this situation a long time ago.

Yes, ma'am.

You talked about it all out.

Uh I got her and then I'll come back.

Yes, ma'am.

You know, get into these offering up and still continue to think this.

Is there sufficient workers and junctions for city staffers and city home?

Is there anything that you can do as council president as the audience council to protect city staffers?

Well, once again, it's in it's imperative that we protect city staffers.

We have put mechanisms and measures in place in order to protect city staff.

We have upgraded our workplace violence policies uh in order to address whenever these kind of situations pop up.

That's why we're strictly following the workplace violence policies that we updated.

Um and everybody signed.

Quite frankly, that's another thing that everybody needs to realize.

Everybody signed and said we will abide and by these workplace policies.

Uh so there's a lot of uh things that we have done in order to try to put protections in place for these workers.

And of course, you know, we have tight security.

Um nobody's able to bring any firearms and other things into City Hall.

Um, you know, City Hall is a tense environment, and at times you have people where tempers flare.

Uh however, it is totally unacceptable, especially when you have one of your subordinates uh that you um are accused of bullying or having any kind of workplace violence.

So, yes, we have protectors protections in place internally and externally, and uh we will continue to do that.

Now, what options do we have?

Uh censure is one of the top options, but I will also make it clear to you that uh there was a case with Forbes versus Kucinich in the 1970s where there was an attempt to try to remove um a councilperson's brother, uh, and it failed because the courts uh have a very strict um watermark for what you have to prove to remove a councilperson.

And just removing a duly elected official that has not been criminally charged is not the easiest thing to do, and you would need two-thirds votes of council.

However, a censure is very clear in what it does.

It's only been done three times in the city of Cleveland.

Only two times were successful.

And that was in the 1970s, ironic.

Must have been volatile time in the 1970s.

But only two people have been censured by council.

And that was Kermit Neely in 1955 and Paul T.

Haggard in 1974.

There was an attempt to censure a former councilperson named Lonnie Burton.

However, it failed, and the council did not support it.

And in the 10th, and in addition to that, the council president at the time rules were a little bit different, just simply docked the councilperson's pay as opposed to censure.

Yes.

And these policies do they have a force of law.

Do they have a force of law?

A force of law.

Not these, and to be quiet, remember to be quite honest with you.

And I want to say this about these employees.

These employees have been very patient.

These employees have been very understanding.

They have continued to work through this process, which shows you the dedication that we have for certain people in this in the city of Cleveland.

So these employees, in my opinion, are really at the end of the day, brave souls to really step up and continue to work hard for Cleveland City Council.

I'll take two more questions and then I do have to uh move on.

Yes.

These allegations came four months after the last round.

Are you confident that we're going to be back here again in a couple months?

Um let me say this.

This has been frustrating and traumatic for everybody.

I would hope not.

However, if it does, I will continue to act in uh in an expeditious manner.

And I will continue to do my job.

Um the body of Cleveland City Council and my colleagues put an enormous amount of confidence in me to lead this body, uh, and that's what I'm going to do.

I do want to commend, I know we have uh councilwoman Mara that's here today.

Uh I want to thank her for being here today.

Uh, but as you know, most council members are out in the neighborhoods um doing different things right now.

Uh, but I will tell you uh that this body elect me to lead.

And even though this is a tough time and a tough day, um, I'm going to stand here and lead and um unequivocally follow our policies.

Are you going to support any of Joe's opponents in your watch?

Right now I have no uh indication of supporting any of his opponents.

Um, and at this time, Ward One is going to uh be up for grabs.

We'll see what happens.

Thank you.

And Council President, since you and Bay attend have it to be statement as well.

Thank you.

Sure.

Thank you very much.

Today's signal and plain dealer articles detail credible threats made in May by Councilmember Joe Jones to kill a staff member.

These threats are beyond the pale.

This reporting also underscores the disturbing pattern of councilmember Joe Jones inappropriate, unprofessional, and even threatening behavior.

Professional consultants and employees have alleged five credible accusations of misbehavior against Councilman Jones.

My first thoughts go to the staff members and and partners who have been affected.

I think about them first because I've seen up close what happens when you call this behavior out for what it is.

Last winter, Jones was accused of sexual harassment.

Two other male colleagues texted members, including me to threaten retaliation against the accusers.

When I called those texts unacceptable, one of the city council members replied with words that are seared into my memory.

You are a smart young lady.

You should know what the definition of the word intention is, and that's all that matters.

That is the culture that we are up against.

It's clear that Joe Jones was given an endless set of chances to be a team player, including delaying an interview that would have finalized this report months ago.

I disagree that this matter has been handled swiftly.

It is past time that council do its job and finally censure Councilman Jones.

It is interesting that this letter was released the day after our final council meeting of the summer, meaning that we cannot take swift action for over a month.

I would ask the council president and this body to follow through on their commitments and have a swift censure vote on Councilman Joe Jones.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman.

Once again, we're here to talk about uh the letter that we put together.

And once again, I'll take any other questions that anybody else have.

As you can see, there's going to be a range of opinions by council members.

They're all entitled to have a range of opinions.

I am recommending a censure, and we'll go from there.

I do also want to acknowledge Councilman Mike Polensk is here as well.

So I do want to acknowledge Councilman Mike Palencick.

I believe that is it.

So thank you, everybody.

And once again, uh please know that we are going to do whatever we can to make sure that we protect workplace violence in the city of Cleveland.

Thank you.

Thank you.