The Committee of Finance, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion convened for a special hearing to establish the procedural framework for future deliberations regarding the proposed settlement between the City of Cleveland and Haslam Sports Group (HSG) concerning the move of the Cleveland Browns to Brook Park. Mayor Justin Bibb and senior administration officials testified that the agreement secures $100 million in assets for the city, including immediate cash, stadium demolition, and community benefits, while acknowledging that the settlement is contingent upon Council approval of specific real estate and financial components.
Thank you. All right, good morning. Today is Monday, October the 20th 2025. This committee of finance, diversity, equity, and inclusion is called to uh order. Uh this is a special hearing. So we are not starting to hear the legislation today. I will give us the uh what our goals and objectives are today in one second. So we are not beginning to hear the legislation yet. But uh Inez could you just call the role of all of the council members that are here? Here. Present. Present. Present. Thank you so much and uh welcome. We're um glad to have the mayor and administration here today. Um I'll just basically um put together the goals of what we're trying to accomplish today. Today, the goal of this hearing is to set the framework for the discussion around the uh proposal uh that the mayor and the Haslam group uh gave to council last week, and uh we are going to set the framework and have a discussion about uh a few things regarding this deal. The other thing that we think is very important that this is extremely important because this is the first time that the public will have an opportunity to uh understand the merits of the deal, understand um other um other things associated with the deal. Uh we are not making a vote today. This is really for us to do our due diligence to start the public engagement process uh to really understand uh is this a good deal for the city of Cleveland and why is this a good deal for the city of Cleveland? So a couple of things that we want to accomplish, and I will tell you that I'm gonna be very strict about keeping us within these parameters uh because this will not be the last hearing. This is actually the first of many conversations that we're gonna have with the administration about this. But first and foremost, is we're going to establish council's role. Uh council believes that our role is to deal with anything regarding real estate or anything regarding accepting or expending uh cash, and we want to make sure that we outline and completely demonstrate uh council's council's role in this process. Uh council strongly believes that we uh have a responsibility to either approve the agreement in order for the settlement of the cases. And those are the things that we want to make sure that we discuss the mechanics of that. Number two, we want to understand timeline. We want to understand how did we get here. We want to understand uh how things uh how the mayor anticipates things to move. Uh, we want to understand who was part of the negotiating team and uh how the negotiations took place. And then last but not least, we'll just start the discussion, even though once again uh we're gonna probably kick this to Chairman Harrison's committee to do a deep dive in this. Uh, but we want to understand how is the city of Cleveland going to be made whole. How is uh the taxpayer dollars and really understanding the amount that were that was utilized in order to negotiate this settlement in order for the mayor and the Haslam group as well as the rest of the uh uh city of Cleveland and Council uh to have confidence that this deal will help make Clevelanders whole and uh and really that Clevelanders at the end of the day could benefit. Um I'm asking everybody and everybody knows how I operate, please use decorum. I know that there's uh a lot of uh frustration amongst the members, but I do want everybody to recognize that I want everybody to uh make sure that we ask questions, that we really get the answers that we're looking for, uh, but that everybody has the quorum and professionalism as we have this conversation. Uh I'm going to give the mayor an opportunity to start out with any comments. Once the mayor makes any comments, uh then we would have uh a couple of questions that we would be able to propose to the mayor as well as any members of his team. Uh once again, council is really excited that we have an opportunity to make this the first time that the public and the listening public has an opportunity to really understand um you know how this is shaping up and how this has shaped up. So, mayor, the floor is yours, and thank you so much. Thank you, uh Council President. Uh, first I want to just send uh my condolences to to this body uh and to the family of Alan Dreyer. I know he was a dedicated public servant to the city and served the city well for years. Um and then and then secondly, I want to just thank uh this body for their partnership. I know over the last three years we've been in this fight together, uh fighting to keep uh Cleveland Browns fight playing football on our lake front. Unfortunately, um that is not the case right now, but I know all of you on this body recognize the importance of this asset. We've all fought really hard in this battle, uh, and now we're talking about what the next chapter, Cleveland story is gonna be with them now going to the city of Brook Park. I want to just set the context on of how we got here because I think it's important to lay the foundation in terms of what led to this moment right now. Um Council President, I wish we were here to talk about our efforts to renovate the lake front. Um I wish we were here to talk about how the state and the county were gonna support our nearly half a billion dollar offer we gave to the Browns. Um I wish the state didn't undermine our proposal uh and give the Hasm $600 million to go to Brick Park.