Cleveland City Council Finance Committee Meeting – February 9, 2026
Cleveland City Council Finance Committee Meeting – February 9, 2026
The Committee of Finance, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion met on Monday, February 9, 2026, to consider several ordinances including parking fee administration, health center lease extensions, grants, moral claims, building appeals fees, and property redevelopment. Council members also raised concerns about downtown parking rate impacts and the future of NEON health centers.
Consent Calendar
- No consent calendar was identified; all items were discussed individually.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments were provided.
Discussion Items and Key Outcomes
Ordinance 1447-2025: New Community Authority Parking Charges
This emergency ordinance created subfunds to deposit and remit parking charges collected on behalf of the North Coast Waterfront New Community Authority (NCA) at specific city-owned parking facilities (stadium lots, East Ninth Street Pier, North Marginal, Burke, Muni Lots, Willard). Since August 2025, approximately $200,000 in fees had been collected but not yet remitted. The NCA, a separate entity, has incurred only legal costs to date. The ordinance passed unanimously. However, council members expressed strong concerns about separate on-street parking rate increases (not related to this ordinance) that they said are driving away downtown visitors and businesses. Multiple council members called for a future hearing to review parking policies.
Ordinance 32-2026: Neighborhood Family Practice Lease Extension
This emergency ordinance authorized a one-year lease extension with Neighborhood Healthcare Inc. (dba Neighborhood Family Practice) for the community health center at 2358 Professor Avenue in Tremont. The practice plans to relocate services to the Clark-Fulton Blanket Mills Health Center later this year. The lease extension allows time to repurpose the Tremont space. Council members also discussed the potential for Neighborhood Family Practice to fill gaps left by NEON health centers. Ordinance approved.
Ordinance 103-2026 (as amended): Mom’s First Program Grants
This emergency ordinance authorized accepting grants from Cuyahoga County and First Year Cleveland to continue the Mom’s First project services. An amendment (RQS 5008, RL 2026-8) was included with no legal objection. Approved.
Ordinance 119-2026: Food Access Navigators Grant
This emergency ordinance authorized accepting a grant from Share Our Strength for the Food Access Navigators program under Cultivating Cleveland’s Next Generation project. Approved.
Ordinance 109-2026: Moral Claims
This emergency ordinance authorized payment of three moral claims: (1) $379.53 to Felicia Clark for pothole damage on April 19, 2025; (2) $500 deductible to Betsy Foster for a tree branch falling on her car on April 23, 2025; (3) $2,000 to Denaris Burgos for a totaled car from a tree limb. The Moral Claims Commission recommended approval. Council members discussed the process, noting that residents often lack proper documentation (311 reports, police reports, insurance) and that claims are limited to deductibles per Ohio law. Councilman Conwell expressed frustration with the system, saying residents blame council members for denials. Councilman Palency advised the public to always file reports. Approved.
Ordinance 1536-2025: Building Appeals Fees
This emergency ordinance amended city code to update fees for hearings and time extensions before the Board of Building Standards and Building Appeals. The fees had not been changed since February 2, 2023. The ordinance aligns with state law for expedited hearings. Approved.
Ordinance 28-2026: McCafferty Health Center Site Option
This emergency ordinance authorized a one-year option to lease agreement with Penrose Holdings LLC for the city-owned property at 4242 Lorain Avenue, the future site of the former McCafferty Health Center. The option is needed to secure $1 million in federal home loan bank funding while avoiding other federal funding restrictions. Full ground lease will follow later. Approved.
Adjournment
The committee adjourned until its next meeting in approximately three weeks.
Meeting Transcript
Good afternoon. Today is Monday, February 9th, 2026. This committee of finance, diversity, equity, and inclusion is called to order. Madel Clerk Caldero. Here. So let's wait till he gets here, and then once he gets here, if you could make me aware, so then we get started. This is ordinance number fourteen forty-seven dash twenty twenty-five by council members Welsh, Bishops Life and Griffin by departmental requests, an emergency ordinance to establish subfund sixty-five SF011 and ten SF one one four for the deposit and remittance of new community authority parking charges at certain city owned parking facilities and to transfer any such collected charges into the appropriate new subfund. So previous legislation has already been passed that allow the city to collect funds on behalf of the NCA. What we need and what this piece of legislation does is create the administrative back end to then actually separate those funds from our parking charges and send those over to the new community authority. So uh the fees that were that the NCA is assessing is typically a dollar on weekdays, three dollars for weekends, and then five dollars for special events with some exemptions for Willard or um any special events that are ten dollars or under anything above five dollars, yes, has to come back to city council to adjust that ceiling. Thank you. Have we um done any projections on how much we anticipate to receive and is there uh legislative process that we would have to do in order to show and where those monies will be applied? Because we know that the reason for these fees are to try to help with the infrastructure and things that will be associated with building out the lakefront. Uh however, how does that process go if you could with Mr. Yes to the chairman? We've been collecting the new community authority has been collecting or assessing these fees since August of 2025. Between August and December, around 200,000 worth of fees uh have been collected by the city. We have not been able to remit those to the new community authority. Uh those dollars can be used for purposes spelled out in the petition that was already approved by city council. So that's uh programming, that's uh infrastructure dollars, um, all related to lakefront development. Okay, thank you. Uh, just real quick before I go to my line of questioning. Um services and property, councilman Bishop. Uh Mr. President, we've added in fully supportive pass. Thank you. Transportation and mobility have uh you revealed this. Uh yes, same. Thank you. Uh okay. I have Councilman Michael Palency and Councilman Brian Casey. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, my honorable colleagues, and to the director and to Mr. Vassano. Um is this pertaining to the new part this this is the new parking rates downtown, correct? No. Uh to the councilman through the chair, this is entirely separate from the parking lot. Totally separate. That's correct. So this is specifically what? Tell me again, because I'm getting calls from downtown businesses complaining about I'm getting calls from residents and and people saying, why do I want to come downtown anymore because of these parking rates? What specifically this zeroes into? Yeah, so so these uh new community authority charges, thank you, John. Um, are really just for specific properties that are in the new community authority. Those are for the stadium lots, so the lots north of the stadium, the East Ninth Street Pier, North Marginal, Burke, the Muni Lots, and Willard. Okay, so nothing outside of that, no on-street. Correct, and no on-street parking. Okay. And Miss because Mr.
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