Good afternoon.

Today is Monday, March ninth, twenty twenty-six.

This committee of finance diversity, equity, and inclusion is called the order.

Madame Clerk Caldero.

Here.

So we share the help of the 10th.

Thank you.

From January 1, 2026 until December 31, 2026, as amended.

And all of the amendments are on the agenda.

So uh on your tablets.

So please take a look at all of the amendments.

Uh once again, I will want to thank the leadership team and all of you who um really went through the entire financial process.

We uh actually came to a resolution last week with the administration on reconciliation items.

Uh therefore um director, do you want to make any comments?

And uh once again, all of your amendments are on the tablets, okay.

Uh Director.

Yeah, through the chair of the committee, just want to um thank the council president uh you know for the reconciliation.

I want to thank everybody for you know sitting through budget hearings.

I think we came to a resolution um, you know, that we're all happy with, satisfied with.

So um we're here for questions if if needed.

Okay.

Uh well, first of all, everybody should have all of the items if any council members would like to make um uh a choice.

I do I do want to make sure that I reiterate that everyone.

Um we usually try to stay within reasonable um reason uh reasonableness when it comes to any reconciliation items.

I believe what we have is uh fair um as in any negotiation, nobody got everything that they wanted, but as in most negotiations, um I think we ended up pretty well um with um what each council member um requested and actually put in to us.

Uh therefore I'll open up the floor to any comments regarding uh this uh ordinance number one seventeen dash twenty twenty-six, Mr.

Chairman Councilman Casey, Mr.

Chairman.

To the uh to the finance director, first of all, was this sent out with all the amendments?

Was this sent out to the council?

Um schedule change.

I believe it was in the agenda.

Okay.

Yeah, it was in the agenda.

Joe, all of this was sent out to council, right?

Yes.

With with the amendments here.

Yes.

Okay, and then the first number that we're looking at, is that the original amount and then the second second number?

Director, can you answer that for through the chair to the councilman?

I'm looking at the seems to be could you show them what these would and I believe this is more of a process question.

Could you make could we make sure we clarify this for councilman casey?

So through the chair to the councilman, is this essentially what you're looking at?

So I I can kind of run down them if you'd like.

Um there are some brief description, I believe, on the legislation, but the six hundred and ninety-nine thousand um for department of parks and recreation was for 10 uh real estate maintenance workers.

So these are park maintenance workers.

Uh 75,000 of that, the additional 75,000 above and beyond the 624 for the real estate workers is for um one additional council event per ward.

So these as uh requested from councilman Polensick, I believe, um, allows for one additional group A event uh per ward for council.

Um moving down the Department of Public Health.

There's 250,000 for the Sprout Sprouts program.

So that's an additional you know, 250K there uh as requested by council.

Um the next item is one uh full-time headcount for prisoner billing.

So this was not part of the reconciliation.

This was a green sheet that we had during budget hearings related to uh risk management and public safety.

So this is something that we discussed at the table um you know during budget hearings.

The next item is um one additional full-time employee for electrical safety inspector.

This was a council request.

Uh there's eighty-eight thousand four hundred dollars um allocated to this as well.

Uh the transfer to other funds.

So this is um has a quite a few things wrapped up into it.

So there's four point five million dollars uh allocated to NEF for NEF funds, so that um is three hundred thousand dollars per ward over the 15 wards.

And then we also have $806,853.55.

This is for a receivership program.

Again, this was a council request and something that we discussed during budget hearings.

And then finally you take the difference between that and the $7.894 million from the carryover, and that gives you the negative amount.

So it's really a sum of of many things.

And then Mr.

Chairman, to the to the finance director, if I'm reading this right, no department had their funding cut, correct?

And this additional this additional these additional dollars came from the transfer to other funds, correct?

Through the chair to the councilman, yes.

Uh not listed on this is eight million dollars that we also agreed to for uh resurfacing, but that's gonna be included in the CIP.

Um so that'll give them a total of 20 million this year's this year.

Uh there was also um a million dollars of writ funds that we're putting towards uh facility management software um to keep track of the condition of our facilities across the city, and again, that was um a request of council.

Uh so yeah, and then we also have um additional head count for Arborists as well built into this.

All right.

I think that's it.

And then Mr.

Chairman of the CFO, and this is to the chairman too.

Just procedurally, this will be second reading tonight, correct?

And then it cannot be changed after second reading, correct?

Correct.

Correct.

All right, thank you.

All right, thank you.

Uh councilman bishop.

Uh thank you, Mr.

President.

Um, just to get some clarification, um the 7.8 million dollars, it says reduction to transfer to capital projects.

Can you explain um can you explain that whole figure right there?

What is that?

Is that is that taken away from the CIP plan?

And if so, what is gonna be cut?

Do we know that yet?

Yeah, through the chair to the councilman, it's not cutting CIP, we're not cutting any CIP projects.

If anything, there will be an extra eight million.

So instead of the 97 million that you guys saw, you know, last week, um, it'll be 105 because we're adding eight million for road reservicing at council's request.

The 7 million 894,253.55 cents is an amount we're taking from the carryover.

So with this effects, instead of 90 million, um, that'll back the the capital projects in the transfer to capital, instead it'll be you know around 82, a little over uh 82, and we're using 7.8 of that um for the reconciliation items.

Okay, all right.

Um I was just trying to get an understanding of how this affects the transfer that we're gonna that did that you've been talking about uh for some time now.

Yeah, so through the chair to the councilman, what it affects is instead of having 90 million dollars backing the projects, the 105 we're bringing you, we're gonna have 83.

Um, which means that if we go over that 83, we'll have to use a short-term instrument to bridge the gap.

Uh but you know that's the decision we made instead of actually cutting funding from a different division.

We figured we would you know fund from that.

Okay, all right, thank you, Ms.

Freddie.

All right, thank you.

Councilman Richard Star.

Thank you.

Um, just real quick, as a as it relates to the actual budget um and the breakdown of some of the things that the finance director just mentioned.

Um the 89,900, 89 million that's a change.

The amendments that we currently have from a council will be used from the old surplus of the dollars from 2025 instead of the going straight over to the transfer like you were talking about to the chair.

Director.

Yeah, through the chair to the councilman, that's correct.

Uh we'll have 82 million backing the projects instead of the 90.

And then when you have just 82 instead of 90, what changes actually occur um to determine which projects are going to be utilized through this new funded source?

Through the chair to the councilman under the new program, um, when the CIP gets approved, all 105 million dollar projects will be approved.

Uh if we have to go above the 83 million and executed contracts, then we'll have to go out and use a short-term instrument um in order to make up the difference.

So we'll have to go out and borrow for the difference.

And we currently already do that borrowing prior to this new change, correct?

Through the chair to the councilman, no, this is something new.

Um what we normally do is we would just go out and borrow 105 million dollars and have it kind of sitting there until we spent it down.

So in this case, we're not actually going out and borrowing up front.

We're using the carryover funds as a backstop so that we can start project spending once the CIP is approved.

And then we're gonna again I want to emphasize we're gonna reimburse ourselves.

It's a loan to ourselves.

It's not money going out the door permanently.

Yes, and then just I know we put some amendments, but some of the things that I have reservation on is within the seven million to some councilman um points.

I think one of the biggest challenges we have is just food insecurity issues, and I don't see an actual plan or an investment in the dollar amount to address those.

Making an amendment or making some changes with this entire budget, that should be a top priority.

Uh residents are tired of going to grocery stores, I mean going to gas station to buy groceries or not being able to have um any good qu high access to any good quality food in their neighborhoods.

So we made an amendment for seven million.

Do you have anything in this to the chair that you should say through the budget that is going to address some of those food insecurity issues in this upcoming budget through the chair?

So through the chair to the councilman, again, this was uh conversations with the council president, you know, at the request of council.

Uh so you know this was a reconciliation based on what was asked of us, and I I will say we granted almost everything that was that was asked of us.

All right, and I know through the through the reconciliation, the last two years, um, we were able to put it aside $600,000 of neighborhood equity funds to be able to help on projects in our neighborhoods.

Um now we're going down to $300,000 when we all have a surplus of $80 million.

Um to the chair, is there a reason why we would go that low or instead of going where we were at?

Through the chair to the councilman, again, this was conversations with with the council president based on request.

Um, you know, we did negotiate a little bit on that.

I will say I do want to point out that the 105 million dollars in projects on the CIP are for neighborhood related projects as well.

So you're talking about resurfacing.

We added eight million dollars there on top of the seven million.

So um, you know, just wanted to point that out as well.

Okay, I mean, and then also within that, um do we have something to know dollars amount added to this amendment to help with the infrastructure for cleanable power through the chair?

So through the chair to the councilman, nothing explicit.

I know Cleveland Public Power has their their own capital plan, and we've been in touch with Director Keene after the um, you know, the budget hearings and that sort of thing to have those discussions, but there's nothing explicit to CPP in this.

Yes, so I think within this budget, we definitely should be looking into things like that because um I believe one of the challenges that I have where vast majority of War 5 has clean power and the power goes out two or three times a month.

And whether it's car crashes, whether it's accidents, it become a serious issue when you're living on a fixed income or you're trying to buy groceries and then actually know the grocery, I mean the power go out.

I've had residents in the beginning of the month buy their groceries and then they're out of power for two or three days.

So if we have a 90 million dollar carryover and we just make it in 7 million dollar amendment, I'm just I'm just not pleased, and I don't think I'm gonna support this through the standpoint of this will not be in my vote with just seven million dollars of things council want.

Well, I think what I believe we should have more dollars added to be able to do dip more projects in the neighborhood to make sure we help and provide resources in addition to um capital projects improvements.

You know, when I talk about access to food, I'm not just saying it because it sounds good, but we don't have a grocery store in central.

And we haven't had one since 2016.

But money keep going out the doors for every other project for everything else, as if having access to good quality food is not a top priority.

And I'm tired of us continuously saying that it is a prioritize, but our dollar amount and our legislation that we pass does not reflect that.

It just sounds like all speeches.

So I yield council president.

Thank you.

Um just a couple of things.

We did put um 250,000 into the Ohio State Extension Program.

Uh one of the things that we asked with the health department is because they now have a food and food and security person, and um hopefully it would be great if you and others that are very um very passionate about this issue could work with the director.

Um, as I stated uh before to several colleagues, um, I would like to see how the program could be set up, and then we can always look at where we can uh transfer in.

Um as far as the CPP expenditure, uh those are capital improvement.

This is operating budget.

So in the capital improvement plan, one of the things that we've asked is for everybody to uh consider looking at what infrastructure investments we need to make in the CPP.

So points taken and hopefully we can get um as many people as possible to um support this.

If not, once again, if we are not able to uh pass this, uh then um it would revert to the governor.

And uh at the end of the day, I do have other colleagues who have said that um some of this was too much.

And I thought that it was a fair balance between being fiscally prudent and also um trying to make investments.

Once again, the overall budget, um, we did um, you know, we do have oversight, and we do have the ability that if we see that some areas falling short, or if plans are developed by, for example, uh Director Margolis, then that's when we could actually um see how we stand up the program and fund it.

And and then council president, um, not to be harper or or I understand what you're saying about working with the health department to get those things.

I'm welcome to have those conversations, but we've been welcoming and talking about this for four years, and it's just all talk, and it's not from you.

It's just overall, like nothing has actually been done.

But then also I see an additional legal a increase.

Is there a reason for this increase again?

Because I believe the last couple of years we continuously gave increases to legal aid, and have we got actual data on what they're doing to help residents because residents of my neighborhood has some mixed feelings on the lack of support that they do or don't do sometimes, and now I see us giving them additional more dollars.

Is there a reason or that we can talk about that just a little bit for clarity?

Um, just for clarity.

Uh a lot of uh residents and uh legal aid, as you remember, came to the table a couple of weeks ago, and they had ward specific data uh for what they actually have been able to do, and they made us aware at that time that they would not be able to continue to expand services or continue to expand because they are actually um running low.

So, what we um have done is looked at using ARPA dollars because we have some savings that we realized through the medical debt.

So we've actually looked at transferring some of those uh unused funds that um were not used for medical debt in order to try to make sure that residents are uh able to have representation whenever they go to uh housing court.

Um if there are operational issues, one of the things that I have instructed Mrs.

Cotter is that she needs to meet with every single council person because councilman Jones also expressed some concerns to me in order to make sure that everybody understands her intake process, capacity, and everything else.

So but they um had to potentially reduce services because originally this was a council funded program, and um they um were funded through the United Way.

So um many of your colleagues and many colleagues lobbied me to say that you know this program has been very beneficial to the residents.

I know that I've used them uh for several legal matters, and and like I said, Councilman Jones as early as as late as this weekend, um I connected him with them in order to try to use their services too.

So if there's operational issues, um I think it would be good to make sure that we clarify that so that you can get the results you're looking for.

Thank you.

And just I understand a little bit, just it's just when I see ORPA recovery dollars, and we go to them, and then obviously the breakdown of understanding what a receivership program is.

Um I believe this almost a million dollars is going to be gone quickly.

Um I mean, receivership is very expensive, and isn't it's not just a grab, you now gotta manage, you gotta fix.

So I think we may need more dollars into that.

And then obviously, um not to not to go in on legal aid or nothing, but you know what $500,000 can do with a grocery store in Central.

I mean, we're talking about a program set up, we're gonna do some more assessment, do some more hearings, and people are still gonna be without without no food.

And I would think that will possibly be huge if we had that type of setup to be able to utilize some carryover ARPA dollars for something more valuable than people have to be representative, or if they're not actually getting the services that they need because of staff shortages.

So it's just one of those um just over over the roll.

And then also when I see park maintenance staff, 10 positions at 6400.

I mean a 10 position at 62,000 per head count, almost 60, 624,000.

Is this more people cutting grass or things like that?

Or what is park maintenance?

This is uh for and one of the things we're going to go back to next year is operational hearings and talking with the director to make sure that we have a more thorough operational hearing and understanding of these things.

Uh these are the people that do basic repairs.

Um repairs when swings are out, swings are broken, um, you know, the parking and equipment and other things are just in disrepair, pool equipment and other things are just in disrepair, um, having the bodies to make sure that our parks and uh recreation centers are up to par.

And then my last point, I would say I see 25,000 for VAPAC contract.

Um, I've been here for four years, and I only seen them come to us once.

Um other than that presentation, what do they do for us to save more money?

What do they do other than tell us about the housing market stock, pros and cons, and what what are they for?

Well, one of the things that we want to do with uh VAPEC, and I know that Councilman Harsh and others work very closely with them, and um I believe he attends almost every single one of their meetings.

Uh we I actually met with the Realtors Association and VAPEC.

One of the things that I'm really really going to try to push hard for, um, I wish Councilman Jones was here, is really to uh try to update our housing plan and see um where our markets need the most help.

Um, of course, you know you have a market that you know a lot of times the private sector won't go.

Uh so we believe if we actually work between VAPEC and the realtors and others that we can put together roadmaps in order to try to talk about what kind of housing types we could put together and really put together a comprehensive uh housing strategy for our city.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Um I have uh councilman Pelissick.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman, my honorable colleagues, and to the director and and Mr.

Gentile and the staff.

Um let me just follow up on Councilman uh Starr's line of questioning.

On the the Arboris going down, uh let me move up a minute.

For the PIO for the summer jobs, do we have any indication what that will actually represent in the number of jobs, additional summer jobs?

We do have YOU at the table, and um I think that they can expound upon that when they do come to the table.

Okay, because that's something I I obviously during the budget hearings I've felt very strongly about increasing the number of summer jobs in our city.

And we do have a representative uh Craig Dorn from YOU, so he'll be ready to talk about the um going down to the um get me down here.

Um here.

The okay, I'll go back into the receivership program.

Um so there are two line items um for receivership for a total of almost a well, a million dollars.

Um do you have any idea, any thoughts to the administration?

Will that be um administered internally, or there's this discussion of contracting outside with someone to do that?

Director.

Through the chair to the councilman.

So my understanding is this would be headed up by the law department.

Um I think we're still ironing out the details, uh, but we started having those those conversations.

Okay.

The facility management software, explain that one to me.

So through the chair to the councilman, again, this was a council request.

Um, and this came up during budget hearings where you know, um, and I believe it came up to the table the other day with the CIP asking MOCAP if we had a central system to where we could look at the facilities across the city and see what kind of condition they're in and um keep track of all that, and the answer at the time was no.

Uh so this is funding for for that kind of system.

And you and you'll be able to tell us what we're gonna be able to get out of that.

So through the chair to the councilman through initial conversations with the IT department, my understanding is a million dollars could get us, you know, some pretty significant good software.

Um, but I don't have any specifics on what that would be at this point.

Yeah, okay.

But you're saying that specifically came out of council.

Through the chair to the councilman, that's correct.

Okay.

The firefighter the carryover, those are because they we exceeded the budget by two, correct?

So through the chair to the councilman, that's correct.

Okay, if there's no dollar amount associated with that, do you know what that dollar amount is?

So through the chair to the councilman, there's no additional dollars needed.

Um we already have enough in the in the fire budget to handle it.

Okay.

So we don't have to supply anything, no dollars there.

Okay.

Um let me just say this, and I think I'll follow up in Councilman Starr's comments.

Um my concern is this, uh, and I appreciate all the work that has been done on this, the new negotiations, because I know having been in part of those in the past, I know how difficult it can be at times.

Um but I but I'm really concerned about quality of life issues in the city, the growing concerns I see with quality of life.

Um I was out this morning, look at the conditions of some of the um land bank lots, the the garbage, the debris on them uh that have been there for years.

I'm looking at some of the new areas that I areas that I've picked up with the redistricting.

I'm also concerned that uh the when I raised the issue with the red brick program that fell on death ears.

And I'm not happy with it about that, because if you look at the condition of some of these red bricks streets because of the utility cuts, and and it really hit home this week on 162nd Street, where that horrific act of violence took place against two young children, two young girls.

So up and down that street from one end to the other, the utility cuts that have failed.

And I got pictures.

I'm gonna councilman Casey asked me for pictures, I'm gonna get them to him.

Because water is sitting on a massive cash balance.

WPC is sitting on a massive cash balance, but heaven forbid that we could do anything to deal with legacy utility cuts to fix those that are just have failed, have failed.

And we all know with the allocations we receive per each ward for resurfacing, it goes for resurfaces of our asphalt streets, our residential streets.

And I understand that, especially with in regard with respect to this winter, we've we've got some major problems.

In fact, you look at the um the maps of each ward, when you look at the number of uh D and F rated streets, it's like the majority of streets in your neighborhood.

So I'm very keenly aware.

And just for them, not even to really even give the time a day to figuring out how they could put together a plan to deal with since they put the cuts there.

Utilities put the cuts there.

Joe Faw Beach didn't.

I can tell you that right now.

Utilities did it.

Water and WPC did a majority of those cuts in my neighborhood that have failed, and they've either lifted or sunken or broken, and there they sit.

And um, and what what am I to do?

What am I to do?

Um, and so I'm like most people, all I keep hearing down here is about the lakefront, the lakefront.

We're gonna spend 200, almost 300 million dollars on the lakefront.

We're gonna spend, we're gonna take out Burke Airport and put a 400-acre park there, which we won't be able to maintain.

I think we got to get our priorities straight here.

I'm gonna tell you this right now to the administration.

You better listen to what people are saying in the neighborhoods.

There is a growing perception here in the city.

Um the optics, maybe that's a better term, the optics here, is that the city administration is off course, doesn't get it, doesn't get it.

I don't my neighborhood meetings, I don't hear anybody telling me, you know.

We gotta get we gotta plow another 50 hundred million on the lakefront.

Uh as Councilman Starr indicated.

We got food deserts all over the east side, all over the east side.

Um we can't uh and we're having we're struggling, we're struggling.

Um now you see the new wave of the dollar stores closing, the family dollars, the dollar generals closing.

On top of the other stores that we've lost.

Um you drive through these some of these commercial strips, uh the area that I um um inherited, picked up with the redistricting, Euclid Avenue, looks like an extension of East Cleveland.

I asked myself, where are the inspectors?

Who is who has been doing what over here for years?

Like it looks like nothing has happened here.

So I'm you know I'm trying to weigh this.

I'm trying to balance this.

But I just don't get the impression that people on that side of the table, that you guys get it.

That you under don't understand the severe problems that we're dealing with here, and we're dealing with some severe problems.

And um, and I'm trying so I'm trying, I'm weighing this.

As I told the council president, I'm not sold on this.

I appreciate the movement.

There has been movement.

I mean I'd be uh I would be uh negligent to say there hasn't been movement here.

But boy, we got some we got some major issues here.

That is there anything else going into home rehab programs.

So through the chair to the councilman, what's listed here is what we agreed to.

Um again, I would like to remind you we've got the CIP coming up as well, so capital related items.

Yeah, it's already in there from past years.

But if you can't through the chair to the councilman, the age-friendly program is still in the budget.

Yeah, but you look at the how long that that's backed up.

Look at the number of people who have applied for it.

And we're not we're not making any, we're not making any headway here.

We're not getting any traction.

I want to get traction in 2026.

I want to get traction here.

I want to get traction.

I don't I want to want I I want I don't want to keep hearing about the lake front.

The lake front, the lake front, the lake front.

That's all I hear, the lake front.

I want to hear about the neighborhoods, the neighborhoods, the neighborhoods.

That's what I want to hear.

And I'm I'm becoming increasingly concerned about somehow people don't see it, what's happened here, and um and members of council see it.

I appreciate the my the president leadership team, they understand the situation.

I know they're trying to make a balance here, and it's tough, and it's very tough.

So, Mr.

Chairman, I'm gonna leave it at that, and I'm gonna give strong consideration of what I do on the floor tonight.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Just a couple of follow-ups.

Um I had significant conversations with Councilman Casey uh as well as Councilman Kane several times about the um Brick Street Repair program.

Umce again, um, we don't have to solve all of the world's problems with this initial budget.

We're going to have transfer ordinances, if these are priorities around food deserts, we do have Director Margolis that is here.

Um they have a person that is um assigned to handle just that.

Um I would strongly recommend that we allow us to work closely with him to design targeted food and security strategy um in order to deal with it.

One of the things by having Ohio State extension is because um when it was federal dollars, you couldn't give away the produce by moving it to the general fund.

We are now able to have fresh produce and other things from neighborhood um community farms that can actually give money to uh other folks.

Once again, um my apologies to everybody, but 15 different members all wanting to have priorities, it's very hard to juggle, but we we put together what we believe is a fair um equitable um document.

And at the end of the day, um I'm asking people to support it.

And what I would tell you is if there are priorities, we have the policy team here.

I hear the the urgency that people don't want to talk about this anymore.

Um that's when I would tell the chairs um work closely with your committee members in order to move these items forward and keep them on the forefront of the agenda.

It's one of the reasons why in our strategic operations, I've asked the chairs to come up with three priorities.

There's nothing wrong with this being one of the priorities for health if we want to deal with that.

I do also want to ask if you and Councilman Casey can meet with uh with Director Keane in order to discuss um why you believe this is so important, because I know and I hear you that this is very important to you.

Um I don't want to get into the comprehensive concern that um that director Kane gave to me.

I'd rather him have that discussion with you himself.

Yeah, um, but I will tell you that um there are some concerns that have arisen if we do um something in Cleveland and um and uh we have a regional tax uh service base for some of these uh other suburban communities too.

But we'll have that conversation and I'll piss that to Councilman Casey, okay?

Councilman Christopher Harsh.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I'll be brief.

Um I think it's a good budget.

I intend to support it.

Uh like all budgets, it's an exercise and compromise.

Um there's still 900,000 dollars being spent on a golf course that most people on the west side doesn't know exists.

Uh something I've been opposed to from for the last five years, but but here we go.

Uh I just want to point out one thing.

The uh for the benefit of anybody uh asking, the ARPA allocation at the bottom of this uh that uh we are carrying over.

Um this is a refund from the medical debt allocation.

We'd originally allocated 1.9 million dollars for medical debt, hoping it would relieve 50 million in debt for 50,000 people.

It instead relieved 160 million dollars in medical debt for 160,000 Cleveland residents, and it did it 1.2 million instead of 1.9.

So um yeah, so we got a refund on that.

Uh and that's why we got some extra whittle room here with uh some different uh council priorities.

So I just want to uh put it out there in case people were wondering what that uh line is for in the budget.

Um that's all Mr.

Chair, thank you.

Thank you so much, Councilman.

Uh I don't see any other questions.

Uh therefore Councilman Conwell.

We were uh discussing the West Side Market and CP.

Well, I mean, what did we uh come up with that?

The 700,000 dollars for the West Side Market.

We were discussing the West Side Market uh on a Thursday, and we came up with what with that.

We said I was thinking about not voting for it, but explain to me what you're thinking about with the West Side Market.

I don't want to just be talking about it.

The West Side Market came to the table, and one of the things I was here.

So they um their projections, uh-huh, and this is projections, that within about three years, they project that they will be in the black and that they will be making a profit.

Uh so um that's some one of the things that I just think that we have to watch very close to make sure that um you know our subsidy goes down, our subsidy goes down uh because they've um made us aware that um that they will be in the black um within about three years.

Um one of the other things that I have looked at as well is that there have been subsidies, albeit not since they ran into some of the issues with the east side market too.

Um, but that's something that I think councilman that I would love to see um you and others revamp and see how we can revitalize and revive the east side market as well.

But I have looked in both uh markets have received subsidies, and once again the Westside Market is uh projected uh through the modeling that they showed us.

Um, albeit I had to watch it remotely on YouTube uh because I had another commitment that uh they would be in the black within three to four years.

I think they my assumption, if you say 700,000 and they're saying three years out, they'll be back next year, and they'll be back the year after that, and then the third year they'll be back because they already see they're getting 700,000 from us.

My only concern is that you narrated if the east side more than likely, and I hope not, east side market is gonna have issues this year.

No, probably it's not gonna be good.

You know what I'm talking about, Councilmember Mike Pillensett?

Probably more than likely, and that probability is probably in the 90 percent.

It's not going to be good.

So we're helping them, then my residents, my board of directors, my bosses are gonna say the same thing.

We help the east side market out, just like we are helping the west side market.

That's all I'm gonna say.

People need an apple there.

Any apples, oranges, whatever the case may be.

And I and I'm gonna say this also, Council President.

Before that East Side Market came up, you look at uh they putting this outside right now.

Um when you look at you the food desert that was there.

Now, how are we gonna have a food desert in Glenville and Collingwood area, but you don't have what's good over there, it's the same thing.

And I'm not saying either, or I'm saying if we help them, we need to help the other them.

And that's where I'm at.

Uh understand once again, I would really hope, and I know that Director Margolis is here, and you're the chair of health, that we will have a thorough conversation about food insecurity.

It seems like that is a major um concern for the council members.

Once again, budgets do not have to answer all of the concerns of the body.

Um, we do have transfer ordinances, and as things are developed, uh that's what we could always look at when we need to maybe pull money in order to support it.

As of right now, um there is no plan for food insecurity.

And I think uh to councilman star's point, um, I think it's been too many conversations, and we really need to do a thorough assessment.

I would add in with that to be honest with you, uh, pharmacies that are leaving our community at a as extraordinary extraordinary rate.

Um, so I really would hope that between um director Margolis um and uh Chief McNair that we can have a robust conversation on how we fund efforts to deal with food insecurity.

Um just put money into something right now when we don't even have any of the things that we're gonna do.

I'm not saying they put money into this.

I'm just gonna promote contingencies.

I got you.

My point is I think what you're talking about, we can actually try to do.

Um, and I would ask if you could take on that position as the chair of public health, um, if you could lead that conversation for us to deal with um food insecurity.

Yeah, as well as health care inequality, because more than likely neon goes under, yes, we'll all feel that that brunt.

Absolutely.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, sir.

All right.

All right.

Uh seeing no other questions, uh, ordinance number 117 2026.

Uh, as amended, we'll be heard by the full body this evening.

I once again want to make sure that I reiterate with everybody, um, these budgets are just estimates.

We have an opportunity when we see that um there is a service that is subpar uh in order to make whatever transfer ordinances and then some of the issues that um you guys broke up, uh, like Councilman Palency with uh the utility cuts on brick streets, and then everybody is talking about food insecurity.

I would ask for those committee chairmans to make that priorities for their committee uh as we design uh this budget moving forward.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right.

Next we got ordinance number 180-2026 by councilmember Griffin by departmental request and emergency ordinance to amend section 127.43 of the codified ordinances of Cleveland, Ohio 1976, as amended by ordinance number one by ordinance number 142107 passed November 19th, 2007 relating to credit transfer and other payment processing services.

Director.

Yeah, through the chair to the committee.

So this is a request to change uh ordinance 127.43 um to allow us to accept other and pay via other um types of of uh methods other than just credit cards are currently the um the ordinance reads credit cards specifically, but times have changed since this was last looked at in 2007.

So as we go down the path of trying to make it easier to do business with the city, uh we're looking you know to be allowed to secure payments through such uh uh vehicles as mobile pay, digital wallets, e-checks, ACHs, uh, and contactless uh methods.

So we're asking um you know that you would approve this change in the code just to allow that expansion of payment methods again to make it easier to do business with the city.

Thank you, Director.

Um, we know we have to evolve technology is evolving.

However, how do we make sure that taxpayer dollars are protected?

Um I know that currency and credit cards are usually backed and protected by Swift Bank and other type of backstops.

Uh so I want to make sure that we understand how we don't um incidentally open ourselves up for any hacking or other kind of financial crimes uh due to our expanded um electronic um um currency that we're trying to move to.

Yeah, so uh to the chair, so security is our number one priority.

We work very closely with you know the IT department on anything that we want to uh implement in terms of this.

Um, you know, we are looking at a vendor self-service system, and their security has actually been reviewed by the federal government.

Um I forget the name of the program, but I know that they've been reviewed and reached one of the highest standards.

So that is important to us.

I will say, as you all saw on the news, um, you know, there were a couple checks that were forged this year.

So no matter what payment method, you're gonna have bad actors out there.

It's our job to be diligent.

Uh, we do reconcile our bank accounts um and do that, and that'll continue.

Uh and you know, again, we'll make sure that you know security is the number one priority any time we're um you know going through this, and and if we do implement a new system, we have to bring it to council anyway, so we can have those conversations about particular systems as well.

Okay, thank you.

Are there any questions regarding ordinance number 180-2026?

Seeing no other questions regarding ordinance number 180-2026 stands approved, please sign off.

All right, we do have a guest, and I want to make sure that we know uh this is uh the PIO.

Uh this is ordinance number 31-2026 as amended by Councilmember Griffin by Departmental Request and Emergency Ordinance authorizing the director of finance on behalf of the Office of Prevention Intervention and Opportunity to enter into one or more contracts with youth opportunities unlimited for the administration implementation and management of the city of Cleveland summer 2026 youth and young adult employment program and authorizing one or more contracts with public entities, individuals, or communities for the purposes of implementing the program for a period of 18 months with two options to renew exercisable by the director of finance.

And I do need to make sure, if I'm not mistaken, um, is uh Miss Odie Martins here, uh, that we do need to make sure that we have an amendment not to exceed, well, it's two.

We are supposed to actually two amendments.

One amendment up to two million.

Okay, one amendment up to two million, so it's not to exceed two million.

Okay, could you make sure the attorney knows where that amendment needs to be if so we can make sure we have that and this is with the extra 500 added to it, right?

Correct.

Okay.

So this is not to exceed two million, and uh, you have that amendment?

Yes, sir.

All right.

Um I cannot proper amendment.

Do we have an amendment?

Any of the members of council would like to make amendment.

Councilwoman Santana.

So I move to amend legislation.

Do I have to read the legislation?

Ordinance number 31-2026 to adjust to no more than two million dollars, an additional 500,000 added.

Thank you.

Uh do I have a second?

A second.

Councilman Chris Harson seconded it.

Do we have any discussion?

Seeing no discussion, uh, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The ayes have it.

Uh please proceed, director.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Um, as you all know, through the chair, the uh summer youth employment program is a priority for the office for the mayor's office of prevention intervention and opportunity.

Um applications opened up on February 1st, and we currently have over 3,700 unduplicated applications.

Um actually we have 4,080 unduplicated applications.

On March 3rd, we went before the workforce education, training, and youth development committee and shared data from last year's program and a plan for this summer's program.

Upon that thorough review, we are coming before this committee to further authorizate for further authorization for ordinance 31-2026.

Thank you.

Uh before we move forward, there was um a typo on the amendment.

We got to read the amendment into the record again.

My apologies.

And once again, there is no legal objection to this legislation if amended as follows.

One, in section one, line eight, after with strike A in quotations.

Number two, strike section two in its entirety.

Number three, in section three, line one, after authorized insert shall not exceed one million nine hundred ninety-nine dollars three hundred and thirty seven.

And at the end, insert RQS 0114 RL 2026-01 in quotations.

Number four, renumber existing sections three and four to new section two and section three.

Uh, this is signed by Vishnu Gagliani, uh assistant director of law.

Director, please proceed.

Director, the um do we have uh do we have a motion to um accept these amendments?

I move.

Councilman Polencyc has moved, do I have a second?

Councilwoman Santana has seconded.

Um discussion no discussion.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The ayes have it.

Okay, uh, therefore, that is the amendment.

Please proceed.

And I believe um if you have anything to add, and then we'll hear from our guests.

Thank you very much.

Uh, today I have with me Craig Dorn from YOU.

And I also have Eric Dillon back.

And so if you have any questions for us, we are prepared to answer.

Thank you, Councilman Michael Palenzi.

Thank you, Mr.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman Model colleagues and to the folks that are here at the table.

So um hit us again with the the numbers of kids that have applied for YOU so far this summer to the councilman.

Could you hit the green button?

Yes.

Yes, thank you.

To the councilman through the chair.

Right.

Uh countywide, we've received 7,036 applications.

And um for the city of Cleveland, that represents 4,080 applications.

I do want to note that that's an uh unduplicated number.

So we have youth that apply multiple times.

So at the end of the summer, we deduplicate that number for council.

But it is a very large number.

So you're not, you can't tell us right now who you know.

So if a youngster applied three times due to your own uh deep dive, you can't tell us specifically how many kids in the city of Cleveland have applied.

We won't be able to do that specifically until the end of March when we do our first round of selection.

And that's when we really begin to pour through, and um and our first round of selection happens at the end of March, and that's when we really go through and make sure we have unique individuals for those appointments.

Okay, sir.

So the original proposal that came before us, we were we were going to hire how many through the chair.

Through the chair to the councilman, that number was 4012.

And uh as you know, that's the contracted amount.

As you know, um they frequently uh over enrolled by 30 percent.

So that would take us up to 570.

547.

547.

Okay.

So with the additional half million, with what will that do for us?

Through the chair to the chick councilman, that would add 157 youth, and with the overenrollment, that's the contracted amount with the over enrollment, it would take it up to 204.

So on top of the 412, that's what I'm trying to understand.

Yes, on top of the 412.

So on top of the 412, 2014.

Okay.

So okay.

So the 412 is the um contracted amount.

Okay.

It's 547 with the addition with the over enrollment.

Okay.

Numbers.

So it would be 547 plus 204, which is 751.

751.

Kids from the city of Cleveland.

Yes.

Okay.

Yes, just Cleveland.

Okay.

Are there any private dollars, any foundation funds, any private sector monies that come in?

Uh yeah, to the councilman through the chair, yes, sir.

We have close to two million dollars in private funding.

Um, and our total enrollment goal for the summer will be 2269, um, with this additional 204 youth.

Um, and of our enrollment, traditionally 70 percent of our total enrollment uh tends to be uh city of Cleveland, so that's looking to be 1,537 if that trend uh holds true.

Um what is Mr.

Chairman?

How much does the county kick in on this program?

YOU do we how much is the county kick in?

Uh to the councilman through the chair, five million two hundred thousand.

Thank you.

Five million two hundred thousand?

Yes.

Okay.

Also, if I could uh share, we just emailed to Ubuku and Bukun uh a list because this question came up in Councilman Starr's committee of the all the private funded sources and an Excel spreadsheet, so it should be made available to this committee.

Okay.

Yeah, that it's I mean, all of us know the importance of summer jobs, getting giving kids opportunities, getting them off the street.

Um that can have a big impact on us on the with the issues that we're dealing with in our neighborhood.

So again, whatever you can do to solicit additional private contributions, provide private benefactors.

Um this is critical.

We got a we got a fund program such as this.

Um give kids opportunities, get them off the streets, get them in the maybe uh working for somebody or assisting somewhere that might capture their interest or maybe for a career opportunity at some point in their life.

So I'm just glad.

I'm glad for the 500,000.

I would like to have seen more, but I'm happy for the 500,000.

And uh thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you.

Uh there are any other questions regarding ordinance number 31-2026.

Councilman Conwill.

Thank you very much to the Chair.

Um to uh to Craig.

Matter of fact, you're doing a good job, and um, and when you say that, you have to say why.

So you're doing a good job, you're keeping kids off of the streets.

But what I'm looking at is that um Mr.

Application of the knowledge, which we'll talk about today at 4 p.m.

How do we get some of the children to start?

It's the job spots that we put them in.

I don't want to see any kids for me.

Painting fire hydrants or those kind of things.

I want to see them, for example.

You have a young kid that can um that can play that plays the drums, all right?

And this young kid is 14 or 15 years old.

You have them at Rainey Institute of Music teaching some other young children.

And then that young kid is teaching to the chair, some other young children by them teaching, will learn how to play the drums better.

And then it will build their self-esteem up, and they'll get better outcome measures, and it can relate to the young children.

That's what I'm gonna talk with you about later today.

It's getting some of these art children to start teaching murals and those kinds of things, and they'll feel better and it would make them better.

Students, as well as better uh with their instruments to the chair to um Craig.

Uh to the councilman through the chair.

Uh, first of all, thank you for your uh kind words.

Uh some good news is we do and have for a long time have a significant number of our job sites are what one call arts related, theater related to all the general arts.

You mentioned Rainey, they've been a partner for uh several dozen years, and there are many, many others.

I should share a comprehensive list uh with uh Mr.

Jeremy Johnson who could uh I could provide it with this group as well.

Also, to your point about uh what are the jobs and how they're engaging young people.

There'll be uh about three, four hundred Cleveland youngsters in what we call career academies.

We did provide this uh to uh councilman chairs uh stars committee, uh construction, manufacturing, public service, marketing, lead abatement, entrepreneurship, film production architecture, urban farming, farm tech, and uh the list goes on.

Right.

Uh so these are jobs where the young people get an immersive career experience and coaching uh going forward.

So we've evolved in uh over each year, more and more of our jobs are career focused.

That's important.

I was talking with some young students, some young people, and we were talking about, let's say McDonald's.

Young people think just flipping the burgers, but it's other systems when you work for McDonald's.

You can later on get your CDO license.

It's support services.

You could um let's say you work for McDonald's, you can learn LSM local store marketing, you can learn finance, you can learn accounting, you can learn purchasing and procurement.

But the children in my community, they think about since they don't have that exposure to systems and structures, they just think about flipping the burgers and they don't want to work for McDonald's.

Because once you learn other systems, it takes a lot to create that hamburger in that pie there.

It's other systems accounting that's in there.

But if we don't put our our children in that rim, they're not gonna be able to do it.

Uh to the councilman, to the chair agree a hundred percent, and happy to talk with you more offline about a couple interesting projects we're doing in this uh area.

All right, what time is it?

We're we're gonna meet at four, but if it's when you get finished, if we have a quorum, I can meet with you later too on some things.

No, we gotta wait on Jeremy to come.

Through the chair.

I'm sorry, Chair.

We have to wait, because you have to always have to say through the chair.

We have to wait on Jeremy Johnson.

Are you still have that time at four o'clock?

All right, cool.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Uh saying no other questions, ordinance number 31-2026 as amended, stands approved.

Please sign on.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Much appreciated.

During the chair, we appreciate the additional 500,000.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

All right, we'll bring up uh ordinance number 229-2026 by council members Conwell and Griffin by departmental request, an emergency ordinance authorizing the director of public health to enter into one or more contracts with the Urban League of Greater Cleveland for the purpose of providing facilitation coordination and implementation support for the racism as public health crisis coalition in order for the city to develop innovative solutions to address racial and inequal inequities and disparities that negatively impact public health systems, community outcomes, and overall quality of life for the Department of Public Health for a period of one year with the one-year option to renew exercisable by the director of public health.

Director and Miss Mockabee, how y'all doing?

Great.

Thank you.

Commissioner, you want to start us off and then introduce us to your guests and glad to see you guys moving forward.

Sure.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mr.

President and Council.

Thank you for having us.

We uh presented this morning to the HHSA committee, which was uh so gracious as to have us.

Uh this is uh renewing legislation that uh allows us to partner with the Urban League of Greater Cleveland to uh execute the racism as a public health crisis uh ordinance, which allowed this group to this body to stand up a working group, which is now a coalition, the RAFC coalition, uh basically executing the tenants of that public-private partnership, which was designed to explore the connections between systemic racism and our policies, practices, procedures, uh, but also doing that on a community facing and a community-led uh front.

So we created a framework in uh 2020 executed in 2021, a framework based in social determinants of health, where we thereby determine where do we see racism operating in our education system and our economic systems and our health and public health systems in our criminal justice system, as well as in our neighborhoods and built environments.

So, thinking about housing, transportation, things of that nature, we gathered working groups around all five of those pillars that consisted of community members, some members of this body, uh, folks from uh City of Cleveland Health Department, and also a multitude of experts in our throughout our communities, very hyperlocal, so local uh experts around each of those that uh worked for a number of years pulling data, uh understanding where what indicators we were focused on to improve in those areas, and then uh creating a final um set of recommendations, uh, and so now we uh the initial ordinance allowed us to partner with uh Urban League of Greater Cleveland as a convener for one year with the operation uh option to renew for another year, and we would like to continue that to move into phase two.

Uh, I have Marcia Makcabi here, uh president and CEO of Urban League of Greater Cleveland, and she's here to provide some further context, and also we are able to answer any questions that you might have.

Okay.

Thank you, Council President and Council members, thank you for allowing us to be here today.

Um, we are excited to be talking about RAFC, as we call it, racism is a public health crisis for Cleveland, phase two.

Phase one was really designed to just identify based on the five pillars that uh we had to work on.

What were the actual issues in each of the five pillars that indicated the state of racial disparities and racial inequities?

And then to also determine what would racial equity look like in each of those pillars, and I'll just restate the pillars were education, criminal justice, health, public health, and then there was one that was uh based on workforce and uh equity and finance, and then the final one had three areas, and that was housing, infrastructure, and environment.

So in each of those areas, we identified those two struct those two capacity pieces.

The job then was to identify strategies that would get us from the states of inequity to a desired state of equity.

And so that work was completed with over 60 stakeholders who worked with us, an executive committee and a steering committee.

And I'm happy to say that uh several of our council members sat in on the steering committee with us, executive committee, and we gave reports uh to our health and human services committee as well as to our council president and and others.

And so we have now to look at what is phase two is implementation.

We did the research, the data.

Now we want to move to implementation, and a lot of things have changed.

So we have to really look at as we sat there and listened, we heard you talk about the issues in the communities, the food deserts.

That was one of the things that was identified in the housing infrastructure uh area.

And what we also see is there are connection points across all five of the pillars.

And now we're looking at as we implement how do we look across the pillars for things that affect all of them.

The other thing I want to bring to your attention is I think there is a lot to be commended here for the city because, in addition to what we did externally with the community, the city of Cleveland through the work that was done by Commissioner Lita Wills's department actually created a parallel for internal work within the city that looked at the same five pillars.

And so what we have is a unique situation in that we already have an example of how you take information that has happened in the research and in looking at community voice, and then how do you have a system that you've been able to make some implementation?

There's not another group yet who's been working on some of these issues, who's been able to look at a system and really began to look at how change is created in a system.

So we think now we have a really good stepping point to begin to look at policy, advocacy issues.

You've brought up a number of them.

We've taken note of things that we can work on that are actually aligned with the pillars that we worked on that we think could help to move agendas around some of the things that are of your concern.

Thank you.

So just to give a little bit of background, I believe it was 2021 or probably 2020 when Ms.

Mockabee and then the director of the YMC, YWCA, Margaret Mitchell came and met with myself and former Councilman Boshier Jones and really wanted to talk about a framework for how we can address disparities and uh racism in our community.

We subsequently uh passed a resolution to declare racism as a public health crisis and have been working with uh Miss Mockabee and her team uh over the years to try to implement a strategy in order to try to eradicate those things.

So I want to commend you for staying with it.

I know that I've gotten pulled in different directions at times, and I want to thank uh Commissioner Wells for keeping the train on the track.

And uh, are there any questions regarding this?

And Councilman Conwell just came out of your committee.

Did you have any comments?

Yes, I have a question too.

Okay.

Counselman Conwell.

I'm gonna get hats off to Commissioner Wells and she came and she was it December we through the chair that we had a conversation first offline about um what you were doing because I believe this this is how I believe.

If we're gonna push racism, racism as a public health crisis, then you gotta do it in-house here.

And she narrated me well.

Can you give a little overview of what you're doing, the outcome measures in the city of Cleveland?

Commissioner, through the chair.

Through the chair, thank you.

Yes, uh, I think uh we did present to Health and Human Services Committee officially in January, but uh we this group uh including uh the team from Urban League and YWCA have had other conversations with the uh chair of health and human services uh and arts.

So basically, the racism as a public health crisis uh declaration from city council allowed the working group to stand up, the working group is primarily focused on responding to the tenants in that ordinance uh on a community-facing level.

So driven by uh uh YWCA and especially Urban League, as also the fiduciary uh uh responsible party.

So that work got started about eight months before the second ordinance that uh allowed for the city to install uh Office of Health Equity and Social Justice.

Uh I came on board uh in July of 2021 and the framework of being able to measure our equity work in the city of Cleveland, both what's community facing and what's internal to the city of Cleveland, moving across city departments, not only working in the health department.

Um, that framework was decided to use social determinants of health to measure that work, and so that was already set up.

We have the uh the great pleasure of being able to align the internal work and internal strategies of health equity and social justice with the RAFC coalition work, and so we work in tandem.

This is a public-private partnership where you can look to RAFC coalition for that external community facing work, you can look to the division of health equity and social justice, which includes the interdepartmental equity team that moves across city departments as well as the equity advisory group that moves across city departments, but we're working in tandem on the same issues at the same time, using the same data points in all of it is to root out systemic racism and the effects of those disparities that we see in all of our policies, practices, and procedures.

You can look to the division of health equity and social justice, which includes the interdepartmental equity team that moves across city departments as well as the equity advisory group that moves across city departments, but we're working in tandem on the same issues at the same time, using the same data points in all of it is to root out systemic racism and the effects of those disparities that we see in all of our policies, practices, and procedures.

So again, it's tending to that fixing the internal house as well as what happens uh to the community.

You cannot do it separately because the issue is too great and too important.

We really strongly felt that we had to be able to run this work at the same time.

So don't fix the internal and wait to fix the external.

We had to work together, and so that's what we've been doing these last couple of years with making sure that the internal policies and procedures are moving in the same direction that the racism as a public health crisis coalition recommendations in alignment is moving.

Yeah, they have to move, um, Mr.

Chair, overlapping at the same time.

So um, Commissioner Wills, he's gonna give me an axe and give you the outcome measures from the city at first.

The city is easier to do, then we can lead by example, and then the um hopefully the private sector could step in and start moving in that direction.

Although, with this new administration in, is it's gonna be barriers, it's gonna be harder to move in that direction because um, I don't want to talk about them because I don't want you know, you know what I'm saying.

Yes, it's harder, and the thing about dealing with racism, even when the civil rights was passed in 1964, as well as the voting rate act passed in 1965.

You gotta the thing about policy is forever changing and moving, especially when different administrations get in, get into office.

And when those different administrations, I'm not talking about the Bibb administration, it's how they move as well, and they can create barriers.

So it's kind of rough.

And if you look at the African American community, we have lost ground on a lot of things that we had, and we're pushing forward.

We lost some ground, and um even when we push this, it's gonna be difficult, some difficult times.

And I don't want to um talk about it in the open, but I see it.

But you can write policy from here, but you got these barriers is coming down as well, and you know what I'm talking about, and it's frustrating.

It's frustrating as heck.

But um I support it.

I'm gonna have to be more the words are bigger now, and I'm gonna have to be more um over there, but quarterly, you guys are supposed to give us a quarterly review.

We need the quarterly review.

We need that, and council president needs to also a quarterly review and marking um what milestones they they've reached, or what barriers is getting in the way of the milestones, so that we know, Mr.

President, what direction it could be policy, could be a barrier that's going on downstate.

It could be policy from the federal government, could be a barrier, but we need to know that quarterly so we can measure the outcome measures, directions they're moving into.

You know, and it's it's gonna take a while because you know, racism been here really since 1619 when when my people, our people first came over here, was brought over here in slavery.

So, and you can't just change it in four or five years, and you got things fighting against us, which is frustrating, and I can feel this the frustration.

This is terrible.

So that's where I'm at on it.

Okay, thank you.

Uh, Councilman Michael Pelescu.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman of my honorable colleagues, and always nice to see a former railroader at the table.

Um one of the um one of the things I wanted to ask, because we all know when we look at the historical conditions that exist in the city of Cleveland when it was almost a million people, and the migrations that were here from the deep south and from eastern Europe where my family came from.

We that we came here for jobs and opportunity.

And so much of that has been taken away.

So when I look at them at the poverty, lack of opportunity, despair that I see uh so often in our city and especially on the east side, reminds me to what uh my dear late friend Lou Stokes would say so often that his mother stressed to him and Carl the importance of getting an education.

If you were gonna break out, it was gonna do due to the fact that you were educated, you had opportunities.

So this is the question I want to pose to the urban league.

Um we have already had 29 schools closed on the east side.

There's another 18 being proposed right now.

The Glenville neighbors lost 22 percent of its population in less than a decade.

And if you look and talk to the folks that are moving out, especially into the eastern suburbs, Euclid, Richmond Heights, South Euclid, and beyond, from what they tell me, the one of the greatest concerns, you know, they list a lot of things as quality of life, but a major thing they talk about is education, the lack of quality schools on the east side, the schools that have been closed in their neighborhoods, um, the programs that have been stripped out of the schools.

So, in the course of you doing this research, have you looked at what they've done to us on the east side of the city?

I mean, this is not I mean, one would almost say that this was um this was uh pre-planned, this is methodical what they've done.

I mean, I just cannot believe, and then what's worse yet, then they they close the buildings and they just let them sit there and rot as a reminder of disinvestment.

So when I'm looking at the fact, and Councilman Collie, my colleague, Councilman Connelly dealing with this right now, four of those schools are on the northeast side, including your ala mater and my ala mater Collwood, which was stripped of all of its critical programs.

I think at some point, someone is gonna have to start drawing a line in the sand and saying, you know what, if we're gonna break poverty, despair, and lack of opportunity, which a lot of it, let's be very blunt, the majority of the schools that they're closing are predominantly black schools.

Let's just get right to the point here.

And I keep asking myself, how do you continue to disinvest, take away from the communities, and expect things to improve?

They're not improving.

I sit here today among 15 councilmen, 15 colleagues.

When I came in here, there were 33.

We are number one in poverty.

It all depends what graph you look at or number two in childhood poverty.

But again, I go back to what Lou said.

If you're gonna break the backs of um lack of opportunity, and everything else that we can tell you, you don't do it with education.

We have to give our kids opportunities.

And I gotta tell you, it's not happening.

So a group is important as the Urban League, NAACP and others.

Um I think there has to be some a greater vocal engagement here as to what are you doing here?

What are you doing to us?

Because I all I see is I'm dealing with right now.

People tell telling me they're gonna move, they're gonna move, or gonna put their kids in charter schools in the across the border in the city of Euclid.

And so it doesn't do anything to create opportunities.

You know, Stephanie um my other dear late friend, um Stephanie uh Congresswoman Stephanie How's he Stephanie Hosmond's uh Stephanie uh Jones, our late congressperson, um she would say to us, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, yeah.

She would say, um, one of our greatest tasks, I heard her say this so many times, one of our greatest tasks is creating personal wealth.

Not Donald Trump wealth, but wealth where you could buy something, you can own something, and you do that with a job.

You do that being educated.

And so I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna end it right there.

But I I'm I'm I'm frustrated because I see what's happened to the east side of the city, and I don't see it getting any better.

I don't see it getting any better.

And when people keep telling me they're just gonna blow out a Dodge, get out of Dodge, or put their kids, unfortunately, in some cases, substandard charter schools is not the answer.

We need to educate our citizens.

We need to educate our kids.

And so um I'm hoping a lot more groups will take a look at what's happening here.

Because as I've said publicly, I think the mayor has been totally misled on what's what's being recommended.

Um, because he supports this crazy plan to close all these schools.

I think he's been totally misled, not given a full facts and information as to what the the impacts are gonna be, long-term impacts on our kids, stability of our neighborhoods and providing that pathway, you know.

Um Ted Ginn says to me, not all of my kids are gonna play for Ohio State.

They need jobs, they need skills, they need opportunity.

So if we're gonna when we talk about racism and that link to lack of um lack of wealth, lack of the ability to succeed in life.

Um so I've witnessed it, I've seen it, I'm frustrated, and I just wanted to say this.

So I would hope you would start taking a more closer look at what's happening to our school system because it doesn't bode very well for us on the east side of the city.

I'll leave it at that.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman, if you care to comment.

Okay.

Through the chair to the councilman.

Uh councilman, I spent 18 years of my 35 years at the Urban League as a director of education and youth development.

So my heart is where your heart is.

Right.

Okay, around education.

But the heart alone won't get the job done.

That's right.

And what I would say is uh if you look, we look at the situation with the schools, those hard decisions have been made.

We've got agreements, disagreements on both sides, but but let's think about this.

If you want, we want to try to solve a problem often, decreasing the sphere of control is often one strategy in the corporate world and others that is used to try to be able to put the resources to change within a smaller sphere.

Uh I agree with you that schools sitting idle, I'm looking around to find one that might be a new home for the urban league.

Because we're because we've outgrown our building and our parking, okay.

When you talk about creating wealth, the urban league now has a financial opportunity center that can help people.

We have rocket um enterprise who is matching savings for individuals who will save at $300 level, 300's match.

500 level, $500 are matched.

How to build, you know, how to re get ready to purchase a home, how to you know increase your credit score, all those things.

The other thing is teaching entrepreneurship, because we know that when uh years ago, when our job market decreased considerably, entrepreneurship was opened up as a way to help people to develop a way to create wealth.

So all of those things, the thing about the Urban League is you don't have just the education organization, you have a workforce organization, you have an entrepreneurship education and education all under one roof, one stop service.

And we think about all of that and serving the entire family.

I'm sorry, you know, under one roof.

So under this uh plan that we have, we're already looking at ways.

The the final thing is holding systems accountable.

That's what this is about, right?

This racism is a public health crisis.

So while we can't change the decision with the schools, I think what we can now say is okay.

Now that these schools are closing, and we're talking about having a new system of success in the schools, we need an accountability system that our community holds the school district accountable for delivering what they propose would happen as a result of this.

And the Urban League is one of those who's willing to help hold the accountability, and not only that, but we say, and we'll assist, because we have a computer lab.

We can bring young people to the urban league.

We can help with their literacy and numerous, because if you look at this, all those schools that were open, we and and I'm a great proponent of public education all day long.

I we had a great education at Collinwood, all right.

But the thing is that all those schools dispersed, small numbers of children in all those buildings, we weren't getting the results that we need, and that our community deserves.

Okay, I'm sure you would agree to that.

So what we want to do now is through this smaller system, and we've offered our assistance as well.

How can we help make sure that our children in this new design get exactly what's been promised?

And we're happy, happy to do that.

So through the education pillar, we hear you loud and clear.

We think those are some things in advocacy and policy that we can work on with you all, and we want to work very closely with our HHSA commit uh committee and others of our council members so that we have our finger on the pulse of what you all need so that we are able to respond to those things.

So thank you.

Well, thank you for your comments, and there's got to be accountability because again, what they've done up to this point hasn't worked.

So I'm you know, I'm here to help whoever I can and work who ever, but boy, we do the proof has been in the pudding, and it's not been a good taste for us.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Mr.

Chair, could I just add uh just to use the education pillar as an example of the work of RAFC where we determine um what do we look at to understand?

Are we moving closer to that ideal of having uh excellent educational opportunities for everyone that everyone can succeed, or are we moving further away from that?

We did two things.

One, we set up uh indicators of data that's already available that we know how to look at that tells us is it getting better, is it getting worse?

And in the meantime, that uh working group put together what they felt were the most important solutions to get us there.

So you don't just sit and watch data year over year, you have to do something about it, right?

And still watch that data.

So the pillars that they look at, um, the indicators that they look at are kindergarten readiness by race, understanding, are we getting better in that area, are we getting worse from year to year?

Third grade reading proficiency by race, are we getting better from year to year?

Are we getting worse?

And high school graduation and post-secondary uh completion rates by race.

The solutions that that team has proposed that they're as we move into phase two, what we're looking at now is the implementation.

How do we find where this work is happening?

How do we support it?

How do we elevate it?

How do we get it started if it's not started, uh, are in these areas, and just briefly um increase pre-K access, train teachers to be inclusive, expand mentorship and support, ensure technology access equitably, uh, promote early literacy, support teacher development, and connect students to resources.

So that team felt if they worked in those areas with fidelity that we would move the needle on those three indicators that we watch year over year, and so that's why I feel this work is so important because you have external community members and folks with an education focus that are really um honed in on this issue and as a team working to bring community members together around to engage community together around it and hopefully enact those solutions.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Richard Starr.

Thank you, Council President.

Um, just something when you talk about Urban League, um, the importance and and relationships with CMSD is aligning things in conjunction and in agreement, which is something that is important, and when you talk about CMSD, we talk about the fact that there's a lot of work that needs to be done.

Um, oftentimes, you know, I I you hear the saying your F already and moving to a D means you made some progress, but in reality, that doesn't sit right with me.

It's been far too long that CMSD on report card has shown that they are failing.

And when you talk about the prisons, when you talk about the violence that we deal with in the city of Cleveland, it lacks some structure.

And when you look at early literacy, and we talk about that from component, um the third grade proficiency reading scores for CMSD has also shown that our kids are behind.

They can't read, they can't write.

So early literacy is a huge problem.

When you talk about the fact that 73% of our third grades are promoted to the fourth grade, but only 34% of them are proficient.

When you talk about uh 80 80% graduation rate, it shows you that things are struggling.

Then when you talk about the component where the schools are measured by workforce, college readiness, career work, career, college, college career, workforce, and military readiness, only 15% of those 80% graduate, 80% graduates are prepared for any one of those things.

So the system is only doing what is designed to do, and it has to be a change in CMSD.

The culture, the structure, the curriculum, as well as the programs that are being offered and having Urban League in our backyard is something we definitely need to really look at and see what we can do to be able to support.

Is the fact that this system that we have currently, we have seen that it's flawed, and we haven't done nothing to correct it.

This mayoral oversight control, this mayoral um selection of the board members for the CMSD.

Then the mayor's selection of the CEO for CMSD has no checks and balances.

And it continues to be a problem.

And this is why I'm frustrated about it, because if we had a school board that was actually doing their job, we want to close 29 schools right now.

Some of these closures would have took place in 2019 when it was first shown to the real public that you gotta make these closures.

Now I get on social media, all I see is people kicking Dr.

Morgan in his behind.

They're going after him so bad, but they had that same energy when Eric Gordon didn't make a decision to close these schools.

So my it's hard for me to get mad on mainly Mayor Bibb because in 2019, this same energy should have been brought to Eric Gordon to make sure he did his job, and also those school board members that was there should have did their job to enforce that the school closures needed to happen potentially.

And then also we don't look at the fact that going into 2029 or 2030, we're gonna be at this table again talking about school closures.

Because they're showing that is another deficit.

They don't have an actual plan to deal with this.

We can talk about how bad the school is being underfunded.

We can talk about how the state, the federal are not funding the school, but you could talk about the fact that locals who pay their taxes, homeowners are agreeing to fund it more than anyone else.

We're gonna be it's gonna be a problem because if they're not educated from third grade with early literacy, how can Urban League help them?

How?

And it's and I know we're dealing with the racism, and I know that Urban League is doing everything that they can to help support, but we have we have the real the real problem is how can you raise the village as the villagers is not uneducated.

How can you raise that village if the village uneducated?

And that's a lot that's going on, and it's continue to happen.

And I just want to say I commend you, even though you're talking about you getting up out of here, you're not, uh, to the chair.

Uh ED, you ain't going nowhere.

We already talked to the board, you ain't going nowhere.

But I just want us to know that it's it's it's it's problematic, and I commend council president as well as former council member um Jones for the work you did to um declare racism as a public health crisis because racism all still exists, it's just that they don't have to hide it no more.

They speak up and do it in public now because it's the new wave.

But thank you for the work that you're doing, and I look forward to working together.

Thank you.

Ms.

Mockabee.

Thank you.

Through the chair to councilman.

I'm gonna take full responsibility for the fact that you don't know this, councilman.

So this is not on you.

At your Marion Sterling School, the Urban League runs that okay, the early literacy, third grade reading guarantee program.

Okay, and what we need to do though is we need to, we're working on putting data together on those children that we've served to show how their reading scores have increased.

So that's important that we have to give that to you.

What I will also tell you is that in my time as an education youth development director in my 18 years at the Urban League, I ran key programs called career beginnings that served 500 children in five schools over the years where we provided career development, we divided college, uh exposure, and all of those things.

And I still have people, young people coming back to me, of course, they're adults now, come and say, Ms.

Macabee, I career beginnings helped me to do this.

I'm now in this career, I'm doing this.

They could be great mentors in those situations.

So that's why I'm saying the Urban League, and I've you know, be talking to Dr.

Morgan about allow you gotta allow some people who because not everybody knows how to work with young people.

You gotta allow some people who understand social determinants of health, who understand adolescent behavior, who understand learning styles, to understand all of those things, and who have the heart to be in community with young people and bless them, and that's what I have on my team at the Urban League, and would love to increase that so we could help to stem the tide of this situation.

Thank you so much.

All right, seeing no other questions, ordinance number 229 dash 2026.

Council President, may you be quiet.

You got another one.

I didn't get a chance.

After Mike, you suppose it's been me.

You spoke you can't.

Can we talk about the when he when she when he mentioned I asked to be put back on?

Oh, okay.

I didn't know that.

We got the floor.

Here's here's the thing.

When we talk about racism here, it's a perfect example of racism.

And um council member Richard Starr is right.

We should have uh downsized the schools, Mr.

President, everyone earlier, some years ago.

He knew that it was going in this direction because he looked at he was studying the budget, and it tells him that he was getting his reviews.

Um the reason why so many schools, and you know, you from Collarwood.

I thought you were from Glenville at first, but I won't hold that against you.

You know, but pretty soon it would be Glenville anyway.

But we gotta keep your history of Collinwood there, because it's a strong history.

Here's a story that have not been told about the over saturation of schools.

And I won't be long.

During the Great Migration, a lot of my people came up from the South from Alabama and Georgia, Tennessee during the Great Migration.

And we had at that time the baby boomers were going, and it wasn't uncommon to have nine children or 11 children to a family.

So you you had school overcrowding.

Now they wanted to bust some children to the west side, but the white folks over there on the west side didn't want children, the African American children from the South and African American children to go to the West side.

So what happened was the school system created Lewis Pastor, uh, Forest Hill Parkway, Hazeldale, Charles H.

Lake, and so a lot of these schools that you see in this being raised now, the West side was empty.

They didn't have a lot of children over there.

We could have got bust over there, and when they did bust, they segregated us and kept us away from good resources that the white children were receiving.

They even came up with a plan to uh make sure the African American children would go to school for only a half a day.

The relay children for half a day, and then they would give us tests and test us against the white children on the west side and say we were not doing good.

So now, moving forward, African American and my community, my people, they're not having nine and eleven children.

They're having two, maybe three kids.

So the school, you don't have to have that many children in the schools.

So they're tearing them down.

And to this point, Clunder, Bruce Clunder, stood in front of Stevie Howe, and he said, Is this racism?

You remember that?

And he took a bulldozer and they bulldozed down Father Bruce Clunder.

And who else was out there was uh Don Freeman.

They were fighting against racism in schools before busting started because the white schools had better, and they built us more schools over here.

That's why it's more schools being raised in the African American community in the Northeast side.

They don't want to talk about that.

So when you look at racism, public health crisis, that was a part of it with education, because they didn't want the black kids to study with the white children.

That's it.

And I've been holding that back, listening to my colleague Mike Balenciag narrated, because he was here, and he know they did that to my people, and the ones that came up from the South.

So we were overbuilt with schools, and now we're having two to three, and so they're saying you don't need that many buildings.

Now, to make this work, we he does need to bring in parents because the only way to help with education, children have to look up and see that their mothers and fathers together, mothers and fathers and families together in the schools, and they need to see engaged parenting.

I don't care whatever we do with the schools, you gotta be like this man's life with his daughter and son as a father, and they gotta feel that power of the father and the mother in the schools.

You could come up with this bright and better future and all of those things, but you gotta have parenting there, and that's not in the in the pudding.

And so they gotta be there, but the schools were overbuilt for that reason.

Look it up, look it up, what I'm trying to tell you, and that's what I want to say, and thank you.

And that's what I want to say, and thank you.

Thank you, Councilman.

All right.

Uh seeing no other questions, ordinance number 229-2026 stands approved.

Please sign on.

Thank you all so much, and thank you for continuing this work, Miss Mockabee.

I'll be able to give my update very soon.

Very good.

Thank you, Councilman.

Thank you.

All right, next up is ordinance number 93-2026 by Councilmember Slife and Griffin by Departmental Request and Emergency Ordinance authorizing the director of port control to exercise the first option to renew contract PS 2025-65 with downtown Cleveland Alliance to maintain, manage secure and promote city-owned properties at the North Coast Harbor, and to fulfill the common area maintenance agreement with the stakeholders of North Coast Harbor.

Director continued.

Good afternoon, Mr.

Chair, members of the committee.

This item today will be presented by John Hoost, Senior Manager of Commercial Business and Revenue.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um the ordinance in front of you is authorizing the first one-year renewal option uh for the downtown Cleveland's Alliance, Cleveland Alliance's contract to implement the common area maintenance agreement at North Coast Harbor, which includes in that contract maintenance, property management, security, marketing, and event programming.

When we're talking about North Coast Harbor, the common areas we're talking about, uh the East Nine Street Pier, Vornovich Park, uh the inner harbor around by uh the Great Lake Science Center and the Rock Hall, and certain portions north of uh Huntington Bank Field.

Um, the cam agreement itself um includes uh the city of Cleveland, uh the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Great Lake Science Center, Cleveland Browns, and Cumberland Development.

Um the uh option on this contract amount will be for 470,000 dollars and 470,203 dollars.

Um TCA has been uh delivering uh services for over, I believe, close to a decade successfully, and they're doing a great job.

Um, the last thing I would like to highlight is the funds to pay for this contract come from uh Cam, the Cam member contributions and parking revenues generated down at North Coast Harbor.

Uh with that, I'll turn it over to Michael, and he has some uh highlights he wants to share about the contract.

Terrific.

Thank you, Director.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman, members of the committee, uh Michael Demer, CEO of Downtown Cleveland Inc.

Uh, wanna thank uh Councilman Slife and his committee uh for uh their support last week on this piece of legislation.

This is an important partnership uh for downtown Cleveland Inc.

We've held this responsibility of managing and maintaining North Coast Harbor since 2012.

Uh we manage all outsourced maintenance contractors, we provide day-to-day cleaning and repairs on the property, activate the Herb Earth programming.

Uh, we have long-standing relationships with all the partners in the harbor, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Great Lake Science Center, uh, and most recently the North Coast Waterfront Development Corporation.

Uh our management, we believe is integral to the downtown experience.

We help make sure that there's a seamless experience from Northwest Harbor to the downtown core.

Uh and I wanted to share just a few highlights of what we've done over the course of the last year and what we hope to build on uh in the upcoming year.

Uh over the course of the last year, uh we hosted over 110 activations and events uh in the harbor, ranging from uh recreation leagues, uh different sports symphony at sunset on Sunday evenings has been very popular in seasonal events like fall fun days and the light of the lake fireworks.

Uh we also uh lit the harbor for the first time with holiday lights and decor in conjunction with winter land and the lighting on public square and throughout downtown.

Uh our team manages North Coast Harbor website, social media accounts and newsletters.

Uh we've now added a daily game cart for families to uh enjoy uh free play activities at Voinovich Park.

Uh, over the course of the last year, our ambassadors have removed over 60,000 pounds of trash from the harbor, removed uh 258 graffiti tags and uh engaged in over 2,000 contacts with the businesses uh in and around the harbor.

So this has been again a very important partnership to us.

We think uh very important to the downtown experience, uh, and we're hopeful to continue this partnership for uh at least another year.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you.

Uh, this went through the uh port committee, councilman Charles Slife.

Yes, this was heard last week and passed by Transportation Nobility.

Thank you.

Are there any questions regarding ordinance number 93-2026?

Seeing no questions, ordinance number 93-2026 stands approved, please sign on.

Thank you so much.

Next we have ordinance number 94-2026 by Councilmember Slife and Griffin by departmental requests and emergency ordinance authorizing the director of port control to exercise.

The first option to renew contract number MA 1505, RC 2024-02 with Air Force One Inc.

to provide for labor equipment and materials necessary to maintain, repair, test, inspect, and enhance heating ventilation and air conditioning systems for the department of port control.

Director.

Good afternoon, Mr.

Chair, members of the committee.

This agreement with Air Force One Inc.

is a two-year with two one-year options to renew, and this is the first option we're requesting approval to activate.

This partner has a focus on and around the facility needs within the realm of heating ventilation and air conditioning systems at both Hopkins and Burke.

The work includes heating boilers, ventilation, air conditioning systems with repair labor materials and equipment rentals at both airports.

They're tasked with projects that staff determines are appropriate each year.

Our equipment is aging and requires more attention and certainly at times replacement, which is a positive for us going forward and improving our customer and guest experience.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilman Charles Life.

This was uh recommended for passage by Transportation and Mobility after a brief discussion clarifying that the name of the company has nothing to do with the plane Air Force One, nor the shoes, nor the Nelly song about the shoes.

Thank you, Councilman.

Councilman through the chair.

How does a company get the name Air Force One Inc.?

Shouldn't that be the property of the US government?

Great question, and I unfortunately don't have the answer to, Councilman, through the chair.

Okay.

Seeing no other questions, ordinance number 94-2026 stands approved, please sign off.

All right.

Next one and last is ordinance number 29-2026 by Councilmember Griffin by Departmental Request and Emergency Ordinance authorizing the director of human resources to employ one or more professional consultants to develop and implement a comprehensive management training program.

Please proceed.

I'll read the amendment if I could.

There is no legal objection to this legislation.

If amended as follows one, in section one, in the second paragraph at line five, after list insert the director of human resources shall notify this council though through its clerk after a consultant is selected by the board.

Number two, in section two, at the end, insert.

The director of human resources shall also provide written notice to the clerk of council whenever any purchase is made under this section, which notice shall include the details of any such cooperative purchases.

Number three, in section three, after authorized insert shall not exceed $100,000.

This was dated 3-6 uh 26, signed by Vishnu Ganglani, uh assistant director of law.

Director and assistant director.

Good afternoon, Chair.

Good afternoon, Councilman.

Um yes, this is uh a request to approve funds so that we are able to carry out a citywide management training program to all existing people managers.

They have been identified in the neighborhood of around 1,100 managers who are directly supervising other staff.

Um in our first uh uh contract with the consultant, consult HR partners.

Um we entered into a contract for a hundred thousand dollars with them.

Uh they provided um something called a organizational training needs assessment to determine if the city was in a position or prepared to take on um this uh very comprehensive training program uh to ensure that all of our managers were adequately trained in order to properly um oversee the work and specifically the productivity of all of the employees here at the city.

Um they concluded that there was um an absolute need for this.

We held 14 different focus groups.

And there was several recommendations made.

We have followed through on the performance management training.

That program has been developed.

It will be implemented through our new human capital management program.

Training is underway for performance management.

And the most significant recommendation from that work was that we continue this work by providing this extensive training to our managers.

All right.

No, this would be new.

We did present to the workforce training and development committee last week and they approved it.

All right, thank you.

Councilman Starr just went through uh workforce development.

Yes, we went through workforce, we fully vetted it and passed it out of committee.

All right.

Do we have any other questions regarding ordinance number 29-2026?

Seeing no other questions, ordinance number 29-2026 stands approved.

Please sign on.

Thank you very much for your attention.

We appreciate it.

That concludes this uh committee of finance diversity, equity, and inclusion.

I'd uh remember to remind everybody to please be on time tonight so that we could uh move expeditiously.

Thank you so much.