Stephanie, excuse me, um our Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, George Vondovich.

I could go on the list, who graduated from that auditorium.

Kids have got to go someplace else now.

They want to kill the name Collinwood High School.

They want to just extinguish it.

Hundred years old, largest high school in the city of Cleveland, 300,000 square feet.

We're gonna kill it.

Gave their lives in the second world war.

No hundred and eighty-five, including one female.

Largest loss of life of any school in the second world war in the city of Cleveland.

Over two thousand served to protect our freedom.

Euclid Park.

If this goes through, there'll be no heist, there'll be no elementary schools for the first time in a hundred years in St.

Clair and on Euclid Avenue.

First time in a hundred years.

No elementary schools.

And yet the population is there.

I mean just look at this.

And I've said here and I'm gonna say again to the mayor.

Mayor, they have misled you.

Dr.

Morgan has misled you.

We're gonna lose the after school program at Collinwood.

Where is it going?

No one's telling us where it's gonna go.

There's no program, and my colleague knows it, because we both inherited a new area.

There's no program after school in the Collinwood Nottingham village area, which also takes in Euclid Park.

But what I don't think they didn't tell you as well is that there's six voting precincts gonna disappear.

Four at Euclid Park, toward Hanny Gibbons.

So not only do we have to contend with voter suppression coming out of Washington and Columbus.

Now we see voter suppression coming out of CMSD.

And I've been sitting here looking at all their stuff that they've put out.

Nice glossy stuff, building brighter futures.

So what in essence it tells us on the Northeast side, you're gonna build brighter futures for the charter schools and the surrounding suburbs, because that's where our kids are going based on their own numbers now.

And yet their own documents, I'm I'm presenting their own documents, only 30 stuff.

We're having tech issues.

Yes.

Hi, for joining us.

Thank you.

Thank you for having us.

We are very proud to present an update today on our work to stand up in tobacco retail licensing system.

As well as uh some of our results for our smoking system association efforts across our community.

Uh with me to my left is Patrice Miners, the director of our community health commissioners that we've been scratching on this work, and directly to her left is Mr.

Barbara Peterson, who is the head of local health remote enforcement and uh enforcement for tobacco retail lessons.

So really proud of uh the work we have a good year.

We're gonna keep it to 57 minutes, no more.

57, and with that, I'm trying to go over it to use finally for remote.

I don't care how finding the remote.

Can you also be my name seriously?

Uh so good morning everyone, and thank you for the opportunity to be here today.

Uh last year we took an important step to protect residents across Cleveland by passing comprehensive tobacco retail laws.

Center to that effort was the creation of citywide tobacco retail licensing system, requiring every retailer to obtain a tobacco license for every location.

Um, with tools such as licensing, compliance checks, donate restrictions, and clear enforcement mechanisms.

The city now has a stronger, more accountable framework, one that reduces easy access to tobacco, particularly for youth, and in neighborhoods that have been disproportionately targeted.

Today we can provide a comprehensive update of the implementation of that tobacco retail licensing program or CLE TRL, as I like to call it.

This initiative is a key component of the city's water tobacco prevention and control efforts, and by aligning this program with those efforts, we are building a more coordinated and effective approach to reducing tobacco related harms across our community.

So that's what you can say.

So next slide.

So before we talk about the implementation of the tobacco retail licensing program, I just want to make sure that we're all rounded in why we're doing this and why it matters for Cleveland.

So first, um tobacco remains the lean cause of preventable disease, disability, and death in the United States.

Um experience even an even greater part from tobacco really harm.

Um the health impacts are significant.

I would suggest this we can look for the individuals who are being trained to be community health advocates who do a lot of work around heart health, and that's one of the issues related to tobacco and increases your risk for heart disease.

Um also leads to heart attack, stroke, and lip loss.

So you're at a two to four times greater risk if you use tobacco products.

Um people who use tobacco products also are at 30 to 40 percent uh rate increased rate of developing diabetes compared to not.

And during that training because I thought this was pretty cool.

Um we talked about um ferocity of blood, and if you don't have diabetes or uncontrolled diabetes, your blood goes more like this.

But if you do your blood becomes senior, and your heart is trying to pump something like this through your body daily.

So this just makes it much harder.

So we want to decrease tobacco use so that we can decrease the incidence of tobacco and also heart disease.

Um I did want to say that this issue is beyond individual health.

We see clear neighborhood level disparities where tobacco retailer density is concentrated in socially vulnerable communities, and this tends to lead to increased tobacco use.

It makes it more difficult to be successful in your food attempts.

And it normalizes the use of tobacco, which is one of the harder things to get over when you're trying to reduce tobacco.

The increased exposure to marketing, that's an example of a newer ad on the left for rates, which is taking a page from over ads from full cigarettes from the 1990s.

So this compounds community impact and it leads to neighborhood level spirits and health outcomes.

Okay.

So in 2015, we did a fleet one survey, and then we repeated the same survey in 2025.

So in that time, smoking rates have declined by nearly 30%, dropping from roughly 35% to about 25%.

And while that progress is meaningful, it has not been experienced evenly across the city.

So certain rates with certain communities are still high.

And 25% is still higher than the national average, and even the state average.

And so while cigarettes remain the most commonly used tobacco products, we are seeing increased rates in use of cigarettes, in particular cigarettes, and vaping products, particularly among certain populations.

Another key point one in three people who use tobacco are using more than one product.

This patent of dual or poly use makes putting more difficult and increases the risk of negative health outcomes.

So folks who are switching from cigarettes and going to vaping, sometimes we tend to still do both, which defeats the work.

And importantly, the vast majority of youth who initiate tobacco use so with a flavored product.

So all the flavor they products are really targeting youth bulb, pooper as berry.

Okay.

In the next section, we're going to talk about how the tobacco retail licensing regulation is designed to address specifically youth access and how we're going to use it to advance health equity.

So before we jump into the implementation, I just want to give a reminder to everyone of the legislation that was passed and what it provides.

So the annual licensing fee will be implemented, which will help fund the enforcement and implementation of the regulations.

This initiative also maintains an inventory of businesses, which is important that are involved in tobacco sales and ensures comprehensive oversight.

Again, inventory of business and funds to support the implementation of the program itself.

Alright, so we'll talk about the key basis of implementation.

Okay.

So this is just a quick overview of key basis.

So policy adoption that's pretty clear that ordinance is passed after it was reviewed and codified as chapter 235.

And this gave us the legal framework to regulate retailers.

It was crucial because it set the legal and operational parameters for the entire initiative.

So it was our starting point, our foundation for the implementation of the work that path has.

And that was to create a licensed application system, forms, documentation to departments, and review process.

So for our application process, the applications come in through Division of Assessment and Licensing, their review for completeness, and then they vote to public health for final review.

During this phase, we also establish the license scheme, and the fund accounts provide for sustainable resources for inspectors, compliance checks, and community education.

Throughout in our last presentation to council really went into depth, we did a lot of outreach and education to the public and to retailers.

So this is not linear.

Outreach and education happened throughout the process.

It will continue even beyond the last phase in this body.

But by late October, the online application was open for our January through December 2026 license.

And then each of these phases is interconnected and critical for the success of implementation of the licensing regulation, and together they more of a comprehensive approach to licensing tobacco sales.

I won't spend too much time on the outreach and education efforts because we did have a whole council meeting dedicated to it, but just as a reminder, it included retailer engagement strategies, so we went directly to retailers within nailings, we did falls, in person visits, a community awareness campaign that included billboards, yard signs, anyway that we connect with retailers in the community we try to do.

We also involved partners, so we spoke at different community meetings, getting to public involved and retailers involved during that process, and different materials were developed during that process for education to retailers and to the community.

Is because education is key before you do full enforcement.

We wanted to make sure that retailers understood what was expected and how they can stay compliant.

So to the meat of the presentation, where we are in terms of licensing.

So as of last Friday, we had 236 license issues issued with 26 pending.

Pending means they're probably either in DAO or they're with us or by moving.

So as I mentioned, part of the outreach that we conducted was a co-break message to all of our known unlicensed retailers and also site visits, which included a citation that gave them 10 days to provide before enforcement measures estimated.

Okay.

So I'm going to talk briefly about some of the challenges that we're seeing and our strategies for addressing retail non-compliance in Cleveland.

We do think that it is primarily unintentional and not willful.

So we think that many, not many.

This is from personal engagement with retailers.

So from experience, I've learned that many retailers are still unaware or understand that this applicant or that this license is required.

There is another license that is required by Ohio Department of Taxation that's an annual license, it's a cigarette license.

That's 125, which is different from this, but there are some retailers who believe that they have that license, they don't need this one.

So that gap we're helping to fill with our education and outreach.

Another strategy that we're going to try to employ is peer-to-peer education.

A lot of retailers know one another, they may own multiple stores.

So trying to talk to retailers that we established relationship with and getting them to talk to their peers about what is needed in the strategy we will employ automatically already.

And these informal numbers are very important for all of our other day.

Another concern that is come to light is the cost concern.

Being very upfront about the cost has been important, and I think has been helpful.

There was a grace period that applied, so that if you had eight establishments, you didn't necessarily have to apply day one for all eight.

So we allow a bit of a period of time for people to get off their ducks in a row and make sure that they get their license in time.

So the idea is not to be punitive initially, but to educate and support.

So there is first one was a bit of a learning curve.

But even Dr.

Margolius was able to do an application this morning with a retailer, so I think they can get it done.

But I have provided phone support, I've provided in-person support.

So if anyone has a challenge with the license application, they're able to get assistance.

And they've had enough time to be able to reach out and receive assistance if they are experiencing.

So that we have these long-term compliance with retailers.

Okay.

So I want to talk just briefly about the based enforcement.

So again, I already alluded to this.

We started with support, built awareness, transition to enforcement to ensure accountability, and then our long-term efforts are to maintain compliance.

So this based approach allows Cleveland to improve compliance efficiency while supporting retailers and protecting public health.

So phase one, education and outreach.

I would say began at the moment retailers were able to act.

So the moment when the application became available.

So that was late October, early November.

And that took us through January.

So all of these are in about three months time frame.

So 0 to 3 was the education outreach, 3 to 6 was a warning and grace period.

So we're nearing the end of that period.

So this is why on Friday inspectors were out providing that last warning, that citation before they have more active enforcement, and that's the phase that we're moving into.

And then we'll move into full enforcement and sustainability once we reach the 12th plus month period.

In Cleveland, a base approach ensures fairness, improves compliance, and allows retailers' time to adjust while maintaining accountability.

Okay, so before I go into next steps and opportunities, we just want to give us a one step before and after.

So before implementation, there wasn't a comprehensive retail licensing system.

Now there's a mandatory licensing for all tobacco retailers.

There were limited proactive inspections because we did not have a local mechanism for inspections, but now we have routine standardized license inspections with the TRL.

The inspections will include an under HI attempt so that we can have regular underage compliance.

And then the data was fragmented, but now because everything will be in a cell up, we'll have a centralized licensing and inspection data to go through.

So next steps include ongoing inspections and enforcement.

And we plan to provide data updates to council, but at whatever frequency you find is most useful.

And because this is a new system, we're always thinking about quality improvement.

So any system refinements that we find are necessary will happen in these next steps.

And then eventually I would like to look at maybe a more progressive fee structure.

Right now it's very regressive because every retailer pays the same amounts for the license.

But if you're more compliant, then perhaps there is some way that we can reduce the fee for you because our efforts are really directly tied to the work that we're doing.

And if 80% of our work is going to 20% of retails, then they should bear a higher burden of the cost.

But that's not important down the line that we should discuss.

Okay.

So at the top of the agenda, I talked about some of the other work that we are doing.

And I wanted to give a quick shout out to one of our members in the audience.

We do have a grant through Ohio Department of Health Tobacco Management and Control.

And one of the parts of that grant is to do youth education.

And we have a relationship with Dennison on the west side and Charleston on the east side, and we're engaging youth in some policy systems and environmental change projects.

And one of our students is here, Benjamin James and his mother, Miss Brown, getting a first-hand glimpse at what it is to do this kind of work to do systems level change, and to get pretty much used.

But it's all a part of the work that we're doing.

So the other piece of it is cessation services.

So two years ago, maybe, if not longer, we found there was a need for community cessation services, so we started within the health department community association services for residents, free of charge, which also included access to nicotine replacement therapy.

So this little diagram forms of trophy.

So when we put all of these spaces together, we win.

That's the whole.

They had a list of smoke shop applicants, so we use that list.

So there wasn't one list that we had, but we used different lists and then did outreach to see okay, are these places still tobacco places and came up with about 500?

So this was larger prior to that, but some of the county data included addresses that were outside of Cleveland, even though we said Cleveland, so some of those border communities were retailers that we need to offer this.

So we feel comfortable with 500, although there's certainly probably more in once we are out more than the community will be able to add to that.

So that's this is related.

So great point that some shops have pressure planning departments were access to that data.

You mentioned there's a move to a sell up for licensing.

Is it still ongoing?

And if so, when is it going to be complete?

Is it already complete?

So the license for the tobacco retail license is already in the cell.

Last question just because I asked that clean involved.

Very glad to see it up and running.

So the percentage of Air Pass and just partly because you can't, it's really hard to regulate what kind of advertisements are allowed to be up there.

It's a legal activity, folks are allowed to advertise the legal activity regulatory.

And so has there been any effort or infrastructure dealt for reducing the number of tobacco ads or ads overall, excuse me, on Windows.

So I know when the legislation first passed in April, there were big push by building in housing, and even some of our inspectors, I would say, when they were doing their retail inspections to check for window covering, and we'll say for a part of our so there will be two inspections that will happen for each retailer.

And the first inspection is the license inspection, and there's a checklist that will also include a check for window covering.

So there has been some efforts, and then there will be staying ongoing efforts through our inspection process.

Uh change parent, sorry.

Anyway, um thank you.

Um it's nice to see tobacco down from 35 to 20% usage, and then you point it out this is far as the base are up, so we total model 49% to 49%.

Um, which is still reducing 45%.

Uh well, I mean we add up tobacco cigarettes that they in one column, and then you add the 2015.

If you want to go to the slide, people use and that's what I sort of questions.

So um the chair, how do we get data on like what people do in terms of like their usage?

Like, how do you know that maximum percentage of people are baby in hand smoking cigars first, just like smoking cigarettes?

So the chair, said Councilman, the Cleveland Health Survey, which is self-reported, uh survey residents across the city.

And one of the questions within the survey was your use.

So we asked specifically if you were what tobacco products were you using, and we were able to claim from that which tobacco product and if they were using possible tobacco products.

Oh yeah, so the survey is available to anybody online usually health survey that was done by a team about female just in case questions and national members have in terms of their uh methodology to get this data.

Then through that uh we have data on what stores are selling, like those of us like we sold this many parts of metal, this many single seas, this many dates we get like sure there is some data on what store you're selling and that kind of quantities like that you mentioned.

Um, but uh they're they've done some good work on photographs looking at all the the green products and other kind of uh selling some by Osco Research Center for a couple of years as the data on that shares, yes.

Um the same group, they have summer interns that go out and do a survey of all the different retailers, and I believe they do try to collect a percentage, it's not hard science, but it does give us a good idea of what's being so in stores.

Um and then you uh chair's for a second in my next question, uh what I call pop-up box shops.

Yeah, um, so I'm fully supportive of the state license uh dispensaries as approved by voters and passed two, three years ago, whatever this was, but the fly by night corner uh bringing down trash bags full of uh from the Michigan people.

Um share how are we going in uh putting those shops?

Because I think there are two polls, which we want to do something.

Through the chair's announcement.

Um so internally we have a group of individuals who are going out and investigating any calls or complaints, or even during other inspections that we had uh barbershop that had marijuana, and we are working with other departments to make sure that these establishments are getting quotes.

Um as part of the licensing requirements, if you are filed to sell marijuana or any other illegal product, then our pathway for enforcement is much stricter and stronger where we could actually shut or disallow the selling of tobacco products for up to five years.

So the state law went to effect March 20th of 2026.

Uh, all the marijuana urbanists that were pretending to sell can no longer be sell outside of registered campus dispensaries, and uh and the Ohio SCA unit is the enforcement agency in charge of that, and they would like all those retailers to know um that the big enforcement actions are coming shortly.

Um they wanted to let the bus settle uh after the law window fact to see if someone was on our own, uh, but for retailers uh listening in to know that those big enforcement actions are coming shortly.

Okay, so through the show stage, so you include that correct.

Okay.

Um last question for the chair uh can we have a list of the license uh tobacco retailers uh this pressure case I'll shoot here, so that's an asking.

I wonder you want a lot of enforcement developers or properties in my neighborhood um next week.

Uh so that if we're thank you for nothing, uh you thank you for your time this morning.

Um follow-up questions regarding the um how is it in these nicotine pouches or late in the right from the chair?

Um is that considered a part of this?

Are we also looking at those used to have a number of uh you see that yes?

So nickey vouches, nickname products are all considered tobacco products, so if they sell those items, they also are required to have tobacco resale license, and we'll have to adhere to all the other rules that are within that legislation.

That's great to hear.

Uh like education portion are we also pushing out more pain for those products or feed so that it is how it's hard to add leaves uh log into this how we should clean up the water settled others.

Did the councilman do the chair?

Chair to the councilman.

Yes, so as part of that comprehensive strategy, we do a lot of education.

Uh one of my colleagues is shot outside and has developed a raise presentation about how neighborhoods were targeted and about the way that big tobacco has reinvented itself.

So it's gone from cigarettes to vaping to pouches and how all of those products are mapped with you despite what folks may try to tell you that's been being a you know fixing replacement therapy is not um so we do presentations out in the community, we do um community meetings anywhere and anyone who wants more information, we're willing and able to be able to do that.

Um we are a part of a brief free coalition where we're also going to equip our member agencies with a presentation so that they too can give presentations out in the community.

And like I had said previously, we work with various schools to do education because we do want to make sure people understand that uh this is big business for big tobacco, so if cigarette use is going down, they're trying to replace it with something else, so we're trying to stay on top of it as much as we can.

So if cigarette use is going down, they're trying to replace it with something else, so we're trying to stay on top of it as much as we can.

That's great to be correct.

I want to go to the phases of implementation uh slide.

What phase are we on right now?

So we're entering more aggressive enforcement launch.

Like if you go to the enforcement page.

The last the last three to six months were the warning in grace periods.

So on Friday, they received their first citations for not being licensed, and then with that citation was a 10-day period, or if they did not get their license, they would receive a civil ticket, and then the um process festivals from there.

So we are entering the active enforcement phase.

Okay, and how many violations were five?

So we for all the unlicensed retailers they validate citation.

So 273.

Okay.

Um just regarding I think we had theory that we're also providing for 95 association therapy.

Uh we're gonna understand how many people have through the chair to the council person, not enough.

Um but it's not for lack of opportunity for the for people to register for the program, but deciding to become tobacco-free is a very personal journey for people, and it takes multiple times to to actually be successful in a quick program.

So we had upwards to 30 or 40 people in total start the program, but not all of them have finished.

But for anyone listening, um, you can always call 311 if you connect it to our cessation services, and if you don't decide that group uh sessions are the right path for you, we can always connect folks to the fund and other resources that are available.

Um actually shop to hear you that the 311.

Uh I think that's a great thing to make sure it's access to so uh you have a question for my storage.

Do we have a list of all of the um the license vendors that are publicly available at the public access to approval?

Do the um chair to councilwoman that will be available.

I have the list available for council if they would like it.

Um but that is part of the legislation too to have a publicly available sites where people can go and see who's licensed and the results of the inspections.

Um so I've talked to our team of epidemiologists, they are ready to go in terms of setting that up.

Um, so that commission will be available soon to the public.

And at any given time, you will be able to go on and see if a facility is licensed and results within the inspections.

I believe you can if you use the citizen correlate, you can go and look uh click on public health.

I think it will show up there too now.

As umyer says as we uh we'll get the something more friendly to use up there too, so the chairs are seeing our so we're gonna go to that through the chair, we'll send that over to you afterwards.

Um yeah, and I was it through the chair to the same test enforcement started?

Yes, through the chair to the council woman, yes.

So those were the past week where we went and did the 300 or 273 visits to stores that issued citations.

Um before that, and I didn't mention this in the presentation.

Before that, and I mentioned this in the presentation, we received a tobacco rent from the state.

And before the TRO and so in fact we did compliance checks on about a hundred retailers.

And these were the under H5 attempts and found that more than half of those retailers sold cheap.

So what happened to those retailers?

Through the chair to the councilwoman.

This is part of the Ohio, Department of Ohio grant.

So those retailers received education as part of the grant requirements.

But more importantly, it provided for us a baseline in terms of what's happening in the city currently.

Tobacco 21 wasn't a law that was established when this TRO is statute was established in 2016.

So the rate of compliance then was about the rate of compliance now.

So that's why the tobacco retail license is so vitally important.

Because it will give us that mechanism to be able to find an eventually where both licenses are in museum that does not apply.

So you're saying we've had a law from 2017 with no enforcement mechanism?

The council person.

And so the chair to the team here.

So if this is state law, how then or when could it be enforced just because you didn't?

Just because we don't have a local law, state charges could be leveraged.

I'm trying to find out why were state charges and that level like ACT tobacco resellers.

On the state level, they have.

So there have been inspections of retailers by state level agencies, and they've been levyed fines.

But what tends to happen is they don't find the retailer, they they find the employee for breaking the tobacco 21 law.

Okay.

So do the chair to the CP.

I'm talking about in the instance where 50% of retailers that just happen based on the rent.

In those cases were people being brought up once they charges.

Through the chairs and the councilwoman.

These retailers were inspected through this grant.

And what we can't do is mix one funding mechanism with another funding mechanism.

So those compliance checks were done through a funding mechanism that didn't allow for what the tobacco retail license will allow for.

Yeah, I'm not really sure what we do here, but okay.

If this is the direction we're going to go, um, okay, and um I would be interested to see the enforcement uh just in my neighborhood because what we are putting out versus what is just it doesn't it's not important from our perspective.

I know we don't have it for me.

We have shops literally that are operating the next of the years.

But uh course we'll miss the chair.

Um is the chair, uh do you know how much money is going to be raised for 230 times?

Yeah, 200 times five.

228 times 500 uh 500.

Well, I remember it's right.

Uh with that uh Council Jones after I'm not gonna leave uh D here, so when we talk about the state law, what does the state law cost of us as relates to uh Mr.

Chairman to uh the director of how doctor white?

What is the state law say when you assess to an underlagance of young leadership?

What is the state law?

What is the state law?

Do the chair to the council person?

So in 2020, I'm sorry, councilman Joe Jones.

So in 2016, when we enacted tobacco twenty-one legislation, there I believe was a fine, but in 2019 is when the state enacted tobacco twenty-one legislation.

So the state will send officers out to different retailers, and that actually that information is available online in the different retailers that have been visited in throughout the state, and then I believe there is a fine, but I believe the fine does not go to the retailer, it goes to the person.

Can can you tell us you know, do you know the law, Mr.

Chairman Starters?

Do you know what state law concerning 21 that was passed in 2019 where it says when you're selling tobacco to uh minors?

Can you please tell us?

That's what I'm asking for.

So the chair, yes, as uh Ms.

Meyer stated it's uh five, so they're also a couple of charges that can go against the individual selling the tobacco products to the uh uh so so let me make sure I'm on the same page.

So the the way the state law is written up right now, currently, um if a store is to be found, because you get that's we get more than half person, thank you for the job that you are doing.

So, Mrs.

Minor, so you're saying to me, so I make sure I'm understanding exactly what you're saying in your testimony this morning, that when you went out to do your inspections where I presume young people you said more than half of something to minors.

Okay.

And so then now the question would be what do we have, and this is something we need to take a look at as a body, um, to tighten up our law if we don't have anything.

Like what's the whole purpose of doing this?

If we don't have no real substance other in terms of penalties, because now we're just wasting our time and wasting taxpayers' money.

The issue is, Mr.

Chairman, it should always be how we safeguard our young people.

So so now I know how state law works for the rich and wealthy.

So now, Mr.

And that's what it sounds like to me, that if a person is selling to miners, they don't charge the owner, they charge the person who's selling to them, and that's the way the law is written, Mr.

Chairman, to the director.

You can keep your microphone because I'm gonna be coming back to you.

Okay, so you're saying to me that that's what it is.

So is there any penalties to the person who owns the smoke shop?

I don't believe there is, but for our law that we passed, I think you all passed a year in 2025, and we go back three months ago, the answer is yes.

And so while we didn't do the enforcement actions from the study funded through high program, those enforcement actions are coming.

The program was in reverse 2026.

So those enforcement actions are coming.

So so what are we gonna do, Mr.

Chairman, to the director?

To the director, I have to recognize you're a guy, you are a main guy.

You the main show that running that whole time.

So this is the great work that you all have done by passing the tackle results in the program.

So that gives us the mechanism to be able to find suspend and then actually replicate the license of a tobacco retail that's not being compliant.

So we now, thanks to the legislation that we had in Cleveland and the tools to be able to do what you will want to see and add this to what do we want to do with the direction about how do you go?

And we're going to have now a long standing process.

So it's not going to be what and done.

And then we'll actually conduct the inspection.

So then that would kind of find them.

So per the legislation here is eight line schedule.

So your first time is a 500 fine.

So every time you violate that, it's one time.

So that fourth time, we will have a license or remote.

Now the next question I have is there what are the polities and terms of different um violations that can occur that can lead to a remote prosecution.

What if there's something of Marijuana?

So through the chair to Councilman Joe Jones, as one of the list items that we'll do when we're going to our inspection, and if you're found to sell marijuana, then you can have your license remote.

How do you deal with that?

Because to me, I've never seen anything quite like to go into a gas station to see marijuana to sit down on the count and we go grab it.

Like this cookies and candies in a candy job.

So how do you deal with that when we see that?

Is that a vi is that a violation?

So that is a loop on us to figure out if it was or was not because some items were legal.

Um but now

There was some fines or some penalties that were learning on them, but because enforcement was a much broader field, that is what tended to happen.

The consequences tended to fall on the staff instead of the retail.

And do the chair, does the Cleveland Department of Did you previously have the authority to enforce those state laws when it comes to these ordinances?

So this law 187, it was enacted specifically to uh hold the retailers, retailers accountable, and to give the Cleveland Department of Health the authority to enforce tobacco laws in our city.

Yes.

Thank you very much.

Well, again, thank you all for us to do this.

Good morning.

Um chair, good morning.

Uh to the members of the Health Human Service of the Arts Committee.

Um, I want to thank you for having me this morning uh at the table to talk about the transformative and um arts fund and its impact.

I am pleased to serve as a senior advisor for arts and culture and the creator of time in the office of Mayor Justin Bibb.

Um the transformative arts fund was added to my portfolio of work after I joined this administration in July of 2023 as senior strategists for arts, culture, and the creator time.

I am here to deliver a final impact report on the three million dollar art fund initiative is by the authorized group.

I did not do this alone as my colleagues and friends here at the table meeting this morning.

Today we hear from our mission partner, members of the TAF committee, our fiscal agent, and institutional government, our institutional partner, um our institutional partner and two of the artists who built this work.

I'm grateful to have been a convener of the myriad voices that have agency and ownership of this initiative.

This report belongs to all of that.

To the new members of this committee.

Well the initial legislation is committee authorized.

Um it may assembly from the arts the fiscal agent for this initiative and supported the refined close-out of the program objectives.

Every action that made this work possible was taken publicly by this body.

Thank you for that action and for authorizing artists forward program.

Council President Lane Griffin, whose leadership moved this legislation, and Kevin Conwell, whose championship, I'm sorry, councilman, Kevin Conwell, whose championship of Cleveland Artists helped to make the case that this work deserved public investment.

Thank you very much.

It is also important to acknowledge this body who authorized an artist forward approach that allowed artist teams to access their funds and execute their projects immediately rather than being paid only at the completion of work by naming assembly as the fiscal agent and structuring disbursement milestone based tranches.

An artist forward methodology was built into the program fund from its inception.

I'd like to introduce Jeremy Johnson, who will talk a little bit about the advocacy story that initiated this project as well as the administration of the project.

Thank you to the chair and Jeremy Johnson, President and CEO of Assembly for the Arts.

Thank you all for having me here this morning.

I want to provide a little bit of a context as to how we got to this these days, this point, and provide some history.

Back in 2022, 2022, as Cleveland was determining how to deploy American residents plan dollars, simply for the arts, artists, and cultural leaders advocated that some of those federal recovery dollars should support arts and culture.

At that time, the program was how we can help artists and create workers who have been directly affected by COVID and its economic fall.

Many artists had lost income opportunities and stability, and we believed it was important that the art sector not be left out of the recovery conversation.

The transformative arts fund, who out of that broader moment, it became an important public private partnership, including the city of Cleveland, artists, institutional partners, land studio, and assembly from the arts.

Assembly from the arts appreciated the opportunity to serve as fiscal ways for this work.

We also came through it with relevant experience.

Before the Transformative Arts Fund, we had already helped administer public recovery dollars, including our support distributed through Fidelity County and also through the CARES program as well.

So this work was not begun from scratch.

It built on lessons already learned about how to move public dollars responsibly to our ecosystem.

So we created an administrative structure that allowed our developers to move efficiently and with oversight to the institutional partners for seven classes for who employed artists.

That structure matter, assembly used for widely used grant software program calls a little to receive and organized applications and standardized procedures were developed for documentation, reviewed disbursement, and reporting.

Project teams participated in regular review meetings of the city and studio and assembly, and our institutional partners also played an important role in reviewing project-related expenses before our submission.

This was a collaborative process designed to support the work while maintaining consistency and public side.

This approach also helped address practical challenge, which our senior advisor reference.

Many artists and community-based partners are not in a position to find substantial project costs and labor reimbursement.

This structure made it possible to move funds in a way that was more workable for the project while still while still respecting the responsibilities that come with public documents.

I want to thank the city of Cleveland, this committee, our senior advisor Ronda Brown, my studio, the institutional partners.

I want to thank the administration as well for moving this forward.

We see this as an opportunity to build on what has happened.

The City of Cleveland for many years was not a place where it was a person to call to contact for things of arts related, but we now have that.

What we have done with this transformative fund is really a major important start to continue to be that major metaphor, economic power of powerhouse public arts and culture ecosystem.

Thank you, Jeremy.

Along the lines of that process that Jeremy just described in the fall of 2022, the mayor's office issued a public open call for resident nominations to the TAF committee.

36 nominees drawn from across 11 wards were represented, from which four committees, four committee members were appointed by the mayor's office, and city council appointed three additional members.

They included Dr.

William C.

Washington, Letitia Lopez, Gina Washington, Vince Robinson, Maya Curtis, Gwendolyn Garth, Dear Jack Pearson, and Susie Underwood, who served for a formation and stepped down from the committee in 2024.

From the from September 2023 through January 2024, this volunteer committee built the infrastructure of the program before a single application came in.

Gwendolyn Garth, a committee member, multimedia artist, founder of Kings and Queens of Art, a longtime arts, activist, and a central community area leader is going to speak about what it meant to volunteer for this committee.

Hello?

Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

While sitting in my garden thinking about the work created by TAB or the transformative regardless in our community, I was looking at how the trees in my garden regarded to the moon.

Some critics have groomed bathroom than the others.

And then I began to think about all of the work that I've drawn on inside the crew that I've done.

I then began to equate my observations to the TAB project.

For me, it is locking of some of my desires as a clean woman artist.

It renewed my vote.

And for me, this budget had become an opened window.

Our issues in the city and country are so bad that as we change agent, I sometimes wonder if I'm making a difference.

That question was answered as the TAB cultivation then.

As I listened to the chosen artists, share their work with joy and pride.

Even though I didn't pay, I felt rich.

My soul smile, my spirit stored, and my heart became delayed.

I realized that one of the hopes of our team was that not only we transformed the plaintiff, but to also transform people, the artist and the resident.

We accomplished work.

I believe we would do a few words from the poet from New York.

And now you ask in your heart, how can we continue that would be good and pleasure from that which is not good.

Go to your fields in your garden, and you shall learn that it is the pleasure of the bee to gather honey of the flower.

But it is also the pleasure of the flower to yield its honey to the bee.

For to the bee, a flower is a fountain of life.

And to the flower of bee is a messenger of love.

And to both bee and flower, the giving and the receiving of pleasure is a need and an ecasy.

We have been in our pleasure and work much like flowers in the reading.

I want to thank you all for this opportunity to observe my sitting growing at the L Guru City, a hope of a lot of the changes, and I really thoroughly enjoyed the part of the rank.

Thank you.

Thank you, Glenn.

I just wanted to draw your attention to the photograph that's on the screen, so you can see not only the joy that this one just described, but also some of the members of the committee who are no longer here at City Hall.

Steve, former city planning director joins on authored the legislation that at 895-2022 and our current city planning director, City Kelly Person, is here to support our work.

She joined the team well into our process, but has been tremendously supportive and just wanted to make sure that I gave you a second to say a few words if you wanted to, but if not, it's total one.

Good morning, committee members through the chair.

City planning is, as Ronda said, the sort of legislative host for this program.

And as Trump has said my predecessor, Joyce, Director Joseph, was really part of the creative force behind it.

So I'll just share that it's been it's always a privilege to use the mechanisms of government to support the community and our people in the way that this initiative has run and has been such a pleasure to work with so thorough, so thoughtful, so insightful in terms of the art community, and as you can see, so inclusive of the process that leads to the transformation that we're here to hear about today.

So while I have not been through this with this wonderful group of people for much of the project on behalf of the department has been an honor to serve as the sort of legislative authority home for the work.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I just wanted to talk a little bit about the infrastructure, and my colleague Jeremy spoke about this a little bit.

Four entities built the infrastructure of TAF, City Council, and the City of Cleveland authorized and oversaw the legislation.

Land studio provided the technical assistance, they had 40 years of history working with public art entities and also work directly with artists on the implementations of their plan throughout.

The Transformative Art Committee built the program infrastructure and selected artists.

Its implementation took just over three years from legislation to reconciliation, and 93% of the funds went directly to our projects.

How budgets were built and how money moved has caused some confusion.

So I want to take a moment to be very clear about how money moved in this process.

No project advanced without committee approved numbers.

Once selected, that budget was written into the signed grant agreement, and that budget was created by the artist team.

All project partners, I'm sorry, all project partners.

The agreement was explicit.

Every single project has a grant agreement.

Those grant agreements very clearly articulated the structure and the roles and responsibilities of each partner.

And the institutional partner, which is which was a requirement by the legislation, were selected by each artist.

That institutional partner held the funds.

They dispersed the funds as directed by the artist.

The institutional partner retains all financial records.

I just want to say that one more time.

Assembly dispersed funds to the institutional partner only, and never directly to the artist.

And only upon meeting the compliance milestones.

Each institutional partner is contractually required to hold their receipts for audits.

Not to direct what the art should be.

Six of the seven projects received 100% of the funds awarded to them.

One project was not compliant with their Q4 reporting requirements.

The final 5% was withheld as a result.

As the grant agreements required.

To speak to this experience, we have Dana Bradley from the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority, who was one of the institutional partners for our projects.

Dana press that button.

So good morning, everyone.

Collaborating with TAM and this will Wilson Stone taught CMHA how significant her artistic abilities are with the financial support, the greater the possibility of her success.

This could be the same for other CEA.

Ms.

Wilson Stonework well was well organized, and she had a well-thought-out plan for executing her project.

She displayed high level project managerial skills, confirming that with prompt and consistent communication happening between Ms.

Stone and CMHA, every plan could be smoothly executed.

Consistent communication played a major part in our approach to making the project a success.

CMAJ realized that this project created a deeper sense of community and belonging toward the resident.

It also allowed CMHAs to move beyond providing just housing by using a community-led artistic process to highlight residents' resilience and life experience.

The Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority, they use this experience to collaborate more with other local artists, providing a community-centric experience, welcoming more future public projects.

This approach could engage residents to become creatives rather than observers.

The experience exposed CMHA's efforts to go beyond housing, but allow actively investing in the cultural vibrants and social fabric of its neighborhoods.

The TAP and Port of Foot Nelly, which is teachers project, provided CMHA with a new blueprint for how to partner with local artists and empowering local professional artists to lead large-scale ambitious projects.

It was eye-opened, helping me to see firsthand the potential of residents in our community to be successful.

Teachers heart and soul were all over this project.

The experience was like none I have ever seen before.

I can only imagine the length she would go with continuous funding supporting her.

Her mind is broken.

I am glad CMHA had the opportunity to collaborate with her on this staff rank opportunity.

I hope you all will consider this project again, allowing these artists the opportunity to take their projects up enough now that they have made it through the pilot phase.

This can be something even greater.

Thank you, Dana.

For the benefit of the community, which kind of share your title as a major.

I'm the deputy director of our resident services department.

Thank you.

Before I move off the slide, I just want to draw your attention to the disbursement structure for each grant.

50% was dispersed by the institutional partner.

I'm sorry, by assembly to the institutional partner upon signing of the agreement.

So just to clarify, assembly held device until compliance was met.

The first step of compliance was signing the agreement for each application, each rent agreement, and then submitted W9s.

And then the final disbursement was released upon completion of the Q4, Q3 and Q4 documentation, and it also required 5% was withheld those expenses because of the timing of that last disbursement.

We required the artist teams and the institutional partners to share encumbered expenses.

So those expenses had to already be contractually agreed to.

And so, as I mentioned, only one of our partners did not meet that obligation.

I do want to share that the Cleveland Clinic, however, through their community benefits dollars, covered the final 5% of that last artist team.

So everybody finished their project toll.

And thank you, Dana.

The TAP application launched January 31st, 2024 and closed March 30th.

Six virtual information sessions through more than 500 registrants.

103 applications were received, totaling $7.27 million in requests.

By April 14th, 67 of those applications were screened as eligible for review.

On April 16th, the committee convened for full deliberation and advanced 23 applications to the semifinals round.

Seven projects are ultimately selected, with 2.86 million dollars awarded, the criteria, the committee, the timeline, the information sessions, and the outcomes belong to the public record.

Private deliberations and the intellectual property of the artist who applied but did not get awarded does not.

And that spirit is done in the work in the standard peer review practice for grants like these.

Two things I want to note before I move through the seven projects quickly.

First, public art lives in two forms.

Some of it's some of it is temporal, social practice and immersive theater, where the work is the experience.

Some of it is permanent.

Placemaking and sculpture that physically transforms space.

Both are legitimate types of public art.

TAF deliberately funded both.

Second, six of the seven projects were completed on the east side of Cleveland, the most historically disinvested side of this city.

Investments of this scale in these neighborhoods are rare.

The committee selected for transformative impact of the applications, and transformative impact is most visible where decades of public and private capital have not gone.

All our babies birth from the Afro Future by Janila Rachbon.

Janila did not respond to Cleveland's Black Paternal Health Crisis with a report or policy brief.

She responded with art, six immersive volumes spanning movement, sound baths, fashion, design, and ritual, all building toward an ideal space of wellness, autonomy, and care for black women and mothers.

The work was rooted in black woman's spot, ancestral wisdom, and aprofutures world building, reframing Black Birth as a site for healing and liberation.

Their culminating event ended at City Hall in September of 2025.

In part 216 by Robert Robinson.

Robert Robinson, oh, and I want to mention again that Jimila Brackman's institutional partner was in Cleveland Clinic, and her work was done in Ward 5 and Ward 6, focusing on Fairfax, Kinsman, Fairfax and Kinsman area.

Robert Robinson treated mural making as profession as a profession that has to be taught, not just commissioned.

Twelve artists established muralists and paired with emerging ones, created a clustered mural project of six large-scale works at the intersections of East 140th, Union, and Kinsman in Mount Pleasant, a city priority neighborhood.

She took the entire cohort to Philadelphia, whose neural arts program has spent the last 40 years turning murals into neighborhood institutions, making public art of the community not just in it.

They came back with this technique and others, new relationships and a framework for sustained civic practice.

Those six murals are now being cited by Councilwoman Gray and Bishop as visual proof of concept as they reconsider bringing the greening of Union Avenue.

For art's sake, by Kumar Aurora, served multi-wards.

His institutional partner was Campus District.

Kumar built a model for what a creative economy looks like when it lives in the daily fabric of a city, not in galleries, but in parks, public spaces, and civic events across Cleveland.

Eight large-scale activations paired with workshops that gave artists what they need to sustain a practice, business fundamentals, brand building, and the tools to turn creative work into a livable income.

Kumar understands what too many artists, sorry, about too many programs miss that DJs, photographers, performers, and designers are public artists.

Their work shapes community identity.

Their work is the creative economy.

The question is whether anyone is teaching them to do it professionally and presenting as a legitimate, legitimate practice.

Kumara's project did both.

Partners included the Guardians, the Cleveland Marathon, the Nike, University Hospitals, and every dollar circulating through the local economy, sorry, 100% of the budget was spent within Cleveland.

Every dollar circulating through the local economy, this fund was meant to strengthen.

For those who call here home by artist Jordan Wong, his institutional partner was the Sculpture Center.

Asia Town is one of Cleveland's oldest immigrant neighborhoods.

A community whose roots here trace the 1860s, and then it has no public parks.

Nowhere for seniors whose square dance every weekend, sorry, nowhere for the seniors who are for the seniors who square dance every weekend on a vacant day's supermarket parking lot to do so on land that actually belongs to them.

The vision for a permanent park there had been carried out by Midtown Cleveland for four years, with concepts already designed by architect Marika She Roy Clark.

What it lacked was a funder willing to invest.

TAP was that partner.

Jordan Wong designed five permanent public art structures rooted in community conversations.

Every decision was shaped by the residents who use who would use this space.

The site is now under contract with NRP properties for donation to Midtown, a true permanent center for Asia Town on a corner that for generations had nothing.

This is what this body is thinking about.

Land use, neighborhood identity, permanent and permanence.

Public art and community development are not parallel tracks with the same.

Melina Burgoli, an architect and designer, is an architect and designer.

Her medium is not painter sculpture.

It is the act of remediation of course itself.

Working with architect Chris Maurer of Bradhouse Studio, she took a condemned lead contaminated house in the Buckeye Wood Hill community, a Cuyahoga land bank property, and dismantled it in what she called choreographed deconstruction.

She then used demolition debris to grow mycelium, a living fungal material that breaks down lead and can be compressed into building blocks as strong as wood.

A significant portion of her budget was also dedicated to the documentation of her project, a feature-length film, fully capturing the process because the documentation of the work is part of the work.

This is my co-tech, and Melina is among the artists pioneering it.

This site is now leased to Jennifer Lumpkin and the collective citizens organized against lead for future programming.

Letitia Wilson Stone is a former CHA, CMHA resident.

Her project is Portals of Knowing.

As a director, an educator, and playwright, she did not know how much theater could change her life until she encountered it at Cleveland School of the Arts.

One of the city's oldest African American neighborhoods.

A room-to-room experience rooted in black joy, resilience, and ancestral memory, is where the audience was not seated but but welcomed as kin, guided through layered rooms, invited to laugh, sing and grieve, and remember.

She wove the actual lives of the Alpha homes, residents, and East Tech families into her performance.

The community was not the audience, they were the authors.

CMHA put it best.

It allowed them to move beyond providing housing into providing belonging.

The work was extended to CMHA locations citywide.

Letitia, we'd love for you to stand with us.

Hello, everybody.

I'm from Cleveland.

I am born here.

I'm from here.

I am from walking down sidewalks, giving over to keep my mind on the farm at the breaker bed, and going to the Cleveland Public Library often where I fell in love with stories.

So it was important for me to go back to where I was able to be introduced to my artistry through the community that I was surrounding in.

And CMHA workers who were there for me at the Rec Centers and things of that nature, where I felt like there were also people a part of these institutions that truly cared for not just my own well-being, but the well-being of all of us within the community.

I am from the blood and tears that felt the soil of this land.

I like many here and meaning throughout the city are caretakers for those who live here.

Receiving the transformative art fund was a life-changing experience for me as a mother, as an artist, and as an educator.

To be anyone on the ground in this city, you know that it is a great joy, it is full of creativity and unrelenting grief.

The stories that are in this city, they are the stories that can solve the grief and disconnection that is the result of the woes that this city fixes.

Cleveland is changing.

Schools are closing, festivals are disappearing, culture is fading in places we want to call it home.

And the things that we hold on to aren't treated as valuable, and especially if you are someone who is from the red market community.

So one of the guiding questions of the work was will build up with this community.

And knowing that the transformative arts fund did not only fund a project, it gave permission that I have never felt that this city has granted before.

It was permission to join bigger, it was permission to build something rooted, and permission to remember that our people's stories are in our bones.

Our people came to Cleveland with big dreams, and I was able to uphold the dream of my ancestors and my cousins in the space where we all went to play.

I felt permission to be myself and to unapologetically create an experience of love on the land of my family's stories.

While raising a senior high school at 18 year olds and also a few years old and working full of time.

So that's just giving a little bit of the human side of when we are doing this work.

We are bringing our full sales, and so is every single artist, every unstable member, everybody who painted, we all paint and fully built in our sales.

And through this work, we produced an original immersive experience across 2003, hosted 19 community events, held over 30 rehearsals, and gifted more than three, gifted more than 200 family urban portraits, all in an active 10-month period.

And what we saw was joy, we held grief, and we held healing all in the same room.

We were not only making art, we created ceremony, and I'm forever grateful for the transformative arts owner and also CMHA for all of your support and also front of assembly for the art and man studios.

Thank you all.

Thank you, Letitia.

The Art Garden Store Phoenix Project landed in Clark Folden, the one West Side neighborhood in this cohort, one of the most diverse and historically disinvested neighborhoods in the city.

Ariel created a team, a crew called No Pressure, No Diamonds, who created 10 murals and three monumental sculptures across three parcels at 50th and store.

And then the catalytic effect began.

Western Reserve Man Conservancy is building permanent pocket parks on each parcel, designed to incorporate the sculptures themselves.

The art becoming the architecture of the park.

A $50,000 tree grant is greening store Avenue from 44th to 55th.

The city's priority neighborhoods initiative is layering in commercial improvements.

Sidewalk and tree work is advancing to Councilman's Santana and the Mayor's Office of Capital Projects.

Adam Bifford, who is the institutional partner at Metro West that worked with Ariel in this project said it best.

The art was the first thing to land because it can move the fastest.

The art served as a signal, and every other investment has something to align around.

This is what stackable investment looks like when art arrives first.

Ariel would love for you guys to share your thoughts and reflections.

Thank you, Ronda.

The initial brief for the transformator water fund when we were writing the proposal was how to do how can art be a long-term transformative change in community.

And for me, you know, really as an approach of how can I look at the long-term picture and my background with murals, like murals are the previous things that can go up.

But it's it's always such a great catalyst.

So with that was the easy local, so we train 10 artists, and we are cluster of 20 euros, which we are vulgar, and the stocking neighborhood, and with the help of councilwoman, Santana and Metro West, we're able to put together a plan where the sculptures on the sites on store can then become the central points that can allow and become the pocket parks that can address residents' concerns for safety, for liberation, and just to be different places to actually turn to the meeting.

And so one of the true staff were able to create that initial patterns that allow Consulwans of Metro West and the Western Reserve Conservancy to really put into action at the largest scale of the permanent transformation that's taking place right now that project.

And it's just really been transferred experience for me to see the impact of what art could do, but more importantly we see that there's so many people in the community that really are working hard volunteer, voluntary just from passion to see the community around.

And that's really what I consider the design to monitor at that region.

Thank you, Ariel.

You can read the numbers on the screen on slide 15.

I want to tell you what they don't say.

There is a narrative to some corners that this work produced no impact, that the narrative confuses what can be counted today with what is being built.

What is on this slide is the surface.

The things that we can measure by April 27th, 2026.

The fuller measure of this work will take years.

The neighborhoods will change, the artists will evolve, each of them will mark this experience as an index point in their lives the moment the city said yes.

That is the impact.

This report cannot quantify yet, but is that is the one that will matter the most.

However, there are some very tangible and palpable results to date.

The TAC-proofs assets, physical things that can belong to Cleveland and are now leveraging additional public and private dollars in investment.

We talked about H town, a vacant lot becoming a permanent community park donated to Midtown Cleveland.

Buckeye Woodville, a land bank house, now remediated, and community programming space will take place for at least the next two to three years.

Mount Pleasant, a sixth neural cluster cited by Councilwoman Gray and Council and Bishop as visual proof of the concept for advancing in Union Avenue Green.

Clark Fulton, as Ariel just talked about, three pocket parks are underway with Western Reserve Land Conservancy, and lots of improvement in that community.

Catalytic investment rarely creates visions out of thin air.

It unlocks visions waiting for a partner.

The Asia Town concept was four years old before TAF arrived.

The store avenue corridor in Clark Fulton, the one West Side project in this cohort had been on planners' maps for years.

The Union Avenue Green in Mount Pleasant had been a community conversation for longer.

What it lacked was momentum.

TAP provided the resources and the trust that turned waving into building.

That is the fund that this fund reached the most disinvested communities on both sides of the city is one of the most important things about this report.

And one of the things that this committee made possible.

The impact of work like this is both tangible and intangible.

The tangible is what we can count.

The intangible is the heart is harder to put on a slide as just as real.

Cities that fund only what they can count miss what art is for.

Commissioning at this scale is an act of creative trust and creative risk, jointly held by the city, this council, and the artists.

What artists need was what artists needed was administrative scaffolding, project management, compliance support, legal guidance, cash flow, and cash flow access.

Artist readiness is a systems of observation, not a critique.

Public investment at this scale must build capacity support from day one.

And one more honest lesson: this program was administered by one person and it was still delivered.

Brent making at the scale deserves a dedicated team.

I do want to talk a little bit about the public art policy reform that has happened as a result of this project.

TAP process, the TAP process revealed that our public art ordinances, the framework that governs how we manage public art, needs some work.

That this outcome is what we started addressing immediately.

TAC didn't just complete the projects, it mapped what needs updating in Cleveland's public art process, and that process is set in motion.

While it's currently unclear, the current public art process is unclear, disjointed, and governed by ordinances passed in 1994 and 2020 2003.

Ordinances that no longer fit the volume or complexity of public art that this administration is managing.

To underscore the full picture, I sat up with the Office of Urban AI, who is who convened across departmental boot camp with city planning leaders across permitting development and community development, along with MoCAP and other departments that touch the community art process, including Taris who oversees that work for the city of Cleveland.

Five work streams are already underway.

A dedicated public art web page is in process, and arts and culture engagement strategy with artists is in the planning process.

External stakeholder feedback sessions are being planned.

Updated want to update the public art ordinances, chapter 186, 347.13, and 516.2.

Do you like to target for completion this work by the end of 2026?

With roles, a roles and responsibility, matrix, and mapping of everybody who touches public art in the city's role, clearly mapped.

You cannot reform what you have first not made legible.

That mapping will be the foundation for the legislative work ahead.

I have one last word from one of our top committee members, and I have just one last slide.

Oh to the chair, co-chair, and to committee.

First, I'd like to express my gratitude to you for enabling this program to exist.

It's one kind, it's never happened before.

And we talked about this idea of transformation.

When we embarked upon this, we were thinking about the transformation of artists in school.

But as I look at this idea of transformation, I see it as something much greater than that.

This is about a transformation of perception.

All the evidence that we've been presenting today has demonstrated how we brought all these different entities together.

The entire community that's involved in this process.

In the previous rounds of relief, we had the CARES Act, we had Art Devous, and we secured it to them to individuals.

This body decided that we wanted to do projects in this came up.

And you can clearly see that it's had an impact.

Ms.

Brown indicated to us that there were temporary situations that we have results.

But she also indicated that there were experiential aspects of this, so that these experiences live with those who are able to participate with them.

We've seen the transformation of this building.

If you walk out in this hall, you see art on the walls.

You see information on the walls.

So I really appreciate what Gwen said when she talked about nature, she talked about fees.

You know, this is something that will allow us organically to be more responsible for our communities and watch them work and watch them develop as a result of the energy of artists.

You've empowered them.

You did more than just give them money.

We've seen the difficulties in dispersing funds directly to artists, and that's not what we change.

We put people in situations where they worked together.

And the combined effort resulted in what we see.

We just caught a small glimpse of the impact of the numbers and the images that we saw.

But when you look at the way these projects affected the people who participated in them and the communities that they live in, you can see that it is continued effort.

So I just wanted to come and plan C, which is my reference book for Wednesday.

And C is planted on this table to this body.

To think about dedicating more resources to art and culture.

That's what this committee is all about.

When we look at the pandemic and what happened during that pandemic, we saw that there was an economic benefit, an economic impact to this community, in spite of the fact that everybody was in their homes and lockdown and all the things that happened, we still spend the money from art, and it still continues to affect our economy.

So she mentioned in trip to Philadelphia.

We found out that they spent 20 million dollars on art and culture in that city, which is less than 3% of the budget, that's the point three percent of the budget actually is a small part of it.

But when you look at the impact of those dollars on Philadelphia for years, they've had this program in effect.

So my seat to you is to consider funding art on a perpetual basis.

You gotta give from all the same.

But it's on us to do what we can for the city with the taxpayer dollars to empower artists to help you transform this city because we are definitely seeing transformation and to continue to tell the story.

Because there are people in the city that don't even know about the transformation.

We need to let them know so that they can support artists and power them to come up with solutions to the problems that we face.

Public help.

He said here when we listen to this presentation about cigarettes.

Cigarette uh revenues are going down, taxes on those revenues are going down.

So we have to find other things.

And I'm sure that the people with support doing something other than buying more funds, putting more police officers on the street.

We have to do more with the resources that we have in the city for the residents of the city.

So that's it.

I appreciate the fact that you did what you do, and I just want to encourage you to consider doing more, and not just own the same gifts for what this city can do for the specifics that we'll do this point.

Thank you, Vince.

The public arts coordinates work now ahead of us is the next opportunity.

On behalf of every voice you heard this morning, every artist whose work I described, and their entire crews, institutional partners, the administrative teams that supported this work.

Thank you for the trust in this fund.

Questions.

We don't have time.

We are supposed to get across 11 30.

I do anybody has any questions or questions like myself.

Thanks, Chair.

Um welcome everybody.

Thank you for coming down here for uh reporting as well.

So it says I think most of you know I'm a musician.

Uh I appreciate art a lot.

Um, and I understand that all art is permanent.

Some art that is emperor that takes place in a moment in time, then it's gone.

That's fine.

Um, but I think a lot of people are going to ask for the three million dollars that we get, right?

That's what people are gonna ask.

So that's what we've got, right?

Uh, through the chair was 16 year olds, seven sculptures, uh, uh uh performance space, and four parts.

Is that one of that?

Uh I think that's open the chair to Councilman Harsh.

Um, in the packet that I sent you on March 23rd, there is a list of all of the impacts by the numbers that the artist teams produce.

It's a little bit more than what you identified.

Um, so um what you're seeing here is I'm sorry, it's not at all.

Sorry?

I was not in laws.

Oh, okay.

So uh I think it's a little bit more uh the new works and installations um including all of the things is nearly 600 because there was a lot of work done by each project.

Okay, okay.

Um the chair, uh, that's all I had.

I just want to make sure that uh uh you know if you're supporting the arts community, that means supporting artists, right?

That means supporting people that are created in our community, that doesn't always mean that you're gonna have about every artist that's girls that look at years of artist installation work, they do immersive work, they do spiritual yielding work, right?

It's not thinking they are making screens and so I appreciate everything you guys did.

Um I appreciate your particular comprehensive uh counting for everything.

Um 5% did the reimbursed for the organization in the front airport yet.

Um does the team of the funding then remit that five percent back to the city uh they did because the city didn't limit it to the artist or that missing five percent.

So it was um just under 25,000, which is being used to create a 30-minute full documentary on the entire uh transformant arts project.

So we will have um something that can um be shared back to the community from years to come that um uh kind of marks the um importance and I kind I kind of work that these artists did.

So we will have um something that can um be shared back to the community from years to come that um uh kind of marks the uh importance and I kind I kind of work that these artists say counseling harsh uh shop uh people thank you for your time and thank you for all of the work that you've done to make our city beautiful.

Uh I remember at the bunch of hearings uh when we talk about how we can see our time about uh mission, I think it was nicer than that for funds uh do a living wage.

To me, this is just data that supports that we need more funding for the arts is absolutely critical.

Uh too many people at the sun's economy, I don't care about money, uh art is real money is not to me.

This is just important numbers that already show us what we feel on the streets, which beautifies our places and makes people want to stay.

And we should be investing on the people that are already here and trying to get people that don't live here.

So thank you for your work uh and look forward to supporting credit work, so thank you.

Can I add a quick comment?

I wanted to comment on what um I wanted to comment on what during the pandemic, our crack fail went up 200% in our case.

Um thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

I just want to um on the same line of question, uh well not questions of course because of the same thought process as our council public show, you know, whatever you uh improve an area and an environment that helps make a difference, and uh for me is really beautiful to see really great designs and art designs that have impact that um give people hope and uh inspire them and um and sometimes the substances change their thought patterns because a lot of times people are very angry, very upset about a whole lot of things, and um one of the things that is always helpful is when you're in an environment that helps to make a powerful profile impact on your state and condition, and there's a lot of people um that we that we we see that have mental health problems, and um and in any given moment anybody can have mental health problems understand it just been shocked over and over again.

So I just want to thank you for the work that you do.

You did send uh Miss Brown a lot of information, so I wasn't able to go through it all.

But um I do want to say it was thorough, and I do like the presenters who came here, and you guys were all prepared and written statements, and I was impressed.

So, what I would like this to find out though is I want to see all of these spaces.

So do in your presentations I was looking for, I couldn't find all the locations.

Do you have that in your presentation somewhere where I can go and take a look at all what has been done?

To the chair to Helsinki and Jones.

Um I would be happy to take you to visit the spaces to some of the artists.

Um, but yes, they are uh the exact locations are not there, but I uh be happy to also provide you with deficits.

That that would be great, and I think I can look into these JSONs, then you could probably give me a better look or a real field of the design artist will purchase what some things I don't know.

So you might have to help me out.

So I I certainly appreciate uh the work that you all do.

And then the final question, Mr.

Turner, because I know we've got to get it to the other side of the call, is um did we finish all the projects?

The chair to Costin Jones who did finish all seven projects on time.

Okay, all right.

Well, that's it, Mr.

Charlie.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I just I just want to iterate that even though some projects have ended, they have life.

So there they continue to live.

And that's really important.

And thank you.

Thank you all for the work that you do that you contain to do.

So changing lives and having that in a positive report, by the way.

Oh, you know, uh listening to this guy who I used to uh gave for decades.

Longer than I've been there.

Um introduced you to us with a one purpose for the new hands there.

Um you're right.

When we invest into the arts, um our children, they see it and cultivated to them.

How can we not?

How can we not, when you have the rocking role hall of fame striker in the artists, and you know, when they come to Cleveland, we're embarrassed.

Because they think about the Rock and Hall Hall of Fame, and you're gonna say, hey, how do you guys think about the Hall of Fame?

Because we cultivated that talent.

It came from us.

But when you come to Cleveland, you don't see the arts.

And we should, we should invest in the arts in our budget.

And that will stimulate not only uh dollars, is when you go to Austin, Texas, when you go to these cities, Nasville, Atlanta, Georgia, they put money into their arts.

And people want to come back again and again to visit.

So if you put in, let's say you put uh 12 million, whatever it is, in the long run, you're gonna get back to $200 million.

You just don't see it because you're not in the arts paradigm.

But if you're in that paradigm, like what we see across the table, you'll see how much money it generates into the economy.

Um Jeremy, how much money you look at the arts in Cleveland and we put into the economy?

To the chair.

One of our last houses over a million dollars.

That's that's that's broken.

That's why Ms.

Brown makes sure she put that microphone in money.

And it's not a part of the chair.

No, no.

So yeah, it makes a lot of difference, and we work with an application for the arts where people that's gonna have arts to quantify this so we can afford that we appreciate the something that uh more public house of special locations because of the jobs, because of the work, because of the first launch, so I don't have all happy for that.

But this leveraging principle is extremely important to the city of the city for our teams.

I'm not gonna speak on that, but uh it was constantly that all the time.

You know, the arts, and you know, um I think when the schools, we've been to this point before Joe Jones, what he did, they took all the art programs.

And children, when I was growing up, would walk to and from school with the trumpets, violence, with the arts, and they say you kill to create iron hands.

And then they should look, and the thing about art specifically with children, it builds character.

It builds character, such as steam, the whole night the arts, better reading, all of that that we built.

And so when we talk to Dr.

Morgan, he's not gonna come back from the artist matter.

In fact, he increased the arts for the children.

He increased the arts because he knows our Portuguese.

But here's the thing in our hand, it comes from us right here in the.

When I was growing up, on almost on every single street, there was a band.

We had talent shows.

And the children, we knew where they were at because they were practicing before they went to rehearsal.

Isn't that true?

And so we would hear drums, trumpets, good jobs, everything.

You know your children.

Because they went out there in the streets, because the arts and killed the arts, children out on the streets, crying industries, all of that, the city has to pay more money, hire the police officers, which you said, but we invest in the arts.

And that's the way right there we're doing it.

This by 83 million dollars is just a framework.

If we see the outcome measures from the framework of the $3 million, we can take that and multiply it, and then people want to come back to the look out there right now with the Rock and Law Hall of Fame, what Greg Harris is doing.

He has a capital campaign, and he is building up the Rock for Hall of Fame, but we're not ready.

We're not ready for it.

But when we invest into it, we can stimulate.

We can stimulate this three million dollars right here.

I'm putting more and more millions in there.

Every year.

Every year I'm trying to talk to John.

Because people are going to come to Michael Hall of Fame.

But when they walk to the airport, which is that Arts in the Airport.

How do you have an alcohol fame here in Cleveland?

And you have RC Airport.

I mean, you should have a band playing there.

What we're gonna do to get it there.

So we got Ms.

Brown, we don't have a new party.

But we have oversight.

And when I miss it to the president and airport, it falls on death ears.

And I like Mr.

Chairman.

I'm not sure if you were part of this, but I do like that.

The artist in City Hall.

So whoever put the art city hall, you guys have done a wonderful job.

It was very proud of that.

I love it.

Keep it going.

I love the stuff that you have out there right now talking about the history of the cleaning uh educational system.

And a lot of it, some of it I didn't even know.

So thank you for the good work that you do this around.

Um City Hall has been more uh fun for me uh now in this space than it has in years past.

So just keep that work coming in.

And we need to get some of that in there for you.

So thank you, Mr.

Marshall Harvard.

And thank you, Captain Howard for being happy.

So we do need our city council.

Umbers, these are leaders in the arts community back again again.

And so in fact, they advocate people at this table here, he advocated for the three million dollars.

Germany said, as soon as he landed, very two, they start out to murder them.

Yeah, I remember who was he was trying to get me to come to a lot of meetings.

So City, he ain't no joke.

He takes care of business, so we appreciate the career.

You gotta keep to you guys, you gotta keep that advocacy up.

And even when people run for office, you need to bring them in, state residents, senators, council members, mayors, and asking the question where they're ever the others.

And not just in the city council, for all of us.

Not yet, not my own time.

So um, you guys gotta do it too, because you gotta help for the good of the whole.

Everybody else, man, I have to fill out so many energy, so jump, but we don't get any questionnaires from you.

So you can sit at the table, Mr.

Robinson, but if you don't send in questionnaires, and that way when people move and you mention the budget, it's a writing young man.

It's it right.

So when you do that, that's very, very important.

Um that thank you for uh taking us home.

This we uh say hey, it is currently not.