Mayor Bibb still supports the ‘spirit and intent’ of Issue 24
Updated 4:35 p.m. | Dakotah Kennedy
Council Member Brian Kazy raised a number of questions about the effectiveness of Issue 24, the sweeping police reform bill that Cleveland voters passed in 2021.
“It’s been a disaster since its inception,” said Kazy, who represents Ward 16.
Kazy was quick to point out that Mayor Justin Bibb supported Issue 24 on the campaign trail, but he said that Bibb now has to “deal with the reality.”
“I still support the spirit and intent of Issue 24,” said Mayor Justin Bibb.
Both Kazy and Bibb referenced the recent troubles at the Community Police Commission. Bibb said that the commission needs “more pragmatic and thoughtful” members and mentioned “some challenges” with personalities, though he didn’t name names.
Recently, the commission voted to remove Teri Wang from her post on its rules committee.
“I always knew it was going to be messy, democracy is messy,” said Bibb, who acknowledged that some aspects of Issue 24 may need to be tweaked from an “operational standpoint.”
Signal Cleveland recently looked into why the city hasn’t delivered on some of Issue 24’s key promises. For example, police leadership still has the final say over police discipline despite changes to the city’s charter.
Issue 24 shifted oversight on to two resident-led efforts, the commission and the Civilian Police Review Board.
Later this week, Bibb said he will meet with the Police Monitoring Team and the federal judge overseeing the city’s progress toward stronger police accountability.
“I’m committed to working with this body and the commission to identify any amendments to the charter and make sure it can work seamlessly,” said Bibb.
“We’ve got a long way to go, but we’ll get there,” said Bibb.
Find all of Signal Cleveland’s explainers on police oversight and accountability.
How Cleveland wants to spend money in 2024
Updated 2:00 p.m. | April Urban
Signal Cleveland created a tool to help you explore the this year’s budget proposal. City Council can make and vote on changes to to the budget before it is final. The slides below highlight the spending proposals for the six city departments that make up most of the budget. Click or tap on the chart to see more details on how those funds are spent.
What exactly is a TIF? Mayor Justin Bibb explains it to council: Rewind
Updated 1:45 p.m. | Lawrence Caswell
Cleveland City Council member Richard Starr asks Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb to explain what exactly Tax Increment Financing is. And the the mayor does.
Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb says he’s ‘throwing the entire kitchen sink’ at police hiring as he pitches 2024 budget
Updated 12:50 p.m. | Nick Castele
Bibb presented City Council with his $2 billion annual budget proposal on Tuesday morning. The latest spending plan eliminates 148 vacant police force jobs that the mayor termed “ghost vacancies,” positions the city has struggled for years to fill.
Read more about Bibb’s budget plan and his response to council members questions.
Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb wants to create a ‘vacancy pool.’ What is that?
Updated 12:25 p.m. | Dakotah Kennedy
To increase hiring flexibility, Cleveland is proposing changes to how it fills its vacant jobs. Mayor Justin Bibb presented a new plan to group all city vacancies in one “vacancy pool” instead of keeping job openings within city departments.
“Rather than vacancies concentrated in a few areas, open positions will be flexible and available to the departments that need them most,” the city posted to Twitter on Feb. 5.
Police vacancies are not part of the pool, according to Mayor Bibb. The city confirmed that fire, EMS, public utilities and port control vacancies are also not included.
The plan confused some council members.
“I can’t understand for the life of me how this is going to work,” said Ward 8 Council Member Michael Polensek. He emphasized that City Council members are not a “temporary agency.”
Polensek also said that they need to fill these critical positions and he doesn’t understand how the new pool is going to improve the city’s budget.
“First and foremost, the whole point of the vacancy pool is to be able to take restricted resources and make them unrestricted. … Our administration is open to any recommendation that council has,” said Bibb.
Play Cleveland 2024 budget hearing BINGO!
Updated 12:00 p.m. | Lawrence Caswell
As Cleveland officials work to set the city’s budget priorities, we’ll learn about nearly every department, division and program in the city. As we follow along, we’ll be playing Budget Bingo. Play along with us on your own Budget Bingo card.
Council Member Mike Polensek gets a closer look
Updated 11:30 a.m. | Cleveland Documenters
Polensek pulled out a magnifying glass to make a point his frustration with the tiny type on the budget proposal the mayor provided to council. Watch a video of the exchange.
He showed he is using a magnifying glass to get a closer look, as captured by Cleveland Documenter Prerna Agarwal:
Mayor Justin Bibb presents his 2024 spending priorities to City Council
Updated 9:30 a.m. | Dakotah Kennedy
For that, Mayor Justin Bibb has proposed spending $778.7 million. That includes trimming 148 vacant positions from the police department, a move likely to draw tough questions from City Council members. The city is also cutting unfilled jobs from the budgets of other departments to create a “pool” of 125 vacant positions. Officials say that will make hiring more flexible.
The city is required to approve a balanced budget by April 1. The Bibb budget would leave a small surplus of almost $617,000.
How does Cleveland’s budget work?
Cleveland’s budget progress kicks off on Feb. 1, when the city’s mayor publicly shares the budget proposal. City officials have until April 1 to agree how public money should be spent and for City Council to pass a balanced budget. Learn more about the steps to approving a budget in this Cleveland Documenters explainer.
Watch Cleveland’s 2024 budget hearings
Cleveland’s budget hearings are live streamed on City Council’s YouTube page.
