With speeches and lengthy transition memos, outgoing members of Cleveland City Council said their goodbyes at the last regular meeting of the year.
Five members are departing at the end of the term: Jenny Spencer, Rebecca Maurer, Anthony Hairston, Danny Kelly and Lauren Welch. (Welch was appointed to serve out the final months of Kerry McCormack’s term after he left for a new job.)
Three members are joining council next year: Tanmay Shah, Nikki Hudson and Austin Davis. Under council’s redrawn ward map, all three will represent territory now covered by Spencer.
She wrote them a transition memo that acts as a guide to the many ways council members have influence in their wards. Besides passing legislation, members spend discretionary money boosting city services, approve block parties, support or oppose liquor licenses, host events and receive dumpster allocations for neighborhood cleanups.
Spencer released the memo publicly online. But not everything was fit for public consumption. The topic of working with community development corporations was “recommended for in-person discussion,” Spencer wrote.
Cleveland Documenters also noted Council Member Jenny Spencer also spoke in a complimentary manner toward her fellow council members and spoke positively of her work while on the council. “I hope you saw my work was my love language,” she said.
Learn more of what happened at the Dec. 1 Cleveland City Council meeting from Documenter Tucker Handley.
Maurer also put out a memo. Hers proposed major reforms: an inspector general’s office to handle human resource complaints and ethics issues, independent redistricting and a ban on campaign contributions from people with business before the city.
The Nov. 4 election ended in Maurer’s defeat to fellow incumbent Richard Starr in the redrawn Ward 5. Although the race brought them into conflict, Starr extended an olive branch at this week’s meeting.
“Elections bring out the good, the bad, the ugly and then the media,” he said.
Despite that, they were both Ward 5 residents, he said, adding, “I look forward to working with you, learning from you, growing with you so we can move Ward 5 forward.”
Starr bid farewell to his friend Hairston, who had to miss the meeting. He said that Hairston helped him out when he first ran for office — as Hairston has done for other candidates, too.
“He is not just someone you call a friend,” Starr said. “He’s an individual who has helped get folks elected in this city.”
Kelly, a retired union laborer who lost narrowly to Shah, thanked Cleveland workers in his farewell speech — “whether they’re tapping a keyboard or running a jackhammer.”