Whether the job is at City Hall or on Capitol Hill, what lawmaker doesn’t want to send money back home?
Thanks to Cleveland City Council’s amendments to the 2025 budget, each council member will have $600,000 more to spend in their wards.
Council President Blaine Griffin bucked the mayor by dipping into last year’s leftover cash to help pay for those ward funds with an extra $4.6 million. Griffin defended the move in an interview with reporters after Tuesday’s vote.
“At any level, a legislative body works hard to try to bring dollars back to their district,” he said. “Congress calls it ‘pork.’”
(These days, Congress prefers the term “Congressionally directed spending.”)
City Council members have spent past discretionary money on park upgrades, security cameras, ward office computers, speed tables and more. Sometimes the money is for literal pork. Last year, council paid for 670 hams as part of a holiday-season food drive, records show.
Past council members have also abused their discretion.
A federal jury convicted former member Ken Johnson on charges that he routed council’s expense account dollars and federal grant money back into his own pocket.
Prosecutors accused another former member, Basheer Jones, of trying to make money on what were ostensibly local ward projects. Jones pleaded guilty as part of a plea deal in December.
Given those misdeeds, should council be trusted with more money? Griffin replied that it was a “false narrative” to judge current council members by those cases.
He argued that a few million more for neighborhoods shouldn’t be controversial after the city spent tens of millions on ballpark and arena repairs through Gateway Economic Development Corp.
“We just put in $20 million to handle capital for the Gateway fund,” he said. “There’s no way in hell we should be having a debate about $4.6 million.”
