Mayor Justin Bibb ran for office on a promise to reform Cleveland police, to make city services work for residents, and to get local government thinking big. 

Halfway through his term, the city’s self-proclaimed chief sales officer is seeing what it takes to close the deal inside City Hall. Bibb, who is running for reelection in 2025, faces big-city crises as he works to carry out his agenda. 

The Community Police Commission – imbued by the voters with new disciplinary powers – struggles with infighting. Now the mayor is signaling his openness to tweaking the voter-passed police reform amendment known as Issue 24.

He has hiked police pay in a bid to fill the depleting ranks of officers, as a years-long surge in homicides persists. If that wasn’t enough, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District is now staring down a projected budget deficit. 

Bibb is marking the end of his second year as mayor with a local media tour that included an interview with Signal Cleveland. He took questions this week about the police, Browns Stadium negotiations and the protests against the war in Gaza that have become a staple of City Council meetings. 

The ‘war’ to fill police vacancies; opening door to possibly amending Issue 24 

As a candidate, Bibb campaigned on Issue 24, a citizen-led charter amendment that gave the Community Police Commission broad new power over officer discipline. Now, as mayor, Bibb must find a way to fill the growing number of vacancies left by police officers who have retired or quit the force.

Part of the struggle is offering attractive pay and benefits in what Bibb called a “national war for talent.” But the mayor also pointed to another possibility, that officers may be leaving because they fear Issue 24 will enable excessive discipline against the rank and file. 

“While I understand those concerns, I think there’s a balancing act,” Bibb said. “And I still believe in Issue 24. I believe in the spirit and the intent of Issue 24.” 

The spirit and intent of the law are one thing. On the letter of the law, there may be wiggle room. Bibb nudged open the door to changing the charter language down the road. 

“Once we take stock of what’s worked and what’s not worked over the next couple of years, we’re open to some amendments to make sure we get it right for the residents of Cleveland to balance our public safety interests but also balance the accountability interests of residents,” the mayor said. 

He declined to specify what changes he’d want, but this week the city pointed to problems Issue 24 had created for handling personnel complaints in the Office of Professional Standards. As for the police commission’s public disputes, Bibb said “democracy is messy” and that he didn’t expect perfection from the body. 

The city has seen 147 homicides so far this year – about 7% more than the number of killings in Cleveland this time last year. Bibb found a silver lining in the bad news, saying the frequency of homicides appeared to be slowing down. 

Next spring or summer, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is expected to open a new crime gun intelligence center for Greater Cleveland, Bibb said. That could help the city trace how guns end up in the hands of minors who commit shootings like the one at Public Square last weekend. 

But raising kids is parents’ job, not City Hall’s, he said. 

“If your child isn’t accounted for, that’s a problem,” Bibb said. “And it’s important that if you know your kid has a gun and he or she is 12, 13, 14 years old, you should be doing something about it and holding your child accountable.”

A budget gap looms at Cleveland public schools 

Cleveland schools began this academic year with a new leader, Warren Morgan, who was chosen by Bibb and the board of education that the mayor appoints. Morgan and the mayor could soon face a financial cliff as pandemic school aid runs out, Ideastream Public Media reported recently. 

Bibb was tight-lipped about how the city would shore up the school district’s finances. He said he and the school board would have more to say in the coming months. 

“Collectively, we have some challenging choices to make,” Bibb said. 

Would those choices affect staffing? “All of the above.” 

Is a new school levy on the table? “We’re going to look at every option.” 

Keeping Browns Stadium on the lakefront – and finding a way to pay for it

Cleveland owns the Browns’ lakefront stadium and has directed hundreds of millions of dollars toward construction costs and renovations over the years. 

Now the city and the Haslam family are quietly negotiating a new lease for the team that could include a substantial overhaul of the stadium. 

“I’ve committed to them that we want to support their effort to renovate the stadium and we want to make sure that we can keep the Browns in Cleveland and on the lakefront,” Bibb said of his talks with the Haslams. 

City Hall hasn’t shared how much taxpayer money would be on the line. Bibb reiterated this week that he wants to shield general operating dollars from the project. 

“We are negotiating, and one of the key tenets of that negotiation is making sure we protect the general revenue fund as best we can,” he said. “That’s all I can say right now.”

Where else the city turns for cash remains to be seen. Bibb said Cleveland would be “creative” with its balance sheet but will need help from Cuyahoga County and the State of Ohio. 

As the Haslams weigh the future of the lakefront stadium, a different sports owner – the Cavaliers’ Dan Gilbert – is making moves on the Cuyahoga River. Gilbert’s Bedrock plans a major development on the river near the Terminal Tower. 

Bibb is proposing a tax increment financing district that would divert property tax revenue to public improvements on the river and the lakefront. The mayor also wants a new nonprofit and a separate government entity to have a hand in waterfront development. 

Those aren’t the only new boards that Bibb wants to ease the burden on City Hall. His administration supported the creation of nonprofits to manage the West Side Market and Highland Park Golf Course. 

Bibb said this new constellation of boards would not turn out to be new layers of bureaucracy. He argued they would prove to be the opposite.

“This is how you move at the speed of business,” he said. 

Bibb responds to Gaza protests

For several weeks, protests calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza have dominated City Council’s public comment sessions. Speakers have come down on Bibb in particular for a social media post he wrote immediately after Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel in October. 

“Cleveland stands in solidarity with Israel in the face of terror and condemns these acts of evil,” Bibb wrote at the time. 

At council meetings, demonstrators have pushed for Bibb to acknowledge the Palestinians killed in Israel’s ensuing airstrikes and ground invasion. 

The mayor hasn’t answered to the protests at council meetings, but he did offer this response in his interview with Signal Cleveland:

“The comment I made on Oct. 7 was directly focused on Hamas as a terrorist organization attacking the country of Israel,” Bibb said. “My heart grieves for the loss of life we’ve seen in Palestine and for the loss of life we’ve seen in Israel. And I believe the best pathway to peace in that part of the region is a two-state solution. In my opinion, you can’t do that with Hamas being in charge of Gaza.”

People’s Budget politics after Issue 38’s defeat

Although Bibb backed a $5.5 million participatory budgeting pilot program this year, he opposed Issue 38, which would have given residents power over millions in city funds. 

His stance against Issue 38 put him on the opposite side of many of his own political supporters, as November’s election results show. The mayor kept a low profile during the campaign, leaving Council President Blaine Griffin to become the face of the No-on-38 effort. 

City Council griped about Bibb’s absence. But Bibb defended his decision to lay low. 

“I’m never going to suppress the will of the people,” he said. “It was important for me to allow residents to have a fair, honest election and honest assessment of the initiative.”

So would he resurrect the participatory budgeting idea and make another go at a pilot? The mayor hit that ball into Griffin’s court. 

“I’m open to what council comes up with,” Bibb said.