Outtake: Starr-struck
Updated 4:15 p.m. | Dakotah Kennedy
While city council members talked about Cleveland’s tree canopy, Council Member Richard Star snapped a selfie. After taking the photo, he showed off his work to his fellow council member, Charles Slife, who chuckled in response.
Catch the full exchange here.
From the notes: Where are the department directors?
Updated 4:00 p.m. | Doug Breehl-Pitorak
Council Member Joe Jones has complained multiple times about the missing department heads who were not at the table to answer questions.
City Council organized operational reviews of city departments from fall 2023 through early 2024 with the aim of focusing strictly on finances during budget hearings. Chief Financial Officer Ahmed Abonamah, along with Budget Administrator Nicole Gallagher, have presented most of the proposed budgets.
Documenter Tina Scott caught an early exchange between Jones and Abonamah that reflected the new-look budget process.
Jones asked how the city intends to fill vacant police positions.
“That is a terrific question for the recruitment team,” Abonamah said.
Silence on the Cleveland stadium budget
Updated 3:27 p.m. | Nick Castele
Do you have tough questions about how Cleveland spends taxpayer money on the city-owned Browns Stadium? Because City Council members didn’t.
Council dispensed with the stadium section of budget hearings in all of two minutes.
Kevin Bishop, who chairs the municipal properties and services committee, asked a few clarifying questions about the city’s stadium debt. Cleveland owes $40.2 million on the remainder of the stadium’s construction costs. It will pay off the debt in November of 2028.
With those items noted, council moved on. No questions about whether the stadium makes City Hall more money than it costs, as there were last year. Nor did anyone ask about how the city will pay for a new Browns lease and renovated stadium.
Council members know more than they let on at the table. As Signal Cleveland reported last week, Haslam Sports Group representatives briefed council members in November on the team’s $1 billion to $1.2 billion stadium renovation proposal, which would cost the public $500 million to $600 million.
‘Year of Building and Housing’: Department critical to support new legislation
Updated 3:09 p.m. | April Urban
Cleveland City Council members have repeatedly expressed concerns about the budget and staffing levels in the Department of Building and Housing.
Mostly, they wanted to make sure the department has the resources it needs to carry out the newly passed Resident’s First legislation, including beefing up the city’s rental registry. This legislation gives the department tools and increased power to bring properties into compliance with housing code. It will also require more staff to carry out the work.
Building and Housing’s proposed share of the General Fund is about 2%. Click or tap on the slide below to review the department’s budget.
Cleveland health department budget focus is on increasing salaries and retaining staff
Updated 2:08 p.m. | Candice Wilder
Cleveland’s Department of Public Health’s staff has expanded more than 30% in the last year, according to Dr. Dave Margolius, the city’s public health director. The new hires were across all divisions within the health department. Some of the positions are paid for with grants and not the city’s budget. A small proposed increase in city funding would allow the department to raise salaries and benefits to promote retention, Margolius said.
Read more on the health department’s budget from Signal Cleveland’s Candice Wilder.
For more on the third day of Cleveland’s budget hearing follow this thread by Cleveland Documenter Dan McLaughlin.
Top 311 calls in 2023: Trash, trash and more trash
Updated 2:08 p.m. | Dakotah Kennedy
The city has changed how it orders trash and recycling bins in hopes of addressing “long and frustrating” wait times for residents. In 2023, the top calls made to 311 were about trash cans and recycling bins.
Previously, the city would buy tons of bins at once in some years and not buy any at all in other years, according to Abonamah. The city would run out of bins but people would still ask for them, he said.
Now, the city plans to set aside money each year to create a “constant supply” of trash cans and recycling bins.
“Will that supply meet the demand? I don’t know,” said Abonamah, who hopes that this change will lead to a decrease in 311 complaints.
“We don’t know that, though,” he said about whether or not the change will actually lead to less calls.
“We’ll have to wait and see the data,” he said.
Council President Blaine Griffin asks to see the “greensheets.” What are they?
Updated 1:00 p.m. | Dakotah Kennedy
Before breaking for lunch, Griffin mentioned that the Building and Housing Department still has some “greensheets” they plan to submit. Here’s what that means:
Long-awaited mobile public health unit soon will hit Cleveland streets
Updated 12:38 p.m. | Signal Cleveland
Cleveland will soon deploy mobile health units that can deliver public health screenings, vaccines and services to residents around the city. Cleveland City Council approved legislation in 2021 to spend more than $1 million on two units.
Cleveland’s public health department already provides some free preventive health services at its J. Glen Smith Health Center on St. Clair Avenue and McCafferty Health Center on Lorain Avenue. It also has a RV retrofitted as a “HealthMobile” unit that can go to community events as part of the MomsFirst program.
It has taken time to get the vehicles delivered, said Ahmed Abonamah, the city’s finance director. One of the trucks is equipped and ready to roll, according to Public Health Director Dr. David Margolius. The units will be staffed by city public health nurses who can screen for HIV and sexually transmitted infections and provide reproductive health care. The mobile units won’t be screening for childhood lead poisoning.
Find council members’ discussion of the mobile health units from 2021 in this Cleveland Documenters thread by Gennifer Harding-Gosnell.
‘Woefully inadequate’: Community Relations Board struggles to hire staff needed for youth violence prevention
Updated 11:31 a.m. | Dakotah Kennedy
The city currently employs six outreach workers as “violence interrupters” to help divert young people from the court system.
“That’s woefully inadequate,” said Ward 8 Council Member Michael Polensek, who also serves as the safety committee chair.
During a safety committee meeting in October, the Community Relations Board presented its budget. The program needs two to four interrupters for each ward, but it’s been hard to find the right people, according to Board Director Angela D. Shute-Woodson. She said the work is very dangerous.
The main function of the program is to keep young people who have committed low-level, nonviolent offenses out of the court system.
The city previously had an agreement with Cleveland Peacemakers Alliance to deliver street outreach. The board was unable to finalize a contract with Peacemakers because the organization lacked enough staff.
“We need to have people in the street engaging with our young people,” said Polensek, who called the program “well-intentioned” but agreed that the program needs more staff.
“You can either pay now or you can pay later. We’ve been paying later in this city,” said Polensek as he advocated for the program to receive more money.
The city’s finance director, Ahmed Abonamah, said the program is up for two different grants to help fund more interrupter positions. He also said that the Cleveland Foundation recently awarded two grants for violence prevention work.
There is $100,000 in the budget for Peacekeepers Alliance, according to Abonamah.
Read the live-tweet thread from Documenter Daniel McLaughlin
Play Cleveland 2024 budget hearing BINGO!
Updated 10:25 a.m. | Lawrence Caswell
Mayor Justin Bibb says he ‘did not foresee the scale’ of CMSD budget hole until new CEO took over
Updated 9:24 a.m. | Nick Castele
Earlier during budget hearings, council members asked Mayor Justin Bibb why the city didn’t see the looming $168 million budget cliff for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. Cleveland’s mayor oversees the school district and selects the nine voting members of the board.
“We did not foresee the scale or magnitude until Dr. [Warren] Morgan got on board,” Bibb said. “Now we did project or foresee a one-year deficit. But as we did a further analysis of the budget and the books, we uncovered a lot more than we expected.”
Signal Cleveland Nick Castele reports that school leadership had earlier warnings.
The district’s own five-year financial forecasts show that school officials were aware of the coming money crunch at least as far back as November 2022, eight months before Morgan took over from outgoing leader Eric Gordon.
Cleveland City Council discussed health, housing budgets
Updated 9:00 a.m. | Dakotah Kennedy
After two days of heavy focus on city safety and police staffing, Cleveland City Council will move on to discuss the budgets for public health and housing. The Public Health department monitors the health of the city and its residents, including looking at disparities in health outcomes. It responds to cases of childhood lead poisoning, inspects restaurants and city pools for health and safety violations. Click on the image below to explore the proposed 2024 budget.
Watch Cleveland’s 2024 budget hearings
Traffic tickets down in Cleveland: Rewind
Cleveland City Council discussed the budget for the police department Wednesday. Council members raised questions about how many officers were patrolling the streets to respond to calls in neighborhoods. Traffic citations, just one measure of patrol activity, has dropped steeply since 2012.
Catch up with the Cleveland budget hearings
Explore Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb’s General Fund budget proposal
‘Things are really messy and we’re asking for a broom’: Community Police Commission asks extra money
How many police officers does Cleveland need. The city says there’s no perfect number
Council members dig into Police Monitoring Team’s $750-an-hour price tag
Signal Cleveland team members Doug Breehl-Pitorak, Anastazia Vanisko, April Urban, Mary Ellen Huesken, Lawrence Caswell and Rachel Dissell contributed to this liveblog.