Journalist and commentator Geraldo Rivera is mostly known for his coverage of national politics. But the former Fox News talent – and Northeast Ohioan by marriage – mixed it up last week in the local political scene. 

Rivera and his wife, Erica, hosted a cocktail party for Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb at their Shaker Heights home last Tuesday. Photos and video on social media show the mayor holding court with a crowd of people on the Riveras’ elegant back patio. 

The mayor, who is up for reelection in 2025, has been campaigning quietly at block-club-style events around town. He’s also raking in cash, with $500,000 on hand at last check. 

Bibb’s next fundraising disclosure isn’t due until the end of January 2025, so it will be months before we see whether the Rivera bash netted him many campaign dollars. But judging from the social media buzz, the event was well attended. 

Geraldo memorialized the occasion with a post on X of himself and the mayor. The caption: “Talking politics near and far with Cleveland’s excellent Mayor Justin Bibb.”

Arts and culture tax gets ballot number

Somewhere in the forest of yard signs for the presidential race, the senate contest and the Ohio redistricting amendment, signs for Cuyahoga County Issue 55 will be jockeying for your attention. 

That’s the increase in the cigarette tax that has funded arts groups and artists since 2006. The tax currently stands at 1.5 cents per cigarette. If voters approve Issue 55, the tax will go up to 3.5 cents per cigarette for the next 10 years. 

The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections finished certifying issues for the November election last week. Now that they have their issue numbers, levy campaigns around the county can start ramping up their efforts to win votes. Another issue we’ll be tracking: Issue 49, the Cleveland school tax levy and bond issuance.

🗳️For more on this year’s November election, visit our Election Signals 2024 page.

Painting over a name

The City of Cleveland approved in 2020 a tax financing package for Sherwin-Williams Co. worth nearly $100 million to help the paint company build its $300 million world headquarters just off Public Square. The mayor’s administration and City Council are now proposing another little goodie that should help the company’s local branding. With the 36-story tower nearly complete, the city is offering to change the name of a portion of  West Roadway – the street the headquarters fronts – to Sherwin Way. While the street name will look cool on stationery, for most Clevelanders the change will largely pass unnoticed. To them, it’s still all just Public Square. 

New roles at CSU

Cleveland State University’s new chief financial officer, Nicole Addington, who previously was the university’s controller, addressed board members in her new role for the first time last week. Speaking at a financial affairs committee, she said her team is  working to refinance the university’s debt and develop a budget outlook by November.  

The school’s new vice president of enrollment, Randy Deike, who left the university in 2020 before returning for this role, offered a bit of good news. He said early numbers show CSU’s student headcount is about 5% ahead of  projections. Officials forecasted close to 13,550 total students for the year, yet about 14,200 are attending this semester. And that’s about two dozen more than compared to the same time last year, as first noted by Crain’s Cleveland Business.

Headcount, though, “doesn’t always exactly equate to revenue,” Deike cautioned board members. That’s an important point to highlight for a university still working to close a projected budget gap that has been as high as $40 million. 

One of the ways the university is cutting costs is by offering faculty and staff buyouts. On Thursday, Provost Nigamanth Sridhar provided an update on the number of people  leaving. About 60 educators will be departing on three dates through next spring, he said. An additional 22 faculty members are leaving the university of their own accord. Sridhar added that officials aren’t making any recommendations about offering “involuntary separations or reductions” right now.  

Speed bumps create political bumps for Cleveland council member

Cleveland City Council Member Kevin Conwell is sick and tired of all the favorable treatment he’s been getting from City Hall. 

He sees the value of Bibb’s speed table program, which slows lead-footed drivers with low, wide speed bumps on neighborhood streets.

But Conwell has a complaint. The city installed multiple speed tables on Ashbury Avenue, where he lives. Now it looks as though the council member is hogging the tables for himself at the expense of his constituents. 

“The residents are calling me, beating me up about it,” Conwell told Bibb during a speech at last Monday night’s council meeting. “‘Councilman, do you care about us? Why are you putting all the speed tables around your house?’ I said, ‘I didn’t, man. I didn’t do that.’”

Conwell said he’s telling residents to blame Bibb instead. 

“They’ll see you, if you come around the neighborhood, take pictures with you, and then beat me up,” he told the mayor. 

To set the record straight, City Hall said its speed table decisions are driven by data, not by council members’ places of residence. 

“Our speed counts on Ashbury met the criteria for speed tables, with average speeds of 26 miles per hour, 85th percentile speeds of 31 miles per hour, and an average daily traffic volume of about 2,500 vehicles per day,” Calley Mersmann, the mayor’s traffic safety advisor, told Signal Cleveland.