The Cleveland Community Police Commission meets tonight for the first time in 2025 after two years in which accomplishments were sometimes overshadowed by disputes, personnel changes and tumultuous public meetings.
Earlier this year, Cleveland City Council interviewed and confirmed five new and two returning commissioners who’d been nominated by Mayor Justin Bibb to serve on the 13-seat commission. The new commissioners are:
Tera Coleman: Ward 3 resident, an attorney at the law firm BakerHostetler with a 10-year record of serving on boards and commissions.
Maya Kincaid: Ward 7 resident who has worked in banking and hospitality and at the ACLU of Ohio.
Sheila Mason: Ward 10 resident, retired chief of police for the Village of Woodmere with 40 years experience in law enforcement
Untaya Miller: Ward 9 resident, a student success specialist at Cuyahoga Community College who holds degrees in criminal justice, urban affairs and organizational leadership.
Michael Nelson: Ward 6 resident and retired Cleveland Municipal Court judge and former Cleveland NAACP president with decades of experience on boards and commissions.
The returning members who were confirmed to new terms are Sharena Zayed and Shandra Moriera-Benito. The seven appointees were sworn in on March 10 and will join four members still serving their initial terms: John Adams, James M. Chura, Piet van Lier and Audrianna Rodriguez.
Two seats still need to be filled. Tyler Sinclair, a Bibb spokesperson, told Signal Cleveland that one of them will go to Imoh Umosen, a project manager at the PNC Fairfax Connection and Ward 7 resident. Umosen’s confirmation was held up by council because of confusion over his residency, but that has “since been cleared up,” Sinclair said.
For the last seat, the administration asked for recommendations from The Black Shield Police Association, an organization for Black and minority officers in Cleveland. The Black Shield recently provided recommendations “that we are currently vetting,” Sinclair said.
Signal Cleveland tried to contact someone at Black Shield but did not get a response.
The commission can meet and conduct business with 11 members.
‘Laying a foundation and some groundwork’
The Community Police Commission has existed since 2015. But the panel’s initial role was advisory; it had no real authority over the Cleveland Division of Police. That changed in 2021 when Cleveland voters passed Issue 24, giving the CPC final say over police policy and discipline.
In an interview with Signal Cleveland last year, Adams said that in the first two years, the commissioners had to try to balance police accountability work with things like training, setting bylaws, putting together a grants program and writing an 18-month plan for the work the commissioners wanted to accomplish.
The commission also had to haggle with council over its budget and with the administration over its staff.
“I think it was more of like laying a foundation and some groundwork,” Adams said then. “But now, the commission is moving a lot quicker. There’s more focus on the work.”
The first two years were also marred by conflicts — between commissioners and sometimes with the public. Last year, the Bibb administration changed the application process, asking more questions about organizational experience and requiring references.
At the confirmation hearings in January and February, City Council members asked the nominees what they thought about “how the CPC has conducted itself.”
“Overall I thought we’ve done what we could do under the circumstances,” said Zayed, a returning member.
“It has been a disaster,” said Nelson, a new member. “If the previous commission members had been on boards before and understood the culture of how things work, things would have gone differently.”
“I feel as though the people under consideration have the skillset to create change,” said Miller, another new member. (Read the Cleveland Documenters notes from the January and February council hearings.)
Tonight’s Community Police Commission meeting will be held at the Jerry Sue Thornton Center, 2500 E. 22nd St., from 6 to 8:30 p.m. The commissioners will elect co-chairs, determine committee assignments and set a monthly meeting schedule. Meetings are typically carried live on the commission’s YouTube channel.
Read more about the new appointees on the city’s web site.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include Signal Cleveland’s attempt to reach someone at Black Shield.
