Lakewood City Council will launch its own investigation into options for alleviating overcrowding at City Hall after a contentious public meeting where the council president and mayor accused each other of refusing to work together.
“We know we need to address these space issues,” Council President Sarah Kepple told Signal Cleveland in an interview on Thursday. “We all understand the urgency. We also understand the long-term effects and the importance of getting this decision right.”
Council will work with a consultant to “fill in the gaps” in information shared with council by Mayor Meghan George, including alternatives to George’s preferred solution, purchasing a former school building at 1470 Warren Road. Council will hold public hearings on all options with the goal of making a decision before the end of the year.
Built in 1958, Lakewood’s current City Hall houses its government offices, police department and court. The largest factor in the space crunch is the growth of the police department since then, according to George’s column in the Lakewood Observer. There are 30 more officers and far more equipment. Peer cities in the county provide two to three times more space, making recruitment more difficult.
Year-end means a longer timeline than George asked for at the July 7 council meeting. George asked the members to approve a $1.5 million purchase agreement for the former school building, now owned by a developer, by Sept. 5. She said that to wait longer would risk losing the building to another buyer.
Read Documenter Timothy Zelina’s notes from the meeting for more details.
After George’s request, Kepple responded with a quick lesson on how the legislative process is supposed to work, with committee meetings and multiple hearings with public input before a vote. She then read a long, prepared statement (video here) about the space crunch issue and her frustrations with Mayor George’s administration.
“I am sad and disappointed with the administration’s approach, which, while it may be politically slick, does not facilitate good governance,” Kepple said.
George called Kepple’s accusations “unfortunate” and “misguided” but declined to address them specifically.
Kepple cited examples of George allegedly ignoring council members’ requests for information then moving ahead with steps like signing a letter of intent to buy the former school building.
“The Warren Road solution might be the best option,” Kepple said. “However, the administration’s obfuscation and refusal to partner with council on open, data-based public discussion has unfortunately made it impossible to trust the recommendation at this time.”
A ‘huge erosion of trust’
Council Member Bryan Evans acknowledged that George has offered to meet with council members “one or two at a time to discuss this, but something in this magnitude needs to be taken up in this venue in front of the public.”
Ohio’s Open Meetings Law requires government bodies to deliberate and vote in public. They can’t get around the law by holding “back-to-back or serial meetings attended by fewer than a majority of its members,” according to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.
Kepple brought this up again later in the meeting. George began to respond, but Kepple raised her voice to reply, “I am speaking, Mayor!”
When she spoke again a few minutes later, George said, “I’m glad our public can now see the temperament of our City Council president. This is a challenge we face all the time in working with her.”
George went on to cite examples of mayors and council members meeting privately, including her and Kepple, to “iron out some kinks and details” in legislation. “For a long time, President Kepple and I about once a month would meet at a coffee shop and just go over … various topics,” George said. “So I’m not sure why this is different than all of these previous discussions.”
Kepple alluded to a “huge erosion of trust” between council and the mayor stemming from an unrelated issue from 2024: a setback in an agreed-upon plan to improve backup power at Cove Community Center. George “went around telling everyone who would listen it was council’s fault,” Kepple said.
George’s office initially told Signal Cleveland she was not available for an interview. After this story was published, George emailed to express her frustrations with Kepple: “She’s requesting the administration email documents to all of council to review before she will schedule a meeting,” George wrote. “So instead of holding public meetings we are sending emails. … I find this very odd for someone who continues to claim she wants a public process.
“The timeline established is needed to secure the site,” she added. ”If we continue these discussions without securing the site we jeopardize it being sold. However, the timeline allows for council to go through their normal process of three readings.”
George was an at-large member of council before successfully running for mayor and taking office in 2020. Kepple joined council a few weeks later, when the other members selected her from about 20 applicants to fill the seat George had vacated. Kepple then won election to a full four-year term in 2021. Council members elected her president of the body in 2024.
Lakewood City Council meets again on July 21 at 7:30 p.m. in City Hall Auditorium, but the City Hall space issue will not be on the agenda, Kepple said. The issue will be referred to a council committee for further discussion.
This story was updated to clarify the timeline of George’s request for the purchase agreement; the source of information about city hall ovrcrowding attributed to George; and to reflect comments she provided after publication.
