Criminal justice reform activists are standing up a new platform from which they’ll speak out on Cuyahoga County politics and ballot issues. 

That platform is a 501c4 nonprofit called Residents for a Safer Cuyahoga County. 

LaTonya Goldsby, a local Black Lives Matter leader, said the group grew out of the 2021 campaign for Issue 24, the Cleveland charter amendment that gave the Community Police Commission new powers. 

Now Goldsby and others are aiming for countywide changes. They’d like to return the sheriff to an elected position and establish civilian oversight for the jail, she said. 

“There seems to be a level of distrust there and also a lack of transparency,” Goldsby said of the current system, in which the Cuyahoga County executive names the sheriff and runs the jail.  

The organization’s board of directors consists of people whose loved ones have been killed by police, she said. It first came to Signal Cleveland’s attention when it sponsored a table at the Cuyahoga County prosecutor debate between Matthew Ahn and incumbent Michael O’Malley at the City Club of Cleveland. 

Goldsby said Residents for a Safer Cuyahoga County is paying attention to the prosecutor’s race and judicial contests this March. In the future, the group plans voter registration drives, political education work and candidate events, she said. 

“Our goal is specifically to increase voter turnout in Cuyahoga County,” Goldsby said. 

As a 501c4, the group can’t give money directly to candidates, but it can make endorsements and independent expenditures. It can also participate in ballot issue campaigns. 

Known in shorthand as c4s, such groups are common on the federal and state stage. Now they are popping up in local politics. Another 501c4, People’s Economy Action Collective, spent money backing the People’s Budget ballot issue in Cleveland last year. 

Both the People’s Economy Action Collective and Residents for a Safer Cuyahoga County were registered with the state last year by the same law firm – the Columbus-based election lawyers McTigue and Colombo. 

Political watchers often refer to 501c4s as “dark money” groups because they can get involved in politics without disclosing their donors to the public. 

Goldsby disagreed with the “dark money” label. In her view, Residents for a Safer Cuyahoga County is meant to represent the community, not big money.

“That’s the whole purpose behind this,” Goldsby said. “Community-driven solutions created by the community.”