Kerry McCormack Stepping Down Early from Council, Names Lauren Welch as Successor

With 112 days left in his last term on Cleveland City Council, Kerry McCormack has called it quits.

On Thursday, McCormack, who’s represented Ward 3 for the past decade and earlier this year announced that he would not be seeking re-election, said that he was stepping down from his seat a tad early, just months before Council’s refresh in January. He will nominate Lauren Welch, a communications strategist for Say Yes! Cleveland and an RTA board member, to finish his term. (Council has historically approved whoever a departing councilperson nominates.)

McCormack told Scene the reasons behind his premature departure after a decade in the politics was twofold: to start a new job and allow a buffer period before Cleveland’s new ward maps go into effect.

“I’m taking one quick step back to allow the community to have an open conversation about the new councilperson who will start in January,” McCormack said in a phone call. And for “the folks in the majority of Ward 3 to have a conversation with these candidates.”

Ward 3 will pretty much become Ward 7, boundaries that encompass Tremont, Ohio City, The Flats, the North Coast and Burke Lakefront Airport. It holds some of the most exciting development prospects, including Irishtown Bend Park and the big-picture plans for the lakefront.

Welch, McCormack said, is a natural choice to segue from old to new.

She grew up in Ohio City, campaigned for President Obama, was a Ward 15 precinct leader, is on three boards of trustees and works days as a communications strategist for Say Yes! Cleveland, a nonprofit that gives CMSD kids a leg up applying for college. She also founded her own marketing firm, Laurel Cadence, in 2019.

Welch was ecstatic when McCormack offered her a chance to succeed him. As she saw it, the opportunity is yet another way she’s being “called to serve” the public.

Even if that means a little challenge.

“I think that anytime you take on a leadership position in this capacity, one that has to do with raising the profile, the visibility, the livelihood and the safety of residents, it’s going to be challenging work,” Welch said in a call.

But, she added, “I’m already working on those things on a regular basis already.”

McCormack will depart from the gig on October 3, which means Welch, the first Black woman leader of Ward 3, will serve for about three months on council before either Austin Davis or Mohammad Faraj takes over in January. The two will square off in November’s general election after advancing in this week’s primary.

As for McCormack, he will be working as a Cleveland-based public affairs leader for Flock Safety, a surveillance tech company headquartered in Atlanta.

“Ensuring that we continue to build safe and thriving neighborhoods remains my professional passion,” McCormack said in a statement. “I look forward to joining the team at Flock as they partner with thousands of communities and organizations across the country to achieve that goal.”

Joining Council in 2016, McCormack championed bringing Cleveland further into the 21st century.

He long advocated for a nonprofit leader of the West Side Market, urged the city open up more public access to Lake Erie and worked with Mayor Bibb to pass the city’s first Complete and Green Streets ordinance in 2023, which sets legal standards for bike lanes and tree lines on newly-built or repaved city streets.

“It’s been a great 10 years—almost 10 years,” he said.

“I think about advocacy and reproductive freedom. I think about getting folks through the pandemic. I think about, you know, rebuilding playgrounds and parks around the ward,I think about making our roads safer,” he said. “I mean, like, these are the things that I believe we’ve contributed to make sure that the city is in a better direction.”

And as for getting out of politics altogether, he said, “I never wanted to overstay my welcome. I just thought it was a good time for me to move on.”