Almost four years ago, on election night in November of 2022, Chris Ronayne announced his enthusiasm for taking on the “New Cuyahoga” in the coming term ahead.
Four years later, in the final State of the County of that first term, Ronayne recapped those past four years as ones well spent, segueing out of an administration plagued with corruption probes and county jail woes.
“Our goal was to modernize county government and lead with intentionality,” he said from a podium at the Mimi Ohio Theatre on Thursday, “to face problems head-on and move beyond a culture of silos, parochialism and the way things have always been done.”
“We cannot and will not allow the old way of doing things,” he said, “to be a barrier in the new future ahead.”
A future that has Ronayne’s name on it. In this November’s election, Ronayne is uncontested, which means he’s pretty much guaranteed to win a second term.
It was a feeling of confidence, both for the county’s 1.2 million residents and for Ronayne himself, that seemed to propel the executive’s 20-minute speech on Thursday. A talk that circled through the accomplishments of a “teen-aged government” while breezing past some of the tougher challenges for a second-term Ronayne.
If Ronayne’s first term was marked by plans—for a new jail, new housing, new levies, new stadiums—then his second term will be a reckoning with what happens when those plans have been actualized.
But on Thursday, Ronayne stuck close to his script as a services-oriented executive, whether that be touting the new Norma Herr Center for homeless women, showcasing the county’s foster care successes, the $2.4 million in small business loans it doled out, or the money it gave last September after the feds slashed SNAP.
Or, Ronayne’s white whale: convincing county taxpayers a judicial behavior health center—that new county jail being built in Garfield Heights—is worth its $850 million price tag.
“This is what a healthy government is about,” Ronayne said. “One that is first and foremost serving its constituents with outward-facing programs. Programs that meet consituents where they’re at.”
And where they’re going?
By the end of the decade, the Haslams will have successfully relocated their Browns to their new home in Brook Park; a reimagined lakefront will take shape; the RTA will finally not have outdated train cars; and a post-Trump administration could fund local Medicaid as it used to.
But all this requires money. It’s one fact of government Ronayne didn’t shy away from on Thursday, especially when grilled over the smorgasbord of levies on this November’s ballot.
When a small business owner, Tyler Court, asked Ronayne if county residents could shell out more money in an age of high groceries and gas, Ronayne threw in a sympathetic caveat.
He asked, Could I actually slash the county’s Senior Meals on Wheels program?
“Am I going to starve a senior on a weekend?” Ronayne said. “No.”
“We couldn’t do this,” he said, about the possible cuts. “It was an untenable promise to starve our seniors.”
Whether or not county voters share Ronayne’s sympathy will be seen in November.
A win for Democrats in the House could spell a small windfall to help the county fund what’s been missing in the past few years. Ronayne could use the financial padding to focus on other big picture items—where exactly the new county courts could go, for example.
And also figure out if his constituents still believe the charter that was voted on in 2009 is still the right model of government for Cuyahoga County.
Lately, Ronayne has been sparring with County Council, County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley and Sheriff Harold Pretel as far as whether or not the sheriff should be chosen by the people or the county leader they elected to represent them.
As per usual, Ronayne looked outward. A review of that charter is up to voters, he reminded the crowd, not himself.
“If there’s something you see wrong or something you see we can change,” he said, “let me know.”
“But remember, these are the growing pains that come with teenage years,” he added. “And I’m holding fast to the charter.”
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