ALL THUMBS
Mt. Pleasant councilman Zack Reed finally got his citywide
texting-while-driving ban passed Monday night by a 19-2 vote, after
more than three months of maneuvering through a morass of eye-rolling
from his colleagues. Last week, at council’s public safety committee
meeting, several members went after Reed for every hole in his
argument, despite overwhelming support from safety forces and
activists. “I’ve never seen them vet anything before like this,” said
Reed on Monday afternoon. But at Monday’s finance commitee meeting,
just a few hours shy of the finish line, councilwoman Sabra Pierce
Scott, council’s majority leader, was the only open dissenter
remaining, expressing her fear of making Cleveland’s citizens the
“poster children for America’s issues.” (Huh?) She and councilman T.J.
Dow were the two dissenters in the final vote. Reed reminded Pierce
Scott about how Mayor Frank Jackson, as council president, proposed the
city’s predatory-lending law for Cleveland, not Ohio. “This piece of
legislation is looking out for the citizens of Cleveland,” said Reed.
“It’s a safety issue.” The law won’t go into effect for 90 days, giving
city leaders a chance to get the word out. One council member jokingly
suggested an e-mail blast. — Harkins
“BRING IT”
Glenville Councilwoman Sabra Pierce Scott, council president Martin
Sweeney’s majority leader, at first didn’t want to speak with
Scene for a recent story about Jeff Johnson (“Glenville Redux,”
April 1, 2009). A former Glenville councilman himself, Johnson went on
to become a state senator in the shadow of ex-mayor Mike White and then
was jailed for nefarious tactics in raising campaign cash (some say
White narrowly escaped). Now Johnson’s angling for his old seat back.
And Pierce Scott wants to speak now, at least rhetorically: “I’ve beat
him before, when he ran Bill Patmon’s campaign,” she said Monday after
council’s finance committee meeting. “He can bring it.” And she vowed
not to get negative to curry voter favor. “I respect Jeff. I really do.
He made a mistake and paid for it. And he’s earned the right to run and
face a difficult race — for him, not for me. I’m the incumbent.”
Yeah, just try and raise the money the right way now, Mr. Johnson, with
the fully leavened Council Leadership Fund putting a Pierce Scott sign
on every street corner and campaign literature in every mailbox.
— Harkins
more online at clevescene.com
YEAH BUT WHAT’S YOUR POINT?
On Monday, in a 15-page diatribe against The Way Things Seem to Have
Always Been in Cleveland, County Common Pleas Court Judge Peter
Corrigan blasted Mayor Frank Jackson and his two predecessors, Jane
Campbell and Mike White, for circumventing the city’s civil-service
laws for too long, opening “the city, the administration and the two
prior administrations to allegations of cronyism, corruption and
political payback.” Corrigan fined the city $900,000 and put a special
overseer in place to make sure the rules are being followed. Last year,
Jackson pushed through a charter change that would grandfather in
employees appointed inappropriately — apparently side-stepping
Corrigan’s long-standing belief that City Hall needs a good spring
cleaning. — Harkins
This article appears in Apr 15-21, 2009.
