The war between Richmond Heights’ mayor Miesha Headen and the power-hungry city council has been waging, basically without pause, since the moment Headen took office in December, 2013. The past nine months have been marked by bickering and political maneuvering that has played out dramatically on Cleveland.com (via reporter Sara Dorn, who notably had her camera swatted away by Headen when she sprung forth from the City Hall shrubbery to pose a question after a meeting in May). Headen, who is as exhausted by the press coverage as the committee to remove her purports to be, faces a recall election on Sept. 23. Opponents say she is incapable of performing the duties of the mayor, but she begs to differ. At her home in Richmond Heights — a sleepy beige subdivision across the street from the Cuyahoga County airport — Scene got an exclusive interview about the turmoil of her tenure and her plans for the future:
Sam Allard: How are you feeling, with the election just two weeks away?
Miesha Headen: I feel like I’m running for mayor all over again. A lot of what I’m doing is going out and restating what my campaign promises were, making the case for the good works that my administration has accomplished in its first eight months in office. I’ll say that I am optimistic. I see a real opportunity in, essentially, re-campaigning. Things weren’t entirely perfect in the beginning, and it’s a chance to redo a number of things.
That’s understating things. What’s been so difficult?
There are a number of council members who have served 15 years or greater, and the only management style they’ve ever been familiar with was [former mayor Daniel Ursu’s], and I do have a more active, more vigorous, style of management. I am in the office at least 40 hours a week and am profoundly concerned about managing the departments of RH as a unified whole.
As opposed to?
What I found when I came into office was that under [Ursu], there wasn’t unity in government. What you had was eight departments which operated in independent silos. So I started having at least monthly meetings so that the departments were coordinating amongst themselves. This was jarring for council because under Ursu, the legislative body frequently encroached and superseded upon the powers and duties of the executive. The separation was nonexistent.
How do you mean?
The president of council [David Roche] was the only person who had master administrative access to the city’s website and email accounts. So, for example, if the administration wanted to post something on the website, they had to request permission from him. It was the same thing with the email accounts. Finance, building, police, fire. It was the president of council who could go in and view all emails that were being sent within the city. And he had sole access.
I recall some hubbub when you assumed control of the web stuff in March.
It was extraordinary.
I think there’s some concern that even if you retain your seat, nothing will change. What strategies do you have for cooperating with council?
I think it’s going to be important to have a mediating body between the executive branch and the legislative branch. We need to restart the relationship. The conditions for trust can be built if there is a well-experienced and professional body between us, at least during a transition period.
And for the record, you do want to cooperate with council, correct?
I do. One of the things that has come out clearly among residents — even among supporters — is that they’re exhausted, and they want the mayor and council to behave as grown-ups.
If you are recalled, Roche would become mayor for the duration of your term. Would governance change at all?
I will state unequivocally that should David Roche become the mayor of Richmond Heights, this entire recall process will have been nothing more than a third-world coup reminiscent of a banana republic. A vote for David Roche is an indirect vote for a step backward for Richmond Heights. It will bring back a time when mayor and council colluded to keep information from the residents, such as the million dollar acquisition of Greenwood Farm. It will take Richmond Heights backwards to a time of financial instability, such as in 2010 when the city was a hair’s breadth away from fiscal caution, as defined by the auditor of state, because the city only had $150,000 in its general fund. We can’t go back.
What steps forward have you taken?
We’ve brought on a new building commissioner and an economic development director. Working together, they’ve been able to convince the owners of Hilltop Plaza to do a major commercial renovation of that space, which will attract more and better tenants. They have cleaned up the abandoned gas station at Richmond and Monticello, and identified an environmental remediation firm to clean up contaminated sites and — even more exciting — are in the process of negotiating with Cuyahoga County land bank to serve as basically construction manager, which means the cost of cleaning up a blighted site in RH will be virtually free of charge for our taxpayers. Also, last month, our Standard & Poor’s bond rating was upgraded to AA (stable).
What does that signify?
For the layman, the upgrade is the same as an individual having better credit. It gives us the power to borrow at a lower cost. Under my predecessor, our S&P bond rating was one step above “junk level.” Our interest rate on bonds and notes was substantially higher than any of our neighboring communities because of at least a decade of financial mismanagement.
I have to ask. [Your former assistant] Brandye Mells is now filing suit against you. She alleges that you were in possession of a missing city vehicle in May, and later hacked into her email account to send an email, as Mells, to Sara Dorn. How do you respond?
I have been advised by counsel that I cannot comment on an active lawsuit. I will, however, say that I intend to mount a vigorous defense to what I know to be untruths.
What about the NEOMG? What’s their deal? Any idea why the editorial board has it out for you?
I had a good conversation with a political mentor of mine and one of the things we talked about was that, over time, members of council have been able to build strong relationships with the media. As a newcomer and a change agent, I haven’t really even stood a chance in getting my side of the story out or trying to achieve balanced coverage. A few days prior to the PD’s first editorial calling for my resignation, I got a call from [NEOMG editorial writer] Sharon Broussard. Her first question was something to the effect of, “Why are you so contentious and incapable of leading?” She proceeded to pose the next three questions essentially the same way, “Why is it that you can’t get along with anyone?” etc. And I paused and said, “Sharon, have you already written the editorial?” She said, “Yes. I just don’t want to give you the opportunity to say we didn’t call you.”
This article appears in Sep 10-16, 2014.
Sam,
Do you do any fact checking of the statements made by people you interview? There are any number of inaccuracies in the statements made by Ms. Headen in this article. For example, while Mr. Roche may have been in charge of the website and City Edition, when he was in charge at least they were up to date and released on time. Since the Mayor has taken over, the website is completely out of date. There are Department Heads listed who haven’t been at city hall for months and minutes do not get posted in the “timely fashion” required by our city’s charter. The City Edition has never been published on time since her term started.
The city’s financial situation in 2010 was not caused by fiscal irresponsibility, it was caused by the same economic downturn that everyone else experienced and the City’s inability to pass a tax increase. In fact, it was the fiscal responsibility of the Ursu administration who cut costs and finally passed the levy in 2012 that resulted in the increase in the city’s bond rating that the Mayor so cavalierly takes credit for. In fact, her own Financial Director said as much at the August 26th Council Meeting where the new rating was announced.
The Hilltop Plaza renovations, likewise, are the result of years of negotiating with the various owners who have changed hands during the past 5 years. These negotiations finalized during the Headen Administration but it is AT LEAST equally the result of the Ursu Administration’s earlier negotiations.
I also have it on good authority that a significant paper trail exists defining NEOMG’s attempts to contact Ms. Headen by phone, by email and by text prior to the editorial being written. Ms. Headen had been ducking attempts by NEOMG’s reporters to contact her since the Mayor’s assault of Sara Dorn. And, by the way… there ARE no bushes in that parking lot.
Now, I understand that as an editorialist you will have an opinion about an official or a person you interview. But, I would hope that at some point, there should at least be cursory fact checking so that your publication doesn’t simply become an instrument of deception, used only to further someone else’s political career at the expense of your credibility.
Sincerely,
A Richmond Heights Resident
It is unfortunate that Scene Editor Vince Grzegorek sent his dumbest writer to interview the county’s stupidest mayor. This is a very serious situation and sending a boy to do a man’s job, well, let’s just say Scene failed hard here. How the new owners continue to allow this is beyond me.
Mayor Headen is going to find her sorry ass on the unemployment line come September 23. Her parents spoiled her has child and her husband spoiled her as an adult. She’s been a stay-at-home mom for years and never had the proper professional work experience to soften her rough edges and prepare her to be a successful mayor.
What’s disgusting right now is that she’s playing every desperate card out of her deck of deception and delusion. I’m a woman! These men are trying to take me out. I’m black! Look how these white people are doing me.
Reading the softball questions Sam Allard lobs at this short-timer made me want to vomit. He’s been oddly supportive of her from the get-go without any logical reason other than he’s a complete tool.
There aren’t enough black folks who vote in Richmond Heights to save her. A majority of the longtime white residents of the city see right through her bullshit and are going to punch her ticket back to soccer mom status. Maybe her rich Republican husband will find her a job somewhere she can’t fuck anything else up.
Long time resident & “White folk” here & voting to keep her. Do we really want Roche? I don’t. There is a reason Ursu wasn’t re-elected, so we definitely do not want Roche. 24 years of this bs is enough!
Scene would really be doing their story on Sara Dorn AKA Dornwood and Dornstein AKA Drama Dorn. Without her sensational stories published on a constant basis to feed the NEOMG click machine NONE of this would be happening.
While I dont think this woman should be recalled I have to say she refuses to clear the record on the Brandye Mells situation. If she lied about that she should resign ..today
Wow look how hateful Republicans are !! And racism is all over America. Republicans say racisim no longer exists because America elected a black man for president. What they fail to acknowledge is it was Demicrats who elected him overwhelmingly with the help of some Independents. Republicans opposed him overwhemingly, many say because he is black. I suspect, because racism is alive and sick in America, considering the tone and vitriol of some of the comments on this site that the Republican is opposed to Mrs Mayor Headen simply because she is black too. Interesting to find if that city rejects that racism in the coming vote. Lets hope so.
You are right. Racism still exists in America. In fact, I just saw the Mayor’s Mother call another African American woman an Uncle Tom for supporting the recall. Can you image that? The Mayor invites the NAAC-freakin’P to speak about racial equality and the Mayor’s Mom draws the race card not 5 minutes later. Racism does exist in America and it lives at the Headen household.
Long time resident of Richmond Heights (25+ years) and white – and I’m voting to keep Miesha Headen in office. Ursu failed us mayor – and Roche wants his “high class” boy’s club in office. If Roche wanted so badly to be in office, why didn’t he run against Ursu and Headen the first time around? – instead of riding in on his white horse and hoping to get into office based on a sorry excuse for a mayor re-vote – a re-vote that will cost the city more than $20,000 (which I see you failed to mention in this article, Sam).
That being said, I won’t be at all surprised if Headen loses – and if/when that happens, I hope the citizens of Richmond Heights give Roche hell.
Renee,
This election isn’t about Mayor Ursu. He is long gone from office and he’s not coming back. This is not even so much about Dave Roche, though I understand he is an unknown quantity. This is about Mayor Headen and her inability to stabilize the city government and run it effectively. This is not just a personality issue, though that has something to do with it. It is not just an inexperience issue, though that also has something to do with it.
This has more to do about the Mayor’s insistence that her way of governing is better in spite of every indication to the contrary. If someone doesn’t agree with her or back her on every idea she has, or every inflated claim she makes, she fires them. When a 1.6 Million dollar company comes to her and asks for a tax incentive to stay in Richmond Heights, she doesn’t even bother to bring it to council, she just says sayonara and loses more than $30K per year in revenue. This has to do with her exposing the city to hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and damages for lawsuits brought about by her reckless firings.
We are a small city, struggling to get back on our feet after years of low revenues. We finally get a tax increase passed and this Mayor is wasting every extra dollar we gained to fight legal battles she started.
It’s time for Richmond Heights residents to step up and retake control of our city’s government. If Dave Roche gets into office and fails to serve in the best interests of our City, then guess what? We’ll recall him too. I have met the man and I don’t expect that to happen, but we citizens of Richmond Heights have been awakened… and we are PISSED.
On September 23rd… Vote NO — Mayor Headen must GO!
I am a white citizen of RH and I plan to vote yes, sorry to disappoint everyone but we voted her in and I plan to give her that chance. She was doing just fine being a part of the RH government for 4 years before she was mayor…and it seems like there is a lot to talk about because yes, she is shaking things up a bit, but to be totally honest RH needed it. What we don’t need is the Plain Dealer repeating itself over and over..they won’t even let her get her side of the story in. Publishing rumors, like the incident with the car and her ‘hacking in’ to someone’s email, flies in the face of professionalism. If Roche wanted to be mayor, he should have run for the election. If she does get voted out, I don’t think it’s anything to cry over, but I hope Roche gets the same scrutiny as she does.
THE BIG CONTRADICTION
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The Mayor’s supporters like to make two claims about Council, and in particular David Roche. The problem is there is a big contradiction in what they say. Here’s what I mean.
On one hand, the Mayor’s supporters and the Mayor claim that all the power rests with council. That is why nothing has gotten done in these 9 months is Richmond Heights. The council has all the power and the Mayor has none. In fact, the power balance is so bad that the Mayor tasked the Charter Review Commission with shifting power away from Council and to the Mayor. Right? Correct me if I’m wrong.
On the other hand, the Mayor has also asserted that Dave Roche is trying to become Mayor by entering “through the back door.” Her words. Not mine. Council is behind this plot to remove the Mayor and because he is in line to succeed the Mayor, Dave Roche must be behind this “nefarious plot.” Again, right? Correct me if I’m wrong.
For a moment, assume that is all true. I don’t believe it for a minute, but for the sake of argument… assume it is true. Here is the big contradiction:
WHY ON EARTH WOULD DAVE ROCHE WANT TO BECOME MAYOR?
Wouldn’t this be a demotion for him? It can’t be for the money. They Mayor is already on record lamenting how poor the pay and benefits are. Surely that can’t be it. Then, he would have to step down as President of the Greenwood Farms Board. That can’t be it. After all, isn’t this his pet project? Then he would be giving up all the power that he allegedly has as President of Council. That can’t be it. Can it?
So, what we have is a big contradiction. Another lie within a lie designed only to confuse and instill fear in the voters of Richmond Heights. Look past the rhetoric, fellow citizens. The truth is out there if you look beyond the fog of half-truths and deceptions.
Supreme Court of Ohio denies efforts to stay the recall vote. Election will proceed as scheduled on Tuesday, September 23rd.