At a noon Committee of the Whole meeting, Councilman Mike Polensek, who voted against the deal and who was one of its most vocal opponents, argued that in rejecting the signatures, council had gone beyond the issue of support of or opposition to the deal itself; they were entering territory that called into question the city charter, to say nothing of certain foundational principles of American democracy.
“Twenty-thousand signatures were submitted,” Polensek said. “These are citizens. These are not illegal aliens. These are citizens of the United States and residents of the City of Cleveland. I don’t know why we are denying residents their due process under the law. We’ve got to be real careful what we’re doing here. Very careful. This is part of the basic, fundamental rights of an American citizen. We better be very careful about what decisions are being made here, and by whom.”
If you ask Councilman Jeff Johnson, Council President Kevin Kelley made the decision to reject the signatures on his own, a suggestion at which Kelley balked.
Kelley repeatedly said that he’d made the decision after advice and consultation from city lawyers — both attorneys for city council (Jennifer Heinert O’Leary and Rachel Scalish) and attorneys within Barb Langhenry’s office in the city’s law department. Kelley would not name the names of the lawyers who’d given him advice until the end of the meeting, when he hinted that “Rick Horvath was involved.” Horvath is Cleveland’s Chief Corporate Counsel.
More troubling to Jeff Johnson, Zack Reed, Mike Polensek, Kevin Conwell, and even Matt Zone was the fact that this legal opinion is currently unavailable in writing.
“I don’t have a written opinion,” Kelley said, responding to a question from Johnson.
“So someone just told you?” Johnson replied, incredulous.
“Yeah,” Kelley said.
Johnson, who doubted Kelley’s explanation, wanted a written opinion by Monday’s 7 p.m. council meeting, but Kelley said that that couldn’t happen on such short notice. Johnson took exception to that as well. “I’d like to remind everyone that it’s 1:24 p.m.,” he said, at 1:24. “I’ve seen these opinions produced in an hour. It could be the two sentences you just said.”
The two sentences in question were loosely paraphrased from the two sentences that were handed to representatives of the referendum coalition when they tried to officially submit their signatures earlier in the day. The petition required 6,000 valid signatures. The coalition had collected more than 20,000 in less than 30 days.
Members of the Greater Cleveland Congregations, Service Employees International Union Local 1199, the Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus, AFSCME Ohio Council 8, and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 268 had given a brief press conference at 10:30 a.m. outlining their position once again. Pastors Richard Gibson and Jawanza Colvin spoke about GCC’s idea for a Community Equity Fund, with money that would go toward a job pipeline, mental health access and neighborhood investment. Colvin said that the city was in a “state of emergency,” and railed against the idea of committing millions of public dollars without input from the public itself.
“We want a better deal or no deal at all,” Colvin said.
And yet, Kelley, via counsel, personally decided the City Council position: that the signatures would not even be accepted because of an existing contract. (Council did agree to receive the four boxes of signatures for safekeeping, but in another memo to the coalition signed by Dreyer, said that they did not consider the petition to have been filed with the Clerk.)
Polensek wondered to which contract Dreyer’s first message referred. It was his understanding that the County hadn’t yet sold the renovation bonds, as the county was waiting for a resolution on the referendum issue, per the advice of financial adviser Timothy Offtermatt. Kelley said that there were other contracts that had been signed, city contracts.
Johnson and Reed, reeling, asked what contracts Kelley was talking about. (This remained unclear.) “Can I get a copy of those?” Reed asked. “Because I haven’t seen a single one.”
During one heated exchange, Johnson demanded that Kelley let the public know how he’d arrived at the decision he did. Johnson would not, he said, allow himself be embarrassed by “the circus” over which Kelley was presiding.
“I need to know who gave you that opinion,” Johnson said. “Was it our folk? Was it Barb Langhenry’s people?”
“It was both,” Kelley said. “While we live in a public realm where almost everything is public record, there’s still attorney-client privilege on certain matters.”
“Who’s the client here?” Johnson asked.
“Council,” said Kelley.
“That’s right,” said Johnson. “Am I a member of council?”
“As far as I know,” Kelley said.
This article appears in May 17-23, 2017.
And they talk about Trump, Putin & Erdogon? Mere pikers to Kelley and Jackson.
Law Director Barbara Langhenry should resign immediately since this is under her domain.
Roldo Bartimole
Don’t like this deal but the way it was passed means it’s not open to a referendum. If they want to kill it they need to get signatures for a charter amendment. Or elect a council that will reverse it.
Bob, either produce legal citations that might support your comment, or don’t comment at all. The fact the city itself hasn’t even provided them yet is telling. Whatever desperate knuckleball they’re throwing is weak. The only question now is if the people have the financial resources to file a federal suit against the city.
Frank Jackson and his city council puppets are pimping Dan Gilbert & Friends.
Bums.
Vote out all 17 and the mayor this September and November.
Before throwing out all 17 bums, please do consider that five of them have opposed this scheme at every turn. 🙂
MJK, two of those five have opposed it only because they’re intending to run for Mayor. The other three, who knows what their underlying agendas are. I’d like to think their motives are pure, but has anybody ever been able to say that about any politician since the beginning of time? Perhaps, but I’ve never personally witnessed it.
Oh, and as far as the former #six of those 17 is concerned: EFF YOU, Mr. Cummins. You spineless jellyfish turncoat. Benedict Cummins.
This article is exactly why so many people are opposed to this deal: because it stinks of funny business, and our elected officials are waaay too excited about pushing this through. It hasn’t been that long since doughnut-loving Jimmy D and his gang got hauled out of town on corruption charges. I read this, and I’m getting flashbacks to those days. At least now I know everyone I need to vote against.
Do the players even care what the facilities are like? Hell, no.
Is someone going to make a killing off this deal? Hell, yes.
Why does every major-sport venue need an upgrade after 15 or 20 years, and even less? Is it because they were built like shit to begin with? Doubtful.
Or is it arm-twisting from the franchises who are holding cities hostage with veiled threats to move? That’s more like it.
And then there are the wannabe “big-league” towns down South and out West that build something fancy because they are jonesing for a relocated team, which leans that established cities like Cleveland have to keep up with the Jonesvilles.
It’s all bullshit. And why allow a petition drive if it ends up as the City Council’s toilet paper supply?
That’s even more crap…but not bullshit. Human shit. And that stinks even worse.
Chuckles the Clown
and the impetus behind the whole issue?
second verse…same as the first
This issue is the absurdity of absurdities. Let me get this straight: the
purpose of the Sin Tax is to gouge those who purchase alcohol and cigarettes
not because anyone is trying to discourage consumption but rather so the
County can use that money to pay for sports stadiums that do not produce
anything but a fleeting moment witnessing the passing of a football, the
dribbling of a basketball and the throwing of a baseball so that such a minute
tidbit of diversion can be enjoyed by all. The stupidity of this proposition is
enough to make your head spin even though the spin doctors advocating
passage of this nonsense are already doing a pretty good job of hypnotizing
the voters to actually consider supporting it. At least the Robber Barons
of the previous centuries provided something tangible such as oil, steel,
railroads etcetera. These team owners do not even provide one tangible thing
that could ever be considered with the term value added. Almost everyone
discusses this enterprise as though it is the same thing as industry {which
it is not}. The price of admission is essentially a voluntary tax paid by those
who can afford it to pay those who dont need it. If this isnt a transfer of
wealth I dont know what is.
The real outrage here is the fact that taxes on alcohol and cigarettes will
not be used to aid in the reduction of addiction {hence the reference to sin}
but rather to stuff the pockets of all three teams who could easily afford to
pay for the repairs themselves. The vote was rammed through the last time
{under somewhat suspicious circumstances} and hear we go again. But this
time…not so fast!!! We the voters of Cuyahoga County are going to fight the
proponents on this one and we don’t care if the teams up and go somewhere
else {please see my views on entertainment below} because quite frankly there
are simply more important things than sports and the unearned money that
comes with it. Those in public office who are too stupid and lazy to find other
ways to grow a major American city need to resign and leave their self-seeking
political ambitions on the scrapheap of history. Dont ever let it be said that
this was time when the tide ran out on Cuyahoga County but rather was the
time when the voters rose up to welcome the rising tide of change and rebuked
this pathetic paradigm our previous elected leaders embraced.
Let the battle be joined.