Bradford Davy, the longtime close-knit advisor to Mayor Justin Bibb, who kept tight lips and a low profile at City Hall, stepped down from his position this week, a city release said.
An economist who played Bibb’s No. 2 with joviality, Davy helped City Hall structure and promote the city’s ten-figure bet on rehabbing vacant industrial land, helped launch its Housing First program, and helped oversee plans around the pricey landbridge meant to link Downtown with its lakefront.
Davy will operate as a senior advisor to friend Bibb through March, trading off with former advisor Jessica Trivisonno, who will take the title of deputy chief of staff.
“Bradford Davy has been an instrumental leader during a pivotal period for our city,” Bibb said in a statement. “His steady hand, strategic counsel, and deep commitment to Cleveland helped move our administration forward and I am grateful for his service.”
Completing the City Hall shuffle is Ryan Puente, former deputy chief of staff and Bibb’s campaign manager throughout the 2021 election, who will take Davy’s place.
In an op-ed for Crain’s Cleveland on Wednesday, Davy wrote that he left amid the start of Bibb’s second term both surged with spirit for the city’s future and somewhat jaded by a lack of trust in government.
Despite all the hard work that might go unnoticed: revamping Cleveland’s 311 system, eyeing thousands of poisoned industrial parcels for new business, raising (and keeping) $130 million to build up the long-lingering North Coast.
“Doing all of this well is an enormous task, made harder by a simple reality,” Davy said, “increasingly, bureaucrats are expected to deliver with little support and even less public respect.”
With a caveat: “I am not suggesting that anyone let the government off the hook,” he added.
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