March 21, 2022

Councilman Griffin: First up we have a familiar name and face Jack Brancatelli from Ward 5 to talk about the Complete and Green Streets ordinance and he's from the CSU chapter of the American Planning Association. Mr. Brancatelli please acknowledge the clock.

Brancatelli: Our group is made up of students passionate about city design and social change. We are future planners, future non-profit leaders, future elected officials, and if Cleveland can enact change to compete with big cities across the United States, we will be future Clevelanders. No matter the field, people early in their careers are looking to cities that have excellent urban amenities. We want public transit, we want bike infrastructure, we want walkable sidewalks and we want quality street maintenance.

Several studies show that access to alternative transportation methods is one of the most important factors that young people look at when choosing a city to move to. That's why I'm here today to implore you to introduce, swiftly pass and fully implement a strong Complete and Green Streets ordinance. We need a safe transportation system that includes everybody and improves traffic. We know that it's what's best to do. We elected you to make this happen so it's time that the council acts on it. I don't own a car so I rely on the RTA and my bike for everything that I do like going to work in Slavic Village, getting to meetings like this one tonight, or just going to Happy Dog or wherever with my buddies. I like being able to choose this lifestyle but I often feel unsafe on the road. You guys have heard these stories a thousand times now that there's so many parts of the city that are a death wish for somebody on a bike. I don't even consider biking to work because I think that the route is so unsafe.

A Complete and Green street Ordinance would be transformational for so many Clevelanders including the young adults who choose a car free lifestyle like myself, but most importantly people who are car free out of necessity. As Cleveland considers ways to make itself a healthier, happier and more attractive place to live, our streets can be a top priority. I'm tired of pedestrian deaths. I'm tired of excuses and delays. I'm tired of only seeing bike amenities and nice bus shelters when a flashy new development is coming up. I'm tired of billions being spent on highway projects with no pedestrian amenities except for some poorly placed benches.

It's all well and good to hope that our city administrators will take it upon themselves to build more inclusive streets. But you guys have council have the power to set the standard across the whole city. We should accept nothing less than streets that are proactively designed so that kids have a safe route to school, for our elders, and neighbors for people who have disabilities or use a wheelchair, for Clevelanders who can't afford a car, and for the next generation looking to call Cleveland home.

Please show us that Cleveland is ready to commit to a safer transportation network that makes this city a great place to live no matter what side of town you're on and no matter how you're getting across it Thank you for your time and I look forward to a implemented Complete and Green Street ordinance. Thank you.

Councilman Griffin: Beth Glas Beth Glas she's from Ohio City and she's here to talk about the Complete and Green Streets and she is representing Maximum Accessible Housing of Ohio and ADA Cleveland. Ms. Glas please acknowledge your time.

Glas: Hello and thank you for your time and the opportunity to speak. I'm Beth Glass the executive vice president at Maximum Accessible Housing of Ohio and co-chair of ADA Cleveland coalition. At Maximum Accessible Housing we advance accessible and inclusive homes and communities. I'm speaking tonight in support of an updated Complete and Green Streets ordinance. This legislation would set the standard for how our streets are designed, considering the most vulnerable road users first which includes 74,000 Clevelanders with disabilities. That's about 20 percent of our population.

For people with disabilities, our physical streets and sidewalks can be dangerous. Sidewalks without curb cuts, crosswalks without audible signals, and broken narrow sidewalks create barriers that endanger lives and limit independence. Complete Streets design removes those barriers to access and inclusion. It creates an environment where streets are accessible, safe and appropriate for the needs of all users regardless of their mode of transportation, age, disability or confidence level.

In roadway design Complete Streets means attention to details at intersections, effective curb cuts, audible or tactile signals for blind pedestrians, longer crossing times. Complete Streets improves the access of pedestrian routes by providing smooth sidewalks free of obstacles with usable benches and it means transit stops with ample space to approach, to wait, and to board safely.

In supporting the Complete and Green Streets ordinance, you're supporting the rights of people with disabilities to travel safely on the streets and the sidewalks of Cleveland. Thank you so much.

Councilman Griffin: Next up we have Walter Collins frrom Ward 5 to talk about assistance for veterans and he's with Rid-All veterans

Collins: Thank you. My name is Walter Collins. I'm the outreach coordinator for the Rid-All veterans program. I'm here with Kemar Durden who's also one of the original founders of Rid-All. I'm also a two year cold war veteran, served in Germany, four year combat veteran served in Vietnam. I find it somewhat disrespectful that the city of Cleveland does not have a visual, vocal, active interaction with our veterans. Most of the veterans that I deal with they have invisible injuries. Some of the injuries previously amputations, gunshot wounds, shrapnel wounds they're very visible and when people see them they leap to help that vet.

Now since 1990 the government has identified PTSD as a disabling injury and illness with our veterans. They are invisible injuries. They also need help. The programs that we're trying to get people to understand is that if you don't address this particular issue, PTSD is invisible. It acts out. We need to be informed on what to do, what to say when we see someone particularly getting ready to act out. Suicide prevention.

This past Veterans Day, we had a veteran go to the Lincoln Memorial steps and commit suicide. He was sending a message to us. Cleveland we can do better with our veterans. I've spoken with one of the new administration's senior advisors. I feel comfortable that we can work on this issue. I ask, I beg this council find funds for our veterans. When we go off, we can't wait to come home and our first time in our uniforms. We show our families how proud we are and we show our communities. I ask the council to work with the new administration and find funds to help us out.

Councilman Griffin: Next up we have James Lamb and Mr. Lamb is from Ward 3.

Lamb: Good evening. I am James Lamb. I'm not new to city council. I'm not new to government. So I'm going to tell everybody, I have a problem. And my problem being the budget. The budget that this mayor asking for and I heard that at the last meeting that he wanted $58 million dollars to go along with his budget. City council already has a budget so he doesn't have to worry about them for the moment. Then I'm looking at the fact that $151 million dollars came in here during the time of Frank Jackson, okay. I'm looking at the fact that no one spoke on anything that this money is being spent on.

I'm riding neighborhoods where I'm seeing the the sidewalks that's messed up. Where I'm seeing houses that needs torn down. Where I'm seeing women sleeping up underneath bridges because of the fact that they are tired of paying money to a slum landlord, okay. Or they make a little bit too much money to get on Section 8.

So if I look at $58 million dollars to be spent in this city, it better be spent on the people. Other than that we will take action and I will. I will take action to make sure that I go down state, I go to Washington or wherever. But the budget for last four years is paid. The budget that's here now cannot even be spent because the mayor doesn't have a cabinet. He doesn't have a full cabinet.

I don't play politics, I know government. I know this government. I was here at 16 years old up underneath Carl B. Stokes so I know this government. It's not a game. So when I hear this 200 police officers.

Councilman: Mr. Lamb.

Lamb: Just give me one moment please. When I hear that 200 police officers have left the city of Cleveland and I see on the news.

Councilman Griffin: Mr. Lamb.

That somebody's been struck down by a bullet, I got to look at this cabinet.

Councilman Griffin: Time.

Lamb: Okay and I want it known.

Councilman Griffin: Time.

Lamb: I appreciate you I really do and there's some paperwork that, I'm just going to say this and I'm gone. There's some paperwork that I asked for from open records.

Councilman Griffin: Thank you Mr. Lamb. Thank you Mr. Lamb.

Lamb: It's not on file so Mayor, get them records on file for me by next week and I'll let you know what they are today.

Councilman Griffin: Sabrina Otis. Ms. Otis. Is Ms.Otis here? Sabrina Otis my good friend from Ward 15. She's here to talk about the lack of police cameras and safety. Ms. Otis you had the floor please acknowledge your time.

Otis: Yes Ward 15 covers two police districts. It covers first and second. And second seems to have a lot of cameras and first doesn't seem to have any. I live in first. I live on West 101st and I have a problem. West 101st runs right into West Boulevard. West Boulevard runs across Detroit and Madison Boulevard. My problem with that is that we have lots of traffic. It runs off of 90. Everybody from all over Lorain County, Westlake, Lakewood they travel coming into the city and as they come they do 60, 70 they do whatever. And as they come they speed. They're speeding. We have families. No one has seen my daughter in three years. You know why? Because it's not safe for her to come outside. You don't know what she looks like because if I let her go outside she might get hit. We need speed cameras over there.

Now we've asked we had Commander Faye, he's gone. We have Commander Butler we have we had Councilman Zone now we have Councilwoman Spencer. We need cameras over there. During the Saint Patty's parade you guys pulled out the little cameras for your parade. But we asked for those cameras a long time ago. We asked 2019, 2020, 21, can we get those cameras over there? There was just an accident last week those cameras would help.

We're tired of the speeders. We asked, I wrote a long email requesting for speed plates. Akron has them, how come we can't get them? Speed plates would help. I'm tired. I've demanded stop signs. We got a low one so when you look that way it's a stop sign. We got a high one so when you look that way it's a stop sign They blow right through it. We've had police sit there when they stop people they politely explain they went through the stop sign.

I want some tickets. I bet you if you get some tickets we could get some potholes filled. We want some stops. We want somebody to go to jail. We want some some tickets. I want some money generated in the city with some tickets. We want something to make people stop. Kids can't walk. You know gas is up so people gotta walk. So I'm really asking council to do something. We want some cameras. Thank you very much.

Councilman Griffin: Next up I have Ayat Amin from Ward 3 to talk about fare evasion and Ayat is from Clevelanders for Public Transit. Please acknowledge your time.

Amin: Hello everyone. Thank you council for having me here on the first day of spring. My name is Ayat Amin. I'm in Ward 3 and today I'm representing Clevelanders for Public Transit. And I'll be honest I had a speech written for today but as I was checking in with security they asked me what are you coming in to talk about today? And I said decriminalizing fair evasion. And they're like what's that? And I said well did you know that if you take the bus and you somehow don't pay your $2.50 fare, you can get a $250 fine and spend 30 days in jail? And they're like that does not seem fair at all and I'm like exactly that is 100 percent why I'm here.

Now imagine you're a high schooler and you cannot drive yet because you're not 16. But you do know how to use the bus and this situation happens to you um does it make sense for them, their future to potentially be ruined with a permanent criminal record just because they didn't pay a two dollar fifty fine? That does not seem like justice to me and that is why I'm speaking here today.

Now council, there has been an ordinance that you can pass to decriminalize fare evasion that's been ready since 2019. That's multiple years right ,and us at Clevelanders for Public transit we have come to you for many years asking you to show justice on this issue. What i'm asking for today is for you all to show your leadership especially when it comes to justice on this issue and to pass this ordinance that's ready. That is all and I thank you all for my time.

Councilman Griffin: Sean Freeman from Shaker Heights to talk about Public Square barriers. Mr. Freeman please acknowledge your time once you get to the microphone.

Freeman: Good evening council, Mayor, citizens of Cleveland. Tonight council plans on bringing forward legislation that will finally remove the Jersey barriers from Cleveland Public Square after five years and instead replace them with bollards. Bollards are concrete pegs cemented into the ground designed to stop vehicles from entering pedestrian areas. According to estimates from the LAND studio, the group that designed and created Public Square, these bollards will cost the city around two million dollars. Where, Mayor Bibb and council, where would that money come from?

According to local reporting from journalists like Ginger Christ and Steve Litt, the Jersey barriers report in Public Square because of an FBI request for extra security in case of potential terrorist activities. This was around the time when there were vehicle attacks happening around the world. According to this reporting, the FBI request was sent to former Mayor Jackson and the former police chief. Mayor Bibb, do you or anyone in the mayor's office of Capo projects have this letter?

For every major event in Cleveland over the past five years these barriers have been removed and put somewhere else until the event was over. Not only did this hiding of the barriers cost the city over a million dollars, it defeated the entire purpose of why the barriers were there in the first place, to protect people in large groups. Are these barriers necessary?

I understand that someone unfortunately passed away in Public Square a few years ago because they were not paying attention for the buses when crossing Superior Avenue. If that is the only remaining safety concern I have faith Clevelanders are willing to read a sign posted in Public Square intersection rather than pay 2 million. Mayor, if you have access to the FBI letter that would clarify if the initial safety concern is still relevant or outdated. I pray that you all make the best fiscal decision for this city and save citizens money whenever you can. Thank you.

i'm a i'm a hold down i'ma hold down i'ma hold down on my colleague who has a hair for us but i'm be brief um this past weekend I got a call when i was at target trying to get me some you know items for the household and it was a call from 19 action news and the reporter michelle reached out and just talked about illegal dumping when she spoke to me first thing I said to her illegal dumping has been an issue in our city long before this body has came together long before myself and mayor bib was born like some of you might say sometimes all the time but but the problem that that that transpired once I got to the street over there on clark wood was all the snow had melted and I remembered that I talked to miss wheeler earlier this year and we put in a request and um the mayor's administration as well the streets went out and picked up some of the illegal dumping but when the snow clears you see trash bags you see more trash bags and then you also see wow this is really a major issue so then I started to look back at my spreadsheet of how many times we've been sending over requests even from on riddle farm even from hope and the kinsmen on broadway cedar central all over ward five so I ride around on saturday after I had to do an interview that i was not thinking I was going to have to do but resident call so you know what you got to do get up get on up over there and figure out what's going on so i rise tonight to ask us everyone in this body what is the solutions that we need to do because one of my requests street sent someone out but it was only one person to grab a lot of the illegal dumping what is our plan what is our fight what is our thoughts and what we're going to do commissioner scott does an excellent job with communicating I would like to make sure everyone respects that because sometimes streets get beat up by everybody and we don't speak on the brilliant things that they do so when we do make a request and residents call they do get out there but we need more help and more support because a couple's different staff member is not going to be able to get the illegal dumping that's happening um in ward 15 ward 5 war 10 all throughout all of our awards and I just want to rise and make sure we bring everyone aware awareness up to this issue that continued to happen in our neighborhoods the snow is down people are going to keep playing tricks on us and dumping and illegally getting away and on clark will we do have a camera and I salute mayor bill for sending out an email and communication amongst his cabinet to address this issue but we definitely need to not turn our eye on this but address this with a plan and be more strategic with our purposes making sure streets have adequate amount of stab to address this illegal dumping in our city

thank you mr president I rise tonight in support of resolution 291-222 opposing the signing of senate bill 215 which puts ohioans at risk by removing licensing requirements for concealed handguns this resolution was read into the record this evening and we'll move through our process i ask for you and our colleagues to join councilman conwell mayor bib and me in supporting this resolution as it states as of june 13 ohioans 21 and older will be able to carry a handgun without a license and without training concealed handgun carriers will no longer be obligated to notify a police officer that they're armed if stopped the division of police shows a 13 percent increase in homicides involving a gun in cleveland from 2020 to 2021. in 2021 cleveland police seized more than 3 000 illegal guns from our streets a 33 increase from 2020. knowing the danger that this bill poses to our communities into law enforcement it was opposed by democrats in the general assembly as well as the ohio mayor's alliance county sheriff's and the fraternal order of police of ohio mr president senate bill 215 is not consistent with the beliefs of a majority of americans who support common sense gun control and it's an attempt to build against society's anxieties and insinuate that the answer to violent crime to gun violence is more guns it's an asinine it's it's a hypocritical idea and it very much bothers me as someone who has been the victim of gun violence uh to suggest that the answer is to put more guns onto our street and make them easier to get especially for people who have no business owning a gun and are not responsible gun owners by passing resolution 291-222 we can align ourselves with our residents our law enforcement officers with public health experts and with consistent research that shows that more guns and lack of training results in more gun related violence and death in passing this we can stand up to special interests in columbus and to professional contrarians thank you

councilman kevin conwell thank you mr chairman madam clerk honorable mayor members of of the council and members of the administration mr chairman I too um i'm not going to go into detail until we get the legislation before the committee but I think councilman's life summed up um i mean I keep asking myself that bunch in columbus what are they thinking of i i don't know what they think of except chaos and our streets and and throughout our communities but again we'll have that hearing mr chairman I rise on two points and I wanted to say this first i want to thank the administration I thank the mayor I had the pleasure of walking in the st patrick's day parade with you mr president my colleagues my the 42nd time i walked as a public official and I got to tell you the show of of security the cleanliness of downtown the environment in my opinion was unsurpassed I it was it was such a pleasure to be in that parade and with the beautiful weather and to see the number of people who came out it it told me and hope he told all of us that cleveland's back open for business what a great day on st patrick's day so i want to thank the mayor the safety director the chief and everybody who was involved in that process public works mr chairman last thing I want to rise on and mention it's been two months and 21 days since the administration has taken the seat in the mayor's office and i've been here a long time but this is the first time that I can recall that a piece of legislation that was so important to many of us that being the west side market came before this body was submitted by the administration and was enacted today there had been discussions and complaints and back and forth about the west side market for god knows how many years and in two months and 21 days uh this administration with the engagement of council and I want to thank again councilman kerry mccormick for his engagement for his passion on the west side market but again two months and 21 days you address the west side market maybe that's not important to some people but I can tell you being here all these years and having complained about the operation of that market it means a great deal to me that you understood and you heard the concerns of the citizens and the merchants there and you responded i hope that is setting the tone as we look at other departments and divisions how we move forward two months 21 days you addressed something that had been complained about in this body for years so on behalf of my own citizens on behalf the people of the city of cleveland mayor thank you to my colleague thank you for recognizing how important that market is to the people of cleveland thank you mr chairman

thank you uh I want to give kudos i wanted to get over to uh to support this ordinance in the committee also ordinance number 137 2022 I want to thank mayor beard as well as you mr president griffin when you travel through um the southeast side nobody have really invested in it you see abject poverty there you see when you walk that neighborhood you see a lot of poverty you see children got to go to school to just to get a meal mayor bib you see shelter poverty there you see homes that are too hot in the summertime and too cold in the winter we need investment over there and if you're gonna fight against abject poverty how can you vote against this bill here man how can you vote against it when racism when you couldn't even get a loan to put gutters on your house when you couldn't even get a loan to fix your roof or your porch there because of racial profiling and then when you see the neighborhood with blight and when you have that blight you have a lot of gun shooting that's going on because the criminals think that you don't even care and this bill 137 2022 man is a beautiful beautiful bill where it says huntington bank is committed to supporting small businesses small businesses do you know what that did in my neighborhood when we spent 21 23 million dollars to shoot straight down east 105th street where we built glenn village up in our neighborhood and fisher house and the pride that it brought to the people of the neighborhood but now you got this over here but huntington bank is committed to supporting small businesses as part of his 40 billion 2021 strategic community plan to address the social racial environmental and economic inequities in that community when you're a council member you don't only just look at the west side market you look at the east side as well and when you put your hand up down here to swear to be a cleveland it says a cleveland it says a cleveland city council member you got to look at everything and everybody and everything must be equal that's how I look at it man and you know i drive to all the neighborhoods and i look everywhere and i'm for everyone we create laws for people to live work and travel to the city of cleveland just like we did with the budget now with the budget even when mayor fred jackson who's a good friend of mine was here I looked over that budget because you know what it's council's job to have oversight anyway we should be evaluating and look at evaluations all the time and make sure they hit our goals and objectives if not then we say no no no no no no because counsel is over the funding it's our programs and our projects so we have oversight over the mayor I sit back and I thought about it and I looked at that as well but the mayor is an mba he has a master's degree in business administration and I asked the cfo he had to take a gmat test to get that mba that's one of the hardest tests to take isn't that right richard starr we had to look at evaluations and everything so I asked the cfo I said look man i want to pass this budget here because it's about the cost of labor he said councilman look at me the cfo look at the human resource director and look at the mayor we're gonna look at every single hire I said okay okay I said also send me back a progress review that's our job right here to look at the progress review this man mike polinski although he's been here forever ever since moby dick was a guppy he has looked at every single um budget this went through even though it was mayor frank jackson or whoever the case may be he's gonna look at every single budget and that's our job that's our main job is to do that even if you thought the budget was cool or have you voted against it it's our job to do that anyway so we're going to evaluate what's going on and we he need to bring this budget back to us in june or the third quarter in september to see where he's at to see where he's at you got to do strategy reviews he know what i'm talking about or strategic planning he knows what i'm talking about he got to bring it back to us so you give him a chance this is new this is his first time but we need to evaluate it we are the evaluation process and thank you very much

thank you mr chairman mr chairman not every no vote it has racial tendencies behind it my colleague is right we're all cleveland city council members right so what's good for one portion of the city should be just as good as for another portion of the city what's just as good for west park should be just as good for lee harvard what's this is good for lee harvard should be just as good as the set for the central what's good for central should be good for cadell so we need to keep that in mind too right nobody's begrudging anybody for getting anything i think we all fight for everything we want in our wards and we all deserve it but just because you don't support something doesn't mean that you're racist or there's a racist bias behind it so please let's not go down that path right just because you don't support something doesn't mean that you don't want that in that specific area maybe you just believe that that program should be city wide and I wasn't going to stand up here and say anything because I have something else I want to talk about tonight mr chairman and that is um today and october 12th in the city of cleveland are connected because 6 000 babies a year hundred thousand individuals in the united states uh live with down syndrome and today is world down syndrome day march 21st which is 321 which is down syndrome affects the 21st chromosome we have three chromosomes so we didn't have any big parades or we didn't have any galas or anything like that for individuals with down syndrome we'll save that for october in the city of cleveland but I did want to stand up today and and if you don't know an individual with down syndrome or if you need a buddy contact me i'm lucky enough to have a daughter who has down syndrome and we're very proud of her in today's world down syndrome day so I want to say congratulations and happy world down syndrome day to all the individuals what's that and and she marched in the st patrick's day parade and she was she rode in the mayor's car as well as she she she made it about three quarters of the way so thank you very much mr mayor for allowing her that opportunity it was the thrill of the day and she doesn't she doesn't let me forget that she got to ride in the mayor's car either when for the last four days so thank you very much and happy world down syndrome day to all our buddies out there thank you

chairman um it's with some sadness um klensick brought to light that uh our former county sheriff mcfaul gerald mcfaul died today and i just don't know if people remember he was a city cleveland council member for several terms he was a majority leader uh underneath george forbes and he was our longest serving sheriff and you know when I first came on the council several years ago the first thing I did is I went to the sheriff's office and asked for increased policing enforcement in my award and they did for about a month I had an army of sheriff's cars driving around a high crime area in my world it was great and some people laughed at me but i'm like that's the way it used to be when sheriff mcfaul was sheriff and I was a county prosecutor back then i'd be working nights sometimes two three in the morning going out with these sheriff's deputies getting search warrants at judges houses i'd be going out and helping them execute the search warrants and he went around and if a councilman had a problem he would get a vice unit that was just as good if not better than the cleveland police device and they would go out and kevin and kevin connolly knows they would do it and they would board up homes for the drug houses and that's the last time that we really had that at mcfaul because it was him and because the office was independently elected that's why we don't have any more as part of this reform it's no longer elected so it's it's subject to the appointment executive when it was an independent office and mcfaul was there he was a friend to all the cleveland wards and would have the the sheriff's they don't have it anymore but they used to drive around our neighborhoods they'd issue tickets and they'd go after the vice they'd go after the drug complaints and all the old time councilmen know this and I wish we could get it back they would concentrate on the drug houses and board them up and you know for that i I miss that I miss that guy I miss that type of attention and a lot of people think that's odd only because they don't do it anymore the office doesn't do that anymore in cleveland so i miss mcfall as a person but I miss how his office was I even talked to some of those detectives now and they kind of talk wistfully about how even as recently as 10 years ago they they did have active drug units in our neighborhoods working with cleveland police and supplanting that so um I do miss that and i'm not ashamed to say I miss his clambakes too i'd go every year they were fantastic thank you mr chairman

before I close I just want to make a couple of comments uh for my colleagues i want to just tell you all thank you and how proud it was for me to sit through budget hearings with each and every one of you the fact that we had an opportunity to really take a deep dive into a budget the likes that I haven't seen in a very long time meant a lot to I think the citizens of cleveland every day i received phone calls I didn't know how many people actually watch everything we say and everything we do but it's almost like that hamilton's line that history has his eyes on us all the time and all of you all handled yourself admirably you've asked tough questions it was great to have the institutional knowledge of people like mike polinsk kevin conwell and others as well as to make sure that we have some fire brands on council that really brought their ideas to the table as well as the new members who really just brought that a real genuine concern about our city and you know ladies and gentlemen it was a sleepless nine days for me because i take the responsibility that you all have given me and bestowed upon me to be your council president to make responsible decisions and to make sound decisions on your behalf but more so on behalf of the citizens of the city of cleveland you asked me to lead that's what I did and I live with that jacket every single day because at the end of the day whenever somebody gives me the jacket you bet i'm going to wear it so i appreciate the fact that all of you showed the confidence in me and also quite frankly to show the confidence in the mayor and his administration to pass this budget it was hard I do have grave concerns we are going to make sure that we are going to be a watchdog for this budget we're going to make sure that we get together at least quarterly if not more to make sure that we understand any triggering mechanisms that we should be concerned with and quite frankly I know a lot of you really had concerns about voting this budget out but you asked me to lead i asked you to support this budget and we're going to make sure that we're responsible for the city of cleveland i want to make sure that you recognize something this city and government not just in cleveland but everywhere is made to respond to the rich cater to the middle class and disregard the poor and we serve a city of poor and disenfranchised people don't ever forget that had the privilege of hanging out with a lot of you in d.c and immediately upon getting home and enjoying the st patrick's day parade reality set in i had to go and talk to a family who lost an 18 year old girl 50 bullets of gunshot never lose focus on the reality and why we're here never lose focus always capture the gravity of this moment I didn't take this job for to be a celebrity I would have signed up for hollywood or quoted criminal minds if I wanted to do that but I took this job because I really care about the people in this city and you do too so be proud of yourself we're going to work close with the administration and like everybody has said this is not personal this is about making sure that we take care of who sent us here to make sure we take care of them and that's the people of this city so thank you for voting for this budget and we're going to get to work and I can't wait to see all of you in about two weeks when you start getting all those calls cause you won't have time to be down here in politics because you're gonna be busy out there in the streets so thank you once again this committee meeting is adjourned okay