April 04, 2022

Council President Griffin: We''ll move to public comment. First we have my good friend Dontez Taylor from Ward 4 to talk about transportation and recycling. Mr. Taylor I will be holding a three minute time limit so please help yourself to the mic and then we'll follow up from there, okay? Alright.

{Voice}Over here you're right in front of it.

Taylor: In front of the mic.

Council President Griffin: When I tell you time or please wrap up Mr. Taylor please keep that in mind, okay?

Taylor: Okay.

Council President Griffin: Please begin.

Taylor: I would like to know when are they going to start the recycling again. I don't know. Yeah and and how we're going to and how they're going to do the recycling when they do start the recycling process again. And and I would like to say about transportation is is they is they going up on the fare and and and stuff like that.

Council President Griffin: Alright thank you Mr. Taylor and if we have anybody can somebody make sure that they help Mr. Taylor out to let him know about the recycling program as well as uh as well as the transportation fare. Thank you so much Mr. Taylor.

Council President Griffin: Alright next up we have Marge Misak. And I want to remind all council members to please acknowledge the speakers, turn your chairs and acknowledge the speakers. Next up we have Marge Misak, Ward 3 Ohio City, to talk about city land bank disposition policy. Ms. Misak you have the floor.

Misak: Thank you. Good evening my name is Marge Misak. I've lived in the city of Cleveland for more than 30 years and I directed the first community land trust here. In my current work I provide technical assistance to the Franklin County Land Bank in Columbus actually as they develop a county-wide community land trust.

So I'm here tonight to talk about what happens to land in our city, specifically land that the city currently owns in its land bank. As council members you are often asked to weigh in on decisions about land bank parcels and Mayor Bibb has the intention of creating a vacant land force task, vacant land task force, to identify opportunities to quote "market, sell, and develop city-owned vacant lots throughout Cleveland."

I'd like to suggest that before creating a more efficient system for selling vacant land parcels, it's critical that the city create an equitable policy for the land bank which we don't currently have. Such a policy would shine a light on our vision for an equitable future for all residents especially those who are homeless or un-affordably housed.

So what might that take? First we need to know our history. We could look to Evanston Illinois' discrimination study that made the case for their reparations program as one good example for a historic look. Closer to home, the impact of foreclosures and abandonment have been well documented by the Vacant and Abandoned Property Action Council, as you all know I'm sure. Daniel Kerr's book Derelict Paradise documents a much longer history in Cleveland of urban development policies that have led to displacement and homelessness.

So then what might an equitable land bank policy look like and include? I'd like to suggest three good ideas and some places that have put them into practice.

First, transition from a focus on highest and best use to establishing criteria that prioritize neighborhoods and residents impacted by long-term disinvestment and displacement. The Albany County Land Bank in New York did exactly that and they have a good example of a process with those priorities.

Second, prioritize land for permanently affordable housing development to address the critical shortage in the city of Cleveland, where it's estimated that 9,300 homeowners and more than 26,000 renters pay more than half their income for housing. The Atlanta Land Bank's policies and procedures established that priority and they followed it up with an agreement with the Atlanta Land Trust.

And then finally create a path to permanency for green space initiatives in the city of Cleveland, which we don't currently have, whether it's for community gardens or community gathering spaces. And we could look to green space land trust in like those in Baltimore or Chicago for good examples of those.

So I'd like to thank you for your time and attention to this and I'd be happy to follow up with any of you on any of these issues, thank you.

Council President Griffin: Thank you Ms. Misak. I'm going to ask if you could, because you bring up some very good ideas, if you could share some of your concepts with um we do have a chair of DPS and I think it would be great if you gave him some of your ideas because we are looking at those policies okay. Thank you so much ma'am.

Council President Griffin: Aright next up we'll have Diana Hildebrand, Ward 2, Complete and Green Streets and Ms. Hildebrand represents Bike Cleveland. Ms. Hildebrand.

Hildebrand: Thank you council for the opportunity to voice my support for an updated Complete and Green Streets ordinance. My name is Diana Hildebrand, the founder of DevahD Cycling and the education and outreach coordinator of Bike Cleveland. I also sit on several boards in committee such as University Circle Inc, Cleveland Velodrome, Ohio Bicycle Federation, Canalway Partners and NowSo.

I've been riding my bike for a little over four years and it is one of my greatest passions. I turned that passion into a career, bringing me to bringing me into contact with hundreds of fellow bike riders across the state. It is my mission to create fun and safe experiences for children, adults, and seniors of all abilities that I work with. This can be a challenge in Cleveland where our streets are designed for cars and cars alone. Though I love speaking the gospel of safe cycling no one ever hears me, Diana DevahD Hildebrand, speaking about those scary moments. The moments where I've bailed from a ride due to unsafe roadways and conditions. As a city-wide community right leader, I have ridden over six thousand miles throughout these streets and even as a confident cyclist there have been incidents where I knew that become that knew that coming home was way more important than continuing on with a bike ride.

Let's take for instance riding the Opportunity Corridor, a 35 mile an hour roadway created to improve the roadway network within a historically underserved, economically depressed area within the city of Cleveland, which is supposed to be safe for our neighborhoods but I consider it a speed trap. With the ongoing distraction of cell phones, debris on the roadways, poor signage on top of the trying to get there fast mentality, hence Opportunity Corridor, our city has created a speed death trap for its citizens trying to cross the street to see friends that this roadway has torn through. Even with the multiple youth paths multi-use paths designed for safe travel the fears of a car jumping in the curb or a car not paying attention when turning left or right, hence 75th Street, Woodland Avenue, Kinsman, East 105th and Carnegie running a red light because the driver of a one-ton vehicle thought they could beat a yellow light or just blatantly running a red light. And let's not forget a few honorable mentions: Broadway Avenue, Miles, East 93rd, Harvard, East 116th, East 55th, Buckeye, Fulton, Lorain Avenue just to name a few.

You have the power to make our streets safer for people like myself and my 12 year old son who utilized the bikes for transportation and for fun. I live in a Union-Miles neighborhood and I've seen many streets get repaved like East 131st Street and Harvard Avenue without bike facilities added. The community wasn't notified as to why these streets were exempt from the Complete and Green Streets legislation passed in 2011. There are dozens of instances just like this across the city a clear indication that the new ordinance must increase transparency and close and close unnecessary loopholes.

Council President Griffin: Time.

Hildebrand: I ask that you introduced swiftly pass and fully implemented updated complete and green streets ordinance that applies to all projects across the whole city...

Council President Griffin: Time.

Hildebrand: That are safer for all of us users. Thank you for your time.

Council President Griffin: Thank you Ms. Hildebrand.

Council President Griffin: Next up we have Mr. James Lamb. Mr. Lamb is Ward 3 and he's here to talk about the city budget. Please acknowledge the time Mr. Lamb and the clock in front of you. Thank you.

Lamb: I sure will I just ask one thing, that you acknowledge one thing. I have a speech slur so I want my I want my words to get out and I want folks to hear them and that's all too. But I stand here today and I talk on the budget. And I'm going to talk on the budget until the budget has been dealt with and has been dealt with in the in the manner that me, and mine, and the communities that I live in have something to do with it and something to say about it.

I said that the last time I stood here. I said that the president had some $151 million into Cleveland before Frank Jackson left. But I mistake and made an accident because that was $511 million. $511 million dollars and I can't see streets paved. $511 million dollars and I'm watching a city council meeting right now that's aired where when they weren't aired this whole place was packed. Every every director, every council person was here because that's the people's money and that's where I come from today.

I don't understand it but we're going to get around to it because when I say I went to work part-time, and paid one-third of my own money to pay me for the city of Cleveland, I know one thing, I'm just as good as anybody that sits here.

So I say this today. I said it maybe four or five years ago. City council needs someone to sit alongside them that's from the communities because the dollars that you all spend, and the dollars you all push back and forth at each other, them are our dollars. Them are our dollars and our dollars are they're not being spent correctly. And I just need to know that within the next four years, and I would love to see that cabinet make it, i would love to see this council make it, but let's do it and let's do it correctly. I paid for it. That's all I got to say.

Council President Griffin: Thank you Mr. Lamb.

Council President Griffin: Next up we have Andre' W R Dailey from Collinwood to talk about the closure of Dave's supermarket. Mr. Dailey please acknowledge your time sir, thank you.

Dailey: Absolutely and thank you to the councilman for letting me speak tonight. Three minutes. My name is Andre' Dailey and I grew up in Collinwood. My family and I have been patrons of Dave's supermarket at 15900 Lakeshore Boulevard in North Shore Collinwood all my life. We have all witnessed the decline of the building over the years. When it rained in Collinwood in April, it also rained in the building.

Year after year in the spring we'd see the emergence of containers in the market to catch water flowing from a leaking roof. The Saltzman family who have been proprietors of Dave's supermarket are being charged roughly twenty thousand dollars a month to lease that space on Lakeshore Boulevard. This total is close to a quarter of a million dollars a year. Dave's announced last week it had intentions to shutter its Lakeshore Boulevard location on April 30th. They would not intend, they did not intend to renew their lease and they would not stay on for years continuing. They are redirecting shoppers to their Euclid location located on Shore Center Drive. The location is eight minutes from the Lakeshore location which equals 3.1 miles. But we all live different, big different directions in Collinwood. See they're South Collinwood, Nottingham, all these different communities it's not exactly eight minutes from everybody.

I'm here tonight to express my community's justified concern at this sad turn of events. We believe in the residents of Ward 8 on the city's east side and we believe they have a right to access produce and healthy food options in clean attractive environments. Whether we walk, bike, drive, or transit, we should all have access to healthy food options. This is vital to Cleveland's growth and its diverse population.

I would not desire to see seniors, veterans, or disabled constituents of Ward 8 continue to lose access. We owe them so much more. A supermarket which is centrally located on the boulevard is essential to Collinwood's development and growth. We must all commit ourselves to attracting and nurturing food infrastructure across Collinwood's historically underserved communities. I'm sorry that should have been the city's, Cleveland's underserved communities. Thank you all for engaging with me tonight. I yield back the remainder of my time to the chairman and honorable councilman from Ward 6.

Council President Griffin: Thank you Mr. Dailey. [Applause] And it's good to finally see you in person Ms. Dailey Mr. Dailey we don't I don't usually respond on Twitter but good to see you in person.

Council President Griffin: Next up we have Sabrina Otis. And uh Ms. Otis is from the Cudell neighborhood and uh she's here to talk about housing and out-of-town landlords. And yes we did read the long statements you made so you have the floor of Ms. Otis.

Otis: Okay I'll be really brief. I need this council to do something about our out of town landlords and not just out of state I'm talking about out of county. These landlords are not paying their taxes but they're collecting a lot of rent. They're not doing repairs but the city of building and housing wants tenants to comply to inspections.

I'm not complying. I'm not complying because my landlord doesn't do any repairs. I'm not complying because I shouldn't be in the house. Not complying because there's a court order that says I'm not supposed to be in the property. And I'm tired.

I'm tired of writing long books to councilmans and commissioners and state officials asking them to do their job. Everybody is voted in. And like everybody's voted in everybody's voted out.

We're tired. The rent in Greater Cleveland is out of control. And when you start looking at who's raising the rent they don't reside in Cleveland. And we have this problem with your builders. You guys keep giving all these builders all these perks and when they build up those properties they're hitting back with these big rental rates that are making it unlivable for the rest of the community to survive.

This community was built on poor folks. It wasn't built on the rich. The rich left us and went to the suburbs and now they decide they want to come back and they want to benefit. I went to a meeting regarding Battery Park and I'll never forget what the guy said. He says why can't we continue to get tax abatement after 10 years, I mean we invested. Well hello. We pay all our bills. We're invested in the city as well.

At the end of the day this council's got to step up and do something because we already know county council can't seem to do their job. We already know housing and building is kind of confused. We need you guys to step up and say enough's enough. Thank you.

Council President Griffin: Next we have Loh. Loh is from ward 7 and Loh will be talking about public transit fare evasion decriminalization and Loh is with Clevelanders for Public Transit.

Loh: Good evening everybody. Thank you for Mr. Griffin's introduction but what have we heard today land housing. These are the serious issues we face in our community. Cleveland has been the poorest city in the whole nation just like I'm the shortest person in this whole room. However one thing we can do to start changing it. Think about the magic number. City ordinance six zero five eleven. Yes we have lots of things against us to make the community standing up, however this particular ordinance, if you just take five minutes look at it, and you can see that's outdated ordinance.

If we can just change this one it will help people to go around between this community to that community. Because they don't have to worry about if they have enough fare they remember their bus pass to get on a public transit. Come on let's think about when we were little. Who remember to bring homework every day to the teachers? You don't. So that means CMSD students even if they use the ID card as their ID to get on bus, if they change the book back they forgot to move the ID. They will be caught and they can be put on discharge from this particular ordinance for them to carry a criminal record when they are even just a kid in school.

It's not fair because we already all pay tax which will fund public transit GCRTA. So for people to pay again it's already far stretched. But before we can get into the utopia, free fare, your help will make everybody's living easier. One less opportunity to get in trouble with the law. That means that's one step goers go towards their education, their job, their health care, their housing, maybe grocery shopping, or just going to church without worrying about this five dollars or two fifty. This little dollar amounts which will put them in big trouble. That's one thing we definitely can do. Please help. Thank you very much

Council President Griffin: And uh finally from the great ward Ward 6 Pastor Wanda Hill-Chestnut to talk about safety guardrail requests and denials and Pastor hill is with the St. Luke Church 79, 7919 Kinsman. Pastor Hill.

Hill-Chestnut: Good afternoon or good evening everyone. Good evening everyone. I'm standing before you guys because we have an issue. The location of our church is 7919 Kinsman Road and we have had our fencing hit in the last three years seven times. We have requested guard rails to be placed. About two months or so ago there was a young man killed about 50 feet prior before you get to our fencing area. Our fencing area has become the safety net or the catch-all for all of the out-of-control vehicles that come over the Kinsman bridge. And my concern is that it is just a matter of time before one of our congregants will be either hurt or killed.

We've applied for guard rail safety. We've applied several times. We have contacted the office of project management for the mayor's office and we have got a consistent no. And this consistent no will cause a consistent problem. And my issue is after these problems are introduced, we've talked about them they've gone around this merry-go-round of nothing, and confusing activity with production, is a problem for us now.

I think we've been more than patient. I think three years is long enough to come up with a viable solution. And if it is not long enough then the problem is bigger than just us not having a guardrail. And my concern is who do I talk to now that I've addressed this with city hall. Who do I reach out to now and if you guys don't know the answer it's okay to say I don't know and I can try something else. Or you can say I don't know the answer and I don't know who to ask for help, then we can still try something else but we need to know what is the problem.

Who are your problem solvers and do you have a go-to person? Who's your equalizer? Who's your Olivia Pope in city hall that solves problems because we have the same problem today that we had three years ago. And I don't know if I'm asking the wrong people, if I'm asking the wrong question, or if I'm just in the wrong city that safety is presented as an amenity.

Safety should be automatic. And we are not safe without guard rails in front of my church thank you for your time.

Council President Griffin: Thank you.

councilman kerry mccormick and then councilman charles schleiff and councilman mike pelinski thank you mr chairman um chairman I rise tonight to both react to and also reflect on some of the commentary that we heard tonight around safety on our road systems or lack thereof and I also rise in appreciation that this council and that the administration is really diving in from a policy perspective on how we better design our roads to be safer for what many call vulnerable road users so cyclists pedestrians and other users that are not in a vehicle mr chairman policy can get wonky but i'll tell you a couple quick examples in the last week and then previous to that unfortunately in the last week alone I had a lady hit on detroit avenue crossing legally in the crosswalk going from a store to her home and then a couple hours later a child as they were crossing with the crossing guard on lorraine avenue to urban community school was struck by a vehicle thankfully in both cases they are going to be okay but I just bring those two examples out from this week alone mr chairman of how critical it is moving forward that we really design our roads to calm traffic and to accommodate vulnerable road users mr chairman in life in my professional career and otherwise i'm an eternal optimist one thing that i've given up on is trusting people know how to drive people are out of control it has gotten worse during the pandemic street signs are great but people don't follow them as you heard earlier they blow stop signs they blow stop lights out of control speeding and i fundamentally believe that the real way to deal with this issue is to better design our roads to force drivers to slow down we've seen these types of traffic treatments speed humps different ways to calm roads that have are happening in akron and detroit in lakewood ohio they're investing millions in our their roads to calm traffic and create safe crosswalks and opportunities for our children seniors and families to navigate our neighborhoods so again mr chairman I thank you our body as well as the mayor's administration for really digging into that complete and green streets ordinance to ensure that moving forward that we don't ignore the vulnerable folks in our community they're not in a 3 000 pound climate controlled metal box called a car but that are getting around in our community and deserve safe roads i'll tell you mr chairman two about a month and a half ago unfortunately my dog was run over on franklin boulevard as we legally crossed the crosswalk leashed he also is gonna is okay thank god thank you west park animal hospital but I just bring these few examples up of the many many many examples that clevelanders face every single day when it comes to safety in our road systems and again i think it's gotten worse and worse and worse so with our vision zero initiative with our complete streets with really looking at ways that we can create safer roads for our community i'm very optimistic uh that we'll get there mr chair but this is an acute issue as I noted I can't go to a block club anymore I can't go to a community meeting without this coming up over and over and over again and mr chairman like you heard tonight whether it is a church whether it's cyclists or whether it's other folks facing speed speeders and out of control drivers in their neighborhood this is a meat and potatoes issue for our residents and I thank you and the body and the administration for really earnestly working on policy to address this issue

and councilman michael palesi thank you mr president i'll be brief I just wanted to thank my colleagues and mayor bib for the passage of resolution 291 2022 uh in my opinion senate bill 215 which was passed in columbus signed a law by governor dewine is is it's a cheap political win by the republican party that is going to end up with increased gun violence in communities like cleveland and other communities across ohio and I just adamantly believe that the answer to gun violence is not to make it easier to get guns and mr chair I said this during our committee meeting today i'll say it again today it frustrates me when this body is accused in some corners of uh turning a blind eye to violent crime when what we are facing with this law is actors politicians in columbus who are contributing to violent crime in cities and acting against the wishes of law enforcement law enforcement opposed this law and I think it's important in passing this resolution that we stand up speak for our residents and expect politicians in columbus uh to answer to their hypocrisy thank you

thank you mr chairman honorable mayor my colleagues madam clerk mr chairman on saturday april 2nd congressman honorable congressman tim ryan asked me to attend a gathering in the city of seven hills to represent the council at a gathering to of community leaders from the eastern european community to hear firsthand from residents who have family in ukraine of what their families are experiencing with this moment we are witnessing every day on on tv and on monitors the brutality the killing of women innocent men women and children we saw the pictures today what happened in the city small town where just people were tied their hands tied behind their backs executed in the street mass graves women being raped and set on fire and we heard firsthand the plea coming out of the community on saturday and again I want to thank congressman tim ryan and all the other folks who turned out that day but they're looking for and I sent a piece of correspondence over to the mayor today and I want to thank ms alves for getting back to me they're looking for any surplus helmets ballistic helmets ballistic vests anything that they can provide the armed forces of ukraine the police officers in ukraine they're looking for fire surplus fire equipment I want to thank those suburbs and those cities that have contributed already the most recent is olmsted township who submitted and gave fire equipment but clearly they need help they need help it's horrific what they are experiencing what they're going through so again I want to say to the administration any surplus equipment we can identify coordinate that with the ukrainian community and we'll get it shipped over mr chairman I want to thank you mr chairman for your support as well on this issue the last point I wanted to make is at the safety committee last week mr chairman we discussed the number of officers that are presently on the force and as of last week we heard 1414 officers sworn members of the cleveland police department so what should that tell us all that are gathered here we're down over 200 officers the budget called for 1620. all of us are greatly concerned about the violence the problems that we're hearing I just heard my colleague get up and speak about these the road conditions people not paying attention to signs school zones you name it well what i've learned in this job over the years there's no substitute there's no substitute than having police officers patrolling our streets and giving out tickets to those speeders as a young man I learned very quickly in this city I learned to drive very cautiously and carefully because I did if I didn't I got a ticket in the city of cleveland my mother would tell me be very careful where you're driving because you're going to get a ticket if you're speeding that doesn't exist anymore in this town our traffic unit is an all-time low other units are their ranks their the numbers are all down so mr chairman what I want to say and to the mayor into administration has only been here three months so we know the challenge they're confronted with we have to come up we better start talking about a contingency plan going into summer because I don't see us getting anywhere near mr chairman the numbers that we need in the division of police you and I and the mayor and I want to thank again for the invitation from the mayor uh you and i attended the swearing-in I think it was on march 7th since that swearing in three officers have already left they were just sworn in they just quit so we're not even treading water mr chairman we're falling behind there are people predicting that we're going to lose more officers before even the next class comes on so we got to figure out what is the game plan are we going to utilize chicago county sheriff's deputies are we going to use the ohio highway patrol but we better start thinking now and we better start talking among ourselves because I can assure you my colleagues mr chairman we at the safety committee we're gonna drill down we're not gonna we're gonna ask these questions every time we meet about what's the game plan to address the growing concerns we have in this neighborhood we all get the brevity reports i look at them faithfully as you all do the violence the stupidity people just shooting people being robbed we're averaging i'm looking at my note one carjacking a day that's obscene that is obscene we've seen just innocent people shot in their cars their homes kids walking down the street so again we have to come up with a contingency plan because we're not going to get to the numbers mr chairman we're not going to get to the numbers called for in the budget at the rate we're going ain't going to happen we got to come up with a better plan of action so i'm here to work with the administration i'm here to work with my colleagues let's start thinking out of the box and start doing it now thank you mr chairman thank you councilman

of time councilman jones thank you thank you mr um president to the mayor to the clerk last week tuesday there was a shooting at mcdonald's in my neighborhood thank god no one got killed that same day we had a car flip over in harvard avenue and by that thursday we had a young 11 year old missing young lady and by friday we had a shootout on east 100 and sixtier street and lotus and over the weekend we had another shootout drive-by shooting rattled up somebody's house who was a victim and they don't know who did it senior citizen and then this week we've had just started on sunday and today i've heard about another shootout in my neighborhood so it hasn't even gotten hot yet and we're having these kinds of situations in our community when it comes to listening to the pastor and I gave her a big round of applause and one of the things she said was this is happening all the time we've made a basic request and this has gone on for two years the problems that we have in our neighborhood as it relates to safety we're at a space of of a critical state of existence and you know we've said here you know as the vice chairman and the chairman we talked about one of the things that is the meat and potatoes of the police department and that is deployment how we put our assets on the street and how efficient and effective those assets are going to be is important and when I looked at my neighborhood for an example ward one we have eight zones so we're cut sliced and diced and on any one given moment in snapshot and time we may not have not one police officer at all in war one and when there's events and issues happening in other parts of the fourth district that will pull those police officers to handle those issues and what i've heard over the years is yeah you have some issues in your neighborhood but it's not as bad as it is over here in these other sections so you know as an elected official going back to a period of time in my neighborhood when we had three zones and those three zones were with police officers who stayed in the neighborhood and they had the manpower to be in our communities we don't have that now and on any given day i'm lucky if i see one police officer in my neighborhood and so when the citizens and you hear gunfire and and I had a meeting we had over 250 people one of the things was you know we will call the police but what's good is calling the police councilman if they don't come we're tired of calling them and to hear that sense of hopelessness out of the citizens is is is a powerful impact and it's a reflection and the lady said it's it's your responsibility it's on us as council members we are a part of the management system that is supposed to deal with these in these these these problems that we have as relates to police deployment and so mr chairman i've submitted a a a plan and i've talked about it to our colleagues about going back to basic patrols in the city of cleveland and my suggestion is and it can work each neighborhood right now if you look at the fourth district they only have two traffic enforcement cars to represent six neighborhoods two traffic enforcement cars representing six communities unacceptable and so I would suggest mr chairman that we have in our neighborhoods respectively all 17 neighborhoods should have two traffic enforcement cars you heard uh mike cox talk about like souling like chagram falls well like souling like chagram falls with similar populations or of maybe a little bit more than us but those neighborhoods I border have these this kind of protection two traffic enforcement one one-man cars and they have two two-man cars in their neighborhoods around the shift when you put that kind of manpower in place on the streets of the city of cleveland it has a profound and powerful impact that would mean 18 people that would stay in that neighborhood around the clock four cars protecting that neighborhood and they never leave and when you times that number it comes to 306 police officers on the street representing all 17 wards around the clock and then if you need to have extra support throw another 300 in there and then that makes it so that you have a fighting force visibility that stays in each and every neighborhood like solon like chagrin falls like garfield we need to have that our citizens deserve to have that mr president and we should offer that to them and every time i go and I talk to the citizens of the city of cleveland and I lay that car plan out before them they're excited about that why don't you implement that plan and even though we're down so many police officers we can still implement that plan with what we have right now and what I would also you know I know the administration is new and our citizens is looking at you they find hope in the new administration and they want this mayor to do to be very successful if this mayor puts that kind of plan out there that's going to have a positive and profound change in the city of cleveland and then mike you will get a ticket if you ride too fast because every single neighborhood is going to have its own traffic enforcement system in play and secondary to to add to the boot of that when it comes to public service this is what we're all about if we just stay here one year in one year out one term in one term out and we're not successful in terms of changing the conditions that impact our citizens then what good are we as elected officials so I appreciate looking at bonnie twyman when the lady had the issue get up go over there and say hey let me try to help you out with this situation our citizens are fed up with not being able to get anything done and they're showing that through getting up and walking away from the city of cleveland and washing their hands and moving somewhere else so let's start anew let's look at this plan it can be implemented every man and woman who is a cleveland police officer with a badge and a gun should not be sitting behind a desk we are at a crisis mode they need to be out in our streets keeping our citizens safe thank you mr president

tonight I just want to stand and rise and speak on the violence in our city i hear we speak about ukraine and we always speak about everybody else neighborhood but we never address the neighborhood issues or the war that's going on in our own city when things go down in our own city we don't stand up and speak about what's right to do so today I want to make sure everybody understand as of since november no since january 1st of this year we have had 47 homicides i don't hear us talking and screaming about what we need to do as far as resources committees conversations and handling those issues but we're going to have the nerve to talk about something that's happening thousands of miles away so as a as an african-american man born and raised in the city cleveland i think we need to stop pretending and let's start calling out the true issues so would I also stand here to address the war that's in ward 5. the resources that's lacking the city of cleveland medium income is thirty thousand we are the poorest major city in the country the medium income in ward five is fifteen thousand in the central neighborhood is ten thousand which represents people possibly only residents working part time let's address the real issues when we turn around and november 13th when arthur keith was killed and shot by cmha police officer I didn't see the safety chair I didn't see the safety director say anything about calling cmha up for a hearing and I stand here right now asking our chair of the safety to bring cmha here to account to the table and give us answers about what happened to arthur key so i'm putting it on record now and I will put it in the email later on tonight because we need something done with our people they need to know why arthur was shot and killed three times in his back and we still don't got no justice so when we all think about what we want to do and how we want to support everyone we need to support our own residents and call out our own mistakes and take ourselves and hold ourselves accountable by our action because this doesn't make sense so I just want to make sure I make a point of reference we can talk about these other issues but we need to address our issue with the authority that we have as a body and making sure we do our job that's all I have to say [Applause]