A 5 minute read on 30+ hours of Cleveland budget hearings

Meeting coverage by Cleveland Documenters | Compiled by Signal Cleveland’s Doug Breehl-Pitorak | Edited by Rachel Dissell and Mary Ellen Huesken

Here’s what happened last week in local public government meetings covered by Cleveland Documenters.

Cleveland Public Meetings Report – The week of Feb. 20

Department of Law
Council kicked things off last Tuesday by discussing the proposed 2023 budget for the Department of Law. The department is requesting $18,623,670. The budget would cover 85 employees. Law Director Mark Griffin named the following priorities and goals for the department:

Griffin also highlighted the department’s litigation successes, including recouping more than $850,000 to date as part of a national lawsuit against prescribers of opiates. In a September 2022 council committee meeting, Director of Public Health Dr. David Margolius discussed opioid addiction in Cleveland. Documenter Kathryn Johnson has more on that meeting.

Council spent half a day digging into the proposed 2023 budget for the Department of Public Works and its divisions, with a budget request of about $89.5 million. Here are a few highlights.

Division of Recreation
Recreation Commissioner Sam Gissentaner discussed the division’s proposed $15,890,854 budget. He highlighted a lingering dip in attendance at Cleveland’s 21 rec centers compared to pre-COVID attendance.

Annual Cleveland rec center admittance, according to a presentation from the Division of Recreation. 

Council members asked about programming at rec centers. He said residents can take programming ideas to their rec centers’ directors and the division. Check this list for rec center contact info.

Jessica Trivisonno, senior strategist for the West Side Market, discussed a proposed 2023 budget of $2,036,069. More than half of the vendors at the market accept federal food assistance benefits from patrons, said Trivisonno, who added that the market is set to turn 111 years old on Nov. 2. The market has a high vacancy rate and is looking to attract more vendors.

She also estimated the market needs $20 million in capital repairs. Ward 15 Council Member Jenny Spencer expressed concern about that amount. “It’s pretty sobering that we’ve already put nearly $16 million into capital improvements thus far, including work underway, and there’s still $20 million more to go for basic stuff, not even upgrades that the public would really even be able to touch, see and feel.”

Community Development
While reviewing the $2,561,665 proposed budget for the Department of Community Development, council drilled down into the city’s Exterior Paint Program. In 2022 Cleveland Documenters reported on the program, which aims to provide residents with vouchers for free paint and supplies to paint the outside of their homes. Only 36 percent of the more than 1,000 approved applicants in 2020 and 2021 finished painting their homes. Residents cited the high costs and the physical demands of painting as challenges to completing the program.

In May 2022, council amended the program to also provide labor in “limited circumstances.” Despite the change, Commissioner of Neighborhood Services Louise Jackson said in the budget hearing that only 78 homes were painted last year, good for about 27 percent of 286 approved applicants.

Maurer criticized the program, budgeted for $521,232 plus any unspent funds from previous years. She also critiqued officials for presenting 78 completed homes as a success.

The department has five painting vendors lined up for 2023, according to Director of Community Development Alyssa Hernandez.

Department of Public Health
Council discussed the roughly $14 million budget proposed for the Department of Public Health in 2023. Here are some topics officials discussed:

Spanish-speaking employees

While reviewing the requested $2 million budget for the Division of Health Equity and Social Justice, Ward 14 Council Member Jasmin Santana asked about the number of bilingual staff members in the division. Commissioner Lita Wills said two bilingual Spanish-speaking employees work in the division, one who coordinates the Office of Mental Health and Addiction Recovery and another who works with MomsFirst.

The Division of Health, asking for about $6 million for 2023, will be using two mobile health units. The division wants to offer reproductive health services and tests for chronic issues such as diabetes and high cholesterol through its mobile units, according to Commissioner Frances Mills. The city has not hired staff for the units yet.

Department of Economic Development
While discussing the proposed $1.9 million budget for the Department of Economic Development, Director Tessa Jackson told council members she had concerns about the city’s use of tax increment financing (TIF).

 

Jackson called TIFs complicated, and she said the incentives the department has provided in the last 15 years – totaling about half a billion dollars and touching four or five wards – have not had the impact on Clevelanders that they should.

“When you look at historic poverty rates, historic unemployment rates, that money really hasn’t moved the bar,” Jackson said. “You can’t spend half a billion dollars on economic development and not move the bar for anybody, for the people in this community.”

For more on Community Development, Public Health, and Economic Development, check out live-tweet threads by Documenters Gennifer Harding-Gosnell and Daniel McLaughlin. Take a closer look with notes by Documenter Sarah Tan. Abbey Marshall has more.

While discussing the Community Relations Board’s roughly $2.4 million proposed budget, Ward 16 Council Member Brian Kazy said he wants the city to take a fresh look at the city’s youth diversion program. He requested the recidivism rate – or the rate at which someone reoffends – of any child who has gone through the program since 2020. Council’s Safety Committee discussed the program with the Community Relations Board at a Feb. 1 meeting. Learn more from Documenter Marvetta Rutherford.

Ward 7 Council Member Stephanie Howse also asked for an update on the Cleveland Commission on Black Women and Girls, which City Council established in June 2022. The city hopes to have an announcement about it in March, Community Relations Board Director Angela Shute-Woodson said.

Curious about other quotable moments from last week’s budget hearings? Signal Cleveland captured some interesting outtakes.

With General Fund budget hearings wrapped up, Documenters are set to cover some regular council meetings next week as well as hearings regarding Community Development Block Grants (CDBG). Not sure what those are? Check out this video from Documenters Jenna Thomas and Jack Brancatelli.