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January 31, 2026 |
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Cleveland preps CDC shakeup |
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City Hall is getting ready to stir up the pot of nonprofits, known as community development corporations, that help out with home repairs, small business openings and neighborhood events across town.
Some CDCs, such as University Circle Inc. and Famicos Foundation, are large, with multimillion-dollar budgets. And then there’s Buckeye-Shaker Square Development Corp. which went belly-up after it was embroiled in the corruption case of former City Council Member Ken Johnson.
Mayor Justin Bibb’s administration is searching for a consultant to guide CDCs in a new direction.
According to the city, the “ecosystem” of CDCs is “at its weakest point in a generation,” and many neighborhoods aren’t receiving the services they need. The city wants CDCs to be “lean and resilient,” possibly by sharing staff.
“Uneven, uncertain, and hard to spend funds combined with several years of declining funding have led to staffing instability, misalignment of resources, and lack of clarity of purpose amongst the CDCs,” City Hall said in its request for consultants.
Community development corporations are independent nonprofits. But City Hall has plenty of leverage. The city distributes around $9 million to CDCs each year.
The Bibb administration is working on the effort alongside local foundations and Cleveland City Council, according to the request for consultants. At a recent council caucus meeting, Council President Blaine Griffin said that the CDC ecosystem was “broken.” |
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Budgeters beware |
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Mayor Justin Bibb talks with a city building inspector in 2022. Credit: Nick Castele
Ron O’Leary, a former director of Cleveland’s Building and Housing Department, shared a hard truth with City Council Member Michael Polensek at a caucus meeting this week.
During past city budgeting seasons, when Polensek had asked O’Leary if he had enough money to run his department, O’Leary had said yes. But that wasn’t true.
“I had lied to you,” O’Leary said.
The confession tickled Polensek. “Of course you did,” he said, as others laughed.
O’Leary ran the building department under former Mayor Frank Jackson. He attended Wednesday’s caucus meeting to assist with a presentation on housing trends.
His point was that Cleveland has long underfunded its building inspectors. That has made it harder for the city to cite the owners of dilapidated properties.
“The only way that you get code enforcement done right is to give them the money,” O’Leary said. “And for at least the time that I've been doing code enforcement, since1999, you've been, the city has been starving them.”
Council President Blaine Griffin, another Jackson alumnus, said O’Leary had privately lobbied for more money. But other needs prevailed.
O’Leary’s quip served as a reminder for council members as they prepare for another round of budget hearings in February. Department heads have to defend the budget the mayor has given them, not necessarily the budget they wanted. |
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Technology committee powers down |
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Cleveland has quietly disbanded an internal committee that reviewed the city’s police surveillance technology.
The Technology Assistance Committee met twice in 2024 after The Marshall Project reported that the group hadn’t been meeting.
It was made up of police and public safety officials as well as Community Police Commission members. The committee discussed police security cameras, drones, body cameras, license plate readers, gunshot detection and the FUSUS camera integration system, according to meeting minutes.
Then City Hall dissolved the committee. According to the city's communications chief, Sarah Johnson, the Public Safety Department has built up its own oversight practices for technology.
“These improvements are now embedded in existing oversight, reporting, and engagement processes, ensuring consistent public visibility without the need for a separate advisory body,” Johnson wrote. “This decision reflects a structural change, not a reduction in oversight.”
Piet van Lier, a CPC member, attended one of the advisory committee meetings.
“I think there was a lot of potential there to really provide some oversight,” he told Weekly Chatter.
Without the committee, the other avenues for oversight are City Council’s Safety Committee and the CPC itself, van Lier said. The CPC has been reviewing police orders for cameras and other technology.
“This is one of our priorities,” he said. “It’s going slower than we’d like, but it’s certainly something that we’re focused on.”
— Frank W. Lewis contributed reporting |
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Environmental super PAC shows its cards |
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Conservation Ohio, an environmental super political action committee, disclosed in January that it spent almost $40,000 on the 2025 elections in Cleveland.
The super PAC backed five candidates with digital ads and campaign mailers: Mayor Justin Bibb and City Council contenders Austin Davis, Nikki Hudson, Rebecca Maurer and Juanita Brent.
Results were mixed. Bibb, Davis and Hudson won their races (Hudson was unopposed). Maurer and Brent lost to Richard Starr and Joe Jones, respectively.
The mayor’s candidacy received the most help, around $18,000. Conservation Ohio spent between $4,200 and $6,500 supporting each of the other candidates.
The super PAC is controlled by the Ohio Environmental Council Action Fund, a statewide advocacy group. Conservation Ohio received $100,000 last year from the California-based Green Advocacy Project, led by environmentalist and cell phone company founder Michael Kieschnick.
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Before you go, a correction to last week’s newsletter. We had the wrong date for the candidate filing deadline for the May primary. The correct deadline is Feb. 4. |
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