Finance, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee: General Fund Budget Hearing, Day 3, Morning Session
Cleveland City Council
Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024
9:00 a.m. — 1:00 p.m. EST
601 Lakeside Ave Cleveland, OH 44114 (Directions)
Cleveland City Hall, Mercedes Cotner Room 217 (or watch on YouTube)
It is budget season in Cleveland! We’re going to document it!
We do not expect you to be a budget expert. Honestly, we don’t know many people who are. We want you to lead with your curiosity. Document the process as you see it. Ask questions about what you don’t understand. And of course, follow the money.
NOTE: This assignment is for the morning session of day 3 of General Fund Budget hearings. This assignment is scheduled from 9 a.m. to until council takes a lunch break. Lunch break is expected at noon, but it may come earlier or later.
When council breaks for lunch, please contact the Cleveland Documenters team to let us know at (216) 202-4383 or cledocumenters@gmail.com. That way we can give a heads up to Documenters covering the afternoon session.
Also, be sure to let us know what’s the best way to reach you while on assignment: phone call, text, or email?
Pay: For budget assignments, we treat each session (AM or PM) as a four-hour meeting, even if it runs shorter.
- Minimum pay if watching remotely: $108
- Minimum pay if watching in-person: $144
More pay is added for sessions that run longer than 4 hrs & 15 min.
Documenters covering this should be prepared for the session to last up to four hours. If the session lasts longer than four hours and you cannot continue, let the Documenters team know and note where you leave off in your meetings notes or live-tweet thread.
Live tweeters: Because we are trying to make information from these budget hearings available for residents as quickly as possible, please only accept this assignment if you can live tweet this meeting WHILE the meeting is ongoing.
Notetakers: We know officials cover a lot in these sessions. You’ll have 48 hours to submit budget notes rather than the typical 24 (note: You’ll still receive an automated email to submit assignments within 24 hours).
On the agenda for this meeting: During these hearings, City Council will ask questions of every city department, division, and office regarding their proposed 2024 budgets. When we know which sections are set to be covered in your session, we’ll update this spot and also send you the information, including relevant page numbers in the Mayor’s Estimate.
2024 budget hearing resources:
- The 2024 Mayor’s Estimate. Council members will refer to this document in the meeting. It has all the proposed budget numbers. Note: The original PDF might be easier to navigate. To access it from the Document Cloud link, click or tap the button in the top right corner. Then click or tap “Original Document (PDF).”
- Video: 5 quick tips for navigating the 2024 Mayor’s Estimate document: https://youtu.be/TrHO1kFhfdw
- Cleveland’s budget process: How does it work? (Guide) Note: This is from last year, but the process is the same.
- Review past Documenters’ budget hearing coverage.
Watching remotely?
Find live streams of this meeting:
On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ClevelandCityCouncil/streams
On TV20: http://www.tv20cleveland.com/watch-now/
Attending in person? Be sure to bring a photo ID. There is paid parking connected to City Hall at the Willard Parking Garage, located at 601 Lakeside Ave.
Finance Committee members:
- Blaine Griffin, chair (Ward 6)
- Kerry McCormack, vice chair (Ward 3)
- Kevin Bishop (Ward 2)
- Kevin Conwell (Ward 9)
- Anthony Hairston (Ward 10)
- Brian Kazy (Ward 16)
- Michael Polensek (Ward 18)
- Jasmin Santana (Ward 14)
- Jenny Spencer (Ward 15)
Other council members:
- Joe Jones (Ward 1)
- Deborah Gray (Ward 4)
- Richard Starr (Ward 5)
- Stephanie Howse-Jones (Ward 7)
- Danny Kelly (Ward 11)
- Rebecca Maurer (Ward 12)
- Kris Harsh (Ward 13)
- Charles Slife (Ward 17)
Note: The relevant page numbers in the Mayor’s Estimate will have the names of some administration officials.
For more information go to Cleveland City Council’s website: https://www.clevelandcitycouncil.org.
Check the source website for additional information
Reporting
Edited and summarized by the Cleveland - OH Documenters Team
Council dives into budgets for Health Department divisions, Community Relations Board
Council members question work of city office, discuss resources for Community Relations Board
#CLEdocumenters!
08:01 AM Feb 22, 2024 CST
before lunch:
AFTER lunch:
we do more than tweets, too! Documenters' notes will be available soon at
A couple of early birds are already raring to go
Finance Chief Ahmed Abonamah is at the table with the Council this morning
There are 16 full time division administrative staff budgeted. The total budget for administration in 2024 is $2.5 million
This dept includes programs like Moms First and the city's HIV programs
There was some questions about the mobile unit & bilingual staff.
Spencer said higher contracted services costs was a "theme" with this year's budget, beyond the Div. of Public Health
Conwell asked if they "put in arrears"
"Not in arrears" said Abonamah
Abonamah said he'd have to get back to her with that info
this is the division that handles health inspections & lead poisoning referrals
Originally from Oakland, CA:
Air Quality does some work county-wide. Little discussion here, moving on & wrapping up the Public Health section
He says 6 staff is "woefully inadequate" - back in October he said he wanted there to be at least 2, maybe 4 per ward. He repeated that again today.
Polensek said too many of the groups doing this work are in silos.
- and -
Is community relations even the right entity to take on huge things like violence interruption?
He said you can't hire someone from the west side to work on the east side, you can't hire someone from Glenville to work in Hough.
He echoed Starr's earlier comment about staffing. Hairston says you can't expect full-time results from part-time hiring.
Concerns seemed to be centered on the board not having the resources it needs - and that high-performing staff aren't compensated enough for their work.
15 board members - listed as vacant? - this is the Black Women & Girls Commission:
Abonamah pushed back on that
Griffin said Council's legal advisors would look into it
Harsh asked for a detailed list of the "other contractual" costs ($2.8 million, over half of the office's budget) and says "it's something that's gossiped about"
first section here is the director's office
@cledocumenters @signalcleveland
some Councilmembers' advocacy for the work of the the Community Relations Board -vs- their skepticism of the work of the Office of Prevention, Intervention & Opportunity
Some councilmembers' concerns about contracted services for Community Relations: why isn't there a lot more money here?
Some councilmembers' concerns about contracted services for PIO: where's all this money going?
Agency Information
Cleveland City Council
See meeting notes for details
Cleveland City Council is the legislative branch of the government of the City of Cleveland in Ohio. There are 17 elected Cleveland City Council members representing the 17 wards of the City of Cleveland. Each ward has approximately 25,000 residents. Council Members are elected to serve a four-year term. Council members serve two roles in their duties: to draft and enact legislation for the city of Cleveland and act as ombudsmen for their constituents.
Find meetings streamed at: *online on TV20 at: http://www.tv20cleveland.com/watch-now/
*The meetings are also streamed on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ClevelandCityCouncil/
Documents
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Finance, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee
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Monday, Sept. 23, 2024
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