This summer, Cleveland City Council will consider a number of reforms that could significantly reshape much of city government. A special commission has spent the past 6 months hearing arguments on everything from how civil servants should be hired to whether council should be allowed to go into private executive session. But this charter review commission is about to take on its most controversial and high-profile question: Should the size of city council shrink?
Commission member Anton Farmby says he’s hearing good arguments on both sides.
FARMBY: Cleveland has about 450,000-475,000 residents. The council is 21 people, that’s 21 wards. As compared to Chicago which has 3 million+ people and they have 50.
Farmby and the other 14 charter review members will soon have a concrete plan to discuss. On Thursday, Council President Martin Sweeney will present his proposal to have one representative for every 25,000 residents. At the city’s current population, that would reduce the council from 21 members to 17. While most commission members we talked to are undecided, Phyllis Cleveland is cautious. She’s not only a councilwoman, but also the charter review commission’s chair.
CLEVELAND: My concern is that the people in this city have a strong voice in their local government which they have now.
That is likely to be a hot topic when the public, for the first time, gets to weigh in on this and other issues this evening at Tri-C.