The revolving door of Cleveland Heights mayors took its first spin Tuesday.
After voters overwhelmingly approved a recall of now former Mayor Kahlil Seren in September, Cleveland Heights City Council officially vacated the seat at a special council meeting Wednesday. Council President Tony Cuda was sworn in as interim mayor. Cuda will serve until the term ends Dec. 31.
Earlier this year, a former city employee filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, claiming Seren and his wife, Natalie McDaniel, created a hostile work environment at city hall. The complaint accuses McDaniel of making antisemitic and homophobic comments while acting as a de facto representative of the mayor.
Seren did not attend Wednesday’s meeting.
“Our government hasn’t quite lived up to the greatness of the people of our city and that’s what we want to make sure happens in the next few months and beyond,” Cuda said. “My job is to take something that’s not so great and do the best we can with it.”
Seren fired the city’s law director less than 24 hours before the mayoral swap took place.
“It appeared to be a vindictive, last-minute stunt,” Cuda said. “It’s something we have to look at.”
A termination letter from Seren said law director Bill Hanna failed to take proper action when the city’s clerk of council violated Ohio’s Open Meetings Act.
In the five-page termination letter, Seren also blamed Hanna for escalating accusations against Seren and his wife.
Hanna declined comment.
The city’s Deputy Law Director Christopher Heltzel was appointed as interim law director.
The campaign to recall Seren started shortly after complaints against the political couple became public. Some recall petitioners were concerned Seren would make personnel changes during his limited time in office.
“We anticipated that on his way out of the door that he would do something," said James Bates, a recall petitioner. "What that was, we didn’t know. But obviously, clearly, we now know what that was and it didn’t seem warranted. It didn’t seem justified at all."
Seren also fired the city’s former communications director in June.
In July, Seren attempted to veto the recall effort, but Hanna made a ruling based on the city’s charter that Seren could not make that veto.
Cuda and city council scheduled an executive session meeting for Tuesday evening to discuss personnel matters.
In addition to the workplace complaints, the petition for the recall listed other reasons for the recall effort; high staff turnover and the submission of an incomplete 2025 budget, which the petition said lacked required information for city council to review.
“They can expect us to get very serious about the budget,” Cuda said. “The budget is due Nov. 1 and I’m laser focused on that.”
After being sworn in, Cuda and council appointed Sharon Dumas as interim city administrator, touting Dumas’ budgeting experience. Dumas served as director of finance and chief of staff for the city of Cleveland during former Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson’s tenure.
Councilmember Gail Larson was sworn in as interim council president.
Although he’d been facing a recall effort all summer, Seren attempted to run for reelection but failed to get enough votes to get on September's primary ballot.
Councilmembers Jim Petras and Davida Russell received the most votes in the primary, meaning they'll face each other for mayor in November. One of them will begin serving January 1.
