by Nick Castele
The president of Cleveland City Council says he wants more information while deciding whether to enter into annexation talks with financially troubled East Cleveland.
At a council meeting on the subject yesterday, Council President Kevin Kelley said he wants to hear from municipal finance experts and others while weighing how to proceed.
“We need high-level engineering data that’s going to talk about the infrastructure, it’s going to talk about what it would cost to bring their infrastructure to a reasonable level,” Kelley said. “We’re going to need lawyers to tell us what about their debts, what about their contracts.”
East Cleveland City Council has voted to start merger negotiations, but Cleveland’s council has yet to take it up on the offer.
If Cleveland goes ahead with talks, a 6-member commission would draw-up an annexation agreement. The question would then go to East Cleveland voters. Cleveland Council could either approve the merger itself, or put it on the ballot for voters to approve.
