Cleveland mayor-elect Justin Bibb announced his transition team this week. Managing the transition will be Bibb-campaign veterans, Bradford Davy with the Fund for Our Economic Future and Jessica Trivisonno with Northwest Neighborhoods Community Development. She also helped drive the effort to add public comment to city council meetings. Joining them will be six additional transition co-chairs. Bibb says the group is diverse and dynamic. Bibb takes office on January 3.
Mayor-elect Bibb is just the latest generational change in leadership in Cleveland in the last two years. This week the Gund Foundation announced Anthony Richardson will succeed David Abbott as president. Abbott has led the foundation for two-decades.
In February, the Greater Cleveland Partnership named Baiju Shah as its new president and CEO—taking the reins from Joe Roman. Bethia Burke took over the Fund for Our Economic Future in March 2020 succeeding Brad Whitehead. And the United Way of Greater Cleveland will be looking for its next leader. Current President and CEO August Napoli will retire in 2022.
Cuyahoga County Council on Tuesday approved the funding for its share of the Progressive Field renovation deal which will also extend the lease of the Guardians in Cleveland until at least 2036. The price tag for the deal is $202.5 million with funding coming from the county, city and state.
Cuyahoga County council, by a 9 to 1 vote, approved spending $9 million annually for field renovations and repairs in addition to a one-time payment of $11.6 million.
An Ohio House committee advanced a bill this week that would increase the charges and penalties for protestors. Supporters of House Bill 109, also known as the Ohio Law and Order Act” say it provides protection to law enforcement officers and demonstrators alike. But opponents contend the bill is too hard and violates the First Amendment.
The bill would increase penalties for protesters convicted for disorderly charges such as blocking a street or if a police officer is injured as a result of a protestor’s action. The bill also allows injured officers to file suit as a result of their injuries.
The bill is the result of protests held in the wake of George Floyd’s death in 2020.
Another bill passed out of committee and moving toward a full Ohio House vote would enable teachers and school personnel to carry guns on school grounds---without completing peace officer training.
The bill would enable teachers to carry guns at school once they completed a 20-hour training course. By comparison a peace officer training course requires more than 600 hours of training.
In June, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in a case out of Butler County that current law allows school personnel to be armed only after completing the more rigorous peace officer course or if the school employee had 20 years of peace officer experience.
That case overturned a Butler County school district policy arming teachers—enacted after a 2016 school shooting.
The Ohio Supreme Court will decide whether Governor Mike DeWine had the authority to end early a federal program that provided $300 per week in pandemic assistance to unemployed Ohioans.
The program lasted through Labor Day, but the governor ended in June saying it was preventing people from returning to work and impacting Ohio’s businesses.
Over the last few weeks, the surge of cases brought on by the Delta variant of the coronavirus has been subsiding. But now there are a few indicators that cases and hospitalization may be inching up again.
This week the Ohio Department of Health put the state’s rate of infection at 410 cases per 100-thousand people. Last week the number was 354 cases per 100-thousand. Also yesterday’s daily case number from the Ohio Department of Health was above the 21-day average.
The joint committee on Ohio Congressional Redistricting will hold its second meeting today—but it is not clear if the committee will do much more than that.
Governor DeWine signed into law this week a revamped fireworks law that allows Ohioans to legally set off consumer-grade fireworks in the state on the Fourth of July and several other holidays throughout the year.
The bill also allows fireworks merchants to increase their showroom size as well.
Glenn Forbes, Host-Producer, Ideastream Public Media
Gabriel Kramer, Multiple Media Producer, Ideastream Public Media
Karen Kasler, Statehouse News Bureau Chief, Ohio Public Radio/TV
