Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb delivered his state of the city Wednesday and said the city needs to be resilient due to cuts and proposed cuts from the Trump administration and Congress.
Washington is not coming to save us, the mayor said.
Rather than a typical speech, Bibb answered questions first from WKYC’s Russ Mitchell and then from the audience.
He touched on the accomplishments made in his first term and touched on a number of other topics. Bibb said the city will push forward on its plan to develop the lakefront, part of a city on two waterfronts vision. The mayor said the plan will not rely on whether the Browns remain Downtown. He put the chances of the team leaving for a new domed stadium in Brook Park at 50%.
We will talk about the state of the city address on the Friday “Sound of Ideas Reporters Roundtable.”
A group seeking to allow voters to decide whether to end qualified immunity protection for government employees has been thwarted by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost for the last four years.
A court ruling this week allows them, finally, to move forward with efforts to place a ballot issue before voters after the United States Supreme Court ruled against Yost, who sought to block the measure. Qualified immunity now also applies to police officers, and shields them from civil lawsuits for actions on the job unless they are so egregious no officer would believe they were lawful.
Youngstown State University faculty moved this week to repeal Senate Bill 1, the higher education overhaul that would ban faculty strikes, require performance reviews of tenured professors and eliminate most mandatory diversity programming at Ohio's public colleges and universities.
The Cleveland Community Police Commission approved a policy on the use of drones by Cleveland Police, but the drones will remain grounded until the consent decree monitoring team reviews it. Critics have said it gives police too much big brother power to spy on people who exercising their rights and not commit crimes. Police say it's a needed crime fighting tool.
Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles locations will be open a bit longer the next two Saturdays to accommodate any last minute demand for Real IDs. The compliant drivers licenses will be required to board a domestic airline beginning on May 7. It's an enhanced security measure passed in 2005 in response to the 9/11 terror attacks.
Guests:
-Matt Richmond, Criminal Justice Reporter, Ideastream Public Media
-Michelle Jarboe, Reporter, News 5 Cleveland
-Karen Kasler, Statehouse News Bureau Chief, Ohio Public Radio/TV
