10 unanswered questions about excessive police force and the Justice Dept. report

Two weeks after the Justice Department released its scathing report on the Cleveland police, the city’s debate about excessive force is stuck in low gear.

Mayor Frank Jackson says he disagrees with parts of the Justice report, but he won’t say which. Embattled safety director Michael McGrath calls the report unfair. City council has embarked on a “listening tour,” but hasn’t promised concrete action.

Here are 10 questions that city council, the press and the public ought to demand of the Jackson Administration. An assertive city council should bring up these questions in hearings. If it doesn’t act, it may be up to the public, the press and a few maverick councilpeople to investigate and get answers.


1. The Justice Department report says: “In most of the instances of excessive force we identified, supervisors all the way up the chain of command approved the use of force as appropriate.” Does that mean that McGrath, who was police chief during the federal investigation, signed off on those uses of force as justified?


2. The report gives 16 detailed examples of excessive force. It gives pseudonyms to 15 of the injured citizens, but one man, Edward Henderson, is named, and Cleveland.com has identified three others: Germaine Ware, Gregory Love and Randell Scott, Jr.

In how many of those 16 cases were any officers disciplined? If no one was disciplined, did McGrath, as chief, personally sign off on that decision? Does McGrath defend those uses of force? If so, how?


3. Mayor Jackson told reporters Dec. 11, “If you look at the use of force over time, you will see that it has decreased. You will see that there has been accountability.”

But U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge wrote in her Aug. 25 letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder that “nothing” happened after Justice’s first investigation of the Cleveland police in 2004. “The recommendations were ignored and the abuse of many citizens continued,” Fudge wrote. “A lack of meaningful accountability remained within the Cleveland police department.”

How does Mayor Jackson respond to Fudge’s letter?

Jackson added, “I have confidence” in his past and present chiefs and safety directors “in terms of their attempt to correct behavior that needs to be corrected.”

Does Rep. Fudge agree or disagree with Mayor Jackson?


4. Council president Kevin Kelley, asked at a press conference about protestors’ calls for McGrath to resign, responded, “What would that solve? Where would that get us?”

What is Kelley’s plan to ensure that existing police and safety leaders hold officers to a higher standard on use of force cases than they have in the past?


5. In the New Year’s Eve 2010 death of Rodney Brown after a traffic stop, what does the safety leadership say about why no officers were disciplined?

Why was the officer who said, “So? I don’t give a F—” when Brown said, “I can’t breathe” not disciplined?


6. The next day, New Year’s Day 2011, several police kicked Edward Henderson while he was on the ground by a highway. Henderson went to the hospital with a broken bone near his eye. A police helicopter’s infrared camera caught the incident, but the video does not reveal the officers’ identities. Federal prosecutors launched a grand jury probe that has lasted years but produced no indictments.

The Justice Department says four officers spent time on administrative leave without pay, but were not formally disciplined. None of the 10 or so officers on the scene filled out a use of force report. “To date, no officers have identified any of the officers who used force in this incident, and no officers have been disciplined for failing to report this incident,” the report says.

Does that mean the federal grand jury probe has reached a standstill? Did the officers also stay silent when Cleveland’s internal affairs investigators interviewed them about the incident? If the criminal probe is over, will the officers now be disciplined for covering up others’ excessive force?


7. The Justice Department found that the police Use Of Deadly Force Investigation team and its Internal Affairs Unit both conduct inadequate investigations. Use-of-force investigators even admitted they slanted their reports to favor officers.

What will Mayor Jackson, Safety Director McGrath, and chief Calvin Williams do to reform the two units? Is it possible to effectively reform them if their leadership and personnel stay the same?


8. The city charter promises that a civilian Police Review Board will review citizen complaints about police after an investigation by the Office of Professional Standards. But the 2004 and 2014 Justice reports both found that the Office of Professional Standards is understaffed, moves slowly and does not investigate all the complaints it should. The new report also says the Police Review Board’s reviews are inadequate and lack transparency, and that neither the board or the OPS are reviewing deadly force incidents, as the charter gives them the power to do.

What will the mayor and council do to make the Police Review Board and Office of Professional Standards live up to the charter’s promise? Will it take a new charter amendment?


9. In Tamir Rice’s death, was the dispatcher’s failure to radio that Rice was “a juvenile” and his gun was “probably fake” an isolated mistake, or part of a pattern? How often do dispatchers relay alarming information to patrol officers but leave out important details that might lead them to de-escalate a situation?


10. Will the Cleveland police receive more training on use of force policies? Deescalating confrontations? Recognizing crossfire situations? Scenario-based training, including simulated pursuits? Controlling subjects appropriately? Dealing with the mentally ill?

Fudge elected Congressional Black Caucus chair

Marcia Fudge is moving up on Capitol Hill. The Cleveland congresswoman was elected chair of the Congressional Black Caucus for the next two years, increasing her visibility and maybe her clout.

As head of the caucus, Fudge will become a spokeswoman for black Americans in Congress and across the country. “It automatically gives her a leadership role in Congress,” Louis Stokes, the other Clevelander to have held the position, told the Plain Dealer.

Winning the post is a reversal of fortune for Fudge, who’s been in Congress since 2008. A year ago, she was facing an aggressive primary challenger, state Sen. Nina Turner. But Fudge wasn’t as weak as Turner thought; she announced her reelection campaign with most every big local Democrat united behind her, and Turner backed down.

Fudge sounded like Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson yesterday when she said the Black Caucus focuses on “the least of these,” meaning the needy – though they’re both referring to one of Jesus’ teachings in the Gospel of Matthew. The caucus, which held a job fair in Cleveland this summer as part of its focus on lowering unemployment, is expected to defend Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in the upcoming negotiations on the fiscal cliff.

Speaking for the Black Caucus (which is growing from 40 to 43 members next year) will surely increase Fudge’s visibility, but what about her clout? Seniority matters a lot in Congress, and Fudge doesn’t have much of it. Will the chairmanship give her a shortcut to power, and influence on Cleveland’s behalf? Maybe, Fudge seems to think. “It puts me to some degree in position to talk to the leadership more often,” she told the PD’s Sabrina Eaton.

Links to our past coverage of Marcia Fudge:

-My Most Interesting People interview with her after her election to Congress.

-Mansfield Frazier’s 2010 commentary on her growing role as a player in local Democratic politics.

-Afi-Odelia Scruggs’ profile of Fudge from 2007, when she was mayor of Warrensville Heights.

Vote by mail, starting today

The election starts today. At the Board of Elections office at East 30th and Euclid, the first of 24 voting days between now and Nov. 6 is kicking off with rah-rah ballot hype.

State Sen. Nina Turner held a sleepover outside the elections office so that she could be the first to vote at 8 a.m. sharp. The rally attracted other Democratic politicians, including U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson. Supporters of the Cleveland school levy are marching to the board of elections and casting votes starting at 12:30 p.m.  U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge sent out a press release saying she's voting there at 1 p.m.

Everyone who's working to get out the vote is trying to get it out fast, to bank votes now, so we don't see long lines at the polls on Nov. 6.

Which leads to some good, simple advice about how to make sure you get to vote:

Vote by mail.  

Send in the application for a mail-in ballot.

When the ballot comes, vote at home.  Put it in the mail by Nov. 5 at the latest.  No lines, no waiting.

That's the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections' advice. "The ballot is packed with 3 pages of issues and candidates," warns its recent media advisory. "Voters who cast ballots by mail have extra time to study [them]."

All the hype and controversy about how we're voting this fall, all those claims of "voter suppression," focus on a different way to cast a ballot: in-person early voting at the Board of Elections office in each county.  We have 23 weekdays when we can do that too -- basically every weekday from now to Nov. 2 (except Columbus Day, next Monday). They'll be open until 9 p.m. Oct. 9, and until 7 p.m. Oct. 22-26 and Oct. 29-Nov. 1.

Democrats also want us to be able to vote early and in person on Nov. 3-5, the weekend and Monday before Election Day.  A federal appeals court is going to decide that. (Update, 10/5: It decided -- we can vote at the elections office Nov. 3-5.)

But why do that when you can vote by mail?

You probably already got an application for a ballot sent to you by the Secretary of State, or you will soon. You can also click here for it if you live in Cuyahoga County, or click here if you're anywhere else in Ohio. Just be sure to fill out your application, and then your ballot envelope, carefully.

If you're not registered to vote, register by next Tuesday, Oct. 9.  Or, get down to the Board of Elections this week or next Tuesday.  This is the "golden week" -- as election nerds call it -- when you can register and vote at the same time.

If you moved recently, you can change your address online until next Tuesday.  If you want to check whether your registration in Cuyahoga County is up-to-date, click here.

Four years ago, when Cleveland was recovering from all sorts of screw-ups in how we voted, I wrote a long list of advice for voters on how to protect your vote.  Most of the advice still applies, though Cuyahoga County's elections office is in much better shape today.

This time, my advice is simple.  If you're at all worried about having enough time to vote on Nov. 6, if a line at the polls would screw up your day -- then vote by mail.

Kucinich's future at stake on March 6; state approves new map, single primary

Here's what you need to know about yesterday's compromise on a single primary date, March 6, and a new redistricting map:

• Voters may end Dennis Kucinich's long political career in March. The new map adds a big chunk of Toledo to the ridiculous new lakeshore district linking Toledo and Cleveland. That gives Toledo congresswoman Marcy Kaptur an advantage in a primary against Kucinich.

Now comes the guessing game: what will Dennis' "new direction" be, now that he's faced with a map he opposed? Will he run against Marcia Fudge and Nina Turner? Will he revive the move-to-Seattle talk? My guess is he stays in the lakeshore district and fights -- and he may well lose. (Update, 12/30: He's running in the lakeshore district. And getting very chatty in e-mails to supporters, calling Kaptur his friend and saying he faces a difficult election.)

• The map didn't change much for Fudge, who's off to a fast start against Turner, picking up support from Democrats in Akron. Now Turner has less than three months to build a case against the incumbent. (Update, 12/30: Turner has decided not to run, citing the short time span.)

• Ohio may actually have a say in the Republican presidential nomination. The race is so wide-open, it may still be unresolved by March 6 -- a way more influential date than June 12.

• Cuyahoga County Democrats will pick a new prosecutor the same day as the Kucinich-Kaptur and Fudge-Turner races. Here's Mark Naymik's update on the prosecutor's race, and mine.

• Betty Sutton may have a decent chance to stay in Congress after all. Redistricting threw the Democrat into a November contest with Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci. The new district leans Republican, but Sutton just released a surprising poll that shows her and Renacci tied 45-45. The new map won't change her odds by much.

Update, 12/16: Kucinich sent a message to supporters this morning with no mention of the new map or the congressional race. Sounds like he's hedging his bets. "We have big initiatives we will be unveiling over the next few months -- a national campaign to revitalize our democracy, a new website and toolset to more effectively organize our movement and create change. ... I look forward to doing great things over the next year with this movement."

To read my profile of Kucinich, "The Missionary," click here. To see The Complete Kucinich, an archive of Cleveland Magazine's coverage of Kucinich's career, click here.

What makes Nina Turner so confident?

Nina Turner sees an opportunity. The aggressive, ambitious state senator thinks she can defy the odds against congressional challengers and unseat U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge. Why is she so confident?

Visibility and personality, to start with. Turner gets way more attention than your average state senator. She's become a regular on Ed Shultz's MSNBC show as the Ohio liberal who bashes Gov. Kasich and argues that the swing state is swinging the Democrats' way. Take a look at her feisty call for Kasich to apologize to Ohioans for Issue 2 (at the 1:00 mark).

Political commentator Jason Johnson writes that Turner's "passionate, rough-around-the-edges style" resembles the late Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones' personality more than Fudge's does. That surely sounds like sacrilege to Fudge supporters, who know Fudge was Tubbs Jones' friend, card-playing buddy and anointed successor. But Johnson is on to something. Fudge has a quiet personality for a politician. Compare her MSNBC appearance to Turner's here.

"We are in dire need of leadership with a purpose, and I'm not seeing that," Turner told The Plain Dealer's Henry Gomez. We'll see how well she backs up that argument. But Turner must feel Fudge (right) hasn't been in Congress long enough to acquire an incumbent's usual clout and advantages. With only three years seniority, Fudge isn't the first congressperson local officials turn to when they need help in Washington -- Steve LaTourette is.

Besides, the tentative redistricting map gives Fudge a lot of new territory to cover, from Garfield Heights all the way down the I-77 corridor to Akron. Turner may find it easier to win over voters there, since they haven't voted for Fudge before.

Turner is betting that established politicians in Cleveland and Washington don't have as much clout as they seem. The Cuyahoga County Democrats are sure to endorse the incumbent. So will the old black political network in town -- Arnold Pinkney, George Forbes, etc.

But the local Democrats got beaten badly when they united against county reform two years ago. Almost every black elected official except Turner came out against Issue 6, but about half of black voters supported it. Turner is probably counting on a similar split in the black vote in this campaign. Plenty of Issue 6 supporters, from wealthy businesspeople to civic leaders to maverick Democrats, stand ready to back Turner now because of her risky stance then. Likewise, the infamous race-baiting attack against her for supporting reform could even rebound in her favor. Cleveland voters tend to admire politicians who stand up to bullies.

The case for re-electing Fudge, or betting on her re-election, is simpler and less dramatic. Fudge is the incumbent, she has a bigger political network, her views on the issues fit the district, and Turner hasn't yet made the case for replacing her. Jason Johnson says the Congressional Black Caucus has tried to boost Fudge's visibility lately. They could easily back that up with national fund-raising on her behalf.

But Turner may also be confident because her backup plan is self-evident. She has a safe seat in the state senate -- her term doesn't end until 2014. So if she loses to Fudge but runs a competitive race, she'll still increase her name recognition and her fund-raising base. That could help her take a shot at another higher office in the future. Even by losing, she could win.

Update, 12/5: Fudge announced her re-election campaign today, touting a long list of endorsements from local elected officials, black ministers, and others. An anonymous Fudge supporter serves up a punchy quote to Mike McIntyre for his Tipoff column today: "We're going to beat Nina Turner like she stole something."

12/6: Good PD coverage of Fudge's campaign announcement from Joe Frolik and Henry Gomez. Frolik says Turner faces "very long odds" and that Fudge pledged to run a clean campaign and "disown" (his words) mud-slinging supporters. He offers this diplomatically couched take on Fudge's personality: "If Fudge sometimes comes across as cold or even imperious -- especially in contrast to her gregarious predecessor -- it may be because she's never had to learn to be a good candidate. Now she will."

12/30: Turner has decided not to run against Fudge in the primary, citing the short campaign season now that the vote will be March 6. Her statement leaves open the possibility of running as an independent in November.

Kucinich sounds like he'll stay, run against Kaptur

Looks like the Dennis-to-Seattle buzz was a feint. Here's Dennis Kucinich's reaction to the Republicans' redistricting map:

It is an amazing turn of events that the legislature decided not to dismantle the district I represent.

I have been praying that I could continue to serve my Cleveland-area constituency and it looks like I have a chance.

That is all I could have hoped for.

That's not to say the Republicans have left Kucinich an intact district. He's been thrown into a stretched-on-the-rack monster as thin and ridiculous as the original gerrymander: a piece of Toledo and a piece of Cleveland strung together by a tiny strip of shoreline. I'd call it the Route 2 district, for the lake-hugging highway, except it's so thin that even Route 2 probably slips out of it for a piece. Take a look at it in this pdf.

But Kucinich sees something most people didn't today: the map keeps Kucinich's base together -- Cleveland's West Side and Lakewood.

The new map pits him against Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Toledo, an ally and fellow member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. It's a cruel dare -- will two friends fight for the same unnaturally created congressional seat?

Will Cleveland have to get to know Kaptur, and Toledo Kucinich, in the primary this winter or spring?

The map sets off a lot more drama. Marcia Fudge's district stretches down I-77 to Akron, peeling away enough voters who know her well that state Sen. Nina Turner might have more of a chance if she challenges her. Steve Latourette gets a bigger slice of Cuyahoga County. Betty Sutton is either redistricted out of a job or into an uphill fight against Jim Renacci, who also may end up representing a piece of Cuyahoga County. Meanwhile, the Democrats and Republicans are fighting over whether the primaries will come in March or May.

But the best storyline is surely the latest twist in Kucinich's 40-plus-year relationship with Cleveland. It's not over yet.

To read my profile of Kucinich, "The Missionary," click here. To see The Complete Kucinich, an archive of Cleveland Magazine's coverage of Kucinich's career, click here.

Mason won't run again in 2012

Bill Mason's had enough. Cuyahoga County's prosecutor, targeted by Plain Dealer investigators, shadowed by the question of why he didn't catch the government's corruption, says he won't run for re-election in two years.

Mason revealed his plans yesterday at a taping of WKYC-TV 3's political talk show, "Between the Lines." The full show airs Sunday, but political reporter Tom Beres reported highlights on TV 3's newscast last night.

Mason also told Beres he doesn't believe he's a target of the federal corruption investigation -- and (in a sign that he means it) he hasn't hired a lawyer to address the possibility.

Update, 10/23: The FBI is investigating whether Mason or an aide pressured coroner Frank Miller to hire his ally Pat Coyne, according to the PD. Mason says he welcomes the investigation and did nothing wrong.




The full interview won't come out until Sunday, so we don't know why Mason's moving on after 2012. But this has been the worst year of Mason's 12 years as prosecutor. Think about all the hits he's taken: his treasurer's DUI, the PD report on his staff's political connections, the law professor's op-ed asking why Mason didn't bust Frank Russo and Jimmy Dimora, and now a relentless series of PD investigative pieces about his hiring and contracting.

Mason's decision means even more power shifts are coming in Cleveland politics. One of the Democratic Party's strongest factions is going to weaken, then break up or evolve.

That makes the county executive race even more important. If Ed FitzGerald wins, his political network will become the new force dominating the west and south ends of the county, with Frank Jackson and Marcia Fudge as the counterweight. FitzGerald used to work for Mason, so it'd be interesting to see how much of the Mason network would align with him. If a non-Democrat beats FitzGerald, it's hard to even imagine where political clout in the Democratic Party shifts next.

Mayor Jackson, Rep. Fudge endorse Terri Hamilton Brown for county executive

Here's Terri Hamilton Brown's big break, her chance to step up and compete with Ed FitzGerald: Frank Jackson and Marcia Fudge have endorsed her for county executive.

"We believe Terri Hamilton Brown is the one candidate who understands the complex challenges of our city and its suburbs, especially those suburbs immediately surrounding Cleveland," the mayor and congresswoman said in a joint statement.

What to make of that line, especially since FitzGerald is mayor of Lakewood, a suburb next to Cleveland? Sounds like they're saying FitzGerald's experience is narrow, confined to one town. Brown worked in Mike White's City Hall and ran University Circle and the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority, which owns housing complexes in Cleveland and four suburbs.

Jackson must like Brown's connections to the city. (He also has a personal connection to her: Her husband, Darnell Brown, is Jackson's chief operating officer.) As for Fudge, my hunch is she's turned off by FitzGerald's ambition and not sure his coalition is diverse enough for her liking.

"I think we should avoid a person who’s trying to just do this as stepping stone to someplace else," she told me a few weeks ago when I asked her about the race, which sounded like a dig at FitzGerald's rapid political rise. The executive, she added, should be "someone who has some experience in running large organizations" and "a person who can garner the respect of all the groups in this community."

That's echoed in Jackson and Fudge's statement today:

She is highly qualified, has the right temperament and reflects the experience and educational credentials to lead our county. If we are to rejuvenate the economy and streamline our county government, we must elect Terri Hamilton Brown as County Executive...

Of all the candidates, we believe Terri Hamilton Brown is the only one who can work with the many small businesses, governments, educational institutions, corporations and other partners in the economic and cultural mosaic of Cuyahoga County.

Did you note the "must," the "only one"? Pretty striking for a Democratic primary endorsement. They could've said she was "the best" candidate and hedged their bets in case FitzGerald makes it to the general election. Instead, it sounds like they're all in for Brown.

Jackson and Fudge "could be the king or queen-maker if they banded together, and worked very hard," a political observer told me several weeks ago, "but I’m not seeing it." Now they've made their move. But some endorsements are backed with more firepower and drive than others. So the question now is, how hard will they work for Brown?

(To read about my June interview with Brown, click here.)

Washington Post blasts Fudge's bill to curb ethics office

Here in Cleveland, we think of U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge as the successor to Stephanie Tubbs Jones, leader of Northeast Ohio's black Democrats, a political power broker. Looks like she's in danger of developing a different reputation in Washington -- as a congressperson who wants to weaken a new ethics law.

Fudge introduced a bill this week to limit the powers of the two-year-old Office of Congressional Ethics. Her intention, she says, is to keep ethics investigations from becoming political attacks. But good-government groups and the Washington Post editorial page disagree. They point out that Fudge's chief of staff, Dawn Kelley Mobley, was admonished by the House Ethics Committee for her role in setting up a Caribbean junket for some members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Four of those congresspeople are co-sponsoring Fudge's bill.

The Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call summarizes her bill this way: "The House ethics committee could gain unilateral power to bury investigative reports authored by the Office of Congressional Ethics."

Today's Post editorial, entitled "Fudge Factor" in the print edition, says Fudge's proposal "would essentially neuter the ethics board, making it more difficult for OCE to launch investigations and inform the public of its findings." It concludes:

That Ms. Fudge and friends fear [the office's] power to launch an investigation says less about the new ethics office than it does about the sponsors of this misguided resolution.

Brown, Fudge push Stuart Garson as Democratic chair

Cuyahoga County Democrats have figured out who'll succeed Jimmy Dimora as party chairman, says the Plain Dealer's Mark Naymik. And it's not one of the usual suspects. It's Stuart Garson, former campaign treasurer for Sherrod Brown.

Garson has lined up support from Brown, Marcia Fudge, and Bill Mason, Naymik reports in his column today -- nearly enough to clinch the job before the party's June 16 vote.

This tells us a lot about where the local Democratic party is going. Now that the Dimora and Frank Russo era is over, Brown and Fudge are stepping into the vacuum, getting involved at the grassroots, nudging rank-and-file Democrats toward new names and strategies. They've lined up Mason's support in the party chairman contest, but they're not deferring to him. That's a sign that Mason's political network will remain a factor in Democratic politics, but not dominate it.

Here's another sign: Tom Day's name didn't come up in Naymik's column at all. Last year, the Bedford Municipal Court clerk was considered the insider choice for party chair. He counted both Dimora and Mason as allies -- which, in the old party politics, was more than enough to make him a front-runner. But handing the party chairmanship to a prominent figure in the Mason machine was not what Brown and Fudge had in mind.

Issue 5 vs. 6: the reform duel gets nasty

It's 26 days before Cuyahoga County chooses among the dueling reform plans, and the fight has gotten nasty.

The huge Plain Dealer headline today started the brawl: "Issue 5 supporters call on Mason to return donations." Bill Mason, Issue 6 co-architect and the only county official whose job wouldn't be wiped out by his ballot proposal, got $102,000 in contributions from his own employees over the last five years.

The Issue 5 people want him to return it all. They're also arguing that 6 should be shot down because it doesn't include campaign finance reform that makes it illegal for county officials to get employee donations.

"He's put together a plan that essentially fosters corruption," Issue 5 spokesman Brian Wright tells the PD.

False: it only leaves the same campaign finance rules in place. {Update, 11/1: I originally wrote that we don't know if we'll get campaign finance reform if 5 passes either. Still technically correct, but most of the pro-5 Real Reform Done Right charter commission slate has since said they'd include it in a new charter.}

But the 5 supporters' attack is shrewd. It puts the spotlight on Mason, an aspiring reformer, yet someone known for embracing some old-school political tactics.

Mason fought back. He asked whether Issue 5 supporters Jim Rokakis, Peter Lawson Jones, Frank Jackson and Marcia Fudge will return their donations from employees.

Oops: Rokakis doesn't take any. Fudge can't, by law, and didn't when she was a mayor -- she fired off a press release saying so this afternoon. {Update, 10/9: The PD's story says Jackson got only $150 from city employees last year. Jones has taken $13,000 from county workers in two years. "You have to balance employees' First Amendment rights with not putting them in a position where they feel pressured to give," Jones says.}

An hour ago, the 6 campaign struck back, with Martin Zanotti, Joe Cimperman, and Nina Turner all offering scathing quotes. Since it's not online, I'll paste it below.

By "lie and smears," I'm guessing Zanotti means the false argument I mentioned above, though Mason's employees' (legal) contributions are a matter of record.

Also, I picked up a flyer today from an Issue 5 supporter. That's the front side of it at the top of this post. Here's the other side:



It's intended for union members -- hence its claim that Issue 6 is the "big business/Republican reform plan," though the 6 effort also includes many prominent Democrats. Also, it's funny how it uses a Plain Dealer quote to make 6 sound bad -- when the paper's editorial page is very pro-6.

Dueling reforms? This is no gentlemanly contest: it's a bare-fisted brawl.

==
Press release from Issue 6 campaign:
--
County politicians will say anything to stop real reform

Blasting back against the rank hypocrisy and unfounded slurs against County Prosecutor and Issue 6 co-chair Bill Mason, other Issue 6 co-chairs called on Issue 5 supporters to admit their role in causing the crisis that makes real county reform a necessity.

“The lie and smears coming from the Issue 5 campaign are really stunning, and the voters of Cuyahoga County aren’t going to buy what they’re selling,” said Parma Hts. Mayor and Issue 6 co-chair Marty Zanotti. “Why are they going after County Prosecutor Mason? It’s simple: because he’s actually standing up for real reform. Why didn’t they ask for donation returns from themselves? Dimora, Russo, Hagan, and Jones are the reason we need reform in the first place.”

“We’ve seen this all before,” continued Zanotti. “Reform has been debated and killed for decades in this county. Entrenched political interests refuse to give up their fiefdoms. This flailing by the Issue 5 campaign is just meant to confuse voters, just like Issue 5 itself is meant to confuse voters. When they are really scared, they start with the personal attacks, as we’ve now seen with their attempts to discredit Prosecutor Mason. He’s tough enough to stand up to them, and county voters are smart enough not to fall for their lies and tricks.”

Cleveland City Councilman and Issue 6 co-chair Joe Cimperman said, “Issue 6 means real reform, real checks and balances, and a real chance to turn our county around. Our opponents are trying everything they can to derail real reform. More than 50,000 signed a petition to put Issue 6 on the ballot. We won’t rest until county residents know that that the way to real reform is No on 5, Yes on 6.”

State Senator and Issue 6 co-chair Nina Turner said, “Don’t be fooled: this is the last gasp of a dying political cabal clinging to its final breath. It won’t work. Cuyahoga County residents are sick of the crime, corruption, and cronyism of the past. We all deserve better, and we aim to get it with Issue 6. This is our golden hour – the point where we have a real chance to enact change in this county. We need to take advantage of this chance and pass Issue 6.”

Poll shows support* for reform

*Kind of.


Check out the Plain Dealer front page today and you'll see a sidebar with some eye-popping poll results. It says 75 percent of Cuyahoga County voters would definitely or probably vote to approve a new charter for county government.

That convinced the Greater Cleveland Partnership, which hired the pollster, to support the county charter petition drive with $100,000.

But I can see at least three reasons to attach big asterisks to the results.

The first reason is right in the 2nd paragraph of the story:

"Slightly more than half of the 400 people surveyed... said they favor the Go Cuyahoga reform plan. The approval rate jumped to 75 percent after respondents were asked seven questions that outlined the plan's goals."

The "slightly more than half" number is the one I'd trust. Polls commonly start with a neutral question, then ask leading, one-sided questions to see if they change people's minds. It's a way of testing possible campaign messages.

But during an election, the other side will counter with its own message. Fund-raising will determine which message voters hear more often.

So imagine how that "slightly more than half" figure would decline if another poll used just one of the common arguments against the reform plan: "Opponents say the new county charter would concentrate too much power in the hands of one person, who would appoint almost all other officials in the government. Now how would you vote?"

(The proposed charter would replace the current county government with a county executive and 11-person county council. Here is the proposal as a Word document.)

Another reason for skepticism: only 13 percent of those surveyed were black, even though Cuyahoga County is 29 percent black. Attracting black voters is one of the reformers' biggest challenges, since most black political leaders in town, including U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge and Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, oppose a charter.

Brent Larkin, who's read the poll, reported in his Sunday column, "Among black voters, results differed only slightly from the total numbers." But the reformers will have to work hard to hold onto black voters' support if Jackson and Fudge hit the airwaves to urge a no vote.

Finally, getting on the ballot can be as hard as winning on Election Day. Go Cuyahoga has until Monday to get 45,458 signatures. (If some of those signatures are ruled invalid, they would have a chance to collect more.) Parma Heights Mayor and Go Cuyahoga leader Martin Zanotti says he's confident the petition drive will succeed. But a similar county charter effort in 2004 turned in 74,000 signatures -- yet so many were invalidated, it fell 153 signatures short of making the ballot.

Republican chair: Dimora, Klaiber should resign

Rob Frost, chairman of the Cuyahoga County Republicans, is calling for commissioner Jimmy Dimora and engineer Robert Klaiber to resign. Here is the party's press release.

Frost asks citizens to call commissioners Tim Hagan and Peter Lawson Jones, U.S. Reps. Dennis Kucinich and Marcia Fudge, Gov. Ted Strickland, and Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, and demand that they call for Dimora and Klaiber's resignations.

The call for Klaiber to resign is interesting. The engineer has not been implicated in the corruption scandal. However, his former chief of staff, Kevin Payne, and former employee J. Kevin Kelley, were among those charged with bribery Friday. Klaiber held a wrenching press conference Monday. "I had trust and confidence in these people and that trust was, ultimately, betrayed," he said then. Klaiber announced he would not seek re-election in 2012.

Frost says Klaiber's press conference showed that "he has, at a minimum, failed as an administrator and manager and is not fit to continue as our County Engineer." He calls on citizens to attend tomorrow's 10 a.m. county commission meeting and call for Dimora's resignation.

Fudge, Jackson, Kucinich oppose county reform effort

U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge has just released a statement opposing a local reform group's new county charter proposal. Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich have signed Fudge's statement, along with 5 state legislators, 11 suburban mayors, some black ministers and a labor leader.

Here is a link to their press release.

The signers say they support changing county government's structure in the future, but they argue that the proposed county executive and council system would result in "a concentration and dramatic increase in executive power." They also say it would decrease public oversight -- an argument they don't explain. Most of all, they say the effort to draft the charter wasn't inclusive enough.

This is an interesting position for Fudge to take. She pushed to include more people in the discussions about a charter. For a while it seemed like she was supportive of the reform effort. Now she and a lot of other public officials have formed an opposition to the charter petition drive before it even launches.

Fudge to reform group: Write the charter already!

I just got this press release from U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge's office. It means two things:

-Fudge still supports county reform, even though her friend, county recorder Lillian Greene, claims it won't benefit black voters.

-The reformers are running out of time to get a county charter on this year's ballot -- they only have until July 13 to launch a petition drive and turn in signatures. So Fudge wants them to quit arguing about what powers a county executive should have, or how to draw lines for county council districts, and propose a charter already!

Reform deadline: July 13

July 13 is the deadline for reformers to petition for a new county government, the Board of Elections tells me. That's only 6 1/2 weeks to write a charter, circulate petitions with the proposed charter attached, and get 45,458 Cuyahoga County residents to sign.

If they can do it, they'll get the proposed charter on the November 3 ballot. Otherwise, they'll have to wait until next year.

Forty-seven days is not much time at all. Martin Zanotti, Marcia Fudge, Bill Mason, and everyone else involved need to make some decisions fast, or aim for a vote in 2010.

Their other option is to get Sen. Tim Grendell or another interested legislator to put their proposal into a bill and pass it before the legislature's summer break. Then they wouldn't need petition signatures, just support in the House and Senate. But they only have about a month to do that.

Reform is still alive, but the clock is ticking

We still might get to vote on creating a new Cuyahoga County government this year. But time is running short.

U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge convened a meeting last Monday to talk about how to reform county government, the Plain Dealer reports. She's joined forces with Parma Heights Mayor Martin Zanotti and other suburban mayors who've been talking about the idea for months. Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson is also involved in the talks, and prosecutor Bill Mason seems to be too.

If the group can agree on a new form of government, they'll draft a charter for the county. If they want to put their proposal on the November 3 ballot, they have until July to get 46,000 petition signatures.

This new coalition solves the reform effort's biggest problem. To put it bluntly, the leading reformers were all white, and they hadn't tried to get black support. (They had talked about the need to reach out to black voters and political leaders, but they hadn't actually done it.) Fudge called them out on that this spring.

Now, they have a new problem: time. A month or two is not a lot when you have to draft a charter, organize a petition drive, and get 46,000 people to sign.

I cannot figure out the exact deadline. A petition for a county charter has to be certified by the board of elections 95 days before the vote, according to the Ohio Constitution. That's July 31. But how long does it take to certify a petition that big? The board of elections hasn't dealt with a county charter proposal before. They're getting back to me on Tuesday.

Politics headlines: McFaul, Fudge, Harris and Coats

Behind that King James front page, today's Plain Dealer has lots of good politics stories:

Gerald McFaul faces down Mark Puente for the first time since the reporter's many exposés knocked McFaul out of the sheriff's office. "I have nothing to say," McFaul said to Puente. "You got it all wrong." McFaul also had nothing to say yesterday in testimony in a lawsuit filed by two deputies. He repeatedly took the Fifth.

U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge got together with Mayor Frank Jackson, Dennis Kucinich, and about 20 local elected officials to say that would-be county reformers need to create their reform plans in public instead of closed-door meetings. The subtext of her speech: the reformers all talk about the need to reach out to black political leaders to make reform happen -- but they haven't actually done that.

Mark Naymik rips Fudge for not working harder for Clayton Harris in the sheriff's race. Naymik noticed what I noticed about the Democrats' Saturday vote to name a new sheriff: it went mostly along racial lines. Naymik, taking the power of racial solidarity in Cleveland politics for granted, focuses on the low turnout at the Democratic party's vote and asks why Fudge and other black politicians didn't have a better get-out-the-vote effort for Harris. "The county's black leaders proved to be the real losers," Naymik wrote. (Update: Cleveland.com took a while to post Naymik's column, but it's up now.)

Phillip Morris gives Roosevelt Coats the boot in his column today. He seconds the motion of Powell Caesar, editorial writer for Don King's Call and Post, that the ex-city councilman not be allowed to switch seats with Eugene Miller and go to the state legislature. "Councilman Coats needs to go quietly into the good night," read the Call & Post headline. (The editorial isn't online. Too bad!) "Clean, ineffectual incompetence can only take you so far," says Morris. This can't be what Coats had in mind when he asked in his farewell statement, "How do you measure the work of 21 years?" Henry Gomez, who covers Coats' departure on his City Hall blog, is also not overwhelmed.

And of course, the PD covers Tim Hagan and Frank Jackson's announcement of the convention center deal. Hagan told the press conference that Positively Cleveland, the convention and visitor's bureau, will survive and remain "positively important." However, he didn't guarantee its budget would remain intact. There's been some talk that some of its taxpayer funding would be used as a second stream of revenue for the Medical Mart.

Rep. Fudge: Let Americans travel to Cuba

Last weekend, on WVIZ's Feagler & Friends, I got to debate U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge's trip to Cuba. She went to Havana as part of a Congressional Black Caucus delegation and said U.S.-Cuba relations ought to improve.

Most of the commentary I've read about this trip had an old-time Cold War feel to it: The Black Caucus is soft on Commies! -- that kind of thing. But this week, Raul Castro, Hillary Clinton and President Obama all said they want to start a new era of serious talks and better relations. Now, Cleveland's newest congressperson looks like she was ahead of the curve.

Yes, I agree our representatives should bring up human rights and political prisoners when they visit undemocratic countries. Yes, smoking a cigar with Cuban president Raul Castro seems kind of decadent (unless you think of it as a peace pipe).

But let's not just criticize the theatrics of the visit. Fudge brings up a serious issue (check out her letter to the Plain Dealer): She's co-sponsored a bill to repeal the law that makes it illegal for most Americans to travel to Cuba.

Because Cuba is a neighbor, 90 miles from Florida, and a Cold-War flashpoint that made both the right and the left froth at the mouth, and because anti-Castro Cuban exiles form a voting bloc in a swing state, Americans live with a double standard: we can travel to Communist China and Communist Vietnam, but we can't spend a dime in Communist Cuba.

"Open or free travel encourages the free exchange of ideas, which has been known to silently tear down walls, both literally and figuratively," Fudge said in a a statement last week.

Here's Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times arguing for lifting the travel ban, an article from Foreign Policy that says we shouldn't, and Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post, who's reported from Cuba 10 times, saying we should lift the ban but not trust Cuba.

What's it like to visit Cuba? Here's a vivid story Jesse Tinsley wrote about Havana for the Plain Dealer last year.

Feagler's friend

I'll be on WVIZ's Feagler & Friends this weekend, talking about the Medical Mart deal, Rep. Marcia Fudge's trip to Cuba, and the president's trip to Europe.

Dick Feagler's other guests are Plain Dealer politics reporter Mark Naymik and freelance radio reporter Greg Saber.

It airs at 8:30 p.m. tonight and 11:30 a.m. Sunday.