Live reporting by
Rosie Palfy
Council learns about Ohio gerrymandering petition, organ donation
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Rosie Palfy
@RosiePalfy
Today I will be livetweeting the @CleCityCouncil Caucus meeting for @cledocumenters & @signalcleveland. The meeting starts at noon. It will NOT be livestreamed & the agenda doesn’t list discussion topics. My colleague Karima McCree-Wilson will take notes. #CLEDocumenters #SignalCLE #CLECityCouncil
10:14 AM Mar 25, 2024 CDT
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Citizens Not Politicians is at the monthly Cleveland City Council Caucus meeting to discuss how #gerrymandering impacts elections at the state level.
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My tweets are posting slowly. Anything that I miss, I will add later. Caucus meetings often feel like inside baseball. They’re informal & people don’t always introduce themselves because all of the council members already know who they are.
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@cledocumenters A gentleman is here from @Lifebanc to discuss the importance of organ donation.
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@cledocumenters @Lifebanc This slide shows the organs that can be donated to give the gift of life. #LifeBanc
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@cledocumenters @Lifebanc @Ohio_BMV Jacques Smith shared his story. He is a #LifeBanc board member & a liver recipient. He talked about the challenges he faced as well as his recovery. #OrganDonation
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@cledocumenters @Lifebanc @Ohio_BMV @CleCityCouncil president @Griff4CLE6 says he’s giving 2 important updates. One is about the pending TIF legislation. If the legislation passes today, they are just setting up the tool. He discusses the importance of having a “robust community benefits agreement.”
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@cledocumenters @Lifebanc @Ohio_BMV @CleCityCouncil @Griff4CLE6 “We want to make sure we get the best deal” for #Cleveland, said Council President Blaine Griffin. They are not talking about the “bonding side” today. There is a part B & C to this legislation.
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@cledocumenters @Lifebanc @Ohio_BMV @CleCityCouncil @Griff4CLE6 The next update is about the request from residents for city council to pass a resolution to support a cease fire in Gaza. “This is a very nuanced conflict,” said @Griff4CLE6. He said today the UN Security Council adopted a resolution supporting a cease fire.
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This has been a hot button topic at @CleCityCouncil meetings for months. Public comments have been dominated with concerns about the conflict. Residents have demanded that council members pass a resolution supporting a cease fire. Here’s a story from @signalcleveland explaining the controversy.
signalcleveland.org/cleveland-publ…
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Cleveland City Council President Blaine Griffin said that when Palestinian protestors came to meet with him in December, I told them to wait until the after budget hearings conclude in March. He said he’s been watching this “closely” to see how city council could potentially “align” with the federal government’s actions because he did not wanna be “at odds” with the federal government.
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Griffin said he wanted to make sure council members knew his “strategy” & he wants to hear from them. Now he’s a little more “open” to passing a resolution. But he wants to really understand what the U.N. Security Council did first. He said nothing was planned as of now, but he’s going to make a phone call after the caucus meeting.
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Griffin said he would try to give council members “a heads up” & let them know what's coming up. He wanted to make sure everybody knows that “when it comes to making decisions for this body. All of us are gonna have to do it together.” He’s willing to see what the U.N. Security Council wrote & to see if that's something that city council can be support.
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Finally, Council member Mike Polensek said he was “really troubled about” today’s news release from the @CityofCleveland. He said @MayorBibb indicated that 52 new recruits were starting the #police academy & they will graduate in about 7 & a half months. The release is posted below in its entirety.👇
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Council member Mike Polensek chairs @CleCityCouncil’s safety committee. “We passed a budget calling for the hiring of 181 officers” & council gave @MayorBibb’s administration “everything that they asked for & then some.”
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“Unless they got some tricks up their sleeve,” they aren’t going to hire 181 new @CLEpolice officers this year, said Council member Mike Polensek. His concerns were echoed by Council member Kevin Conwell. Even if the @CityofCleveland hires more #police recruits, they will not hit the streets in 2024 because they will still be in training.
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Council President Griffin said he thought they would have at least 70 police recruits in the new academy class. There’s going to be more attrition in April. Griffin talked about the importance of receiving administration updates during city council’s public safety operational hearings.
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@CleCityCouncil @MayorBibb @CLEpolice @CityofCleveland Griffin said he agreed with Polensek & asked, “What’s the plan?” The Cleveland City Council Caucus meeting adjourned at 1:30 pm.
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@CleCityCouncil @MayorBibb @CLEpolice @CityofCleveland Have questions? Think we got something wrong? Send any inquiries on the meeting or these tweets to @cledocumenters. Or email us at cledocumenters@gmail.com