Peter Lawson Jones Says Goodbye To Commissioners' Office: Cleveland Area Black Elected Officials Comment On His Leaving And On Issue 6, County Reform
Outgoing Cuyahoga County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones
Ohio Congresswoman Marcia Fudge (D-11)
Ohio State Representative Barbara Boyd (D-9)
Outgoing Cuyahoga County Recorder Lillian Greene
Cuyahoga County Executive-Elect Ed FitzGerald
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason
Cleveland Ward 6 Precinct Committeeman John A. Boyd
By Kathy Wray Coleman, Publisher Editor-n-Chief, Cleveland Urban News.Com (www.clevelandurbannews.com)
CLEVELAND, Ohio-Peter Lawson Jones, a Cuyahoga County commissioner and one of only two Blacks aside from the judges that held county office prior to Issue 6, said goodbye on Friday to his seat on the three-member Cuyahoga County Board of Commissioners, and to politics as well. But before departing, the outgoing commissioner took the time to speak on his political tenure and about Issue 6 in an exclusive interview with Cleveland Urban News.Com.
“I will focus on developing a father initiative program on the national level, theater and consulting,” said the Democrat Jones, who runs the model program for Cuyahoga County, one geared toward enhancing the relationships of fathers in the family structure where data show that two out of three Black families in America do not have an active father.
Black leaders said Jones' absence from the political forum will be felt.
"I have known Peter Lawson Jones for most of my life and he always displays a high degree of intellect and concern for the people as would we expect from our elected officials, “said U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-11), who represents parts of Cleveland and its eastern suburbs. “He will be missed."
Pursuant to a voter approved charter amendment Jones' job and that of a host of other elected county officials, all Democrats, were up in an elective capacity as of Friday as a new form of county government dubbed “Issue 6”swept Cuyahoga County, Ohio's largest, with a population that is roughly 23 percent Black and includes residents of the predominantly Black City of Cleveland. That new form of government, that still has some Black leaders angry and fretting, is a county executive and 11-member County Council composed of eight Democrats and three Republicans that voters elected in November to take office in January to take the place of the county commissioners, which voters scrapped altogether.
And together, the executive and County Council shall make the decisions made previously by the commissioners and shall appoint people, either directly or through consolidation, to the elected jobs held until Friday by the voter ousted elected officials of county auditor, sheriff, coroner, treasurer, clerk of courts, engineer, and recorder.
Once on the unsuccessful Democratic ticket as the Lt. Gov. running mate for then Governor’s candidate and now outgoing Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, and a former vice mayor of Shaker Hts. and Ohio State Rep. , Jones said that he is swapping politics for a stint this month as a homeless man in the ABC crime series Detroit 1-8-7.
He also said that it gives him more time with his wife Lisa and their three children,.one a college graduate who works for the Cleveland Cavaliers, another currently attending college, and the third, a Shaker Hts. schools student. And he did not stutter when he said that after 22 years of public service, he is giving it all up.
“No,” said Jones to the question of whether he will run for public office again. And he still has a bad taste in his mouth about the voter adopted county reform Issue 6 that snatched his job as commissioner, and prematurely.
“It destroys the balance of power and weakens the political potency of the African-American community,” said the Harvard trained attorney of Issue 6, which voters adopted overwhelmingly by trouncing Issue 5, a competing ballot measure supported by Cleveland's Black leadership that Jones and outgoing county Commissioner Tim Hagan introduced. Had it passed, Issue 5 called for a voter approved committee to study the issues and make community recommendations for modes of comprehensive county reform.
That impotency of the Black community becomes weakened in having switched from elected commissioners, a sheriff, recorder and others to a county executive and County Council, says Jones, because no Black has any independent power as he did to some degree as a commissioner and as did outgoing Cuyahoga County Recorder Lillian Greene, the other Black who lost her job on Friday because of Issue 6.
A retired judge prior to becoming the county's recorder, the gutsy Greene, who replaced Patrick O'Malley when he resigned and did a short prison stint for violating federal pornography laws through computer downloads, unsuccessfully sued over Issue 6.
And though a judge said no, Greene had argued in the suit, among other claims, that since some of their elected terms were not up, including hers, Issue 6 could not be fully implemented as of ousting all of them on Friday. And though her claims were denied, it was tide of discontent, or what local mainstream media perpetuated as disarray, that helped to catapult Issue 6 into fruition and Jones and Greene out of their jobs.
"Instead of taking time to study county reform," said Jones, "voters changed the form of government through Issue 6 to a single county executive that, by virtue of the new county charter amendment, overpowers a recently elected 11-member County Council that has four Blacks." And when the new County Council officially takes office this month, added Jones, its members must make decisions by majority vote in a subordinate fashion to Ed FitzGerald, 42, the Democrat that beat Republican nominee Matt Dolan for the $175 thousand a year county executive job.
How Issue 6 passed so easily and with 66 percent of the vote when staunch opposition came from the Cleveland branch NAACP, Fudge, the Call and Post Newspaper, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and every other elected Black official of consequence but State Sen Nina Turner (D-25), is puzzling. And Turner took heat and all out hell behind it as the Call and Post made national news by branding her a poster child for White supremacy and putting her in an aunt jemima suit in an editorial chastising the law maker for backing Issue 6.
Still, voters were guided by the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper, which dominated its headlines with article after article on county corruption by elected officials and others. And, said Jones of the Plain Dealer's coverage, Democrats were being subject to undue attack in a partisan fashion.
"The Plain Dealer would not print anything that was going on good in the county at that time like the father initiative program, " said Jones.
Regardless of the extent of Issue 6s' perceived baggage, or its advantage for lack of a better term, one thing is clear. The fallout is not over and the anger amongst some of greater Cleveland's Black elected officials still lingers, and lingers.
“They handed control of the county to one White man," said Black Women's Political Political Action Committee President and State Rep. Barbara Boyd (D-9) of Issue 6 and the election of FitzGerald. “Blacks are still in the minority and the way they drew the lines for districts for the 11-member County Council disenfranchises the Black community."
Boyd said that Issue 6 was derived through backroom deals that excluded Black leaders. She cautioned that the 11 county districts will be redrawn in the future and that the four Blacks elected to the 11-member County Council in November to take office in Jan. might be out of a job later on. And that perspective becomes even more vivid as controversial U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-10) fights for his political life as Republicans prepare to oust him in redrawing congressional districts and eliminating two House congressional seats in Ohio as a result of the 2010 national census.
"The new County Council was crafted by Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason to marginalize Black power and to enhance White folks,” said John Boyd, a Cleveland Ward 6 Precinct Committee person and unsuccessful candidate for the District 8 County Council seat won by Pernel Jones.
Fudge, who was a vocal opponent of Issue 6, was not as harsh.
"I did not support Issue 6 and now that the people have spoken we need to wait to see how it plays out," said Fudge “It it is my hope it works, so the county can move forward. Only time will tell."
One of the county's most powerful Democrats until FBI agents came snooping for his political friends, Mason said in a previous interview that Issue 6 is universal and benefits all. He did not return phone calls seeking comment.
An elected area Black official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that he has changed his mind and now supports Issue 6.
"We did something wrong if voters voted overwhelmingly to change the county's form of government through Issue 6,” he said. "I am glad that the community can raise issues before the County Council on matters previously that they had nobody to go to because the person they were complaining about was the elected official.”
The county's governmental restructuring comes as the Democratic Party has become fractured with infighting as the ongoing corruption probe has netted more than 35 guilty pleas from county affiliates and a potential 21-year prison term for recently resigned county auditor Frank Russo on corruption related charges. Among those impacted was long time sheriff Gerald McFaul, who resigned before pleading guilty to corruption related charges last year and securing a sentence of house arrest and restitution.
And, disgraced Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora, out like Jones as a county commissioner on Friday due to Issue 6, is among Democrats targeted by the FBI. He is awaiting trial and facing some 28 corruption related charges stemming from a raid on his and Russo's homes and offices two years ago by the IRS and FBI.
Barbara Boyd admits that Jones' style and his ivy league background sometimes catches Blacks off guard, the ones that want him to at times "act more Black.". The Shaker Hts resident angered grassroots factions a decade or more ago when he voted as a member of the Shaker Hts City Council in favor of barricades that separate some of its streets to Cleveland's streets in predominantly Black Ward 1 after Shaker Hts residents complained of automobiles speeding through the neighborhood.
“Some people would say, oh he went to Harvard, but I think his Harvard background is a plus,” said Barbara Boyd, who is no relation to John Boyd.
Barbara Boyd said that Jones, who has not been legally implicated relative to the corruption probe, is a "casualty of war.” Jones, himself, agrees.
“I had no swimming pool additions or home improvements,” said Jones, referencing charges that Dimora is facing and those that Russo pleaded guilty to last month.
Like him or not Jones has made a dent in the political landscape of Cuyahoga County and he has been there for Blacks, whether perceived as enough or not enough.
He pushed for fair changes in public policies including legislation against racial profiling as a State Rep., voted against higher taxes as a county commissioner and was on board early on in support of now U.S. President Barack Obama. And, say community members, Jones could be counted on for Black funerals and awards banquets, and a fund raising event just months ago to keep a library going for poor Black children in Outwaite Homes, a Cleveland housing project.
“Peter Lawson Jones will be missed as an elected official who believes in community and I hope he runs for office again," said Betty Mahone, an East Cleveland activist and the leader of the Women's Freedom Federation.
Then a state rep, Jones was appointed by Democratic operatives in 2002 to replace Jane Campbell as county commissioner, a one-term Cleveland mayor. He went on to win election to the seat.
Jackson, Fudge and other Black leaders backed the Democrat FitzGerald for county executive in the November general election against Dolan after he beat their candidate, Terri Hamilton Brown, in the May Democratic primary. Greater Cleveland Black leaders, however, had been divided over her candidacy as the only Black woman that sought the county executive seat, though unsuccessfully. Brown is the wife of Darnell Brown, a member of Jackson's top level administration.
Reach Cleveland Urban News.Com by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com and by telephone at 216-659-0473.
Ohio Congresswoman Marcia Fudge (D-11)
Ohio State Representative Barbara Boyd (D-9)
Outgoing Cuyahoga County Recorder Lillian Greene
Cuyahoga County Executive-Elect Ed FitzGerald
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason
Cleveland Ward 6 Precinct Committeeman John A. Boyd
By Kathy Wray Coleman, Publisher Editor-n-Chief, Cleveland Urban News.Com (www.clevelandurbannews.com)
CLEVELAND, Ohio-Peter Lawson Jones, a Cuyahoga County commissioner and one of only two Blacks aside from the judges that held county office prior to Issue 6, said goodbye on Friday to his seat on the three-member Cuyahoga County Board of Commissioners, and to politics as well. But before departing, the outgoing commissioner took the time to speak on his political tenure and about Issue 6 in an exclusive interview with Cleveland Urban News.Com.
“I will focus on developing a father initiative program on the national level, theater and consulting,” said the Democrat Jones, who runs the model program for Cuyahoga County, one geared toward enhancing the relationships of fathers in the family structure where data show that two out of three Black families in America do not have an active father.
Black leaders said Jones' absence from the political forum will be felt.
"I have known Peter Lawson Jones for most of my life and he always displays a high degree of intellect and concern for the people as would we expect from our elected officials, “said U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-11), who represents parts of Cleveland and its eastern suburbs. “He will be missed."
Pursuant to a voter approved charter amendment Jones' job and that of a host of other elected county officials, all Democrats, were up in an elective capacity as of Friday as a new form of county government dubbed “Issue 6”swept Cuyahoga County, Ohio's largest, with a population that is roughly 23 percent Black and includes residents of the predominantly Black City of Cleveland. That new form of government, that still has some Black leaders angry and fretting, is a county executive and 11-member County Council composed of eight Democrats and three Republicans that voters elected in November to take office in January to take the place of the county commissioners, which voters scrapped altogether.
And together, the executive and County Council shall make the decisions made previously by the commissioners and shall appoint people, either directly or through consolidation, to the elected jobs held until Friday by the voter ousted elected officials of county auditor, sheriff, coroner, treasurer, clerk of courts, engineer, and recorder.
Once on the unsuccessful Democratic ticket as the Lt. Gov. running mate for then Governor’s candidate and now outgoing Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, and a former vice mayor of Shaker Hts. and Ohio State Rep. , Jones said that he is swapping politics for a stint this month as a homeless man in the ABC crime series Detroit 1-8-7.
He also said that it gives him more time with his wife Lisa and their three children,.one a college graduate who works for the Cleveland Cavaliers, another currently attending college, and the third, a Shaker Hts. schools student. And he did not stutter when he said that after 22 years of public service, he is giving it all up.
“No,” said Jones to the question of whether he will run for public office again. And he still has a bad taste in his mouth about the voter adopted county reform Issue 6 that snatched his job as commissioner, and prematurely.
“It destroys the balance of power and weakens the political potency of the African-American community,” said the Harvard trained attorney of Issue 6, which voters adopted overwhelmingly by trouncing Issue 5, a competing ballot measure supported by Cleveland's Black leadership that Jones and outgoing county Commissioner Tim Hagan introduced. Had it passed, Issue 5 called for a voter approved committee to study the issues and make community recommendations for modes of comprehensive county reform.
That impotency of the Black community becomes weakened in having switched from elected commissioners, a sheriff, recorder and others to a county executive and County Council, says Jones, because no Black has any independent power as he did to some degree as a commissioner and as did outgoing Cuyahoga County Recorder Lillian Greene, the other Black who lost her job on Friday because of Issue 6.
A retired judge prior to becoming the county's recorder, the gutsy Greene, who replaced Patrick O'Malley when he resigned and did a short prison stint for violating federal pornography laws through computer downloads, unsuccessfully sued over Issue 6.
And though a judge said no, Greene had argued in the suit, among other claims, that since some of their elected terms were not up, including hers, Issue 6 could not be fully implemented as of ousting all of them on Friday. And though her claims were denied, it was tide of discontent, or what local mainstream media perpetuated as disarray, that helped to catapult Issue 6 into fruition and Jones and Greene out of their jobs.
"Instead of taking time to study county reform," said Jones, "voters changed the form of government through Issue 6 to a single county executive that, by virtue of the new county charter amendment, overpowers a recently elected 11-member County Council that has four Blacks." And when the new County Council officially takes office this month, added Jones, its members must make decisions by majority vote in a subordinate fashion to Ed FitzGerald, 42, the Democrat that beat Republican nominee Matt Dolan for the $175 thousand a year county executive job.
How Issue 6 passed so easily and with 66 percent of the vote when staunch opposition came from the Cleveland branch NAACP, Fudge, the Call and Post Newspaper, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and every other elected Black official of consequence but State Sen Nina Turner (D-25), is puzzling. And Turner took heat and all out hell behind it as the Call and Post made national news by branding her a poster child for White supremacy and putting her in an aunt jemima suit in an editorial chastising the law maker for backing Issue 6.
Still, voters were guided by the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper, which dominated its headlines with article after article on county corruption by elected officials and others. And, said Jones of the Plain Dealer's coverage, Democrats were being subject to undue attack in a partisan fashion.
"The Plain Dealer would not print anything that was going on good in the county at that time like the father initiative program, " said Jones.
Regardless of the extent of Issue 6s' perceived baggage, or its advantage for lack of a better term, one thing is clear. The fallout is not over and the anger amongst some of greater Cleveland's Black elected officials still lingers, and lingers.
“They handed control of the county to one White man," said Black Women's Political Political Action Committee President and State Rep. Barbara Boyd (D-9) of Issue 6 and the election of FitzGerald. “Blacks are still in the minority and the way they drew the lines for districts for the 11-member County Council disenfranchises the Black community."
Boyd said that Issue 6 was derived through backroom deals that excluded Black leaders. She cautioned that the 11 county districts will be redrawn in the future and that the four Blacks elected to the 11-member County Council in November to take office in Jan. might be out of a job later on. And that perspective becomes even more vivid as controversial U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-10) fights for his political life as Republicans prepare to oust him in redrawing congressional districts and eliminating two House congressional seats in Ohio as a result of the 2010 national census.
"The new County Council was crafted by Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason to marginalize Black power and to enhance White folks,” said John Boyd, a Cleveland Ward 6 Precinct Committee person and unsuccessful candidate for the District 8 County Council seat won by Pernel Jones.
Fudge, who was a vocal opponent of Issue 6, was not as harsh.
"I did not support Issue 6 and now that the people have spoken we need to wait to see how it plays out," said Fudge “It it is my hope it works, so the county can move forward. Only time will tell."
One of the county's most powerful Democrats until FBI agents came snooping for his political friends, Mason said in a previous interview that Issue 6 is universal and benefits all. He did not return phone calls seeking comment.
An elected area Black official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that he has changed his mind and now supports Issue 6.
"We did something wrong if voters voted overwhelmingly to change the county's form of government through Issue 6,” he said. "I am glad that the community can raise issues before the County Council on matters previously that they had nobody to go to because the person they were complaining about was the elected official.”
The county's governmental restructuring comes as the Democratic Party has become fractured with infighting as the ongoing corruption probe has netted more than 35 guilty pleas from county affiliates and a potential 21-year prison term for recently resigned county auditor Frank Russo on corruption related charges. Among those impacted was long time sheriff Gerald McFaul, who resigned before pleading guilty to corruption related charges last year and securing a sentence of house arrest and restitution.
And, disgraced Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora, out like Jones as a county commissioner on Friday due to Issue 6, is among Democrats targeted by the FBI. He is awaiting trial and facing some 28 corruption related charges stemming from a raid on his and Russo's homes and offices two years ago by the IRS and FBI.
Barbara Boyd admits that Jones' style and his ivy league background sometimes catches Blacks off guard, the ones that want him to at times "act more Black.". The Shaker Hts resident angered grassroots factions a decade or more ago when he voted as a member of the Shaker Hts City Council in favor of barricades that separate some of its streets to Cleveland's streets in predominantly Black Ward 1 after Shaker Hts residents complained of automobiles speeding through the neighborhood.
“Some people would say, oh he went to Harvard, but I think his Harvard background is a plus,” said Barbara Boyd, who is no relation to John Boyd.
Barbara Boyd said that Jones, who has not been legally implicated relative to the corruption probe, is a "casualty of war.” Jones, himself, agrees.
“I had no swimming pool additions or home improvements,” said Jones, referencing charges that Dimora is facing and those that Russo pleaded guilty to last month.
Like him or not Jones has made a dent in the political landscape of Cuyahoga County and he has been there for Blacks, whether perceived as enough or not enough.
He pushed for fair changes in public policies including legislation against racial profiling as a State Rep., voted against higher taxes as a county commissioner and was on board early on in support of now U.S. President Barack Obama. And, say community members, Jones could be counted on for Black funerals and awards banquets, and a fund raising event just months ago to keep a library going for poor Black children in Outwaite Homes, a Cleveland housing project.
“Peter Lawson Jones will be missed as an elected official who believes in community and I hope he runs for office again," said Betty Mahone, an East Cleveland activist and the leader of the Women's Freedom Federation.
Then a state rep, Jones was appointed by Democratic operatives in 2002 to replace Jane Campbell as county commissioner, a one-term Cleveland mayor. He went on to win election to the seat.
Jackson, Fudge and other Black leaders backed the Democrat FitzGerald for county executive in the November general election against Dolan after he beat their candidate, Terri Hamilton Brown, in the May Democratic primary. Greater Cleveland Black leaders, however, had been divided over her candidacy as the only Black woman that sought the county executive seat, though unsuccessfully. Brown is the wife of Darnell Brown, a member of Jackson's top level administration.
Reach Cleveland Urban News.Com by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com and by telephone at 216-659-0473.
Comments