Exclusive interview with Cuyahoga County Councilwoman Yvonne Conwell on Issue 6 , the new form of county government and County Executive Ed FitzGerald
Cuyahoga County District 7 Councilwoman Yvonne ConwellBy Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor
A college educated woman with a bachelor's degree in liberal arts from Cleveland State University and a mother of three children, one an adult, another in college, and the third a teen, Conwell is the 26-year wife of Cleveland Ward 8 Councilman Kevin Conwell.
She represents Cuyahoga Council District 7, a district with some 116,000 residents in a county with some 1.2 million people.
Cuyahoga County is also Ohio's largest among 88 counties statewide, and is roughly 30 percent Black. It is a colorful and politically astute venue that is heavily Democratic and routinely helps to determine presidential elections.
Per the 2010 U.S. Census Report, the 11 county districts are in the process of being redistricted by an executive committee chosen by the county council, a process required by charter and designed to equally distribute residents among the districts, and one that want occur again until a year after 2020, the year of the next census report.
The largely Black District 7 currently encompasses Cleveland's downtown Ward 3, the predominantly Black east side Wards 7, 8 and 9, and the majority White west side Ward 12.
The new form of county government with its county council and chief executive is dubbed Issue 6 because that is the label of the ballot initiative that brought about the new charter amendment that is the impetus for the governmental reforms that county voters overwhelmingly adopted in 2009.
A controversial measure, Issue 6 rocked Cuyahoga County by switching from an elected three-member Board of Commissioners to an 11- member county council and chief executive amid staunch opposition from prominent Black leaders and the Cleveland NAACP, all but State Sen. Nina Turner (D-25), a Cleveland Democrat and former Ward 1 councilwoman.
And Turner took heat for her stance, gaining a spot on the cover of the Call and Post Newspaper, Cleveland's Black press, with an accompanying editorial, and the lawmaker dressed in an Aunt Jemima suit, an outfit that made national news.
As Cuyahoga County Executive, FitzGerald, a Democrat and former FBI agent and prior mayor of Lakewood, Oh, has authority under the new charter or new form of county government to appoint a sheriff, medical examiner, clerk of courts, treasurer, and fiscal agent to take the place of the county auditor and recorder, with county council's confirmation. But also by charter, he independently hires, fires, suspends and disciplines county employees, and the appointees, like the county sheriff, work at his pleasure. That authority, along with the overall make up of Issue 6, prompted area Black leaders to oppose it, saying the county's new form of government gives too much power to one White man. And they say that through the once-in-a-decade redistricting of the 11 council districts comes gerrymandering that could ultimately prove detrimental to the Black community, perhaps when it turns its head in confidence and runs the risk of losing one of its four county council seats held by Black Democrats that are among the 11 seats total..
Under the previous form of county government, in addition to the elected three-member Board of Commissioners, voters elected a county prosecutor, sheriff, clerk of courts, treasurer, corner, auditor and recorder, all of whom are Democrats, a posture that upset county Republicans to help craft Issue 6.
Those Black leaders that opposed Issue 6, including retired U.S. Rep. Louis Stokes, Cleveland NAACP President George Forbes, 11th Congressional District Congresswoman Marcia Fudge (D-OH) and Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, wanted voters to reject it at the ballot box in 2009 and instead select Issue 5, a competing proposal that called for a committee to advise voters on forms of government for a subsequent election on any charter amendment. And though Issue 5 failed miserably to Issue 6, the discontent among some Black leaders remains and was furthered with claims that county prosecutor Bill Mason, whose office remains an elected position by virtue of the new county charter and who is not seeking reelection to a four four-year term this year, crafted Issue 6 without input from Black elected officials along side of a team of all White county movers and shakers.
Former Cuyahoga County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones, who is Black, and who lost his job when voters chose Issue 6 along with Cuyahoga County Recorder Lillian Greene, the other ousted Black, said in an interview last year with The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com that Issue 6 is a Republican fueled initiative that was pushed by the Cleveland Plain Dealer Newspaper and that the community was misled into backing it.
That perception is how Black leaders traditionally feel, acknowledging that Cuyahoga voters acted partly on heart in voting in Issue 6 and largely in conjunction with an ongoing county political corruption probe that began in 2008 and has netted to date over 60 guilty pleas or convictions of only the Democrats and their friends, including two now former judges and former county auditor Frank Russo.
Russo is a key witness against former Cuyahoga County Democratic Party Chairperson and prior county commissioner Jimmy Dimora, a flamboyant and gregarious leader that worked his way up to head of the county Democratic party as first a sanitation worker and then mayor of Beford Hts. in Cuyahoga County.
Dimora is now on trial in federal district court in Akron before federal judge Sara Lioi pursuant to a 36-count federal indictment including racketeering. He is accused of running a criminal enterprise on county time, and allegedly with some of its resources. He has pleaded not guilty and maintains his innocence.
The county council's role, the new county charter reveals, is to pass the county's fiscal budget, adopt legislation, compile rules and regulations for county ethics and oversight committees and tax authorities, and to lodge investigations of malfeasance.
Cuyahoga County Council, also by charter, has subpoena power to demand that county employees testify as witnesses before it for any county related investigation, and can seek prosecution by the county prosecutor if not obeyed, though the new county charter does not explain any intent to interfere with constitutional guarantees such as due process of law and the 5th Amendment's right to take the fifth against self incrimination.
INTERVIEW
Editor of The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog and Cleveland Urban News.Com Kathy Wray Coleman:
Has the percentage of Black employees that work for the county increased or decreased since Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald took office in 2011 with the power to hire, fire, suspend and discipline county employees?
District 7 Cuyahoga Councilwoman Yvonne Conwell:
I don't know and would refer you to Joseph Nanni, chief of staff for Cuyahoga County Council.
Coleman:
Any thoughts on the Jimmy Dimora federal racketeering trial?
Conwell:
None other than that he is innocent until proven guilty.
Coleman:
What do you think about Issue 6, the new form of county government that consists for an 11-member Cuyahoga County Council, of which you are an elected member of for county council District 7, and county executive?
Conwell:
We can't keep focusing on Issue 5. We have to move forward. I voted against Issue 6 and for Issue 5 . We don't know what Issue 5 would have brought because voters chose Issue 6 over it. That decision really wasn't the voice of the people. [Editor's note: Issue 6 is the new form of county government and Issue 5 would have created a community oriented committee to study the issue to make charter revision recommendations to the community for a subsequent vote on any change in county government].
Coleman:
Did the fact that your husband is Cleveland Ward 8 Councilman Kevin Conwell influence your decision to seek public office?
Conwell:
No. I didn't want to be a politician. He was shocked like I was.
Coleman:
What do you think of Cuyahoga County Council President C. Ellen Connally?
Conwell:
I think Council President Connally is doing a good job?
Coleman:
What about Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, is he doing a good job in your opinion?
Conwell:
Yes, he is doing a good job, considering where we have come from with the corruption, and we are still putting systems in place. He has a lot riding on his shoulders. I think that the initiatives he has started are very dynamic and good.
Coleman:
Did county council settle on a meeting time for its Tues. meetings, twice a month?
Conwell:
We compromised and agreed to 5:00 pm.
Coleman:
What is the county council doing about the large number of foreclosed homes in the county?
Conwell:
That is being addressed by Ed FitzGerald and the sheriff.
Coleman:
How does the bipartisan predominantly Democratic Cuyahoga County Council get along.
Conwell:
The United States Senate and House of Representatives could take a lesson from us. We get along.
Coleman:
Well, what about the wranglings when Cuyahoga County Council President Connally, a Democrat like the other three Blacks on county council including yourself, won the council presidency over a Republican after the Cleveland Plain Dealer Newspaper ran an article criticizing her and claiming she represents the interests of the Cleveland's Old Black Political Guard? And Cleveland's Old Black Political Guard had supported Terrie Hamilton Brown over Mr. FitzGerald for the Democratic primary for Cuyahoga County Executive in 2010.
Conwell:
That was just the nature of politics. We get along.
Coleman:
Do you have any suggestions to Cuyahoga County voters about Issue 6, the new form of county government?
Conwell:
People should keep watching to ensure that the governmental process is fair, equitable, and in the best interests of the community.
Coleman:
Thank you for your time Councilwoman Conwell.
Conwell:
You are welcome.
Yvonne Conwell is a life long resident of Cuyahoga County. She worked previously for Parmadale Family Services and for a host of other community service organizations before taking a position as Director of Outreach for the then Cuyahoga County Recorder's Office, one held until her election in 2010 to the Cuyahoga County Council.
Reach Kathy Wray Coleman by email at kathy@kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, and by telephone at 216-932-3114.
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