C. Ellen Connally reelected Cuyahoga County Council president with support from Black county council members, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Cleveland's Old Black Political Guard, Connally's reelection comes a day before county sheriff Bob Reid is fired by Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald
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| Cuyahoga County Council President C. Ellen Conally (D-9), its first county council president and the first Black, who won reelection to the county council presidency without opposition last week. Connally is supported by Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge (D-OH), and Cleveland's Old Black Political Guard, which, in 1967, helped Carl B. Stokes become the first Black mayor of Cleveland, and the first Black mayor of a major American city. The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper, wrote articles against Connally becoming president in 2011 and allegedly tried unsuccessfully to oust her this year |
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| Cuyahoga Councilman Dale Miller (D-2), who withdrew for consideration as Cuyahoga County Council president saying he just could not win enough support from fellow Democrats to oust Connally |
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| Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, who on Thursday fired Cuyahoga County Sheriff Bob Reid, whom he appointed by power of the amended county charter adopted through Issue 6 by county voters. Prior to the adoption of Issue 6 the county sheriff was an elected office plagued with malfeasance and impropriety to the detriment of Black and other communities of Cuyahoga County, including the largely Black city of Cleveland. Reid was fired following claims of mortgage and foreclosure fraud involving the sheriff's department, judges and magistrates of the general division of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, and former Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason, who resigned from office last year. |
CLEVELAND,Ohio- Cuyahoga County Council President C. Ellen Connally (D-9), a retired Cleveland Municipal Court judge who once nearly ousted former Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Moyer from his judicial seat, was reelected president of the 11-member county council at its meeting on Wednesday after Councilman Dale Miller (D-2), a fellow Democrat, withdrew from the race because of a lack of enough support by his peers to win, and pressure.
Cuyahoga County is Ohio's largest of 88 counties and has some 1.2 million people, according to the 2010 U.S. Census Report. It includes the majority Black major metropolitan city of Cleveland and neighboring suburban communities including Cleveland Hts., Shaker Hts., and the largely Black and impoverished city of East Cleveland.
How the reelection of Connally, who is Black, will impact the firing on Thursday of appointed county sheriff Bob Reid by Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald and Reid's subsequent replacement by FitzGerald with approval by council, remains to be seen, though sources say that some county council members support the bold and daring move to oust Reid made by the politically young FitzGerald, 44, a Democrat, former FBI agent and prior mayor of Lakewood, OH. who aspires to be governor.
Former Warrensville Hts. Police Chief Frank Bova is now interim sheriff.
Connally, 67, and president since 2011, is a FitzGerald ally, quiet as it is kept. And she has clout as one of four Blacks on the regional council, and her three Black colleagues, Julian Rogers (D-10), Yvonne Conwel (D-7)l and Pernel Jones Jr. (D-8), were among the majority that voted for her. She represents Cuyahoga County District 9, which includes the cities of Bedford, Bedford Hts, Shaker Hts., Warrensville Hts., Cleveland's predominantly Black east side Wards 1 and 4 , and the villages of Highland Hills, North Randall, Orange and Woodmere.
Ward 1, where Connally lives , is Cleveland's largest voting block,. Its draw is its staunch middle class sector, and its stable venue of community street clubs and elderly Blacks involved in politics.
Connally is backed by Cleveland's Old Black Political Guard, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, and Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge (D-11), among a host of other Black greater Cleveland elected officials. She is the first president of the county council, which came into fruition in 2011 following the implementation of Issue 6, a county government reform measure that county voters approved in 2009 that replaced the elected offices of the three-member Cuyahoga County Board of Commissioners and the county auditor, sheriff, treasurer, engineer, coroner, and clerk of courts with an elected county executive and 11-member county council.
But tension still exists among some of the Democrats on the county council, though they out number Republicans 8 to 3.
A former Cleveland councilman and state representative, Miller, who represents District 2 and sought the council presidency in 2011 but bowed out then too, got annoyed with Connally after she wanted the weekly council meetings, beginning in Jan 2012, to be held at 3 or 4 pm instead of the then 6 pm time, among other political wranglings between the two, both popular Democrats in a county where the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party is a stronghold.
Miller told Cleveland Urban News.Com in an email around the controversy on his concern about the proposed early meeting time that it would be unfair to hold meetings when most residents are at work.
Connally and the county council ultimately agreed, and reached a compromise for the twice-a-month meetings at the Justice Center in downtown Cleveland for 5 pm.
Connally likes peace, and told Cleveland Urban News.Com last year that she enjoys Sundays with her elderly mother over fancy political events.
Miller is smart, and so is Connally, a brilliant woman in fact, her dis-tractors and supporters both say.
At issue too is the influence by the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper. Its officials have consistently lobbied against Connally for council president, a losing battle against Mayor Jackson, who is Black, and Cleveland's Old Black Political Guard, which in 1967 led the charge to help elect the late Carl B. Stokes as the city's first Black mayor, and the first Black mayor of a major American city.
If race played a role, Black people won when Connally won, some say.
Miller's District 2 includes the cities of Brook Park and Lakewood, and the majority White west side Cleveland Wards 18 and 19.
Connally earns $55,000 as county council president and county council members earn $45,000 annually for the part time public servant job.
(www.clevelandurbannews.com) Reach Cleveland Urban News.Com by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com and by phone at 216-659-0473.
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