Democrat Blaine Griffin chosen as Cleveland City Council's new president to replace outgoing council president Kevin Kelley, Kelley losing the mayor's race on Tuesday to Justin Bibb, the city's fourth Black mayor....Griffin is Black like Bibb and it is the first time in Cleveland history that Cleveland has had a Black mayor and a Black city council president at the same time..By editor and associate publisher Kathy Wray Coleman of Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's black digital news leader

Cleveland Ward 6 Councilman Blaine Griffin, city council's new president, who will succeed outgoing president Kevin Kelley, who lost a nonpartisan runoff election on Tuesday to Justin Bibb, the city's mayor-elect and the fourth Black mayor of Cleveland, a largely black major American city 

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.comTel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief

CLEVELAND, Ohio- Cleveland City Council broke the tradition of selecting a White as council president when voters choose a Black as mayor and voted Friday for east side Ward 6 councilman Blaine Griffin, who is Black, to succeed outgoing Council President Kevin Kelley, a White west side councilman who lost the mayor's race on Tuesday to newcomer Justin Bibb, who is Black.

It is the first time in Cleveland's history that the city has had a Black as mayor and a Black as city council president at the same time. Current four-term mayor Frank Jackson, who is retiring at the end of the year, is Black, and Kelley has been city council president for the mayor's last two terms, partly because of the tradition that if the mayor is Black the city council president must be White, a tradition that activists and others began to question as a back door measure to ensure that Whites have a leadership role in the top spots of mayor or city council president no matter how it comes about. 

The unofficial caucus vote in support of Griffin by 16 of the 17 council persons who won via Tuesday election who were present, including Griffin, who voted for himself, signifies how they will officially vote in January, which means that Griffin is city council's new president. West side Councilman Brian Kazy was not present for Friday's vote. Outgoing council members were not invited, and could not vote, which is the process or practice after an election for mayor and city council every four years.

A third of the city council members are new after Tuesday's election  

Black Lives Matter Cleveland immediately objected to what the organization said was the selection of a council president less than 24 hours after an election and demanded that unit rule be abolished. A quasi-rule of procedure under which council members must vote for the candidate for council president who is preferred by the majority of city council or face ridicule, Griffin managed to win over a majority of city council and, in turn, he was unanimously selected as council president on Friday. Even the new members of  city council came aboard and supported Griffin, a suggestion, said Black Lives Matter Cleveland on its Facebook page, that it will be business as usual at City Hall, regardless of who is at the helm as mayor.

Newly elected Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb and outgoing Council President Kevin Kelley, who lost the runoff election to Bibb on Tuesday

Bibb, 34 and a former Barack Obama intern and progressive who has never held office before and who will become the city's fourth Black mayor and second youngest behind former mayor Dennis Kucinich, beat Kelley, with 63 percent of the vote to his 37 percent. 

The elections for mayor and city council are nonpartisan and Mayor-elect Bibb and all 17 city council members are Democrats, as are Jackson and Kelley, who had served 16 years on city council, and eight of those years as council president. 

Speaking to his city council colleagues after he was named city council president on Friday, Griffin called  Bibb's landslide mayoral election victory on Tuesday a mandate.

“The citizens of this community want to see change. They want to see change in a way they can touch, feel, and see in their communities and neighborhoods,” said Griffin, the majority leader for council under Kelley leading up to Friday's vote for him as city's council's new leader.  “We’re really going to have to work together as a body.”

A former community relations board director under Jackson who was elected to council in 2017, Griffin is an establishment politician connected to the  Cuyahoga County  Democratic Party who knows the ropes, and Black people. And he is Jackson's protege.

Griffin and Mayor Jackson endorsed Kelley for mayor as did most but not all of city council, also including Black council persons Ward 2 Councilman Kevin Bishop, Ward 9 Councilman Kevin Conwell, and outgoing Ward 5 Councilwoman Delores Gray, who lost to precinct committee member and ward leader Richard Starr and was therefore not among those who voted for the new council president.

Armed with a progressive campaign team and  endorsements from former Cleveland mayors Jane Campbell and Michael R. White and U.S. Sen Brown of Cleveland, Bibb ran a grassroots campaign with promises to increase public safety and transform the city's troubled police department that resonated with voters. 

Cleveland is a Democratic stronghold and a largely Black city of some 372,000 people, and one of the poorest nationwide of major American cities.  The city is currently a party to a court-monitored consent decree for police reforms with the U.S. Department of Justice behind a host of unprecedented and celebrated police killings of Black people, including 12-year-old Tamir Rice and Tanisha Anderson in 2014, and the 137-shots shooting deaths of Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell in 2012. 

Also on Tuesday, Cleveland voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot initiative that amends the city's charter to address police reform issues. Dubbed Issue 24, the ballot initiative that voters sanctioned makes changes to the Office of Community Standards and creates the Community Police Commission, which has the final say on police policies from recruitment to exams, officer training, and outreach efforts.

Clevelandurbannews.com and-Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the MidwestTel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.