Time to reconcile the Cleveland budget
Updated 3:38 p.m. I Nick Castele
Cleveland’s breakneck-fast General Fund budget hearings are over. Now it’s time for City Council and the mayor’s office to reconcile their differences and draw up an official spending plan for the year.
Council President Blaine Griffin told council members on Monday that he plans to meet with Mayor Justin Bibb and Finance Director Ahmed Abonamah this week to settle up.
He asked members to submit their suggested amendments, and the leadership team – which includes Ward 3 Council Member Kerry McCormack and Ward 14’s Jasmin Santana – would decide what to present to the administration.
Griffin said he’s aiming to have a final budget proposal ready by next Monday.
Update 12:45 p.m. I Doug Breehl-Pitorak
Back to work is backed up for some Cleveland safety employees, official says
Cleveland public safety employees are being held up from returning to work by a physician in Texas, according to Council Member Jasmin Santana.
The Ward 14 representative raised concerns about the city’s contract for medical assessments of safety employees following injury or illness. Santana said she’s heard this happened with several employees, and asked why the city didn’t contract with a local healthcare provider that can assess people in person.
Chief Finance Officer Ahmed Abonamah said he wasn’t part of securing that contract but added that it’s not always about location, location, location.
“We procure competitively and there’s no preference given – other than the Cleveland small business companies that are certified with the city – outside of that there’s no preference given to a company based on its geography,” he said.
There are a lot of firefighters that are still out because of the Texas-based physician’s assessment, Santana said. The employees also have local doctors, she added.
The city’s Division of Risk Management handled 658 work injury, COVID, or personal safety cases in 2023 for public safety employees, down from 824 the previous year, according to the 2024 Mayor’s Estimate. Public Safety employees made 1,543 medical assessment visits last year.
Serving up potential Civil Service Commission changes
Updated: 11:00 a.m. I Nick Castele
Cleveland’s Civil Service Commission – with its hiring rules and application tests – is meant to be an equalizer for people seeking jobs at City Hall.
But the hiring process can also be a bottleneck. Both the administration and City Council have bemoaned how long it takes to bring people on board.
During Monday morning’s budget hearings, Ward 8 Council Member Michael Polensek asked a question about the commission’s leadership that sparked a broader conversation about hiring at the city.
The commission is currently led by Executive Director Rachon Long. But as Polensek pointed out, Cleveland’s charter says the commission should be led by a secretary. The secretary should be one of the five members of the commission, and all must be electors of the City of Cleveland – that is, registered to vote in the city.
“I want someone to explain to me: How do you not adhere to the charter?” Polensek asked.
Finance Director Ahmed Abonamah replied that the law department had already looked into the question and determined that “nothing about this setup was inconsistent with the charter.”
Council President Blaine Griffin requested that answer in writing.
The conversation then turned to a broader question with big implications: Should Cleveland shake up the way it hires civil service employees?
Ward 7 Council Member Stephanie Howse-Jones asked a series of pointed questions that elicited a bit of news. What’s the role of the Civil Service Commission in today’s society? she asked.
Abonamah said the administration has been asking the same question. They’ve been talking about how they can streamline the testing process so they don’t lose candidates to other offers, he said. The finance director floated the idea of replacing written tests with interviews for some job classifications.
“The time it takes to get people hired is frustrating to everybody involved,” Abonamah told council. “It’s frustrating to us, it’s frustrating to you, it’s frustrating to the people who are trying to get work. It can take six months from the time you apply, which is too long.”
Griffin reminded the table that the Civil Service Commission’s original purpose was to put an end to political patronage in hiring.
“Originally the Civil Service Commission was set up in order to combat Tammany Hall, where everybody was pretty much just just hiring family and friends,” he said. “But as everybody says, things that were built a long time ago may not be sufficient for today.”
More on the civil service conversation from Cleveland Documenter Alicia Moreland.
City expected to launch open data portal and new 311 system in 2024
Updated: 10:20 a.m. I Signal Cleveland
The open data portal is being created by the Department of Urban Analytics & Innovation.
The aim is to help residents access routine information more transparently and to ease the burden on the law department, which handles requests from residents, attorneys and news outlets, Finance Director Ahmed Abonamah
The portal will include smaller portals with data – for instance from the U.S. Census – by city ward.
The city’s new 311 system is also expected to launch later this year. In January 2023, City Council approved spending $4 million on the system, which will collect resident complaints and requests for city services and help the city direct its response. The revamped 311 system would help log tree-trimming and pothole-filling requests as well as reports about vacant homes and problem rodents.
Read more about language translation for the city’s 311 line.
Updated 10:05 a.m. I Cleveland Documenters
Slow your (pay) roll: New Cleveland HR software set for 2026 launch
Council members expressed concern with Cleveland’s pace of hiring new employees. One tool the city is hoping will help improve it is a new human resources (HR) software system costing $10 million. Much of the city’s hiring process is done by hand.
Documenter Alicia Moreland caught an update on the timeline of the new software from City Controller James Gentile.
Updated: 9:05 a.m. I Signal Cleveland
City Council wraps up hearings by reviewing proposed budgets for the departments of Human Resources, Finance, Urban Analytics and more.
What happens next? A process called reconciliation.
Council members may have their own proposals to change the budget, adding or reducing money for city departments. Often, this involves some negotiation because when passed, the budget has to be balanced and passed by April 1.
Read more about Cleveland’s budget process.
Catch up with the Cleveland budget hearings
Explore Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb’s General Fund budget proposal
The proof is not in the potty… yet
$1.5 million in utilities relief distributed as a part of amnesty program
‘Terrible, terrible move’: Council members concerned about jail and courts going to Garfield Heights
Doug Breehl-Pitorak, Anastazia Vanisko, Nick Castele and Lawrence Caswell contributed to this liveblog.