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By Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog with some 5 million views on Google Plus alone. To advertise call us at Tel: (216) 659-0473 and email us at Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief
ONE-ON-ONE INTERVIEW BY KATHY WRAY COLEMAN WITH PETER CORRIGAN, WHO IS RUNNING FOR CUYAHOGA COUNTY EXECUTIVE RELATIVE TO THE NOVEMBER 6, 2018 GENERAL ELECTION
CLEVELANDURBANNEWS.COM-CLEVELAND, Ohio-This is a one-on-one interview with Cuyahoga County executive candidate Peter Corrigan, a Republican who hopes to oust incumbent Democrat Armond Budish this November, Corrigan garnering support in particular from a strong group of Black grassroots Cleveland activists who have tired of Budish.
Budish, say activists, is ineffective, from the overcrowding of the county jail, to heightened county taxes, disarray and corruption in the offices of the county clerk of courts, recorder and auditor, rampant foreclosure theft, high Black unemployment, legal system malfeasance, and a department of Job and Family Services that sees a plethora of poor Black children under its purview erroneously murdered each year.
It did not help that Budish, 64, supported a $282 million face lift for Quicken Loans Arena, some $140 million from the county through the sale of bonds and other taxed-supported fiscal initiatives, and while Cleveland's inner city continues to decline.
The Cuyahoga County Land Bank is a complete catastrophe, and the list goes on, says Corrigan.
"He [Budish] is a lawyer trying to be an executive," said Corrigan of Budish, a lawyer and former state representative turned county executive who has an extensive campaign war chest, and whose former chief of staff, Sharon Sobol Jordan, left the job earlier this year following an FBI raid of her county office and a public corruption probe that saw Budish renege in response to subpoenas issued on the matter from county prosecutor Mike O'Malley, also a Democrat like Budish..
Money counts, but it is not is not everything, and it does not always win political campaigns, Corrigan contends.
"We are campaigning at the grassroots level and I am the right person to lead Cuyahoga County," said Corrigan, 59 with a bachelor's degree in physics, an MBA from Case Western Reserve University, and experience as a former chief operating officer of a corporate company than manufactures fuel diesel products.
He has lent money to his campaign, and says that grassroots door-to-door canvassing is a must.
Cuyahoga County, he says, is in trouble.
Activists agree.
"We need new leadership in Cuyahoga County and Budish must go," said Cleveland activist Donna Walker -Brown, who is Black and Corrigan's campaign manager. "Budish has not done a thing for Black people but to pontificate."
Asked about the foreclosure theft in the county, Corrigan told Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com that "those people need to go to jail."
If elected county executive he says he will have a diverse administration, which is something Budish has, effective or ineffective. And he said he will do right by the Black community, both Democrats and Republicans alike of whom lack an understanding of what it means to be Black in Cuyahoga County, which is 29 percent Black and has a population of roughly 1.2 million people.
"The Republican party has not made enough of an effort in our county to understand the needs and concerns of the Black community," said Corrigan, who once lost a bid for congress against former congressman Dennis Kucinich.
Equal opportunity relative to county employment and economic expansion are also part of his mission, he said, if he is elected.
"I have a better understanding and better ability of how to establish and grow county resources and how to promote employment for Blacks and others in our county," said Corrigan, a distant relative of former longtime county prosecutor John T. Corrigan, who served as county prosecutor from 1957-1991, and a nephew of the late John V. Corrigan, a former state representative and Ohio 8th District Court of Appeals judge.
Asked his views on equal rights for women in the work place, Corrigan, a resident of the suburb of Rocky River who is married with grown children, chuckled.
"I have six older sisters and no brothers and all I can tell you is I have been trained very well," the county executive hopeful said.
A Democratic stronghold, Cuyahoga County is the second largest of 88 counties in Ohio
and includes the largely Black major American city of Cleveland.
The Cuyahoga County executive, a job that pays $175,000 annually, is the chief executive officer of Cuyahoga County government who, among other responsibilities, appoints and removes county personnel, submits budgets and capital improvement plans, and introduces legislation voted upon by county council.
This new form of government, implemented in 2011 via a charter amendment adopted 2-to-1 by voters that several Black leaders and elected officials, and the NAACP, opposed, among others, replaced three county commissioners with an elected executive and 11-member elected county council.
Also eliminated were the elected positions of sheriff, auditor, clerk of courts, treasurer and recorder, all of them now appointed positions under the auspice of the county executive, all but the county prosecutor, which remains an elected office.
The new governance change came about in conjunction with an ongoing FBI and county public corruption probe.
The highly publicized corruption probe resulted in some 61 guilty pleas or convictions of mostly Democrats, mainly businessmen, including two common pleas judges who went to prison as well as former county commissioner Jimmy Dimora and former auditor Frank Russo, Dimora currently serving a 28-year sentence on racketeering and other federal convictions, and Russo, a 22-year sentence for crimes in office.
"They voted for the new form of county governance because of corruption problems but the new governance change has not been fully implemented and corruption is still brewing," said Corrigan.
By Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog with some 5 million views on Google Plus alone. To advertise call us at Tel: (216) 659-0473 and email us at Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief
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