Pictured are Cuyahoga County Sheriff Clifford Pinkney, the county's first Black sheriff who announced May 25 that he will resign, effective Aug 2., former Cleveland NAACP president George Forbes, also a former Cleveland City Council president, Ohio 11th Congressional District Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge (wearing suit), a Warrensville Heights Democrat, and former Ohio senator Nina Turner, now co-chair of U.S. Sen Bernie Sander's 2020 campaign for president
By Kathy Wray Coleman, investigative reporter, editor-in-chief
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com- Some two weeks after Cuyahoga County Sheriff Clifford Pinkney announced he will resign effective Aug. 2 for personal reasons, an announcement that followed a protest a week earlier by community activists at the Justice Center in downtown Cleveland over county jail conditions and nine inmate deaths in roughly a year, Cuyahoga County Council is considering asking county voters to restore the sheriff's position to an elected position.
Sources say that Pinkney, the county's first Black sheriff who was promoted from chief to sheriff in 2015, balked at having restricted authority as an appointed sheriff who reported to the county executive, currently embattled county executive Armond Budish.
Council President Dan Brady and Councilman Michael Gallagher, Brady a Democrat in a county that includes the largely Black city of Cleveland and is a Democratic stronghold, and Gallagher, a Republican, have proposed that the amendment to change Cuyahoga County's governance structure be put on the November ballot with primary and general elections set for 2020 if voters approve the measure.
Approval to get the charter amendment on the ballot requires a favorable vote by eight of the 11 County Council members, a super majority, and the issue may likely be addressed at the next county council meeting.
Sheriff Pinkney's departure follows indictments this year of some five jail guards, one for allegedly contributing to an inmate's death, as well as former jail director Ken Mills and former warden Eric Ivey, who is Black and was demoted to associate warden shortly before he was indicted in April.
Appointed rather than elected due to a voter-adopted change in county governance implemented in 2011 that replaced three county commissioners and the county elected offices, all but the still-elected judges and county prosecutor, with a county executive and 11-member county council, Pinkney was selected as sheriff without hesitation, and with support from Black leaders.
Those appointed county offices include the sheriff, county auditor, clerk of courts, fiscal officer, and county treasurer.
Black leaders and the Cleveland NAACP, led by former county commissioner Peter Lawson Jones, Congresswoman Marcia L Fudge and then Cleveland NAACP president George Forbes, a former Cleveland City Council president, opposed the change in county governance approved by voters in 2009 by a two-to-one margin. They say the current set up disenfranchises voters and Black people, and puts too much power in the hands of one official, a county executive, now Budish, whose office was raided by the FBI twice this year and who has not commented publicly on whether he agrees that the county sheriff should be elected rather than appointed.
The change in county governance, supported by then state Sen Nina Turner, who is Black , came following controversy and a push by the Cleveland Plain Dealer Newspaper, Ohio's largest newspaper, and Republicans who took advantage of an ongoing county public corruption probe.
Now the co-chair of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2020 presidential election campaign, Turner caught slack from Black leaders for her posture on the controversial issue but stayed firm on her position. ,
That extensive public corruption probe has seen two former common pleas judges, former county commissioner Jimmy Dimora , and former county auditor Frank Russo imprisoned, among others, Russo and Dimora among some 65 county affiliates, mainly Democratic businessmen, who have either been convicted, or have pleaded guilty to public corruption related crimes in the last decade
A damning report released last November by U.S. Marshals on county jail conditions generated local and national news, a dreadful look at how inmates are mistreated such as withholding food for punishment, jailing juveniles with adults, rat and roach infested jail facilities, and a paramilitary jail corrections officers unit dubbed "The Men in Black" that intimidates and harasses inmates.
The FBI and other authorities have been swarming the jail since last year after inmates began popping up dead.
Cleveland community activists picketed in front of the Cuyahoga County Justice Center last summer over judicial and prosecutorial malfeasance, police misconduct, and the overcrowding of the county jail.
Activists have been picketing regularly over jail conditions, even in front of Budish' gated home in affluent Beachwood, where they called for his resignation, and at county administrative headquarters in downtown Cleveland before county council meetings.
Inhumane and unconstitutional jail conditions are at the heart of the investigation by federal officials, prompting an impending lawsuit seeking a court injunction and a federal takeover of the jail.
Pregnant women are jailed on the floor, and health care is inadequate, investigators found.
This is coupled with malicious prosecutions, excessive bonds and heightened criminal sentences that disproportionately target the Black community, Black men in particular, the ongoing investigation by .Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com found.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog with some 5 million views on Google Plus alone.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. 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.
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