By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News.Com, and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspaper and newspaper blog.
(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com,
Tel: (216) 659-0473, Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com
EAST CLEVELAND, OHIO-East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton (pictured) spoke one-on-one with Cleveland Urban News.Com, Ohio's leader in Black digital news, after a recall effort that sought to boot him from office fail short of necessary signatures for a ballot initiative.
The recall attempt comes as the thirty-something mayor will host a meeting tonight, April 2, on a possible merger with neighboring Cleveland, also a largely Black impoverished city, though, unlike East Cleveland, Cleveland is a major American city. (Editor's note: Mayor Norton will host the 6:30 pm public meeting of today, April 2 at the McGregor Nursing Home, 14900 Private Drive in East Cleveland)
"The total number of signatures submitted to the board of elections, both valid and invalid, was 728, and only 377 of them were valid," a representative for the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections said earlier today.
Petitioners needed 559 valid signatures, a figure required by the city charter that represents 25 percent of those that voted in the last election, an election, in fact, held in 2013, and for mayor and open city council seats.
A Democrat, as are the five East Cleveland city council members, Norton said that he is pleased with the win, and wants to move on.
"I hope we can now move forward with issues facing the city," Norton told Cleveland Urban News.Com.
Norton said that his position on the potential merger is not set in stone, and that he wants to hear from the community first.
"We are exploring the option," said Norton, who tonight will present petitions at the community meeting for circulation for voters' signatures for a ballot initiative for voters to reject or approve the establishment of a six member commission.
That commission, if approved by East Cleveland voters and subsequently by Cleveland City Council, would pursue merger talks, and would consist of six people, three from each city.
Like the recall effort, one pushed by a group of residents angry over a potential merger, and angry at the mayor, and of which the mayor undoubtedly opposed, Norton and his supporters would need 559 voters' signatures to get the merger talks initiative on the ballot.
Plagued with poverty and a debilitating tax base, East Cleveland is on the verge of bankruptcy, Norton said, and financial problems have been brewing since he was a kid.
. The city has a population of some 17,000 people, and is about 98 percent Black.
The mayor's foes, including outspoken East Cleveland city council members Mansell Baker and Nate Martin, and East Cleveland School Board President Una H.R. Kennon, say that Norton is the reason for the financial dilemma facing the city.
The two-term mayor had harsh words in response.
"The only thing worse than ignorance is willful ignorance," said Norton.
Influential entities or people supporting the merger include Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, George L. Forbes, who is a former Cleveland City Council president and prior president of the Cleveland NAACP, and the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper.
