By Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor of Cleveland Urban News.Com

CLEVELAND,Ohio- The redistricting map that Cleveland City Council approved last week that drops council wards from 19 to 17 seats based on declining population pits popular Ward 8 Councilman Jeff Johnson (pictured) and Ward 9 Councilman Kevin Conwell, both of whom are Black, against each other in city council races this year with their two wards combined into a newly established Ward 9. And not one White councilperson is largely impacted by the remapping, though the majority Black major metropolitan city of Cleveland is roughly 58 percent Black, and only 37 percent White.

CLICK THIS LINK HERE TO SEE THE MAP FOR THE NEW CLEVELAND CITY COUNCIL WARDS

Council President Martin Sweeney (pictured) , a west side councilman, independently prepared the redistricting map in cooperation with a highly paid consulting firm previously approved by city council, and his council colleagues for the most part have not publicly criticized him on it.

The all White west side council members got a break and will not be forced to run against each other after the pushed retirement earlier this month from longtime Ward 16 Councilman Jay Westbrook, whose Ward 16 was sliced and diced by Sweeney to rid the city of the second council seat required by the council reduction mandate

A popular councilman of more that three decades, Westbrook (pictured) allegedly got caught up in the longstanding county corruption probe that has seen either guilty pleas or convictions for some 60 Cuyahoga County Democratic Party operatives, mainly White businessmen, but also including two former common pleas judges, former county commissioner Jimmy Dimora, and former county auditor turned snitch Frank Russo.

Councilman Johnson said in an  interview last week that he was treated fairly by Sweeney, that he believes the community should have had relevant input, and that he successfully worked with Sweeney to protect the Glenville neighborhood in his Ward 8 that he represents from getting chopped up and distributed among four wards, as initially considered.

And he said that he is still in the game.

"We got to keep 70 percent of Glenville in one ward and I will be running against Kevin Conwell," said Johnson.

Cleveland Ward 9 Councilman Kevin Conwell

Cleveland Mayor

Frank Jackson

The redistricting plan also has Hispanic community leaders threatening to sue and accusing Sweeney of denying Hispanics equal protection under the law because no Latino is on city council, and of gerrymandering in violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, claims Sweeney and Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson obviously have denied.

Ward 3 Councilman Joe Cimperman (pictured), whose ward includes the influential downtown Cleveland and who is angry that he now has to share part of it, and controversial Collinwood Ward 11 Councilman Michael Polensek (pictured below) voted against the new map. They are among the 10 Whites on city council, absent Westbrook, whose retirement brings that number down to nine. And the other nine are all Black, and all nine, including Conwell and Johnson, represent wards on the city's largely Black east side of town.

Jackson said through press spokesperson Maureen Harper that the redistricting process complies with the city charter, which gives city council the authority to redistrict. But an investigation reveals that while that is true, the city charter that voters amended in 2008 is silent or ambiguous on how much input is applicable for individual council members other than voting to accept or reject the new map, and whether meaningful input is required.

Cleveland Clerk of City Council Pat Britt (pictured) agreed with the mayor during an interview on Monday, the day before city council approved its new map.

"If the process is going through, it is probably legal," said Britt, a former Ward 6 councilwoman and prior chair of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party.

The highly publicized city redistricting has caused tempers to flare coupled with claims of threats and bullying between state and city elected officials, and calls by these same people for a criminal investigation against Sweeney, who told reporters after council meeting Monday night that he tried to be fair and that "the process was fair."

The map is effective January 2014, after elections this year for city council, and mayor, with incumbent Jackson, a two-term Black mayor, facing no strong opposition, if any at all.

Sweeney has his hands full with a potential Voting Rights Act lawsuit from the Hispanic community looming and cries that the new map targets Black councilmen.

White , who did not seek a fourth term and now lives on an Alpaca farm with his White wife, a former Lakewood councilwoman,  still has influence, and is a former Ward 8 councilman. He was a state senator before winning mayor 14 years ago against then Cleveland City Council President George Forbes (pictured), a former Cleveland NAACP president and general counsel for the Call and Post Newspaper, a Black weekly print newspaper distributed in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati published by renown international boxing promoter Don King (pictured below), a native of Cleveland.

International Boxing Promoter Don King

Johnson and Conwell had wards that include the historically Black Glenville neighborhood and Councilman Polensek, a White east side councilman,  and  Ward 10 Councilman Eugene Miller, both had large parts of the Collinwood community, and both still have some Collinwood areas.

But state Sen. Shirley Smith (D-21) (pictured), a Cleveland Democrat, is livid, to put it mildly, and said that Sweeney in the least disregarded the spirit of the charter amendment and that he carved wards to target outspoken council members that he does not like.

"I think it is absolutely outrageous that he [Sweeney] would draw the lines so that two strong councilmen like Ward 8 Councilman Jeff Johnson and Ward 9 Councilman Kevin Conwell must run against each other." said Smith, whose 21st legislative district includes all of the east side wards and some on the majority White west side.

Smith said that Councilman Miller, who is facing a DUI case like Councilman Zack Reed, was shown favoritism by Sweeney, a claim that council members speaking on condition of anonymity supported. But the Ohio lawmaker would not confirm or deny rumors that Sweeney had cursed her out and tried to bully her for speaking out.

Also at council meeting Monday night Miller took on the veteran Polensek saying he was bullying him over the redistricting process and said that he rarely if at all even speaks to him, and Miller said that too much of his ward 10  went to Polensek's neighboring ward 11.

Polensek returned insults complaining that Sweeney carved the wards through a secretive process and that his new ward 11 runs seven miles from Colliwood to downtown Cleveland.

Polensek said that Miller was merely grandstanding.

One council person said  on condition of anonymity that Sweeney handed Councilman Miller a pen ahead of time and asked him to draw how he wanted his ward to be impacted by redistricting.

State Rep. Bill Patmon (pictured) (D-10), a former Ward 8 councilman who lost a bid for mayor against Jackson in 2009, is standing up like Smith and he is upset too. He said after the measure passed that the process was unfair to the community overall, that the Hispanic community was undermined in particular, and that slated city council members were not given the respect necessary as elected officials by Sweeney and his regime.

"It is against everything I believe in when it comes to  representative government," said Patmon, who would not say whether he will run for mayor this year. "This redistricting ordinance excludes at least one group on its face, the Hispanic community, not to mention the slicing and dicing of communities such as Glenville and Collinwood."

In 2009 the first of the two population centered council reductions  required by the charter in recent years saw former councilman Joe Santiago (pictured) lose to outspoken Ward 14 Councilman Brian Cummins (pictured below) in a showdown to get rid of one of two seats to drop council from 21 members to 19. The second of those two seats was taken care of after eliminating then east side Councilmen Robert White, who did a small prison stint for bribery in office. Councilman Reed, formerly the councilman in Ward 3 who would probably have faced White had he not gone to prison, won reelection to the then new Ward 2 that year.

Former Cleveland Councilman

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