Pictured are Cleveland mayoral candidates Justin Bibb and Council President Kevin Kelley (wearing red tie)
By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio-Led by the Imperial Women Coalition, Cleveland activists, in cooperation with the Cleveland African-American Museum, hosted the Cleveland Activists' Inner City Mayoral Candidates In Person Debate between mayoral runoff candidates Justin Bibb and Council President Kevin Kelley on Sat, Oct 16 at the museum in the historic Hough neighborhood in Ward 7 on the city's largely Black east side.
Organized by Museum Executive Director Frances Caldwell and Cleveland activist Kathy Wray Coleman, who leads Imperial Women Coalition and Women's March Cleveland and was the lead organizer, the well attended debate was moderated by Rhonda Crowder and Kevin "Chill" Heard from the Greater Cleveland Association of Black Journalists and free food was provided Audience members enjoyed a catered complimentary lunch of fried catfish and perch, fruit, salad, hush puppies, and more with both Bibb and Kelley contributing for the food that activists paid for.
Media there include Cleveland Fox8 News, Cleveland Channel 3 News, Spectrum Local News, Associated Press, Ideastream, Clevelandurbannews.com, Headlines and Headaches, and the Call and Post, a Black print weekly.
Bibb and Kelley were eager to debate in the heart of Cleveland's Black community as they prepare to square off on Tues, Nov. 2 for the nonpartisan general election. Current Mayor Frank Jackson, the city's four-term Black mayor, is retiring at the end of the year after nearly 16 years as mayor and did not seek a fifth term.
Before the debate activist Genevieve Mitchell did a reading of the poem "Desiderata." Also, former Cleveland councilman Zack Reed, who placed fourth in the seven-way non- partisan primary for mayor last month and now supports Bibb, spoke briefly in support of Bibb before the debate began, and activist Donna Walker- Brown and Cuyahoga County Councilwoman Yvonne Conwell, both of whom have endorsed Kelley, spoke in support of Kelley.
Activist Kathy Wray Coleman introduced Bibb and described him to the audience as young, Black educated, and that is elected he would be the second youngest mayor in Cleveland history behind former mayor Dennis Kucinich.
This election year is the first time the mayor's office has been open for grabs since Jackson, then a city council president, ousted incumbent mayor Jane Campbell from office in 2005 with the help of Black leaders.
Bibb is Black and Kelley is White as voters will soon determine if Cleveland, a city with a population of roughly 372,000 people, will continue to be led by a Black mayor.
The debate topic issues ranged from jobs and education to excessive force and police reforms, neighborhoods and heightened crime, and how city officials will spend millions of COVID-19 federal dollars earmarked to help poor Black communities in Cleveland during a pandemic.
Economic development was also a topic as were diversity in the mayor's cabinet and law enforcement leadership team, and whether Blacks will get some of the top jobs at City Hall.
"Number one, we gotta lower crime in this city and I intend to hire a police chief that shares my passion for social justice, equity and fairness," said Bibb when outlining what his three priorities as mayor would be, if he is elected.
Kelley identified crime as one of his top priorities too, and said that the earmarked Covid- 19 dollars from the federal government, some of which has already been distributed, will not be equally distributed between the city's 17 wards as some White council persons had requested and will instead go to communities in need, a disproportionate number of them Black.
"It will not be distributed between the 17 wards," Kelly said, adding that fair play requires that the wards in most need get priority.
The two candidates, both of them Democrats, agreed that crime and neighborhoods are paramount and said that more focus must be given to revitalizing inner city communities in the largely Black major American city, tackling poverty, and improving the public schools that the mayor controls under state law. Neither candidate would say whether Cleveland Metropolitan School District CEO Dr. Eric Gordon would be retained if they become mayor.
Kelley, 53 and a sixteen-year west side councilman, argued that he is more experienced than Bibb, 34, a chief strategy office for a non-profit agency and former vice president of a bank who interned with Barack Obama but has never held public office, and Bibb described Kelley as part of the status quo that has interfered with Cleveland's growth and catered to big business and the corporate sector.
A sticking point for both candidates was Issue 24, a Cleveland ballot initiative put on the ballot by a group of activists led primarily by Black Lives Matter Cleveland and Samaria Rice, the mother of 12-year-old police killing victim Tamir Rice. The initiative, which voters will decide via next month's election, is aimed at improving oversight of Cleveland police and establishing a decision- making civilian review team.
Kelly said that Issue 24 should not even be on the table and that "the consent decree is the pathway to [police] accountability."
Bibb said he wholeheartedly supports Issue 24.
"I'm the son of a cop and this is not an anti-police bill, " Bibb said of Issue 24. "What this bill does is allow more community voices around the table."
Both candidates said the court-monitored consent decree for police reforms that is currently in place is needed but unlike Bibb, Kelley does not support continuing Mayor Jackson's no chase policy. That policy precludes police car chases absent a suspected felony, a policy Jackson adopted following reckless police chases that resulted in police killings of Black people, some of them bystanders and others, like police killing victims Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell, both gunned down by police in 2012 in Russell's stationary car. Williams and Russell were not even wanted by the law but were chased and killed by 13 non-Black cops shooting an unprecedented 137 bullets at them.
Other activist groups associated with the event include Black Money Matters, Black on Black Crime Inc., Black Women's PAC of greater Cleveland, Brick House Wellness Center for Women, Cleveland Peacemakers, Peace in the Hood, Carl Stokes Brigade, Black Lives Matter Cuyahoga County, and Black Man's Army.
Among other people at the debate were state Rep Stephanie Howse of Cleveland, who is currently running for city council in Ward 7 against former Councilman TJ Dow, Republican Congressional Nominee Lavern Gore, former Ohio senator Shirley Smith Cleveland, Ward 9 Councilman Kevin Conwell, Cleveland judicial candidate Andrea Nelson Moore, Cleveland radio personality Charles E. Bibb Sr., prospective County executive candidate Lee Weingart, the Revs Aaron Phillips, Pamela Pinkney-Butts,and Benjamin Gohlstin, Black Women's PAC President Elaine Gohlstin, Mike Seals, activists Nate Simpson, Michael Nelson, Art McKoy, Marva and David Patterson, Jeff Mixson, and former Cleveland School Board president Gerald C. Henley and his wife Annalisa.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. 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.
