CLEVELAND, OHIO – Black Cleveland activists, led by Imperial Women Coalition, Black on Black Crime Inc., and members of the Cleveland African-American Museum and the Black Women's PAC, hosted a community forum with Cleveland mayoral candidates on Monday at Annie B & Earl's Pancake House in Ward 10 on Saint Clair Avenue on the city's largely Black east side.
The standing-room-only event, which was free to activists and the public, got intense on issues ranging from excessive force to Mayor Frank Jackson's no chase policy.
The nonpartisan primary for mayor and the 17 city council seats is Sept 14 and the general election in which the top two vote-getters for mayor and from each of the city's wards will square off is Nov 2. A four term mayor and the city's third Black mayor, Jackson has opted not to seek an unprecedented fifth term.
Candidates in the seven-way primary race for mayor, all of them Democrats, and four of them Black, are state Sen. Sandra Williams (D-21), Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelley, former congressman and one-time city mayor Dennis Kucinich, attorney Ross DiBello, non-profit executive Justin Bibb, Ward 7 Councilman Bashear Jones, and former Ward 2 Councilman Zack Reed.
Reed lost a mayoral runoff to Jackson in 2017 and is making his second bid for mayor, and while he does not have big business behind him or a campaign war chest like Kelley, Bibb and Jones, he does have citywide name recognition, something Kucinich also has as a prior congressman and former city mayor.
Activist Kathy Wray Coleman, who leads Women's March Cleveland and the Imperial Women Coalition, a grassroots group founded behind the murders of 11 Black Women on Imperial Avenue on Cleveland's east side by the late serial killer Anthony Sowell, was the head organizer of the gathering and moderated the event, which was also organized by Cleveland African-American Museum Executive Director Frances Caldwell, Black on Black Crime President Alfred Porter Jr, Black Women's PAC president Elaine Gohlstin, and activist Donna Walker Brown.
All of the candidates were there on Monday but Kelley, who had Councilman Kevin Conwell stand in for him at the last minute, Conwell catching criticism from Jones for telling the Black audience that he has endorsed Kelley, a White west side councilman.
Jones said Conwell, a Black east side councilman who represents the Glenville neighborhood in Ward 9, was part of the problem at City Hall and would allegedly go in the back room to cut a deal to side with the establishment and Whites on key issues impacting the Black community. His comment drew chatter and chants, and a wealth of applause from the activists.
In turn, Conwell got upset and rose to his feet.
"I write policy," said Councilman Conwell in response to Councilman Jones' comment that he is a patsy for the establishment.
Activist Walker- Brown defended Conwell, her longtime community ally, and said he is an asset to the Black community and can be counted on when called upon on community issues.
In the heat of the moment Jones announced that he would pay the restaurant bill for Monday's activist event, after he learned that Kelley's campaign was chipping in on the bill.
"This is my community and I will pay the bill," said Jones, adding that "Annie B has the best pancakes in town."
In the end candidates chipped in with Jones footing most of the bill, followed by Kelley.
On the question asked by Coleman on whether the candidates support masks in schools since the city mayor, per state law, controls Cleveland's public schools, all of them there said yes.They all nodded no to the question posed by Walker- Brown as to whether they support stop-and-frisk.
Asked by Coleman if the candidates support Mayor's Jackson no chase policy, a policy that precludes police from taking chase unless it is a suspected felony and one that the Cleveland police Patrolmen's Association and some White west side council persons, including Kelley, oppose as letting misdemeanors off easy, all of the candidates but Kucinich said yes.
As to more police, the candidates all said yes to that question, with Jones, Bibb, Williams, and Reed, the four Blacks in the race for mayor, adding a caveat and saying that they want more police in needed areas such more detectives on cold cases and to patrol the streets and neighborhoods.
A front-runner, Kucinich stressed that he would push for the city to hire more good cops if he is elected, and not racist cops or cops who will be "killing people with impunity."
And Williams, in her sixteenth year as a state lawmaker, said that while she supports an adequate number of police on the city's police force, she also supports getting rid of "qualified immunity," a legal doctrine that keeps police safe from lawsuits.
Candidates Reed, Bibb and DiBello said that improving police- community relations is a significant role as a mayor and that they are better equipped than the other candidates to minimize fallout between police and the Black community
All of the candidates agreed to a diversified cabinet and law enforcement leadership team if elected, as well as more Blacks at central office relative to the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. And that each said they would implement strategies to deal with the dearth of Black police officers, given that the city's police department is roughly 65 percent White
The candidates spoke at length on what they would do regarding excessive force and police killings of Blacks since 2012 such as 12-year-old Tamir Rice, Malissa Anderson, Timothy Russell, Brandon Jones, rapper Kenneth Ball and Tanisha Anderson, all of the them promising police reforms and agreeing that there needs to be a monitoring mechanism in place once the consent decree for police reforms between the city and the U.S. Department of Justice is dissolved.
During the question and answer session of the forum Latisha Powell, whose son was murdered and his killer is still on the loose, spoke on gun violence and Scott Hawkins, whose son, Arthur Keith, was shot and killed by a Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) cop, said he could not understand why the cop at issue was not indicted after shooting his son several times in the back.
Activists said County Prosecutor Mike O'Malley, whom some of them supported when he ousted then county prosecutor and fellow Democrat Tim McGinty from office in 2016, has, in their view, not been assertive enough in getting indictments against cops and other law enforcement personnel who erroneously kill Black people in the line of duty.
Sen. Wiliams, the only woman in the race for mayor this year, took on Bashear Jones, saying O'Malley is doing what he is doing because people like Jones and other Blacks put him in office.
Activist Michael Nelson questioned Kucinich on whether he agrees with the longstanding practice by city council that if the person elected mayor is White city council will choose a Black as council president, and if the person elected mayor is Black, a White will be chosen.
Kuncinich responded and said "I agree with having a Black council president, a facetious comment that suggests that he believes that he, a White candidate, might win for mayor.
Other speakers at the pancake brunch forum were Cleveland Ward 1 Councilman Joe Jones, Republican congressional nominee for the 11th district Lavern Jones Gore, and activists Brenda Adrine, Alfred Porter Jr, the Rev. Pamela Pinkney Butts, Genevieve Mitchell and Elaine Gohlstin of the Black Women's PAC. Ward 10 Councilman Anthony Hairston, who represents the Saint Clair-Superior neighborhood where the mayoral candidates forum was held, was also in attendance but did not speak.
Other affiliated activist groups at the forum include Black Lives Matter Cuyahoga County, Brickhouse Wellness Center, Carl Stokes Brigade, and the Black Man's Army.
Cleveland is a largely Black city of some 372,000 residents, and geographically it is the second most segregated city in the nation behind Boston with most Whites residing on the city's west side and Blacks living primarily on the east side, the two sides separated by the Cuyahoga River. Both Cleveland and Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, are Democratic strongholds run primarily by Democrats.
