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BUDISH APPOINTS WONDOLOWSKI TO PORT BOARD AFTER BIBB JUST REPLACED HIM
THOUGH CLEVELAND MAYOR
Justin Bibb publicly chose not to reappoint labor leader Dave Wondolowski to the ClevelandCuyahoga County Port Authority board of directors, County Executive Armond Budish has now nominated him to replace another member in the middle of her term.
In an April 1 letter to County Council President Pernel Jones obtained by Scene, Budish nominated Wondolowski for a seat currently occupied by local attorney Jan Roller. Roller is one of three board members, (out of the body’s total nine), appointed by the county executive.
Roller was first appointed in 2012 and reappointed in 2016. Though she is serving a current four-year term that began on Oct 1. 2020 and runs through Sep. 30, 2024, she was not reappointed in 2020. The term is therefore technically unfilled. Roller is a Cleveland resident and was a prominent supporter of Justin Bibb in the 2021 mayoral race.
The letter from Budish provided no additional details on the context or rationale for the appointment, saying only that Wondolowski was a resident of Broadview Heights (a resident and elector of Cuyahoga County), and that there were no known conflicts of interest that would complicate his appointment.
Roller was not immediately available for comment. A county spokeswoman was unable to say whether Roller had intended to resign or whether Budish asked her to step aside to make way for Wondolowski. A City of Cleveland spokeswoman said only that the appointment was the executive’s to make and that the Bibb administration had no additional comment.
Until his own term expired at the end of January, Wondolowski served as Vice Chair on the Port’s board. The body oversees both the maritime operations in the Cleveland harbor and supports major infrastructure and economic development projects through its financing arm. Wondolowski was appointed to his four-year term by Mayor Frank Jackson in 2018.
Wondolowski works by day as the head of the Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council. But he was also a provocative surrogate for former City Council President Kevin Kelley during the 2021 mayoral campaign. He was in fact responsible for some of the most hostile rhetoric in the leadup to the general election, calling on voters at a Kelley campaign rally to “kick the shit out of” Bibb on election day.
Shortly after he won in November, Bibb made it clear that he wouldn’t ask Wondolowski to serve another term at the Port, a decision Wondolowski understood as a natural byproduct of his opposing political allegiances.
Bibb appointed Dan O’Malley, Executive Secretary of the AFL-CIO, to replace Wondolowski, keeping a labor representative on the board. O’Malley even resigned his city council presidency in Lakewood in order to accept the post, to avoid a conflict of interest.
Budish’s appointment of Wondolowski, mere weeks after Bibb showed him the door, has already been interpreted by some watchers as a slap in the face to the young mayor. This is not, however, the first time Budish has used a board appointment as a political weapon. Just last year, after Chris Ronayne announced that he would run for Cuyahoga County Executive, Budish removed him from the Port Board and replaced him with local businessman Andrew Jackson.
-Sam Allard
Public Square Bollard Project to Replace Jersey Barriers Now Estimated at $3.5 Million
The all-in budget for a project to replace the “temporary” concrete Jersey barriers on Public Square with a system of removable bollards is now $3.5 million. According to the project managers at the Group Plan Commission, the nonprofit that manages Public Square, the scope of work will also include repairing street damage on Superior Avenue sustained through five years of concentrated bus traffic.
The new all-in figure, disclosed last week at a meeting of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA) board of trustees, is $500,000 higher than the $3 million budget referenced in legislation currently under consideration by Cleveland City Council. If passed, that legislation would authorize the city to spend $1.5 million on the project and modify an existing contract with the Group Plan Commission to conduct the work.
Representatives from the Group Plan Commission outlined the project scope and provided additional details at the board meeting. They said that RTA will be asked to contribute $500,000 toward the project’s funding goal.
“With the city’s contribution, that would get us to $2 million,” said Sanaa Julien, CEO of the Group Plan Commission. “And we are actively fundraising with proposals in market for the balance.”
Julien said that the project budget takes into account a number of “nuances,” not least the so-called “Covid premium” affecting the global supply chain. Julien said, nevertheless, that she expected the project to ultimately cost less than $3.5 million, and that the Group Plan Commission would use whatever remained for ongoing bollard maintenance and repairs, as well as other Public Square operational costs.
RTA’s Deputy General Manager for Engineering, Mike Schipper, provided commentary on the project as well. He could hardly contain his disdain for the so-called “temporary measures” that have been in place on the Square since 2017, mandated by former Mayor Frank Jackson to assuage his debunked concerns about terrorism.
RTA has been working behind the scenes to come up with permanent solutions, Schipper said, because the jersey barriers have been an ongoing irritant for bus operations. They’ve
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wasted time and money and cause disruption of service every time they’re moved. Sanaa Julien said that it cost $15,000 to remove the barriers for St. Patrick’s Day earlier this month, for example, and that the Group Plan Commission incurred additional costs.
When Superior Avenue is closed through the Square, according to RTA COO Floun’say Caver, the system’s on-time performance falls by five percent.
“If we don’t get out of downtown on time,” he said. “We can never catch up west of the river. From an operational standpoint, the link between Superior Avenue and Public Square is tremendously important to our system.”
Bearing that in mind, Schipper said that ideally, street repair and bollard installation on Superior would take place in “one continuous activity” that would affect operations as briefly as possible, perhaps in a burst of work as short as four to six weeks.
Most of the bollards themselves, which have previously and erroneously been reported as “retractable” (including in this publication), will actually be removable, engineered by the local firm Osborn. Due to the network of utilities underneath the Square, a retractable system would be impractical.
Nora Romanoff of LAND Studio, representing the Group Plan Commission, said that the option being considered for the eastern and western entrances to Superior on the Square is the RAPTOR system. That system would, in fact, be retractable, but has a much shallower installation below street level and would be optimal for event closures. Temporary planters in the walkways would also be retrofitted with bollards.
“We are aware of the importance of continuity of design,” said Romanoff. “I have a saying, I don’t want this to look like ‘old shoes on a new dress.’ We want this to look like a park, not like a retrofit.”
DIGIT WIDGET
$20,000
Value of classical guitar stolen from the car of Paraguayan guitarist Berta Rojas in Ohio City last weekend. (Cleveland Police have identified a person of interest, but have not yet recovered the instrument.)
1,900
Total beds that members of the Cuyahoga County Jail Steering Committee determined were necessary for a new county jail, based on historical population trends. (The current jail population stands at about 1,600.)
$550 million
Estimated cost of the new county jail project.
$15,000
Fine levied against Cavs Head Coach J.B. Bickerstaff for criticizing officiating during Saturday’s loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, (though the NBA acknowledged the refs missed two critical calls in the game’s final minute.)
-Sam Allard
How do the Candidates for County Executive say “Cuyahoga”?
The Democratic frontrunner for Cuyahoga County Executive, Chris Ronayne, is convinced that he pronounces the word ‘Cuyahoga’ with a long ‘o,’ like hoagie.
“I’m willing to be convinced otherwise, but that’s how I say it across the board: Cuyahoga County, Cuyahoga River, Cuyahoga Falls.”
But even as he listed these examples off, his pronunciation of the controversial third syllable veered toward hawg.
“Huh,” he said. “Yeah, sometimes for the Cuyahoga River that happens.”
It was posited by no less than Pulitzer-Prize Winner Connie Schultz, when the Plain Dealer covered the pronunciation dispute back in 2009, that it was an “East Side-West Side thing, with East Siders leaning toward hoag.”
When presented with this theory, Ronayne allowed that the elision in his pronunciation might be due to his “split lineage” as a resident of Cleveland’s West Side but having worked professionally for 16 years on the East Side at University Circle Inc. He said he was fascinated, in any case, by the word’s origins and its various meanings to Native American nations that occupied the area or influenced the language.
“Depending on the tribe, [Cuyahoga means] either ‘crooked’ or ‘jawbone’ or ‘Land of the Small,’” he said. “I like the first two.”
Ronayne said that he has even started greeting local audiences as “Cuyahogans” in remarks.
“I don’t know if this is new, and I’m interested to see how it plays,” he said, “but the reality is, we’re all one watershed.”
Republican challenger Lee Weingart answered unconventionally. Not only did he pronounce the word in the hoagie style. He also said he thinks he pronounces it as a three syllable, not a four-syllable word. “Cuy-HOGA,” or even Cuy’hoga. (We didn’t pursue this digression, but the Summit County denizens in the North Akron suburbs tend to compress the word further still, down to two hard-working syllables, e.g., Cawga Falls.)
Could this be considered a tomayto-tomahto situation, Scene inquired of the Republican?
“I guess,” Weingart replied. “I’m a tomayto guy. The other sounds pretentious. Like ‘rather’ or “raaaaath-er.’”
Democratic challenger Tariq Shabazz, distinguishing himself from the pack, told Scene in an email that he believes he pronounces the word Cuyahawga.
-Sam Allard
Ohio Republicans Introduce Version of ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill
On Monday, Republicans introduced HB 616 in the Ohio House of Representatives, legislation with broad, vague, and barely defined language designed to ban the promotion and teaching of “divisive and inherently racist concepts.”
The bill contains specific bans on acknowledging or discussing LGBTQ+ identity.
Sponsored by Representatives Mike Loychick (R-Bazetta) and Jean Schmidt (R-Loveland), the bill would ban school districts from selecting “any textbook, instructional material, or academic curriculum that promotes any divisive or inherently racist concepts” including:
• Critical race theory • Intersectional theory • The 1619 project • Diversity, equity, and inclusion
learning outcomes • Inherited racial guilt • Any other concept that the state board of education defines as divisive or inherently racist
Additionally, the bill would prevent schools from offering “training or professional development to employees that promote or endorse divisive or inherently racist concepts.”
Further, the bill jumps right into the “Don’t Say Gay” fray championed by Republican lawmakers in Florida with the following proposed bans:
• With respect to a student in any of grades kindergarten through three, schools may not teach, use, or provide any curriculum or instructional materials on sexual orientation or gender identity • With respect to a student in any of grades four through twelve, schools may not teach, use, or provide any curriculum or instructional materials on sexual orientation or gender identity in any manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.
Consequences for violating these statutes include an official licensure admonishment, licensure suspension, licensure revocation, and the withholding of funds to that school.
Ohio’s LGBTQ+ organizations will be releasing statements and strategies in the upcoming days, though a TikTok from Kathryn Poe, public policy organizer at Equality Ohio, summed up initial reactions to the bill:
“Today Ohio lawmakers introduced a combination ‘Don’t Say Gay’ and curriculum ban bill, all in one bill. This is a combination of all of the really bad parts of Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill and all of the really bad parts of Ohio’s curriculum ban. Not only that, this bill somehow manages to be even more broad and vague than the other versions of this bill.”
Next stop, the bill will be assigned a committee — likely the Primary and Secondary Education Committee — before proponent and then opponent testimony hearings are scheduled.
