Scene October 6, 2021

The Pace of Passage How quickly Cleveland city council makes laws and what that means for residents

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CONTENTS OCTOBER 6-19, 2021 • VOL. 52 NO 07

Upfront .......................................7 Feature ..................................... 12 Get Out .....................................20 Arts .......................................... 23 Dedicated to Free Times founder Richard H. Siegel (1935-1993) and Scene founder Richard Kabat Publisher Andrew Zelman Editor Vince Grzegorek Editorial Music Editor Jeff Niesel Senior Writer Sam Allard Staff Writer Brett Zelman Dining Editor Douglas Trattner Visual Arts Writer Shawn Mishak Stage Editor Christine Howey Editorial Intern Emma Sedlak Advertising Senior Multimedia Account Executive John Crobar, Shayne Rose Creative Services Production Manager Haimanti Germain Editorial Layout Evan Sult Staff Photographer Emanuel Wallace

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In 1998, Scene celebrated Indians opening day with a cover that we would have never used now. Next year, the Guardians take the field.

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UPFRONT Photo by Sam Allard

JONES FLIPS SCRIPT, ENDORSES KELLEY IN MAYOR’S RACE

CLEVELAND CITY Councilman Basheer Jones has endorsed City Council President Kevin Kelley in the Cleveland mayor’s race.

Jones ran for mayor this year as well, placing fifth in the primary election last month. He frequently butted heads with Kelley on the summer campaign trail, accusing Kelley of being a roadblock to progress on City Council.

But last Wednesday morning, at an event that doubled as a ribboncutting for a new community park in Ward 7, Jones said that while he may have disagreed with Kelley on a number of issues in the past, he respected that Kelley was “a man of his word,” and one who was “courageous enough to stand up for what he believes in.”

Jones said that the mayoral

election was about three Rs: renaissance, results and resources.

Under a Kelley administration, he argued, Cleveland neighborhoods would see ongoing investment of the sort that he and Kelley had cooperated to secure in Ward 7, things like the new Cleveland Foundation headquarters and $15 million in parks and recreation spending.

He described a professional relationship in which he, as a bushytailed freshman councilman, would frequently bring big plans and bold ideas to Kelley, who by dint of his wisdom and experience could convert those ideas into action, all for the benefit of residents in the Hough, St. Clair-Superior and Asiatown neighborhoods that Jones represents.

The endorsement, which Kelley described as an “awesome moment,”

was met with ambivalence, if not outright disappointment, by many of Jones’ former supporters and other election observers. Jones had regularly aligned himself with Justin Bibb during the primary.

Both were young leaders who were explicitly challenging the status quo. Jones frequently and eloquently called out the entrenched interests that governed Cleveland and, in his view, refused to pass the torch to the next generation of leaders.

“You’re not gonna catch me attacking Bibb,” Jones said during an early mayoral forum on the west side. “He and I have the same mission to make this city better, even if we’re riding in different cars.”

Jones’ language was radically different Wednesday. He did not refer to Bibb by name, but said he and other voters in Ward 7 “would not

be fooled” by candidates with limited experience. “We have no idea who they are or where they come from,” he said, an allusion to Bibb, who has never held elected office.

Jones also introduced the idea that he shouldn’t be expected to endorse the Black candidate in the race simply because he, too, was Black.

“This race is beyond race,” Jones said more than once. He even invited the crowd of supporters to repeat the mantra after him. “We know that a person can look like you and still be your worst enemy.”

These remarks seemed to represent a stark shift in tone and allegiance, but when asked directly about this perception, responded that the only reason the media would have expected him to align with Bibb is because they were

October 6-19, 2021 | clevescene.com |

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UPFRONT both Black. Norm Edwards, the president of the Kelley-aligned Black Contractors Group, shouted “That’s gotta stop!” as Jones accused the media of laziness to a round of applause. Jones emphasized that he was endorsing Kelley only after he’d conducted a thorough investigation of both candidates and sided with Kelley’s experience.

“If you know me,” he said, “you know I don’t stand for nothing I don’t believe in.”

-Sam Allard

Council Begins Depressing Progressive Field Deal Ratification Process Cleveland City Council met Monday afternoon to begin the process of ratifying a handout of $117 million over the next 15 years to the Dolan family and the Cleveland Guardians.

The $117 million will be the city contribution in an elaborate cooperative agreement announced last month that includes $285 million in total public dollars. This is money that’s framed as a necessary investment in the preservation and enhancement of Progressive Field to secure the Guardians’ presence in Cleveland for an additional 15 years.

Just as in the Q Deal hearings of 2017, City Council is likely to greenlight the deal as constructed — that is to say, a deal constructed in private, without public input of any kind, and presented with only general notions of what the massive subsidies will be used to pay for.

Paying this ransom to billionaire owners is simply the cost of having a pro team in your city, citizens are instructed to internalize.

Familiar lines of argument for and against the deal were voiced by members of council Monday, in what Council President and Mayoral candidate Kevin Kelley described as the first of several hearings on the deal. Though it was initially on the agenda for a vote at Monday’s evening meeting, this was likely an error. Kelley assured his colleagues that there would be ample opportunity to question team representatives about the particulars of the deal’s finances and community benefits in the coming weeks.

Gateway Economic Development Corporation Chairman Ken Silliman, Mayor Frank Jackson’s former Chief of Staff, presented the broad strokes of the deal to council’s finance

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committee. This included the various revenue streams being cobbled together to get to $8 million per year from the city’s coffers. That’ll include $3.2 million annually from a sports facility reserve created as part of the Q Deal, $2 million from parking garage revenue, an estimated $2.55 million from Guardians admission tax revenue, $333,000 from naming rights on the Gateway East garage, (assuming some corporation buys these naming rights), and $350,000 in “unspecified” money.

Councilman Mike Polensek, who was one of the main council opponents of the Q Deal in 2017, gave nearly the identical speech he gave when the Q Deal was first presented to council. He said that the pro teams had systematically lied to legislators (and by extension, Clevelanders) to force deals through city and county council. He even recalled a conversation he’d had with an unnamed businessman in which he (Polensek) questioned the figure of 28,000 jobs promised as part of the Gateway project. The businessman joked with Polensek that that’s just what they’d said to get the public money, an admission that didn’t seem to bother anyone else at the table.

Polensek said Silliman and the team reps should be prepared to answer pointed questions when they came to present to council, because he planned to be very clear about just how bad things have gotten in Cleveland, including, notably, the poverty rate.

Councilman Brian Kazy also said he suspected the deal would be a “hard sell” for Cleveland voters, given the profit margins of the team and, by contrast, the poor economic condition of the city in the wake of the pandemic.

This opposition was tempered by the scripted softball questions and clarifications from reliably pro-deal councilmembers. Kevin Kelley interrupted Silliman early on, for example, to stress the public ownership of Progressive Field and clarified that if the team were to leave Cleveland, the maintenance of the facility would fall entirely on the city’s shoulders. He trotted out the same line he likely gave to councilman Blaine Griffin in supporting the 60-year Tax Increment Financing agreement for the Flats East Bank development project and intoned that “there is a cost to doing nothing.”

Brian Mooney, who represents the West Boulevard area, chimed in to say that he viewed these deals kind of like tax abatements -- as unpleasant, but necessary, tools to

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promote economic development. His shrugging attitude was that this was simply the way the world worked and there wasn’t much Cleveland could do about it.

Councilman Blaine Griffin said he hoped the discussion could move away from how the city is enriching billionaire owners and toward how the city would continue to benefit economically from the team’s presence. (The team owners and their propagandists no doubt feel the same!) He said he knew there were midsize cities -- San Antonio, Nashville, Indianapolis -- that were setting up commissions to try to lure the Guardians away from Cleveland and, in that context, felt the deal was prudent.

In response to questions about the length of the lease (15 years) and the size of the public contribution ($285 million), Ken Silliman said that council should compare the deal not to cities with longer terms and small contributions but to those where a new stadium was built with lots of public money, in which light the Cleveland deal seemed downright cheap.

“By investing in our existing asset, and by keeping it contemporary,” he said, “we are maximizing the likelihood that the city and county will not have to tackle a billion dollar facility.”

-Sam Allard

Maurer Files OEC Complaint, Alleging Improper Campaign Spending in Ward 12 Ward 12 Cleveland City Council candidate Rebecca Maurer has filed a complaint with the Ohio Elections Commission arguing that the Council Leadership Fund, a political action committee controlled

by Council President and mayoral candidate Kevin Kelley, has donated far more than the maximum allowed by law to incumbent Anthony Brancatelli’s campaign.

Brancatelli and Maurer finished in the top two spots in the Ward 12 council primary last month. Maurer, an attorney who wrote the legislation for Cleveland Lead Advocates for Safe Housing, came within 80 votes of Brancatelli.

The Council Leadership fund is a PAC that exists to support incumbents in the good graces of the council president and has been wielded in the past as a weapon to stifle dissent. It wrote a check to Brancatelli in July for $3,000, the maximum allowed under the city charter. But it subsequently paid for three pro-Brancatelli mailers in

Ward 12, in-kind contributions worth thousands of dollars.

Maurer filed the complaint Thursday, she said, only after giving Brancatelli and the Council Leadership Fund the benefit of the doubt. She wrote a letter to Brancatelli’s campaign asking him to return the excess contributions.

“I assume that this spending by the Council Leadership Fund, and the subsequently inaccurate disclosures filed by your campaign, were an oversight,” Maurer wrote.

“It can be easily rectified. We are requesting that the in-kind donations of the [three mailers] be accurately reported to the Board of Elections and that the cost of those mailers be refunded to the Council Leadership Fund so that the Fund does not exceed the $3,000 spending limit.”

As Maurer notes in her complaint, the Council Leadership Fund, having donated the max, is precluded from participating in campaign activities “in coordination, cooperation or consultation with” a campaign.

The PAC nevertheless paid for the three mailers and sent them to residents of Ward 12, which is composed of Slavic Village on the east side and portions of Old Brooklyn, Brooklyn-Centre and Tremont on the west side. All the mailers purported to be from Brancatelli himself.

“There isn’t a big mystery here,” Maurer wrote in a social media thread explaining the complaint Friday. “These mailers use the incumbent’s official logo, phone number, and e-mail. They are written by the incumbent—they say “me” and “my.” One even has a letter encouraging people to vote signed by the incumbent. Printing and sending these three mailers undoubtedly cost thousands and thousands of dollars. And because the PAC was sending these out, I don’t think the incumbent sent a single piece of mail that he paid for himself — one of the largest expenses in a campaign.”

All three pieces of mail were paid for by the Council Leadership Fund, and the complaint alleges that the coordination between the Fund and Brancatelli appears “unambiguous.”

Councilman Brancatelli, when reached by email, denied involvement. “I do not control or approve expenditures for the Council Leadership Fund,” he wrote, and invited Scene to seek an explanation from the fund itself.

The fund is controlled by Kevin Kelley. His campaign spokesperson, Maureen Harper, provided the following statement: “Rebecca Maurer’s campaign

raised this issue just before the primary election and the PAC responded to it then. Not surprisingly, she’s raising it again before the general election. Our response is the same. The standard is that PACs can make contributions to candidates and that they can undertake independent expenditures.

Now, it’s up to the Commission to decide if they will review this issue.”

Brancatelli’s claim is that the mailers were “independent expenditures,” paid for and created by the Council Leadership Fund without his involvement. Rebecca Maurer’s campaign says that even if that were true — which is highly unlikely — the Council Leadership Fund would be violating another campaign finance law by “impersonating Brancatelli

DIGIT WIDGET 1960 Median birth year of Clevelanders who cast votes in the 2021 mayoral primary. Ward 1 (Lee Harvard) had the lowest median birth year (1956), while Ward 3 (Downtown, Tremont, Ohio City) had the highest (1981).

$50 million Gift from the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation to the Cleveland Orchestra, the largest gift in both organizations’ history.

Severance Hall will now be known as the Severance Music Center and the concert hall will be redubbed the Jack, Joseph & Moton Mandel Concert Hall.

10/11/2021, 7:30 p.m.

Date and time of the Mayoral Debate between Justin Bibb and Kevin Kelley. It’ll air on WVIZ, WCPN and will be streamed live on CityClub.org.

3-1 Cleveland Browns record after 4 games, the second consecutive season they’ve won three consecutive games after losing an opener.

and failing to include the proper disclaimers.” The first of the three mailers literally includes a letter to residents signed by Brancatelli himself.

“From the campaign’s perspective, this looks like textbook coordination,” said Nora Kelley, Rebecca Maurer’s campaign treasurer. (No relation to Kevin).

“The letter is signed by the candidate and the mailer has the campaign logo on it. But there is the possibility that the Council Leadership Fund did this without Councilman Brancatelli’s approval. But then they’d be misrepresenting the councilperson, another campaign finance violation. One of the two has to be true.”

In a follow-up conversation, Maurer told Scene that the complaint got to fundamental reasons why she launched her campaign in the first place: to promote transparency and accountability in government.

“We should be playing fair and playing by the rules,” she said, “but it’s not just following rules for the sake of following rules. In small campaigns, these are really high stakes. If [Brancatelli] is getting multiple pieces of mail from the Council Leadership Fund, that’s thousands and thousands of dollars that he doesn’t have to spend.

And on the flipside, if the Council Leadership Fund can pretend to be a councilperson and send infinite mail into the ward and claim it’s an independent expenditure, that clearly flouts the rules. It makes it hard for us to concentrate on what really matters in the ward.”

-Sam Allard

Cleveland Enters Era, at Last, of Public Comment at City Council Meetings For the first time in a century, Cleveland City Council allowed members of the public to offer comments at its meeting Monday night. Ten civilian speakers provided testimony on a range of issues, from the allocation of American Rescue Plan Act dollars, to the urgency of testing for elevated lead levels in Cleveland children, to the forthcoming Progressive Field Deal, to the perils of local arts workers.

The allotted 30-minute public speaking time, which will now be standard at council’s Monday meetings, was the result of the advocacy efforts of the grassroots Clevelanders for Public Comment group. Through 2021, its members citywide mobilized citizen and council support for public comment October 6-19, 2021 | clevescene.com |

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UPFRONT

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and wrote legislation that City Council could adopt if it chose.

Though council ultimately passed a rules change in lieu of an ordinance, it agreed at its Sept. 20 meeting to formally designate the public comment period at its Monday meetings and established a sign-up procedure for those wishing to offer their takes on issues of importance to them.

The ten speakers Monday instantly corroborated the arguments in favor of public comment: that it alerts council members to issues not currently on the council agenda or radar, that it provides a venue for direct communication and confrontation with elected representatives, and that it heightens transparency and citizen engagement on city legislation.

City Council did briefly allow public comment back in the 1920s, when Cleveland was under a city manager form of government. But since that time, the public has been excluded. Here were the 10 speakers Monday who helped launch a new era in Cleveland: 1) Grace Heffernan, representing the Northeast Ohio Worker Center.* Heffernan asked that council consider devoting a portion of ARPA dollars to providing hazard pay for essential workers and called for increased enforcement of labor laws, given widespread abuses in Northeast Ohio and the state’s limited investigatory capacity.

2) Robin Brown, representing PB Cle. Brown called on council to embrace a participatory budgeting model for the disbursement of ARPA dollars and reiterated a symbolic demand made by PB Cle: that $30.8 million be set aside for participatory budgeting, to represent the 30.8% of Clevelanders who live in poverty.

3) Sarah Gutierrez, representing the Cleveland Art Workers Collective. Gutierrez celebrated the work of full-time local artists and noted that cultural products are often what makes places like Cleveland such unique and desirable places to live. She said that if living conditions do not improve for artists, many of them are likely to flee.

4) Andy Schumann, representing the Cleveland Art Workers Collective. Schumann echoed the comments of Gutierrez and asked for council to help devote financial resources to the performing arts.

5) Michael Hardy, City Council candidate in Ward 11. After greeting the body in multiple languages, Hardy thanked council for instituting public comment and indexed the merits of civic engagement writ large.

6) Randy Cunningham. The veteran Cleveland agitator and author confronted council on its historical revulsion of local grassroots efforts. Even the public comment ordinance, he noted correctly, was “greeted with all the enthusiasm of an ordinance endorsing cannibalism.” He characterized the public comment period as merely the first step in democracy building efforts more broadly.

7) Ross DiBello. The longshot mayoral contender was back in his wheelhouse, approaching the mic with a festive, “Go Browns.”

He called on council to reject the Progressive Field Deal, which he called yet another corporate handout, and said that the $117 million that the city is considering spending on the deal could be used to fund any number of urgent city expenses: from the schools to the West Side Market to lead paint remediation.

8) Yvonka Hall, representing Cleveland Lead Advocates for Safe Housing (CLASH). Hall called on council to spend ARPA funds to dramatically increase testing for lead poisoning. She said that money should be set aside to fund testing at two city health centers -- McCafferty Health Center in Ohio City and the J. Glen Smith Health Center in Glenville -- and a mobile testing unit to provide tests in nontraditional locations.

9) Mario Pollard, representing CLASH. Pollard echoed the demands of Hall. He said that lead poisoning is a public health emergency and noted that Ohio was recently found to have the second highest percentage of children with elevated lead levels in the country (behind only Nebraska).

10) Darrick Wade, representing CLASH. Wade offered a more personal side of the lead crisis, telling the story of his son Demetrius, who was diagnosed with lead poisoning at age of 9 and died as a young man after years of medical woe and personal challenges.

*Author’s wife.

-Sam Allard

scene@clevescene.com @clevelandscene

October 6-19, 2021 | clevescene.com |

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FEATURE

Illustration by John G.

THE PACE OF PASSAGE What purpose do rules about city council proceedings serve if they’re always disregarded?

By Doug Breehl-Pitorak and Cleveland Documenters DURING A JULY FORUM FOR mayoral candidates, Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelley answered what seemed like a simple question: “What are your thoughts on what constitutes adequate public notice and public participation?”

Kelley, who called public participation “crucial,” said during his seven years leading council, he’d made sure residents had advance notice of meetings and agenda items and that he cut down on the use of a tactic called “passage under suspension.”

When council passes an ordinance under suspension, it waives the normal rules that require proposed legislation to be read by the full council on three separate days before it can be approved and limits the window of discussion, debate or public input between the introduction and passage of a law.

“It almost never happens unless it is a small issue like a liquor [license]

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or a hyper-local issue,” Kelley told the voters gathered underneath a pavilion at Edgewater Park on July 27. It happened “all the time” prior to his becoming council president, Kelley said. “Now it does not happen unless there’s an extreme time emergency.”

Cleveland Documenters’ review of records found that what Kelley said isn’t true.

Between January 2020 and May 2021, Cleveland City Council voted to suspend its own rules and shorten the legislative process 99.5 percent of the time, according to The City Record, the official journal of council’s proceedings.

Council passed legislation the same day it was introduced nearly a third of the time. The introduction of legislation is often the first opportunity for the public to learn about it.

Kelley, through his executive

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assistant, declined to answer questions about his statements or about what Cleveland Documenters found.

The habit of “suspending the rules” may seem mundane or bureaucratic. It’s easy to overlook with hundreds of pieces of legislation churning through committees and council meetings each year. But it raises questions about why the rules exist if they are almost universally disregarded. By shortening or skipping the committee process, council also fuels doubt about its capacity to vet legislation. And if sparing use of passage under suspension aids public participation, as Kelley implied, does routine suspension — what actually happens in council — obstruct the public from getting involved?

That’s what several community members contended in 2020, when council officially set in motion Operation Relentless Pursuit (ORP),

a federally funded policing initiative also referred to as Operation Legend.

Though the federal government announced that Cleveland was selected for the program in December 2019, council authorized the city to use the first wave of funding — $1,428,571 — by passing legislation the day it was introduced in June 2020. It covered overtime pay, benefits, computers and undercover police cars.

Resist Operation Relentless Pursuit Cleveland, a community organization that was formed to oppose the program, noted in its fact sheet that ORP was counterproductive to community safety and would especially harm Cleveland’s Black and brown communities.

Now renamed Clevelanders Against Federal Policing, the group was among several that signed a petition to City Council demanding

three hearings where residents could comment on the program.

“When council declares an ‘emergency’ and evades the requirement of three readings, democracy is starved,” wrote the groups, which included Black Lives Matter Cleveland and Showing Up for Racial Justice Northeast Ohio (SURJ NEO). “When council routinely passes ordinances without input from the public, democracy is throttled.”

Council approved the second wave of funding in September 2020 after two readings, 14 days apart, with a review by the Safety Committee in between. The funding provided nearly $8 million for three years’ worth of salary for 30 police officers.

There was no public comment at those meetings. Though some organizers had private conversations with several council members, a significant majority ignored their calls and emails, according to Daphne Carr, a Youngstown-based activist who has organized with SURJ NEO. “I know that democracy takes time, but it turns out that everybody is much happier when they actually get any say at all on what goes on in their community,” Carr said in an interview.

Concerns about the public’s opportunities to participate are not isolated to any one topic. Cleveland Documenters interviewed nearly 80 residents in 26 Cleveland neighborhoods this summer and found that many have challenges to accessing local government. Many said they didn’t have a reliable way to find out when meetings happen or what would be discussed in them.

That’s an experience Ohio City resident Angelo Trivisonno understands. Trivisonno created a Twitter account in December 2020 that automatically tweets out meeting notices and legislation files after council posts them on Legistar, its legislation-management website.

“Before I made Bill Bot, I really had no idea what council was doing on a day-to-day basis,” he said.

Though he’s noticed that council deals with a lot of routine items like liquor permits and minor zoning issues, Trivisonno said there’s value in sharing information about legislation quickly, especially for advocacy efforts.

“Time is really of the essence in some situations, particularly when three readings are suspended,” he said. “If a meeting is on a Monday, and they release information on Legistar on Thursday or Friday, that doesn’t give people who care about a particular item on council’s agenda much time to discuss with neighbors

or discuss with other interested people or groups. Every moment counts in a number of situations.”

In addition to accelerating the legislative process, council has a habit of speeding up the timeline for ordinances to take effect. Ninetyseven percent of the ordinances council passed were declared an emergency, which means they take effect as soon as the mayor signs them or 10 days after council’s vote. Regular, or non-emergency, ordinances take effect 30 days after they are passed (unless a piece of legislation sets a specific start date). The laws often authorize expenditures, which determine how the city spends taxpayers’ money.

From Parliament to Cleveland, a legislative rule persists Cleveland Documenters contacted 10 council members in addition to Kelley to get a better understanding of passage under suspension, emergency ordinances, and more.

Council Members Jasmin Santana and Jenny Spencer said they weren’t available to talk. Council Members Delores Gray, Anthony Hairston, and Kerry McCormack didn’t respond.

Council Member Kevin Bishop, who represents Ward 2, said he has never questioned the purpose of the rule requiring council to read legislation on three different days, but he thinks it gives the public enough time to digest proposed ordinances and voice their point of view. Council Member Brian Kazy, who represents Ward 16, offered his take on each reading: Day One is for introduction, Day Two is for discussion and comment, and Day Three is for voting.

Kazy’s understanding aligns somewhat with historians and academics who say the “three readings” model for considering legislation, which dates back at least to the 15th Century and is common across the country, gives lawmakers time to understand legislation before voting on it.

“As far as I know it goes back to the English Parliament; it dates back hundreds of years,” said Larry Keller, associate professor emeritus at Cleveland State University’s Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs. “It was meant to forestall emotional legislation. It was to force a legislative body to think about what it’s doing.”

It also gives people inside and outside of the legislative process time to find problems with a proposed law, according to Frank LoMonte, director of the Brechner Center

for Freedom of Information at the University of Florida. Three readings is ultimately a check on “rash” decisions, he said.

Locally, the rule to read legislation on three different days and the authority to suspend it dates back to Ohio’s first constitution, approved in 1803. Cleveland City Council followed state law until 1914, when Cleveland adopted its first city charter after receiving “home rule” authority from Ohio two years earlier. Cleveland kept the rule for reading legislation on three different days and the authority to suspend it. Today, suspension of the rules requires support from at least two-thirds of all members elected to Cleveland City Council, which currently means 12 or more affirmative votes.

But are these centuries-old legislative practices still relevant?

Keller believes they are.

For council, a question of power and time Keller, who has trained city council members in Cleveland and elsewhere, told Cleveland Documenters that by suspending the rules often, councils give up a tool that keeps them viable in a mayor-council form of government like Cleveland’s, a setup where mayors wield lots of power. He wrote a 2014 Cleveland.com column making that argument.

That’s what makes three readings important to me,” Keller said. “It’s part of a menu to make council a truly policy-making body.”

Council Member Mike Polensek, who represents Ward 8, agreed with Keller’s perspective on the “three readings” rule.

Council President Kelley had indicated he would slow the legislative process down after routine suspension increased under former president Martin Sweeney’s leadership, Polensek said. Now Polensek, the longest-serving member in council history, is hoping new leadership in January 2022 will restore a system of accountability and oversight.

“The lines between the administration and council are very blurred; one would argue that there is no division,” Polensek said.

“People view the City Council today as weak, the leadership as weak and ineffective because … they’re in lockstep with the administration.”

Council seeks to work with the administration, Polensek said, adding that there are true emergencies that call for quicker passage of legislation. But much of the argument behind suspending the

rules centers on time constraints, and a properly functioning administration shouldn’t be running so behind on legislation, he said.

Suspending the rules shortens the committee process or bypasses it altogether, even though committees provide a space for digging into important details, according to Polensek. In the past, he said, committee meetings lasted 4 to 5 hours or would be postponed — and the legislation with it — if committee members or administration officials didn’t attend.

“If we didn’t get what we wanted, there would be legislative constipation,” Polensek said.

Not all council members feel that council’s power is compromised by suspending the rules so often.

Cleveland City Council still thoroughly vets legislation, even if it doesn’t adhere to the three-reading standard, said Council Member Blaine Griffin, who represents Ward 6. Griffin, who chairs council’s safety committee, said the council president, committee chairs, and clerk’s office work together to shepherd legislation through the process, which includes committee meetings and administrative review.

“It’s not like a static process; this is not robotic,” Griffin said. “This is a dynamic process that has a lot of decision-making points and has a lot of opportunity to vet the legislation that we’re putting forth.”

One reason for suspension is that the city may risk missing out on a grant, Griffin said.

Other times, a city department might need to purchase equipment or supplies in order to perform services, said Bishop, who was first elected to council in 2017.

Though he couldn’t think of specific examples, Bishop said council’s legislative process has seemed rushed at times, adding that council should slow down when considering long-term contracts and legislation that authorizes the use of lots of taxpayer money. Suspending the rules to buy supplies such as road salt or lawn mowers makes sense, he said, adding that the council could read more legislation on three different days with improved planning.

“If the administration planned things out a little better, then I think we wouldn’t have to suspend the rules so much,” Bishop said. “But from council’s standpoint, we don’t want the city to suffer as far as delivering the services.”

Nearly half — at least 46 percent — of the legislation that council passed between January 2020 and May 2021 came at the city’s request,

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according to Legistar. Ward 9’s Kevin Conwell said the rate at which council suspends the rules is too high and suggested that council do a quarterly review of how it passes legislation. He also wondered if the administration is late in getting legislation to council.

Even if the city does run behind, the responsibility lies with council members to make time, Griffin said. “[Part of our job] is that we actually have to carve out time to make sure that you’re reading the legislation, that you’re familiar and you understand it, that you get feedback from your constituents, that you get feedback from other stakeholders,” he said.

If the city does not provide enough information, committee chairs can hold legislation until it’s ready, Griffin said, adding that he can’t recall many instances of council members saying they didn’t have enough time to look at legislation.

Council recently kept an emergency ordinance in the committee stage rather than voting on it. The legislation would net the city a $415,125 grant from Cuyahoga County to enforce domestic-violence warrants. Kelley said the legislation was sloppy and he postponed a vote, rather than voting later that day, according to Documenter Mildred Seward’s notes on the Aug. 18 Committee of the Whole meeting.

A closer look at legislation passed on introduction Council passed 584 ordinances and emergency ordinances between January 2020 and May 2021. Ninetysix percent passed without a single vote against them, according to the Cleveland Documenters review of The City Record.

A nearly identical pattern emerged among the votes on suspending the rules. Out of about 9,000 opportunities for council members to vote on suspension, they tallied 36 nay votes, none of which ever combined for enough votes to prevent suspension.

Cleveland Documenters honed in on the 26 percent of legislation that council passed in the same meeting it was introduced.

Passing legislation the day it is introduced eliminates the dynamic vetting process Griffin described.

Council’s rules say legislation to be passed “on introduction” must be “considered informally” by at least one committee, so long as “circumstances permit.” The relevant committee chair usually handles this informal consideration, but there is

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“Sometimes they’re just repeat grants, or sometimes there’s just amendments or addendums,” he said.

Though ORP was new, Cleveland has participated in NOLETF since 2005. But, even programs that have been around can stir debate.

This year, council passed a separate NOLETF grant after reading it on two different days. It was first read by council on Dec. 2, 2020, and it was discussed in a Jan. 20 Committee of the Whole Meeting.

There, Council Members Conwell and Joe Jones, who represents Ward 1, expressed doubt about the program’s effectiveness in reducing crime.

Later that day, in a regular council meeting, council unanimously voted to approve the legislation, according to The City Record.

City council president Kevin Kelley has made light of criticism against him.

no meeting, Deputy Clerk of Council Allan Dreyer said.

“The point of introducing and approving legislation under suspension is that there is an urgent need that cannot wait for a meeting,” he wrote in an email.

All the items passed the first time they were read were also emergency ordinances. More than half authorized the use of casino revenue funds, which are a portion of the 5 percent of casino tax revenue that the City of Cleveland gets each year that council members get to spend.

In 2020, it was about $9.7 million.

Those funds went to neighborhood programs that provide computer training, offer music education, renovate the storefronts of small businesses, and more.

That legislation is not controversial and would not have to be read on three separate days because no one would object to it, Kazy said in an interview.

Council also passed several items the same day they were introduced that carry citywide impact, including handing over its authority to approve some vendors and their compensation to the city’s Board of Control, which is made up of members of the mayor’s cabinet and city department heads.

One example of that legislation authorized the implementation of The Division of Information Technology & Services (ITS) 2020 Capital Project Plan. The plan calls for sweeping upgrades to city departments’ computer and internet infrastructure. The legislation authorized the city to engage with multiple vendors and consultants to execute the plan. The funding would come from bonds — a type

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Sam Allard

of loan — secured in 2020 for this purpose. The project was estimated to total $5,358,700 in capital costs, according to a legislative summary obtained by Cleveland Documenters via a public-record request.

In 2021, council passed an ITS plan the same week it was introduced that was estimated to carry $5,000,000 in capital costs, according to a legislative summary available on Legistar.

Another initiative passed on introduction gave the Board of Control authority over vendors and compensation involved in the development of violence-prevention programs for the city’s Neighborhood Resource and Recreation Centers.

Bishop said he thinks council should retain that authority as much as possible, but sometimes the experts on the Board of Control are best positioned to make those decisions.

“If you have synergy through the government, you tend to rely on the professionals in some instances,” Bishop said.

Council members also said ordinances accepting grants could be passed quickly. And that happens, as the ORP legislation showed.

In 2020, council also passed legislation on introduction that authorized the city to get $250,000 from the State of Ohio — plus an $83,333 match from the city — for the operation of the Northern Ohio Law Enforcement Task Force (NOLETF), a coordination of regional law enforcement agencies focused on reducing drug trafficking and other drug-related crimes.

Council may approve grants for NOLETF and ORP because it’s familiar with the programs, according to Griffin.

Calls for extended, thorough deliberation Since Cleveland Documenters began attending meetings in November 2020, Documenters have noted other instances of council members asking for more information or time.

There were several examples during hearings on the budget, the biggest piece of legislation council passes each year.

Requests from council members for more information or time don’t indicate that a piece of legislation is good or bad. They show efforts of oversight and accountability, which are sorely needed given the city’s economic reality, according to Polensek.

“If there’s ever a time in this city’s history that we need to be penny-wise and not pound foolish, it’s now,” he said. “We have to look at every dollar we’re spending, where it’s going, what kind of impact it is having, especially as it pertains to city service and delivery of city services.”

Problems and possibilities for public participation In addition to three readings and public comment, the petition against Operation Relentless Pursuit called out council’s choice of declaring the legislation an emergency. Cleveland Documenters have been curious about that practice from the start of our work last year.

Documenter Jack Barnes, in his notes on a Nov. 18, 2020, City Council meeting, asked, “Why were they ‘emergency ordinances?’

Is it just because of COVID that ‘emergency’ is warranted?”

Emergency ordinances pre-date the pandemic. They don’t always

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indicate an emergency as the word is commonly understood, according to Griffin, who added that council uses them mainly because they’re practical and efficient.

“The clerk’s office, if there’s no objection, then they’re going to take the efficient route to move the legislation along and tag it with emergency,” he said.

Council passed 97 percent of its ordinances as emergency ordinances between January 2020 and May 2021. Some initiated a mask mandate, extended garbage-truck leases, and purchased rock salt.

Another authorized the creation of a Rocky Colavito Jr. statue, honoring the beloved Cleveland baseball player. Passed in November 2020, the “emergency” statue was unveiled Aug. 10.

“Why would it be important for us to make it sit there for another three weeks?” Griffin said. “That’s three weeks that they would have lost that they could have just started embedding and putting in the statue to have it ready for the biggest Italian-heritage festival in this region [the Feast of the Assumption].”

Emergency ordinances carry an additional layer of significance.

Their shorter timeline to becoming effective — and in many cases activating contracts — can complicate referendum efforts, where residents gather signatures to force passed laws to be repealed or put on the ballot for a citywide vote. Some types of emergency ordinances aren’t subject to a referendum at all.

Alternatives to the “three readings” rule and the handling of emergency ordinances Though the practice of reading legislation on three different days and designating it an emergency is common, there are alternatives — in theory and in practice. The Model City Charter, a blueprint for municipal rule produced by the National Civic League, says councils must publish proposed legislation and hold a public hearing on it no sooner than seven days later, allowing anyone who is interested to speak.

If any amendments are made to the legislation, the process starts from the beginning. Emergency ordinances can be passed on introduction, but they last for only 60 days. “[The Model City Charter] gives citizens a chance to participate before the council processes [legislation], and they’ll be present when the council deals with the ordinance,”

CSU’s Keller said. “The three readings doesn’t ensure that.”

Many city charters have the three-readings rule, Keller said. But some cities have modified versions or are entirely different. Cleveland Documenters found differences ranging from subtle — like Akron, where its council has a setup similar to Cleveland’s but requires public hearings for certain zoning ordinances — to pronounced — like Pittsburgh, where its council must wait at least seven days after legislation is introduced to take a final action and must hold a public hearing for select types of legislation. If 25 or more registered voters sign and deliver a petition no more than three days after notice of a proposed law’s introduction, Pittsburgh City Council must hold a public hearing, regardless of the type of legislation.

Pittsburgh does not use emergency ordinances, but its charter doesn’t mandate a specific “cooling off” period before passed laws take effect.

Its council can decide to take final action on legislation sooner if it deems a situation is urgent.

Differing perspectives, one result Ultimately, there seems to be a difference between the public’s view of its opportunities to participate in local government and the council’s view.

“I think when the public sees a piece of legislation out there and they want a council person to vote a certain way, trust me, we hear from them,” Kazy said, adding that public input makes council members better legislators.

The public and residents have more than enough time and opportunity to participate, added Griffin, who mentioned committee meetings and his ward meetings as chances for public involvement.

The reality of fast-moving legislation, lack of public comment, and limited meeting notice can result in a sense of disengagement or a belief that council doesn’t value residents’ input, which University Circle resident Jennifer Frymier shared in an interview with Documenter Gennifer Harding-Gosnell.

“People don’t do things unless they get something out of it. There has to be more of an incentive,” Frymier said of participation in local government. “If they’re not really feeling like they’re benefitting from it, then what’s the point?”

Originally published in The Cleveland Observer. Republished here with permission.

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GET OUT

Everything to do in Cleveland for the next two weeks

WED 10/06 Cosmic Lavender Country Tour Up-and-coming crooner Andrew Sa hosts this event featuring a rotating cast of “otherworldly guests” and talents backed by the all-star Cosmic Country Showcase band. Lavender Country’s Patrick Haggerty will headline the show, and the Cleveland show will feature some to be announced local performers with “radical political inclinations.” It all starts at 8 p.m. at Mahall’s in Lakewood and tickets cost $12 ADV, $14 DOS. 13200 Madison Ave., Lakewood, 216521-3280, mahalls20lanes.com.

THU 10/07 Disney’s the Lion King More than 90 million people around the world have reportedly experienced the visual artistry of The Lion King. Winner of six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, the play presents a story “filled with hope and adventure set against an amazing backdrop of stunning visuals.” The play also features the work of Tony Award-winning choreographer Garth Fagan and tunes written by Tony Awardwinning artists Elton John and Tim Rice. Tonight’s performance takes place at 7:30. Check the Playhouse Square website for a complete list of showtimes and for ticket prices.

1519 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.

FRI

10/08

Historic Haunts Walking Tours The Historic Haunts Walking Tours will return to the Gordon Square Arts District tonight and tomorrow night. Produced by the West Clinton Block Club in cooperation with Near West Theatre and the Northwest Neighborhoods CDC, the tours will feature a unique, lantern-lit guided walking tour through the charming residential areas surrounding GSAD. Tickets are $8 for adults and free for youth 15 and under. All proceeds will support future annual haunts.

Walking tours begin at 6 each night and leave every 15 minutes from Near West Theatre’s location at 6702 Detroit Ave. Free parking is available in the Capitol Theatre lot, accessed from West 65th and 67th Streets.

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Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats come to Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica. See: Wednesday, Oct. 13.

Tours will last approximately an hour and end back at the Near West Theatre.

6702 Detroit Ave., nearwesttheatre.org.

SAT

10/09

Harvest Festival From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and tomorrow, Hale Farm & Village hosts Harvest Festival, a familyfriendly event offers seasonal experiences such as apple cider pressing and butter churning, and pumpkin painting. You can learn how the pioneers of the region prepared for the winter months ahead through food preservation demonstrations too. Other harvest activities can be seen at the Saltbox House herb garden (funded and maintained by the Bath Gamma Garden Club) where herbs will be harvested and preserved for use during the winter, and at First Settlement where cooking demonstrations will happen.”

Admission to the Harvest Festival is $12 for adults (13 years and older), $6 for children (ages 3 to 12years) and free for children under 2 years old, active military and Western Reserve Historical Society members.

Admission price to the Harvest

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Festival includes festival activities and access to all historic structures as well as early American craft and trade demonstrations. Café 1810 will be open and serving seasonal favorites including hot apple cider and apple cider mimosas. The MarketPlace at Hale Farm & Village will also offer seasonal hand-blown glass pumpkins, Ohio-made apple and pumpkin butter, and other locally made artisan items. Masks are required for staff and visitors when indoors or unable to maintain a proper social distance outdoors.

2686 Oak Hill Rd., Newton Falls, 330-666-3711, halefarm.org.

SUN 10/10 CIM Orchestra The Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra comes to Severance Hall at 3 p.m. today for performances of works by Serksnyte, Beethoven and Dvorák. Conductor Carlos Kalmar will lead the orchestra. Check the Cleveland Orchestra website for ticket prices.

11001 Euclid Ave., 216-231-1111, clevelandorchestra.com.

MON 10/11

Gibson

Slow Roll Cleveland Slow Roll Cleveland, a local cycling club that appeals to riders of all levels on all kinds of bicycles, will embark on one of its weekly rides tonight at 7. The club leaves from a different location each week.

Check the website to find more information., slowrollcleveland.com.

TUE

10/12

Open Turntable Tuesday Tonight from 6 to 9, the Winchester hosts its weekly Open Turntable Tuesday. Jason Gokorsch will book guest DJs and offer slots to people who want to bring their own vinyl and spin their favorite songs or deep tracks. First time DJs are encouraged, and equipment is provided. Patrons can also bring records for the night’s DJ to add to their set. Sign up on Northeast Ohio Vinyl Club’s Facebook page. (Niesel) 12112 Madison Ave., Lakewood, 216-600-5338, facebook.com/ TheWinchesterMusicTavern.

WED 10/13 Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats Backed by the 7-piece Night Sweats

GET OUT for a 2018 Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica show, Nathaniel Rateliff effectively channeled Van Morrison on tunes such as “A Little Honey,” and he effectively sang solo too, showing off his soulful voice on the ballad “I’ll Be Waiting Just to Dance with You.” The band will likely deliver similar results when it returns to Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica tonight at 8. Check the Live Nation website for ticket prices and more info.

2014 Sycamore St., 216-861-4080, livenation.com.

THU

10/14

New Beginnings Franz Welser-Möst leads the Cleveland Orchestra today as it opens the season at Severance Hall. Expect to hear pieces by Strauss, Tower and Prokofiev. The concert repeats at 3 p.m. on Sunday at Severance. Check the Cleveland Orchestra website for more info.

11001 Euclid Ave., 216-231-1111, clevelandorchestra.com.

FRI

10/15

An Evening with Cowboy Junkies In 1988, Cowboy Junkies made their mark with The Trinity Session, a beautifully recorded release that relied on a combination of folk, blues and rock.Some 30 years on, the Canadian band is still at it. Just last year, it released Ghosts, another album that shows off singer Margo Timmins’s sultry vocals and the band’s moody, folk-based music. Its tour to support that album comes to the Kent Stage tonight at 8. Check the Kent Stage website for ticket prices.

175 E. Main St., Kent, 330-677-5005, kentstage.org.

SAT

10/16

7th Annual Halloween Flea Black Market Records and the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft & Magick present the 7th annual Halloween Flea today from noon to 6 p.m. at Now That’s Class, 5 O’clock Lounge and the Foundry Concert Club. Indoors and outdoors, the event will feature arts and crafts, home decor, props, toys, oddities, DVD+VHS, makeup, clothing, jewelry, snacks, and all things Halloween. There is a suggested

donation of $1 for entry. All ages are welcome, and the Foundry kitchen will be open during the event. After the event, the Foundry will host a Zombie Prom from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m.

There will be prizes for best costume, a photo backdrop for prom pics, live drag and burlesque performances, crowning of the zombie prom queen, and snacks for sale from Raisin Hell Vegan. facebook.com/ events/120981073447134.

SUN 10/17 Nimesh Patel A comedian and Emmy-nominated writer based in New York, Nimish Patel has performed standup comedy for more than ten years now. A regular at New York’s famed Comedy Cellar, he’s appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers, and has opened for Chris Rock and Aziz Ansar. He performs tonight at 7 at Hilarities.

Check the Hilarities website for ticket prices.

2035 East Fourth St., 216-241-7425, pickwickandfrolic.com.

MON 10/18 Harry Styles: Love on Tour Harry Styles of One Direction was supposed to play Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse as part of a 2020 world tour in support of his solo album Fine Line. COVID wiped out that date, which Styles pushed to 2021. He somehow managed to retain opener Jenny Lewis, a talented indie pop singer-songwriter who had a good run with Rilo Kiley in the 2000s. The concert begins at 8 p.m. Check the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse website for more info.

1 Center Court, 216-420-2000, rocketmortgagefieldhouse.com.

TUE

10/19

Voces8 VOCES8, a British a cappella group that performs tonight at 7:30 at E.J. Thomas Hall in Akron, sings everything from Bach to Irving Berlin. During its residency in Akron, the group will also “teach and inspire students” during a residency supported by The University of Akron School of Music’s Kulas Concert Series.

Check the website for ticket prices to tonight’s performance.

198 Hill St., Akron, uaevents.com.

scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene October 6-19, 2021 | clevescene.com |

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ARTS

THE REAL THING

Immersive Van Gogh might be cool but the Cleveland Museum of Art has a free installation with actual Van Goghs

By Shawn Mishak THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF Art has a free, special installation of four Vincent Van Gogh works, including two masterpieces, now on display in the Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Gallery. While the Immersive Van Gogh exhibit, which has drawn mixed reviews so far, draws attention, the art museum saw an opportunity to remind folks that its offerings are both free and feature the actual work of the artist.

“With the public’s recent increased interest in Vincent van Gogh, we wanted to take this opportunity to showcase a selection of real masterworks by the artist,” said William M. Griswold, director of the CMA. “We look forward to welcoming our visitors to this free installation.”

The pieces on display in the museum include “The Large Plane Trees (Road Menders at SaintRémy), 1889;” “Two Poplars in the Alpilles near Saint-Rémy, 1889;” and “Landscape with Wheelbarrow,” an early watercolor piece by the artist and an etching of a homeopathic physician van Gogh was seeing.

From the CMA press release: “‘Dr. Gachet’ is the only etching the artist created. The artist placed himself

under the care of Dr. Gachet in Auvers-sur-Oise, a small village on the northern outskirts of Paris, at the recommendation of fellow artist Camille Pissarro. The doctor was himself an amateur printmaker and gave Van Gogh a varnished copper plate, helping him to print it on his own small hand press. For his first attempt, Van Gogh depicted Gachet seated in his garden smoking a pipe.”

The installation is on view through Dec. 5.

Cleveland Public Theatre to Eliminate Standard Ticket Prices, All Tickets Now “Choose What You Pay” Cleveland Public Theatre, Cleveland’s home for original and experimental theater in the Gordon Square Arts District, has expanded its Choose What You Pay ticketing program. All ticket prices for its upcoming season will be entirely at the discretion of patrons.

“CPT believes theatre is essential,” said CPT’s artistic director, Raymond Bobgan, in a statement. “Our typical Box Office only covers one fifth

of the cost of a production, and if patrons paid for the value of the ticket, pricing would no longer represent what we also believe to be true: theatre must be economically accessible.

“We balance this belief with a fundamental assumption that art is of great value and we undertake our work at great cost. We believe in our audiences to choose what is best and appropriate. And we believe audiences are artists in their own way and great theatre needs great audiences.

You are an essential part of the CPT experience. I can’t wait to be at the theatre with you.”

CPT says that it has offered Choose What You Pay tickets for the past 15 years, but these have only been available at the box office on the night of a performance. This year, all tickets — those purchased by phone, online or in person — will adhere to that format.

CPT kicked off its 2021-2022 season with its annual fundraising, Pandemonium, last weekend. The rest of the season can be viewed at CPT’s website. CPT is located at 6415 Detroit Ave. Cleveland Museum of Art

Announces Ticket Sales Details for Upcoming ‘Revealing Krishna’ Exhibit The Cleveland Museum of Art just announced that members can now make reservations for the upcoming exhibit, Revealing Krishna: Journey to Cambodia’s Sacred Mountain.

The first-of-its-kind exhibition will feature two sculpture galleries and four digital galleries. It’ll also debut new restorations made to CMA’s 1,500-year-old stone sculpture of Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan.

The show will include an immersive timeline film narrated

by Angelina Jolie and Loung Ung (author of First They Killed My Father) that “illuminates the effects of global change over the past 150 years on the discovery, disposition and conservation of the sculptures from one of the earliest major Hindu sites in Southeast Asia,” as it’s put in a press release.

Tickets to Revealing Krishna: Journey to Cambodia’s Sacred Mountain are on sale now.

scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene

October 6-19, 2021 | clevescene.com |

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EAT FAMILY AFFAIR

Lulo Kitchen delivers heavenly pan-Latin flavors in the Warehouse District

LULO KITCHEN HAS THE unmistakable feel of a boho-chic juice bar on Tulum’s famous beach road, a breezy sun-drenched space where art and culture and food collide. Given its perch on W. 9th Street in the Warehouse District, that free-spirited vibe comes as a complete surprise to first-time visitors like myself. But the surprises don’t stop there, I quickly discover.

Chef Stefhanie Montoya, along with her husband Mario, toiled for months to transform a former tattoo parlor into a lush space dripping with color, texture and art. For the better part of a year, the paper-covered windows teased the surrounding neighborhood with a pledge that whatever was slowly taking shape inside would be worth the wait. “It will be delicious,” the sign promised.

True to their word, the result is an enchanting “all-day café” that has something special to offer guests morning, noon and night.

With a name like Lulo, which is borrowed from the tropical fruit, one would expect to find wholesome juices, smoothies and limonadas starring a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables. Those invigorating beverages are joined by house-blended teas like blackberry, sour cherry and hibiscus and one comprised of white tea, sage, lavender and orange peel. Of course, as self-identifying Colombians, the owners proudly serve coffee from that South American country, served straight up as espresso, blended into cortados or layered into frothy cappuccinos.

As morning gives way to midday, pan-Latin salads, sandwiches, bowls and plates take center stage. It is here that Montoya’s creativity, technique and respect for ingredients begin to emerge.

The mango salmon ($16) is one of those near-perfect foods that can be enjoyed multiple times per week.

Like a rainbow on a plate, the dish features a flank of flaky seared salmon atop a bed of rice that is topped with a finely diced fruit and vegetable salad and ringed by vibrant wheels of watermelon radish.

The flavors of Colombia, Peru, Argentina and Brazil make

Photo by Douglas Trattner

By Douglas Trattner

appearances in the form of empanadas, tostones, Cubanos, carne asada and other satisfying items. Served four to an order, the beef or chicken filled empanadas ($14) arrive bearing a crisp, savory cornmeal-based shell. They come alive when drizzled with the bright, spicy salsa that arrives on the side.

Vegans and vegetarians have options like a strawberry salad, rainbow

descend a sturdy wooden staircase, they arrive in a wholly different environment nearly twice the size, where brick archways, hand-drawn murals and surgically illuminated greenery combine to create a magical atmosphere.

The dimly lit “speakeasy with a Latin twist” opens for dinner and drinks on weekends, allowing the chef to spread her culinary wings

LULO KITCHEN AND JUICE BAR 1273 W. NINTH ST., CLEVELAND 216-929-1053 LULOCLEVELAND.COM

bowls and teriyaki rice balls, while carnivores can dig into a pressed Cubano layered with ham, pork, swiss cheese, pickles and mustard.

Better still is the carne asada bowl ($17), a marinated skirt steak grilled to medium-rare, thinly sliced and gilded with electric chimichurri.

It’s paired with rice and a seasonal tomato salad.

As demanding and timeconsuming as the upstairs renovation was to complete, the lower level was doubly so, says Montoya. That’s why it was only recently unveiled, months after the café opened its doors. As guests

ever wider. Down here, fresh fish and seafood are reworked into bracing ceviches, like a citruslaced halibut and corvina ($28) balanced by tropical diced mango and a traditional Colombian shrimp cocktail ($18), which arrives in a sturdy goblet loaded with diced shrimp in a spiced tomato sauce.

At present, the weekend-only dinner menu contains some crossover items from lunch, but as things progress, the similarities will diminish. Dishes such as those heavenly empanadas join appetizers like tostones with guacamole, chorizo with fried plantain, and

spicy shrimp with garlic bread. If those items aren’t enough to lure you underground, the meaty churrasco ($28) should be. The hefty grilled strip steak is joined by uber-crispy yuca fries and a creamy garlic sauce that puts ranch dressing to shame.

For dessert, there’s moist, rich, cream-capped tres leches, chopped pecan-topped flan and passion fruit ice cream.

To drink there are wines from Spain, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, but also France, Italy, Germany and the States, many available by the glass. In keeping with the pan-Latin theme, the cocktail menu rounds up pisco sours from Peru, caipirinhas from Brazil and mojitos and margaritas from Cuba and Mexico.

Lulo was on pace to open its doors back in spring of 2020, but the Montoyas opted to shelve the project for an entire year. It wasn’t just the pandemic that slowed their roll; it was the unwavering desire to get things as close to perfect as they possibly could.

“We put so much work, love and time into this place,” Montoya says.

dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner October 6-19, 2021 | clevescene.com |

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Photo by Doug Trattner

EAT BITES

Vero Pizza in Cleveland Heights reopens

By Douglas Trattner VERO PIZZA (12421 CEDAR Rd., 216-229-8383) in Cleveland Heights has been closed to dine-in customers since March of last year.

Additionally, the beloved Neapolitan pizzeria has been closed to all diners since June of this year, when owner Marc-Aurele Buholzer ceased even carry-out business in order to install a new oven and make other essential modifications to the nine-year-old restaurant.

Well, the long (long) wait finally is over. Vero began welcoming its first customers back into the restaurant last weekend. When folks do return they will find a refreshed dining room, mezzanine and outdoor dining space.

And, if they sneak a peek into the kitchen, they will catch a glimpse of the pizzaiolo’s new “dream oven,” a wood-burning Acunto from Naples.

In order to get the 6,000-pound beast into the back kitchen, crews had to remove the front windows and forklift it through the opening, with literally one eighth of an inch to spare.

What diners will not discover is a brand new menu, says the owner.

“We’re going to keep things simple and distilled,” Buholzer explains. “We’re going to make sure that every single item on the menu is exactly how I wanted and intended it to be.”

In addition to the classic and seasonal pies, the menu will offer antipasto dishes like olives, anchovies, vegetables, roasted peppers and charcuterie.

The New Rising Star Coffee Shop in Tremont is Now Open Last month, we shared the news that Rising Star Coffee would be opening a new café in Tremont. Located in the gorgeously refurbished lobby of the Tremont Place Lofts (710 Jefferson Ave.), the café is the company’s seventh location. The store opened last weekend.

The contemporary, inviting space features a penny-tiled floor that abuts wood flooring, bold design elements and plenty of seating. The space also offers complimentary

Wi-Fi. The café is built to serve both residents of the building and the neighborhood at large.

Rising Star owner Dawn Fox says that when owners Graham Veysey, Marika Shioiri-Clark and Michael Panzica approached the company to collaborate, the decision was an easy one to make.

“Graham has always been a huge supporter of us and that makes us ultimately feel great to put our trust in that and move forward with something like this,” Fox says. “The building is beautiful, with a lot of history. It’s awesome to see it all come together. I thought it was cool before because I love old buildings but Graham and Marika have a great eye.”

Rising Star Tremont will offer the full lineup of coffee products and food from Cleveland Bagel, Blackbird Bakery and Floressa Bakery.

Red Restaurant Group Is the New Owner-Operator of Nighttown in Cleveland Heights Nighttown, the iconic jazz club and restaurant in Cleveland Heights, has been closed since March of 2020, when owner Brendan Ring shuttered it as a “moral obligation” to help slow the spread of Covid. In early January, he sold the 55-yearold business and property to an ownership group with assurances that “the essence of Nighttown” would remain when the club reopened in July of 2021.

Summer came and went with no announcements or developments, and all along the way rumors have been swirling as to the fate of the property.

Now we know what’s coming next for the storied business. Red Restaurant Group managing partner Gregg Levy has announced that his company has leased the space and will reopen it as Nighttown.

Extensive design and planning already have begun and the restaurant is expected to re-open sometime in 2022.

“This is not going to Red the Steakhouse, this is going to be Nighttown,” Levy says. “We wouldn’t

be doing this if it wasn’t going to be Nighttown. Nighttown and Brendan Ring have been a beloved part of the Cleveland hospitality scene for decades, and we wanted to ensure we could preserve that and put our Red stamp on this project. We have and will continue to consult with Brendan in this regard; make no mistake, this will remain Nighttown!”

Levy says that the 100-year-old building will require significant work to ready it for its grand reopening.

“This is a large-scale project with many infrastructure and back-ofhouse improvements, including replacing all kitchen equipment and cooler systems, but from a guest facing perspective, our intent on keeping the look and feel of Nighttown intact is paramount,” he explains.

Levy adds that when it does reopen, it will feature a “kick-ass brunch,” something the eastside lost when Fire closed.

Winking Lizard Announces that its Gateway Location Will Not Reopen John Lane and his partners at Winking Lizard announced back in August that the Gateway location would be shutting down for an undisclosed period of time. Citing myriad pandemic-related issues, Lane added that any potential reopening would be considered after the first of the year.

Apparently, the writing on the wall is dire enough to not wait to pull the plug; in the company’s latest newsletter, buried a few paragraphs in, is the following statement:

“We did shut down the Gateway Lizard in August. Business in the area has not picked up and we will not be reopening this location. The staff has all been given positions at other locations.”

The newsletter goes on to provide a little more insight into the struggles that Winking Lizard – and pretty much every bar and restaurant around – is facing when it comes to hiring.

“The staffing shortage is real.

We are getting lots of applications but fewer than 10% show up for interviews. We have a fast track hiring process. The challenge after hiring is getting new employees to show up.”

The staffing issues are just the tip of the iceberg. Downtown businesses are still dealing with a lack of urban commuters, on whom they rely for lunch and happy hour business. And then there are the food shortages, supply chain issues and soaring prices, which the newsletter also addresses.

“This summer we’ve faced shortages on chopped spinach, wings, hot bacon dressing, silverware, beverage glasses, tequila, bottled beer (thankfully plenty of cans and draft), soufflé cups, and bourbon barrel sauce to name a few.

The prices of wings, fryer oil, food gloves, chicken breast, lobster tails, clams, most meats and produce are substantially higher. Some prices have risen 300-400% over pre-covid costs.”

Issues like these continue to slow any recovery that bars and restaurants had hoped to enjoy in a “post-pandemic” world.

dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner

October 6-19, 2021 | clevescene.com |

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MUSIC IN A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN

Local rockers Terrycloth Mother make the most of disparate influences

By Jeff Niesel THE CLEVELAND LOTTERY League “drafts” local musicians who haven’t played together in the past and places them into new bands. The newly formed groups then have two months to write and record some original music that they debut at a “Big Show.” Some bands stick; some don’t. Terrycloth Mother is one of the bands that stuck.

For the 2019 Cleveland Lottery League, the guys wrote one long 11-minute tune together and then continued to write and record.

Terrycloth Mother — drummer John Panza, singer-bassist James Pequignot, singer-pedal steel guitarist Stephen ‘Tebbs’ Karney, and singer-guitarist Drew Maziasz — will play an album release party at 8:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 15, at the Happy Dog. “For that first rehearsal, I think we just got together and talked,” says Maziasz one night from the band’s rehearsal studio just east of downtown Cleveland, where he’s joined by Pequignot. “I play guitar, but I’m also comfortable playing bass. [Pequignot] plays guitar and is a singersongwriter. We had to figure out who should do what. We knew what we were comfortable with. I thought of myself as a utility guitarist. If I had to play country, I could kind of do that.

If I had to play heavy stuff, I could do that. It was like, ‘Let’s stretch out but know our strengths.’”

While the band had two months to prep for its appearance at the Lottery League’s Big Show, the guys also found that songs started coming easily to them.

“It was really comfortable to compose and improvise together,” says Pequignot, who points to a dry erase board at the rehearsal space that lists several new songs the band is currently composing.

“We’re good at generating new ideas and figuring out where the pieces go. We’re pretty good at composing as a group. We’re always finishing things, and we’re always starting stuff. It’s nice to have a big pipeline of ideas.”

While Pequignot admits he comes from “more of a Radiohead/ Wilco place,” band members all have very different influences,

Cleveland’s Terrycloth Mother.

Rustin McCann

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something that’s reflected on the album. A song such as “The Dancing Plague” begins with an alt-country vibe before turning to a dissonant spoken word segment mid-song and then letting the pedal steel guitar dominant during the song’s frenetic conclusion. The atmospheric “Big Stick Energy” recalls Incubus, and the narrative-driven “The Myth of Sisyphus” sounds like a singersongwriter tune from a different era.

“I think we have Venn diagram overlap, but I think our musical centers are all very different,” says Pequignot when asked about the group’s musical inspirations.

“I don’t think our influences could be more disparate,” says Maziasz.

“We always joke that they get passed through the Terrycloth Mother filter.

It could be a nice three-and-a-halfminute pop song, but once it gets passed through the sieve, it’ll come out a little bit weirder. It’s amazing to write with someone else and throw things at them and know that they’ll

do it justice.”

Initially, the group recorded a handful of songs but didn’t think they’d wind up on an album. They just thought the tunes would become demos that could help with getting gigs.

“For the album, we were initially approaching them as demos,” says Maziasz. “It was the middle of January, and we were trying to get shows, so we just knocked out a couple of songs.”

Because the demos turned out so great, the group decided to make them into an album. With COVID shutting local clubs down, the band had time to tinker with them too.

“We were sidetracked, but we had the impulse and drive to proceed with the product,” says Maziasz.

The group felt compelled to keep writing and recording even though the pandemic made them take extra precautions.

“Spending time together helped with the psychological horror of the

pandemic,” says Pequignot. “We were in a fairly contained loop. We could maintain distance, and we masked up.”

Mastered by Chris Keffer at Magnetic North Studio, the album also features contributions from Antoine Canon and Sophoulla Gibson, both of whom live in the UK. They appear on “Weight of the World.”

Canon played trumpet and recorded both his and Gibson’s backup vocals, adding depth and texture to the music.

“The trumpet was not planned, but Antoine wanted to jump in, and it turned out great,” says Pequignot.

In preparation for the upcoming Happy Dog gig, the band has worked on minutiae such as transitions between songs to ensure the show’s something special.

“We want every show to feel a little different,” says Pequignot. “We want to put the songs together in different ways to keep it moving.

I always want to create a unique experience for an audience, and I think that’s really important.”

scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene

October 6-19, 2021 | clevescene.com |

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SAVAGE LOVE QUICKIES

By Dan Savage Hey, Dan: I’m a cis woman. I had a quasi-relationship with a man last year that only lasted a couple of months. The sex was great, and sexting was always a big part of our connection. Since the breakup, we’ve fluctuated between staying in touch and radio silence, sometimes going months without speaking. During our periods of contact, though, sexting always makes a comeback. It’s hot until the frustration of not actually being able to have sex with him sets in. (We live in different countries now.)

My issue is, if it weren’t for the sexting (which he really pushes), I don’t think he would converse with me about life in general. And there are other ways I feel this dynamic is detrimental to my post-breakup life. For example, he is really into cuckolding. He wants to hear about the dates I go on, the other men I have sex with, how they fucked me, etc. It’s fun to tease him and make him jealous by texting him, especially while I’m out with other men, but I wind up feeling like my attention is divided between him and whoever I’m with, sometimes to a point where I can’t come with others because of how distracted I am (by him) and how disconnected I feel (from them).

My Ex’s Sexy Sexts Are Getting Exhausting, Sorta If you feel like your ex is just using you for sexts and you don’t enjoy being used like that, MESSAGES, stop sexting with your ex. Maybe you’ll hear from him again after the sexting stops — maybe he’ll reach out now and then just to catch up — but even if you never hear from him again, that could be for the best. I mean, if you have a hard time resisting his sext requests and sexting with him leaves you feeling frustrated (because you can’t fuck him) and prevents you from being in the moment (with the guys you are fucking), you should probably block his number.

But if you enjoy sexting with your ex — you did say it’s fun for you too — and you can reset your expectations to avoid disappointment (if you stop expecting more from him than just sexts), go ahead and sext with him. But don’t do it when you’re with someone else. Go out on dates, enjoy your dates, fuck your dates. And the next time you’re home alone and bored, MESSAGES, text your ex and tell him you’re out on a date. You’ll get

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all the same enjoyment out of making him jealous — and he’ll get all the same enjoyment his cuckold fantasies — without you being distracted during your actual dates.

Hey, Dan: After many years of a fulfilling sex life, I’ve begun to embrace the perv side of my sexuality and couldn’t be happier! But I’m looking for a better term than “perv.”

While accurate, that term seems to carry negative connotations.

I’m looking for something that communicates the same thing while being sex positive. Any suggestions?

Positively Exploring Rhetorical Variety I’ve always liked “perv,” an affectionate diminutive for “pervert,” and I consider it sex positive in the same spirit that “slut,” having been reclaimed, is considered sex positive by people who cheerfully and defiantly self-identify as sluts. And since pretty much any word that communicates the same thing “perv” does in one catchy/percussive syllable has similarly negative connotations — deev for deviant, dej for degenerate, debbies for debauchers/ debauchees — this perv thinks you should embrace the term “perv,” PERV, instead of trying to come up with something new.

Hey, Dan: Where can I buy e-stim devices and urethral electrode sounds in the Detroit area?

Sounding You Out You’ll find a nice selection of e-stim devices and urethral sounds — electrode and otherwise — at all Crowley’s Department Store locations in the greater Detroit area.

Hey, Dan: You’ve said that one way to get over a crush is to masturbate about it until it passes. I’m going on 2.5 years. I had surgery in 2019, and I’m still obsessed with my surgeon.

I think it’s trauma bonding, as I had complications and had to have three follow-up surgeries, plus a ton of office visits. I know logically that he’s arrogant, overly impressed with his own sense of humor, and just generally not my type. I haven’t seen him in a year, but I still think about him all the time. Can you help?

Can’t Understand This

| clevescene.com | October 6-19, 2021

If masturbating about your arrogant, unfunny, and perhaps incompetent surgeon (three follow-up surgeries?!?) hasn’t done the trick… maybe it’s time to try masturbating about something and/or someone else? (Or, even better, maybe talk with a therapist about this?)

Hey, Dan: You recently told a healthy and active 72-year-old man practicing orgasm denial that “multiple studies have shown a link between frequent ejaculation and a lower incidence of prostate cancer.” I’m a healthy and active 78-year-old man who began masturbating at age ten. I continue to masturbate as frequently as my body will allow, which is about every other day. Yet, I was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer and underwent a procedure that reamed out most of my prostate tissue. I am now back to masturbating, but not ejaculating. Still, a dry orgasm is better than no orgasm at all. So, studies may show one thing, but life can show you something completely different.

Totally Wrong About That I’m sorry to hear about your prostate tissues, TWAT, and I’m glad to hear you’re able to enjoy the orgasms you’re still capable of having. But I gotta say — for the record — that I didn’t claim frequent ejaculation prevents prostate cancer. I cited studies showing a lower incidence of prostate cancer in men who masturbate regularly. “Lower incidence” ≠ “zero incidence.” You drew the short straw here, TWAT, and I’m sorry about that. But I can’t imagine you spent all those years masturbating solely for your prostate’s sake, TWAT, which means you still got something out of all those wet orgasms. It’s the same thing you’re getting out of the dry orgasms you’re enjoying now: pleasure.

Hey, Dan: After reading the question asked by “The System Called Reciprocity,” the lesbian who wanted a man to do chores around the house in exchange for a handjobs or blowjobs, I had to write in. I’m not sure where she’s located, but if she’s on the South side of Chicago, I would be down for some light housework! Feel free to connect me to any of your readers for a deal like this!

Helping Out The Dykes And Making Nice

I don’t know where TSCR lives either, HOTDAMN, but even if I knew where she was, I’m not allowed to put my readers in touch with each other.

(My lawyer has forbidden me to play matchmaker.) That said, HOTDAMN, there’s nothing I can do to prevent my readers from reaching out to each other in the comments.

Hey, Dan: So long as ALPHA — the straight guy who likes to demean and degrade thicc gay boys he finds on Grindr — is upfront with these guys and tells them he’s straight and tells them he has no intention of ever hooking up with them IRL, then what he’s doing is okay, I guess. But if he’s not disclosing all those facts about himself, Dan, then he’s pretending to be something he’s not and that is not okay! Straight guys leading gay guys on for attention is repulsive. We’ve got enough problems out there without you giving straight guys permission to fuck with our heads!

Too Pissed For Acronyms Grindr and other hookup apps are full of guys leading each other on — sometimes intentionally (not interested in hooking up IRL), sometimes unintentionally (circumstances and/ or guy trouble can derail a wanted hookup). Everyone who gets on Grindr knows or soon realizes that not every chat or exchange of pics leads to sex. Like author and Grindr user Alexander Cheves said in that column: “We all enter Grindr chats willingly, and we should do so knowing that anyone we talk to may have no plans of following through with their promises to meet.”

And in ALPHA’s case, I don’t think he’s leading anyone on. He seeks out gay guys who fantasize about masculine, domineering, and unavailable straight jocks. He may be fucking with some guys’ heads, TPFA, but he’s only fucking with the heads of guys who get off on having their heads fucked with in exactly this way and by exactly his type. I mean, who better to fulfill the hot unavailable straight jock fantasy than the hot unavailable straight jock?

mail@savagelove.net t@fakedansavage www.savagelovecast.com

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