CLEVELAND, Ohio -- MetroHealth plans to pay four executives $50,000 to $100,000 each in bonuses if they stay on through this year. And the embattled health system agreed in December to pay a former executive her 2023 salary of more than $500,000, even though she resigned.
We’re talking about golden parachutes at the Cuyahoga County public hospital on Today in Ohio.
Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with impact editor Leila Atassi, editorial board member Lisa Garvin and content director Laura Johnston.
You’ve been sending Chris lots of thoughts and suggestions on our from-the-newsroom text account, in which he shares what we’re thinking about at cleveland.com. You can sign up for free by sending a text to 216-868-4802.
Here are the questions we’re answering today:
Even though Jason Stephens is the bona fide Ohio House speaker, Derek Merrin says he’s the House Republican leader and controls the caucus bank account, a key lever of power. We did some digging. Who’s in charge here?
The talk last week about disgraced former House Speaker Larry Householder flying to Washington in the private jet of the company that admits bribing him is not the only evidence that Ohio might need revisions to its ethics rules. We found all sorts of reasons. What are some?
How many Ohioans are seeking to cancel their college loan debt under an embattled forgiveness program?
An unusual law has been proposed to change how people driving under the influence would be prosecuted if marijuana is the cause of the influence. What does the law propose to do?
We thought we were finished with the revelations about gigantic payouts for MetroHealth execs. But now come the golden parachutes. Holy moly. How much are these folks in line to receive?
Why is Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost taking credit for Dollar General stores in Ohio closing down temporarily Friday to change their prices?
Here’s a mind-blower. What new train service is being seriously considered for Northeast Ohio?
So it really is possible for an Ohio Supreme Court justice with a conflict of interest to recuse himself from a case. Which justice did so, and in which major case?
Marty Sweeney is an elected member of Cuyahoga County Council. So why can’t he introduce legislation like elected officials everywhere else in Northeast Ohio?
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Read the automated transcript below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it contains many errors and misspellings.
[00:00:00] Chris: There won’t be a championship football team in Ohio this year. Maybe next year. The Bengals are out. It’s today in Ohio. The news podcast discussion from cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. I’m Chris Quinn. I’m here with Lisa Garvin. Lela Tassi and Laura Johnston. We got stuff to talk about. Let’s go. Even though Jason Stevens is the bonafide Ohio House speaker, Derek Maron says he’s the House Republican leader.
Controls the caucus bank account, which is a key level lever of power. We did some digging. Lisa, who’s in charge here?
[00:00:38] Lisa: It’s not clear because both Jason Stevens and Derek Maron say that they’re in charge of that bank account. But Stevens and his chosen house, G O P, campaign Committee Chair, Jeff LaRue, a Fairfield County, have corporate.
Cards for the bank account of the Ohio House, Republican Alliance or rah, which provides money for, uh, Republican [00:01:00] candidate campaigns throughout the state. Derek Maron says that he should control the account because he was named Caucus Chair by supporters last week, which by the way, is a brand new position.
It never existed before. And Maron. Phil Plumber of Dayton as the over a chair, uh, plumber says, the state law states that campaign funds should be administered and controlled in a manner designated by the caucus. So he says Stevens has no authority to spend that money, and if he tries to spend the money, he will end up in court.
Steven says, well, you know, lots of people bring Fi frivolous lawsuit.
[00:01:37] Chris: This doesn’t sound that frivolous to me. If the Republicans who are the Republican caucus vote in the majority for Marin, it seems like he should have control of that bank account.
[00:01:49] Lisa: But why did they create a new position just for him?
[00:01:52] Chris: Well, normally the, the leader of the house is by acclimation of the party, but because so many members of his own party didn’t [00:02:00] vote for him. Mm. This I, I, this is, look, Marin is a fruit loop. He is very, very out there and he keeps fighting and fighting, but he actually seems to have a point here. This will end up in the courts.
I don’t understand how Stevens could get that card, cuz more Republicans than not, didn’t want him as their.
[00:02:19] Lisa: Yeah, it’s interesting how he did get the card. I think that’s probably worth digging into. But, uh, it sounds like, you know, the, the Marin we’re calling them, the Marin Republicans, or like 45 of them are, um, you know, trying to assert their power.
[00:02:33] Chris: Steven should work quickly to win over as many of them as he can so he can stop this ridiculous division that seems like it’s getting in the. Business you’re listening to today in Ohio. The talk last week about a disgraced former house speaker, Larry Householder, flying to Washington in the private jet of the company that admits bribing him is not the only evidence that Ohio might need revisions to.
Its. Ethics rules. We [00:03:00] found all sorts of reasons. Laura, what are some,
[00:03:02] Laura: yeah, this piece by Andrew Tobias looked at all sorts of gray areas or even loopholes in state ethics law that basically enabled householder to do what he did. Oh, that the prosecutors say that he did or perhaps made them perfectly legal.
So, PL flying on private planes is one of ‘em, the limitless of dark money, accepting gifts from people who aren’t lobbyists, but not having to disclose what they are or what they’re worth. And Ohio laws are much more lax than congressional laws and no one’s really doing anything about it. So a group of house Republicans.
They, right before the Householder trial announced a proposed set of ethics reforms, they said would address some of these issues exposed by the house bill six scandals, but we don’t really know what’s gonna happen. This was Derek Maron’s agenda. We just talked about the the power struggle between Maron and Stevens.
And, and it borrows some ideas from a democratic bill, bills that failed to advance last year. And, [00:04:00] but some democrats are suspicious of maron’s motivations. So there are some ideas out there to at least put some guardrails because I, I love the analogy in the story. Like if you have a speed limit of 60 miles an hour, somebody’s gonna go 70, right?
But you’re gonna get pulled over if you’re going 120. If there are no guardrails at all, if there are no speed limits, then how do you know it’s legal and illegal and. He goes into depth on all of these issues. Like the private planes, you could fly on one, you could, you could, if you’re an elected official, you just have to reimburse them for the cost of a coach flight on, on a commercial airline, which is like a couple hundred dollars, that is not the full cost of your freight on these private planes.
[00:04:41] Chris: Uh, we’re entering a very odd time for government, where government elected leaders are trying to hide more and more what they do. A after Watergate, way back in the seventies, it was a movement across America to really have transparency in government and public records. Laws were fortified. But I, last week in [00:05:00] Arizona, the legislature voted to exempt all of its records from the records law.
And here in Ohio, we have this kind of spending buying of our politicians that you can’t follow. It’s just. This is not where we were. We’ve gone so far backwards. It’s almost like you have a, a authoritarian government. Once they get an office, they don’t serve the people. They serve themselves at the expense of the people they
[00:05:25] Laura: serve, the people who are paying them, uh, money to their campaign funds so they can get elect.
It again. Right? That’s where a lot of this is coming. And maybe you look back to the Supreme Court decision that allowed the dark money to foster because you don’t have dark, many can support whoever they want and you don’t know where it comes from. And that seems like . It’s a pun, right? The shadiest part of all of this and the fact that you can get gifts.
So anything over $75 politicians in Ohio do have to disclose on an ethics form, but you don’t have to say how much it’s worth and you don’t have to say. Who it’s from, so you could get [00:06:00] like a. Our State House editor, Rick Ruan, told me, you know, you could throw out the pitch at an Indians, or sorry, guardians game, get a jersey from them.
That would be the same line on your ethics form as somebody giving you $10,000 worth of whatever from, from a a, a company, and you just, you don’t have to say, Why, why do you not have to say,
[00:06:21] Chris: yeah, it’s too bad that there’s not a well-funded good government group that could put together a constitutional amendment to forever enshrine in the Constitution.
The transparency laws, cuz the government is completely outta control now where we, you don’t know what is going on. And the only reason we’re learning about what Householder did is cuz the Justice Department investigated him. It’s a good story by Andrew Tobias. It’s on cleveland.com. Check it out. You’re listening to Today in Ohio.
Hey, Leila. How many Ohioans are seeking to cancel their college loan debt? Under the Embattled forgiveness program?
[00:06:58] Leila: Reporter Sabrina Eaton [00:07:00] tells us that 1000079th. Thousand Ohioans are seeking debt cancellation under this program, and the education department estimates that about one and a half million are actually eligible for it.
And so far, 702,000 of those applicants have been approved to cancel a portion of their student debt Nationally, the US Department of Education received more than 26 million loan discharge applications and approved more. 16.4 million of them, they estimated about 40 million borrowers are eligible for this kind of relief.
But no one has actually had their debt forgiven because of the legal challenges that stand in the way. In fact, the education department was forced to stop accepting loan discharge applications only a month into the program, and loan servicers were prevented from discharging those that were already approved.
Of course the opposition to the debt relief plan is that, you know, Republicans say when you take out a loan, it’s with the understanding that you’re going to have to pay it back, and that forgiving this much student debt is unfair to people who have [00:08:00] already paid back their loans and it sends the wrong message to future borrowers.
And they also say it unfairly shifts the burden of paying off the debt to the rest of the taxpayer.
[00:08:09] Chris: It seems like a little bit of a gambit here because let’s face it, these could all be voters and so now Oh yeah, that’s, they have visions in their eyes of being wiped out of their debt and the mean Republicans are gonna take it away.
I, I think this is the Biden administration saying, Hey voters, look what I’m trying to do for you. Well, exactly. Look what’s happening to.
[00:08:31] Leila: I don’t think that’s a stretch at all. Over a million. Ohioans is nothing to sneeze at. And those are all people obviously, you know, who are eligible voters most, for the most part, I’m sure.
So, I, I, uh, you know, that is, that really is rolling the dice. .
[00:08:47] Chris: Yeah. It’s still, I still think this pitch generations against each other. They’re, I’ve heard from quite a few seniors that just flat out disagree with this. They, whatever loans they’ve taken out in their lives, they’ve paid off, and everybody should do [00:09:00] the same.
But young people who experience college with prices, none of us could ever have imagined because we’ve broken the deal to provide reasonable education. our, our under mountains of debt that the older generations never, never really had to deal with. So it’s all, it’s creating divides all over the place.
Of course. It’s today in Ohio, an unusual law has been proposed to change how people driving under the influence would be prosecuted if marijuana is the cause of that influence. Lisa, this is complicated, so of course I give it to you to explain what this is. Proposal do.
[00:09:38] Lisa: Yeah, it’s Senate Bill 26 and what it does, it allows motorists to provide evidence and witnesses proving that they have a medical con condition that’s being legally treated by marijuana.
Uh, Nathan Manning, Senator Nathan Manning, the Republican from North Ridgeville is the bill sponsor. He tried to push it through the last legislature, but it died after a couple of hearings. [00:10:00] Um, he says, and he’s a former prosecuting attorney as well, so he’s dealt with cases like this. And because m. Days in your system up to 30 days.
Some people who are pulled over may not actually be high when they’re pulled over. Um, you’re urine in, blood testing limits on, you know, marijuana for, you know, D U I or o v i, as you call it in Ohio, still stay the same. But he wants, you know, people to be able to have their day in court. And he anticipates that municipal courts, which usually handle tickets, won’t be flooded with.
But Ohio prosecuting Attorney’s Association Director Lewis Tobin says Not so fast. He says that this law would increase workload and costs, and he’s more worried about public safety. He feels that drivers would be getting away with. O v I and encouraging others to drive while under the influence of marijuana.
Senator Manning says he’s gonna work with the Ohio Department of Public Safety on like, um, things that would be [00:11:00] tolerable to them to amend this bill and get it through the legislature. And I wanna point out that Michigan and Pennsylvania, which have marijuana, recreational, and or medical, they have zero tolerance laws.
They. Any amount of th HC or its metabolites in their blood if they pull you over. But they’re looking for impaired drivers and they would give them field sobriety tests. And if the the field sobriety test is questionable, then they can move on to get a chemical test.
[00:11:30] Chris: Right. That, that’s what’s troubling about this.
I if, if the system works like it’s supposed to, a police officer sees somebody driving erratically in some way, pulls ‘em over, and if they get a sense that they are not fit to drive, they get ‘em out of the car and they give ‘em those exercises to see, can you do these exercises? Are you impaired? If the officers sees them failing those exercise.
That’s when they test them. And if the test comes back positive for these marijuana compounds, you would think that would be slam [00:12:00] dunk. But this would, I think this would causes chaos. Cuz everybody, cuz Ovi, let’s face it, it’s a serious ticket. Your insurance goes up, you’re get in all sort of trouble.
Everybody’s gonna go fight this if they can. They just gotta get a friendly judge to say, yeah, I, I don’t think you were impaired. I mean, how, how does.
[00:12:17] Lisa: How is this fair? I think there is a kernel of fairness in here because of the way marijuana stays in your system. But like you said, they’re not gonna get pulled over unless they’re driving erratically.
Now, if they were pull pulled over for another primary, you know, offense and then tested, you know, I don’t know. What what
[00:12:37] Chris: I, what would be beneficial about this is we know that police have not always had the best motives and that they target and they racially discriminate. And this might remove some of the ability to do that.
Um, which, which would be a positive. It’s just, it seems like it’s opening up a can of worms. That, [00:13:00] although I guess Lisa, there are compounds of marijuana that do cause you to get high. There are compounds of marijuana that could be in your bloodstream for 30 days that are not causing you to be high. Why?
Why doesn’t the system differentiate so that they’re only focused on the compounds that get you high?
[00:13:16] Lisa: Right. And you know, they’re testing for th h and its metabolites because it changes as it, you know, moves through your body. So yeah, I think they need to like narrow that down and come up with a more.
Focused standardized test. And quite frankly, I don’t think a lot of marijuana people, even if they were under the influence, they could probably pass a field sobriety test quite frankly.
[00:13:39] Chris: Okay. Interesting law. Interesting proposal. I’m sure we’ll be talking about it further. It’s today in Ohio. We thought we were finished with the revelations about gigantic payouts for Metro Health Execs, but now come the golden parachutes.
A reader sent us a tip saying, you ought look for the golden parachutes. We filed a records request. Holy [00:14:00] moly, Laura, how much are these folks getting?
[00:14:02] Laura: This is a lot of money. 50 to a hundred thousand dollars each of. Executives for a total of $350,000. Or in the case of Jane Platon, who is basically the chief of staff, she’s a vp.
Her whole 2023 salary, north of a half a million dollars. And this is a whole lot of money for a publicly subsidized taxpayer paid hospital system that just, you know, has been embattled. I was it early November that this came out about Akron Buttross, the former, uh, c E O. Who the board says, basically gave himself bonuses that were unauthorized and we just keep looking.
And the latest one for Jane Platon, the separation agreement was signed December 16th by the new C e o Erica Steed.
[00:14:48] Chris: Well, there’s a couple. I mean, one, let’s point out she’s getting paid for all of 2023 and she’s not working right. She’s getting a half million dollars plus to do nothing. I don’t think you can put this on the new c e o [00:15:00] though.
I think this goes back to Akron Buttross and the board signing contracts with these folks that said you’ll get paid through 2023. Mm-hmm. . So these executives that you, that we started with, they get paid for the, that money, even if. Lose their jobs now, whether they, they stay
[00:15:19] Laura: as long as they don’t leave on their own, it seems.
Yeah. I
[00:15:22] Chris: mean they, if they’re forced out. Yeah. Right. If they’re forced out, they get that money. And so I think the new c e o cut, she probably had her hands tied. Yeah. Yeah. She cut the deal, I think, to, to stop the bleeding and look, I, I, this, this is sad, right? I mean, this is just, A sad ending. Jane Platon has had this storied career in northeast Ohio.
I mean, she worked with uh uh, Tim McCormick when he was county commissioner, did all sorts of things. She reformed the elections office when it was a disaster. Mm-hmm. , she had a good run as the prosecutor’s office chief of staff under Tim McGinty, and now she’s got this cloud over her. [00:16:00] That tarnishes the entire legacy.
I don’t think you can blame Jane Platin No. For cutting the deal. But what, what people forget, and I it’s, this is the sense you get from the latter years of Akron Buttross. They forgot they were a public hospital serving. Poor people and started thinking of themselves as competing with the Cleveland Clinic and University hospitals.
They’re not that. They’re not a nonprofit hospital, they’re a public hospital. And to have these gigantic amounts of money flying, the outrage for the story, which we published. Friday afternoon and then Saturday as plane dealer. And I was hearing from people during the weekend. This one really upsets people, so it’s gonna be interesting.
What will the county council, what will the county executive Chris Roan do now to stop this from ever happening again? Right.
[00:16:48] Lisa: Go ahead. No, I was gonna say, but the, so the people you heard from Chris, were they outraged at the executives who got the golden parachutes or the board who granted them? They,
[00:16:56] Chris: they’re outraged at the arrangement that was made to [00:17:00] give these folks money and, and look what they, what everybody wonders.
Is this why nobody ever said Akron Buttross has given himself 2 million in bonuses without approval of the board. Uh, I mean, the board. Acro Buttross in charge of the bonus program. He took that as a license to give to, to both review his performance. He reviewed his own performance, who does that, and then give himself the money.
And the board did not know that. So lots of people are very upset about all of these shenanigans that were going on. But if, if I’m paying these people, All this extra money and giving them stay clauses that reward them, are they gonna raise a flag and say, Hey, Akron Buttross collected 2 million board that you don’t know about.
No way. Cuz they’re getting well taken care of. And that’s what the outrage is about. .
[00:17:52] Laura: Mm-hmm. , and these people are making, uh, base salaries. Uh, the ones that are gonna a hundred thousand dollars are base salaries for [00:18:00] $575,000, 470,000, 3 85. I mean, these people are incredibly well paid. And I mean, that’s why the bonuses are so high, right?
We’re talking about executive vice presidents and people, you’re not seeing their names. They’re not up there with Akron burros all the time, but they are getting a hefty salary to work at a public
[00:18:18] Chris: hospital. , well, it includes the chief financial officer. Mm-hmm. , who would be the one that sees the dollars.
I think there’s more news coming on this today. I think today is the deadline for the Metro Health to respond to Akram Buttress first lawsuit against the, the hospital for firing him. So we’ll have to see what they say. It’s today in Ohio. , why is Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost taking credit for Dollar General Stores in Ohio closing down temporarily Friday to change their prices?
Leila, when the inflation is high like it is, this is a hot button for people. Yeah, if they’re being charged more. Than the price on the items right.
[00:18:57] Leila: In November, Yost had filed [00:19:00] lawsuits against Dollar General and Family Dollar, and he accused them of charging higher prices at the register than what is marked on the shelves.
And he alleged violations of the State Consumer Sales Protection Act requesting the court order the company to stop the practice and pay a $25,000 fine for each violation. In a, in a request earlier this month for a preliminary injunction, Yos said his office has received more than a hundred complaints against this, against these stores alleging deceptive pricing practices since he filed the lawsuit.
So now some of these dollars general locations shut down on Friday to retag their shelf prices according to Yost. But the company. On the other hand said in a statement that the stores closed to address an overnight systems error that they say has now been resolved. The statements of the stores have since reopened, but they did not respond when asked how many stores closed or whether the closures are related to the lawsuit.
The dollar General attorneys [00:20:00] say Yos allegations. Are not based on evidence and that they, they defend the store’s pricing by saying that customers can plainly see the prices at the cash register, which should solve any discrepancy issues with the price on the shelf. I laughed out loud when I read that cuz I mean, I, I’m certain that I, I would bet that the discrepancy is, is so marginal that it slides right past people.
[00:20:23] Laura: Also, do you, well, you’re unloading your cart and putting stuff on a conveyor belt. Are you able to watch everything that gets wrung up? I mean, haven’t you ever looked at your receipt at the end going, how did that end up adding up to that much? But you’re like, okay, I just must
[00:20:35] Leila: be wrong. Right. And you’re not, you’re not calculating in your head as you’re putting stuff in your cart.
You don’t really remember. And especially if it’s like 10 cents here, 20 cents here, you know what I mean? It’s, it’s just gonna. It’s gonna pass you by. It’s funny because, and,
[00:20:47] Laura: and if you’re shopping at Dollar General, often, like those 10 and 20 cents are gonna really add up. Right.
[00:20:53] Leila: My mother-in-law insists, and it’s not either one of these stores, it’s another, it’s a big box store.
She [00:21:00] has insisted for years that they, they do this. and I kind of, I’ve always rolled my eyes at it and I was like, that would never happen. And then when this lawsuit hit, I was like, well, I’ll be damned .
[00:21:12] Chris: Well, and let’s face it, dollar stores cater to people who can least afford this, right? This is a place where people who were pressed for money will go to save a few dollars.
And, and if this is happening, you’re taking avenger that I put a question out on, on subtext. They, the text message I send to 1700 plus people every. Asking them, do you monitor your cash register receipts? Because I suspect that the only way to ensure honesty is if people pay attention. They, kayak County has a unit that we wrote about on occasion.
We haven’t written about it. I think Laura, since you were covering in the county, now that goes out and test these things. They, they go and they check the scanners. It’s, it’s random and it’s not, uh, as great a way to, to do it. I mean, you see their stickers on every gas [00:22:00] pump. So, um, anyway, it’d be interesting to hear whether people are being vigilant or not, cuz this is, uh, this is a way people could get scammed.
It’s today in Ohio. Here’s a mindblower. What new train service is being seriously considered for northeast Ohio? Lisa, a new train route.
[00:22:17] Lisa: A new old, well, a, a new route for an old train, so the north or northeastern Ohio area-wide coordinating agency NOAA reached an on. Uh, for an informal agreement last Thursday on what their roles and responsibilities might be to expand the Cuyahoga Aga Valley Scenic Railroad, 10.8 miles North from its Terminus at Rockside Road into downtown Cleveland at Tower City.
But, uh, grace Gallucci with now, NOKA says, you know, we need to hire a consultant as soon as possible to start a 12 to 18 month feasibility study because they need to have a shovel. Plan in place within four years so they can get a chunk of that [00:23:00] infrastructure bill. Money that was passed by Congress. So, uh, this would be about a 10.8 mile extension.
It would be along tracks that are owned by C S X. So the infrastructure’s already there, but you’d have to work with the railroad to, uh, get the rights to that. Rail partners in this effort include the city of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Cleveland Metro Parks, the national. Course, the Port of Cleveland and Canalway Partners, and they will all share the cost of this feasibility study.
We don’t know what the cost of that is just yet. Um, so the Cayo Ga Valley Scenic Railroad is a 26 mile line from Akron to Rockside Road. It carries about 170,000 passengers a year, and they have a 6 million budget. Now, this is not the first time they’ve tried to extend the railway. Um, previous efforts failed most recently in 2008, but they say the difference now is.
That federal infrastructure money is there for the taking. And so, uh, they, you know, wanna go for that.
[00:23:58] Chris: You know, when we talked about train [00:24:00] service a week ago, Layla said, I, I’d like to see if there’s actually demand for this before you start, is, is it right to build it and figure they’ll come? This sounds like a wonderful idea, right?
Let’s give Cleveland Reson. Easy access to that jewel. That is the national park that always is ranked highly in every survey, but will they use it? And if you spend all this money for a train that nobody uses, you have a new lakefront line like we had on R T A. .
[00:24:30] Lisa: Well, and we went through this with Houston, which is totally anti passenger rail, and they finally got like a little five mile section that’s used to death quite frankly.
But this dovetails with the national parks. They have a public access plan that they’re, you know, now completing to get more people to come to the park and make it easier for people to get to the park. And it also dovetails with the completion of the northernmost section of the Towpath trail. So they think this will all kind of tie together in like this intermodal.
System [00:25:00] that will give more people access to the park. Can I
[00:25:02] Laura: ask if any of you have ridden this train? Yeah, I have. Okay. Anyone else? No, I have not yet. I have. Okay. Okay. So I did it for the Polar Express rights and I’ve done the bike. The bike one, where like you, you know, you bike one way and the train.
That’s exactly what I used it.
[00:25:17] Leila: Both of those things. Width
[00:25:19] Laura: train. Ever. I’m like, oh my gosh, please let me off this train. And that is my thoughts on .
[00:25:26] Chris: See, we did it for the wine, the wine ride. So you didn’t mind going slow ?
[00:25:30] Laura: I’m like, I could definitely bike faster. I mean, I couldn’t actually bike faster than this train.
But you feel like you could. Good. So it’s, it’s not gonna, it’s not a bullet train. It’s not, it’s a good
[00:25:38] Leila: point that when you’re care, when you have a beverage, especially a steaming hot cup of cocoa during Polar Express and you hand it to a toddler, it’s a good to have a slow train . Yeah. Well
[00:25:47] Laura: that’s true.
Also, while you’re drinking beer or wine, I, I feel like there should be beverages served with the train.
[00:25:53] Lisa: Well, and it’s not Amtrak, I mean, the locomotives date back to the forties and fifties and the passenger cars, you know, are, are [00:26:00] vintage as. So I would think they would have to update their rolling stock possibly and maybe increase their speed limits.
But that’s all yet to be determined.
[00:26:07] Laura: It’s, it’s part of the experience, right?
[00:26:09] Chris: Mm-hmm. , you’re listening to today in Ohio. I’m gonna skip ahead. Marty Sweeney is an elected member of Cuyahoga County Council, so why can’t he introduce. Legislation, like elected officials everywhere else in northeast Ohio. Leila, this is a head scratcher
[00:26:25] Leila: story.
Yeah, it’s a’s a percolating controversy among county council. Sweeney says, council President Pernell Jones Jr. Barred him from introducing two pieces of legislation last week, which. Very well could be an improper infringement of Sweeney’s powers as a council member. And the the backstory is this, Sweeney had drafted these two resolutions.
One seeks to boost pay for a handful of county workers. It would modify the county’s non bargaining pay scales by pushing back the maximum wage each pay grade can earn to allow every classified employee who was eligible for an average 6.4% market wage adjustment to receive at [00:27:00] least that amount. The other resolution seeks to clarify where the sheriff falls in the chain of command Sweeney.
Amend the county code to state that the sheriff reports directly to the executive because that point has been really ambiguous under the charter’s current language, which has left it open to interpretation. But when Sweeney sent these resolutions to the clerk to be added to the agenda last week, Parnell Jones wouldn’t let them be introduced.
He said that Sweeney hadn’t followed the traditional protocol of giving his colleagues a proper heads up and attempting to get. Half of them to buy into his proposals, and this obviously wrinkled Sweeney, and he brought it up during the miscellaneous portion of the council meeting last week. He even passed out copies of the legislation that he wanted to introduce, and he said he didn’t understand why it was pulled from the agenda Jones and at least one other council member, Sonny Simon, gave Sweeney.
A bit of a scolding during the meeting and said, we know you’re new here and you’re just learning, but this is the way we do things. . They said that the [00:28:00] proper protocol is to come up with a concept, ask council staff to draft the legislation, then share that legislation with the committee chairperson who’s likely to hear it, and then dis.
It with Parnell Jones for approval and then submit it to the clerk for the agenda. But the problem is the charter doesn’t give Jones the power to withhold legislation or decide what does or doesn’t make it to the agenda. It simply says, council members submit legislation of the clerk to accept it and record it and compile it for the agenda.
So, you know, Jones defended his actions and said, Doesn’t stop legislation from being introduced. He only insists that council members speak to the committee chair as a courtesy before they do that. And he said he does plan on putting Sweeney’s pieces on a future agenda, and he also insists that Sweeney agreed to that plan.
Sweeney denies it. So they’re in a little bit of a standoff on this. Oh,
[00:28:49] Chris: look, the, the idea that Marty Sweeney is new here. He was city council president for a funny decade, and, and it’s clear Marty Sweeney and Pernell Jones have gone at each other. [00:29:00] Pernell Jones screwed up here. He gave Marty the upper hand.
Yeah. I mean his word councilman, to represent his word, he gets to submit legislation. It’s also populist legislation. Yeah. Right. And all, all Johns had to do was let him introduce, And then never move it. We see this all the time in the legislature. Don’t put it up for committee hearings. Just let it sit and, and then Sweeney can’t do anything, but by depriving him of the basic right of an elected official to introduce legislation, you created this and now, Jones
[00:29:30] Leila: sort of acknowledged during the meeting the, the populist nature of this legislation.
He was like, well, you know, your proposal is, is seeking to give a raises to some count, you know, some county workers and, and that’s gonna make you really popular as the, as the proposer of this. And it, it made it look as if, I mean, it just, it just looks so transparently bad. Like, you know, that council doesn’t want to be in a position of voting down something that’s so popular and so he’s trying to prevent them from suffering that.[00:30:00]
That outcome
[00:30:01] Chris: you, you gotta give Sweeney points course for strategy. He played this, he played this hand just perfectly to have the upper hand. Right? And, and Jones got played. It’s a, it’s a fascinating case. His
[00:30:14] Leila: walk off quote cracked me up where he was just like, Hey, I just, I just wanted to introduce legislation.
[00:30:21] Chris: We’ve all known him for many years. We know what he’s up to, but there was an easy way out and Jones did not take it. Good story. It’s on cleveland.com. You’re listening to today in Ohio, and that’s it for Monday. We got a lot of news left over from the weekend. We’ll try and talk about it tomorrow depending on how today goes.
Thanks, Lisa. Thanks Leila. Thanks Laura. Thank you for listening to this podcast.
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