The Fight for Cleveland's Future: Leadership Tested

00:00:03 lebron got to be a father as well hey if he  wouldn’t have caught him on the court LeBron James ain’t the type of dude you’re going to run  into in the grocery store you’re not going to run into him on the block you’re not going to run into  him in no place that you can probably do it in if you going to catch LeBron James you’re going  to have to catch him on the basketball court and Stephen Lee walked his butt across the court  lebron said “You know what there he is right now i’m about to get him.” and he walked up to him and  he did what most fathers would do but your son is

00:00:32 in the league that’s all I’m going to say on that  so we going to get going with my guest because we going to switch from basketball to football  that’s what we going to talk about today y’all the Cleveland Browns that’s one of the topics we going  to talk about today them Cleveland Browns cuz all all things to the Cavs we going to give a shout  out to them boys cuz they are playing their butts off and they’re doing very very well so shouts  out to the Cavaliers and what they’re doing so they just snapped that uh four game losing streak  so they just won two again two in a row yeah so

00:01:04 they doing very well so you know I’d like to see  LeBron James listen it’ll be a perfect circle for his career for him to come to Cleveland and lose  championship here in Cleveland to these boys cavs versus the uh Cavs versus the Lakers and the  championship take him and Bronnie out do it all at one time and then he can officially say “I done  came full circle it’s time for me to retire.” Not because Cleveland beat me but I came full circle  i came full circle the team I always wanted to win championships are playing their butts off they’re  a good team my son is in the league i’m doing well

00:01:40 and if I was going to lose a championship to any  team I bet he wouldn’t mind it being the Cleveland Cavaliers coming off of that so I think I’m saying  that to be funny but I think going full circle in life I think he could see that as a full circle  moment he probably take advantage of it all right you might be right Mr d maybe right all right  so let’s get to the man of the hour yeah this uh like I said we got a gentleman here who is our  Cleveland City Council president he is the guy who’s trying to keep everything going down there  in the insane asylum as they call it some people

00:02:15 they say “Hey Blaine is in charge and one of the  leaders.” I ain’t gonna say he’s in charge he’s one of the leaders of all 17 council members  in the Cleveland City Council he’s had that um job now for over four years going his fourth  year doing that he’s running for reelection this year he’s a councilman for that everybody’s  pushing him and this since this is unfiltered we unfiltered there’s people want him to run for  mayor and all kinds of stuff out here so Blaine is just a man doing it all one of the things I do  know is that um being a councilman in this city

00:02:47 is a hard job and sometimes they get blamed for  a lot of things that they is out of their control and I think just like in life and everything  people no matter how much they say they know government really don’t so you sometimes blame  the wrong people the mayor gets blamed for stuff he shouldn’t do council gets blamed for all the  stuff that they shouldn’t be doing congress gets blamed for stuff that the mayor should be doing i  mean it goes all the way around and it seems like we can’t get it together but we’re going to talk  about a little of that today we’re going to talk

00:03:18 about the Cleveland Browns we’re going to talk  about this redistricting we’re going to talk a little about leadership down there and some of the  things that’s going on in city council so without further ado everybody in the house let’s give a  warm welcome to our guest Mr bla Griffin what’s happening what’s going on Kenny everything’s  everything brother you know life is good man i I’m doing well i can’t complain you know I’m  in my podcast mode as you would say today is a good day to do podcasting and talking and I’m  looking forward to having this conversation with

00:03:49 you i could do a lot of small talking with you  but we do that anyway so we going to get down to business but I do want to say this briefly  go ahead the boots on the ground video that you and DJ TR put together and the whole team  was absolutely phenomenal oh and thanks to you that that was a part of that and we we do a good  shout out to everybody thank you thank you Blaine i appreciate that everybody who played a role in  that thing we did last summer was a thousand man boots on the ground we really tried to really push  hard to get African-American males to the ballot

00:04:20 and get them voting it was a huge effort man and  you were a very very very very big part of helping us to do that we had started out earlier in the  year doing it and we kind of hit a milestone or we kind of hit just you know how you hit that wall  sometime you feel like oh man seemed like we just you’re fighting against yourself then you called  the meeting and got everybody together that gave us that other push to help us get this thing going  so I really appreciate that we did very well and

00:04:46 if you guys are looking at it you could go to our  website it’s called join j o i ne j o i n.vfbf.org or voices for a better future pack and you’ll see  videos on there what we did and we did an inner to you report it was very good again thanks for all  your help and everybody who helped us on that big shout out to you guys thank you and thank to all  the fraternal organizations that came out um you know the D9 um I would tell you I’m a proud member  of a mega sci-fi so the Q’s were in the house and

00:05:17 all of the D9 um you know uh the kappas the alphas  uh the zetas I mean you know um you know the women were helpful and supportive but I’m also a Mason  and I’m also belong to Ecclesiastes 120 and uh the uh you know the those groups so all the fraternal  organizations 100 black men you know pastors pastor Matthews open up church pastor Phillips  was phenomenal um I would just tell you that um one of the things and I’ll talk about Mike Nelson  our friend Mike Nelson Mike Nelson really set the tone one day when he said you know when they went  out and they actually walked in the neighborhoods

00:05:54 and he almost wailed up because he said “Man the  conditions of our community.” And part of that wasn’t just to try to get out the vote that’s what  I hope people are not missing part of that is to take accomplished men right that um men were  being picked on everybody was talking about oh men are not going to vote for Kla Harris and  we need to get men engaged and men are starting to move towards Trump and they’re starting to  feel disenchanted well part of this was not just so that we could try to get out the vote  part of this is how we can convene these groups

00:06:26 to have a better longer strategic impact on our  community and I hope that we’re going to continue that momentum because that’s what we’re here for  i didn’t join the D9 for the parties i’m too old to be at all the parties right um but we make it  to the ones you can i make it to the ones I can you know I do like to have a good time every once  in a while y’all excuse me make it to the ones we can um but I will tell you that um it was more for  the civic engagement and for what they believe in public service and community service so the fact  that uh that group and those groups were able to

00:06:56 come out and the fraternal organizations and  once again the sororities as well who really came out to support us um you know making that  happen was phenomenal you know I want to give another shout out to uh Judge Nelson because he’s  under weather y’all so anybody who knows that put out a big shout out to Nelson if you know him go  check on him and see how he’s doing he’s been a little under the weather these days so we want to  put our prayers out there and a shout out if you know Judge Nelson yeah keep them in our prayers  keep them in our prayers so Mr griffin you tell

00:07:25 me man i’m gonna give you a moment to open up a  little bit man what’s on your chest man what’s going on in city hall and council since the last  time we talked hey uh Brother Kendow i’m like uh Kendrick Lamar sometimes you just got to pop  out and show something you know I’m out here just doing the business and um trying to you  know handle the people’s business every day um you know we just passed the budget yeah I was  going to say start backwards let’s start with the budget so the budget passed and uh $1.2 billion  budget when you include the uh airport and the uh

00:07:57 or the ports as well as uh the water department  and then the general fund so um we had a little bit of a rocky time uh with um that conversation  and uh so let’s talk about that we ain’t going to call it rocky time we going I say unfiltered we  in election year we get down to it all right so it was a dispute council wanted to do one thing  the mayor wanted to do something else with the funds that were going to be allocated give us  some insight of what really and not so much the politics of it but what what was happening to let  us know what was the difference well first of all

00:08:31 whenever a budget is presented to council it’s  council’s budget correct our number one job is to appropriate the dollars so the mayor gives an  estimate the the budget comes to us our job is to provide um appropriations for the city budget our  job is to provide oversight if there’s departments that are not functioning well we have the ability  to do oversight and then create policy and and and write legislation so be creative so um you know  the mayor submitted his budget to us on February the 1st um we you know went through it and we had  some what’s called reconciliation items so I want

00:09:09 to we’re going to stay on that point because  I’m council i learned y’all think and y’all think y’all stay on that point and y’all stay on  these points so I’m going to stay on that point cuz a lot of people get confused and I was having  this with it most funding if you wanted to get something fun if you had a project or a program  that you want you should be talking to the mayor about that correct well let me say this it’s  a couple of things their job is implementation okay okay but the actual funding comes to council  and that’s what everybody needs to realize but if

00:09:37 I had a project if I had a project that I  wanted to do with the city of Cleveland I guess you said that you could go to both so you  can go to both but here’s the deal let me give you a perfect example i have a pharmaceutical  company that is doing well and the one thing I would say about this uh federal administration  know the Trump administration is that a lot of these companies because of the tariffs want  to move a lot of their businesses off I mean onshore okay uh so I have a pharmaceutical  company that you know is uh operating in the

00:10:05 city of Cleveland they want to expand they want to  build brand new so they came and they talked to me now I basically am very much in favor of this  this is bringing jobs to our community it’s uh also I try to work out what’s called  community benefits agreements which I’ll get into in a moment uh where they actually see how  the community is going to benefit through jobs MBE minority business enterprise FBE female business  enterprise and Cleveland small business but I also try to do nuance things like if there’s ability  for them to provide diabetes medicine and other

00:10:36 things at better rates for our citizens i try to  work out those kind of deals so what happens is it starts out by you know they have an idea they  approach the council person or they can approach the administration now once I think it’s something  that’s important i’m not a subject matter expert one of the things that people need to realize  about council is that our job we have to know a little bit about everything but we’re not experts  about one thing so when you want to do the deal to your point and I know that a lot of deals come  to you and people ask you who should we talk to

00:11:07 um the expert that actually is going to draw  up the deal is going to be that director and that department so if you got an economic  development I’m not going to develop the deal okay for economic development and I’m not going to  put council in a position to simultaneously or to try to write the deal itself we’re going to work  with that department that department puts together and negotiates with that business and then once  they negotiate with that business then they come to terms and then they have to bring it back to  council for funding approval uh for schematic

00:11:41 approval for planning zoning okay and then that’s  when we get our opportunity to vet to make sure that the things that we suggested to them as well  as the things that um you know the administration negotiated with them are in place so that we can  make sure that we get a very good return on our investment i always try to show how we’re going to  benefit and how money is going to come back into the general fund how many jobs are going to get  created because of the actions that we take and how the community is going to benefit which was  a huge law that we passed a couple of years ago

00:12:13 um because I want to just stay on this because I  know there’s a lot of conversation around DEI and I had a very good conversation with a friend of  mine on the Republican side uh about a week ago and and he was talking about you know why this  DEI stuff should go away and why he felt it was good that the state passed that Senate Bill One he  was a little bit upset that we passed a resolution speaking out against Senate Bill one even though  it passed um I tell people it’s not just about DEI we have a community that’s 48% African-American  12 to 14% Hispanic uh approximately uh 53 to 55%

00:12:50 female so this ain’t about DEI this is making sure  that the people that live and work in this city get a return on their investment whenever we spend  taxpayer dollars this ain’t about diversity equity inclusion we’re not begging people to uh use our  own dollars that’s correct we’re basically doing that we don’t go to Madina and say “Oh well you  got to hire XYZ.” Because they’re going to hire people from their community and that’s why we  put protections in place to make sure that nobody takes advantage of our community uh so those are  some of the things that we have to do when we make

00:13:23 these discussions and we’re legislative and you  hit it on the nose earlier many people don’t know how government operates like I had someone tell  me “Well you know I’m I’m upset at the mayor and the administration and you need to do something  about it.” I said “Wait a minute let me stop you there i don’t work for him um you know we are our  own legislative body and quite frankly I’m the top of the food chain on the legislative side so he  and the administration can’t get anything unless they come through the legislative body so we’re an  independent just like anybody learned when we back

00:13:55 Saturday morning watching cartoons um you have a a  judicial branch you have an executive branch which is the mayor and then you have the legislative  branch which is council but the problem is Bla they don’t do those commercials no longer well  that’s the problem and we gota and you also had a problem that many of the schools don’t teach  civics and those are things that people need to know basics of government so when you’re a  council person people don’t may not talk to their mayor they may not have access to the mayor they  may not have access to their congress person may

00:14:22 not have access to um you know the governor they  may not have access to the senators but you know what when I go to that grocery store right or when  I’m walking around the neighborhood or trying to get my little workout in right they gonna pull me  aside and they gonna ask me about everything from what’s happening at the federal government to the  state government and dog on sure going to try to hold me accountable for everything that happens  here so let’s go back cuz we going to uh cuz you know we all I got ADHD i I’m all over the place we  So y’all got to hang with us in this conversation

00:14:52 so in this um we were talking about the just going  to where the the line between the administration and council and we were talking about there it  was a situation that came up where council the mayor presented a budget that he wanted to do xyz  and tell us what it was we ain’t got to what what he wanted to do let me make it clear what it was  is and let me make it to your public because it gets twisted yeah that’s what I’m saying so the  mayor presented a budget and we have what’s called reconciliation after we go through about two weeks  of budget hearings we submitted several areas that

00:15:27 we felt that he and his administration should  cut and we uh you know had some pay for no in order to cut to pay for some of the things that  we thought were priority one of the things that we put in place is $8 million more to try to do  street resurfacing um you know people are tired of driving through Mars through some of these  neighborhoods that’s correct um we also made sure that we put money for LGBTQIA liaison uh we  put money into economic development in order to increase their uh standing we put money into youth  programmings one of the things that we found is

00:16:00 that the recreation center two years ago had a  budget for 54 reconstructors and three physical directors physical directors are like lifeguards  and people that oversee the pools and other things and now they have 34 and they only had about  seven um physical directors so we increased the line item for physical directors as well as  um reconstructors so that we can have a better ratio because nobody just like schools you almost  have to have a formula for how many how much what staff person can oversee the ratio of people  that come to those centers so I was concerned

00:16:37 and council was concerned that we didn’t have a  a proper ratio so those are things we did so we agreed on approximately 90% of the things that we  put forth through reconciliation but then we get to negotiation i would say about 80% okay um we  had two things on the table that the mayor said “Hey could you guys reconsider this i think this  you know is going to be a challenge.” Uh which was like uh capital investments which was about 2.5  million or something like that and then it was one other thing that I I I forget what it was i don’t  have it in front of me right now um but one of the

00:17:11 things that he recommended to us is that we did  not do $600,000 per ward block grants block nope $600,000 for general fund grants so that we could  buy things like speed tables okay cameras put them into economic development projects um make  sure that we can you know put all this into that because it’s important I get this out get that  because I want to stay on because because that general fund allows us to move more swiftly  because it doesn’t have as many strings attached to the CD and quite frankly these are projects  that are stranded that many of us have been

00:17:51 trying to get for a while so we wanted to try to  have more of these things that went directly to neighborhood improvements through their council  person it still has to go through a legislative process it still has to be vetted everything else  the mayor disagreed with that he wanted to do $329,000 we wanted $600,000 so the impass when you  add it up was about $4.6 million in impass he was concerned because he said one you had too much  money already that some people haven’t spent but I will tell you that most of the reason is because  a lot of times a lot of the departments can’t get

00:18:28 these projects out the door fast enough and then  number two um you know people save up money just like you would in your own house in order to  do the projects and the things that you need to do because these things cost money i think a  camera system depending on if it’s wired or not is anywhere between 8,000 to 15,000 speed tables  are about 8,000 a piece so we wanted to have more flexibility to make some investments like that in  the neighborhood so this where it gets important so we had already passed $67 million for the rainy  day fund okay which basically um you know we use

00:19:04 for rainy day if we run into a crisis we use rainy  day correct we had about $72 million that we uh put into uh 27th payroll last year in 2024 there  were 27 weeks usually there’s 26 weeks we put in 72 million so on top of that we had a carryover  balance because we had unfilled positions that the administration didn’t fill that last year was  about 46 million this year was about 15 million which added up to be about another 61 million when  you add up all these loose ends it was about a 202 million in savings so we said out of the carryover  and out of those dollars um those uh those dollars

00:19:49 um that are carryover and supplemental dollars  we actually said we want to take 4.6 that that’s what we can grab that 4.6 in order to get every  council member up to $600,000 right $4.6 million disagreement remember we cut approximately 5  million worth of programs that we originally tried to reconcile to concede to say “Okay let’s  try to figure out how we can negotiate.” Uh the administration didn’t agree with that when the  administration didn’t agree with that um we 17 members felt that it was important enough for us  to do it anyway uh so we did it the mayor signed

00:20:29 the budget last week he has three options whenever  a budget is submitted or whenever legislation period is submitted either he can send it back  unsigned he could send it back with a signature or he can veto it if he vetoed it it stood the chance  of having a potential of going past the April 1st date which meant it would have went to the state  so the dispute was over approximately when you boil it down $4.6 million and Ken what you got to  realize is that $22 million in our savings account is unprecedented you have people like Mike  Pinsic that have been down there since for

00:21:06 47 for 47 years i’m not lying to everybody  47 years said he’s never seen a you know a savings account in the city for 202 million so we  made a decision that Cleveland couldn’t wait that you know the neighborhoods you know did that  so people were critical say oh you guys are putting slush funds and you’re trying to just  give council members slush funds this that one we did this last year so we did it again this  year two I will tell you that it goes through a vetting process but last but not least Ken you  know at the end of the day no there was no public

00:21:40 outcry when we used supplemental dollars to put  22 million or so into the Westside Market that’s correct there was no public outcry or no outcry  by some of these critics when we were asked to pony up $20 million for the Gateway District so  when there was no public outcry when people asked us to implement and invest in the lakefront which  now we have more progress in lakefront development than we ever had because council allocated the  dollars to do these big ticket projects we felt it was important to take a stand to make sure we made  investments in the neighborhood and yes we want to

00:22:17 influence those investments because we’re the ones  that sit in hot church basement go to the grocery stores go to some of these broken down rec centers  and other places and people constantly ask us to help them now didn’t council swap out I’m going  to use my term cuz I I don’t know what technical term I use but didn’t you swap out some of your  block grant money to go into this fund to do this no we we didn’t swap out any any fund the ones  that we did negotiate is what I told you we took off the table approximately 200 was that something  they wanted you guys that’s No well there there’s

00:22:53 another group external group okay um Cleveland  Neighborhood Progress that has a proposal uhhuh that they want us to use community development  block grant dollars in order to do things like road repairs and that’s what I thought this this  wasn’t that gives the CDC’s general fund dollars so that the CDC’s can be more flexible and move at  a faster rate see the problem with these federal dollars is there’s so many strings attached to  them that it takes forever for sometimes out the door now the problem that I have with that and  we’re still trying to figure that out is that

00:23:29 the uncertainty coming out of Washington which  was the administration’s concern quite frankly the uncertainty coming out of Washington we’re in  union negotiations so costs are going to go up so the administration rightfully is concerned about  if they’re going to have enough money to pay for all these things if the bottom falls out for the  city well that’s governing that’s where you got to be you know make some tough decisions and if  that means you know I was here in the time in 2008 where the recession hit in the city and former  mayor Frank Jackson had the furlow uh which means

00:23:59 that they only had we only had four day weeks and  only got paid for four day weeks so you got to make tough decisions when you in those places and  we felt that we’ve given the administration all the tools that they need in order to be successful  and we know that there’s uncertainty coming out of Washington we know you’re in union negotiations  but at the end of the day we felt it was very important to have the flexibility for council  members to be able to work with each other to make critical investments because every day I  hear about people speeding on Mara i hear about

00:24:30 uh traffic uh uh uh cameras on Larch the week  that we did this I had three breakins for on Larch Boulevard i had two shootings this is Larch  Boulevard Ken you know I live on Larch right we had two shootings where a group of guys were  shooting out with each other on 130th we had a a car a breakin to a high-end car dealership where  they stole like three cars we had a shooting at a at a restaurant where a person got shot we had  multiple other things to the point where one woman called and said “My daughter called me to say can  I come and stay a few days at your house because

00:25:04 I’m too scared?” When I hear that I actually care  so when we get these kind of complaints we want to make sure that we put cameras on large mirror so  the way to do that is either through discretionary dollars or dollars that we carve out to give  council members more opportunities to make direct investments we have projects Ken about $12 million  worth of projects of economic development that are stranded because quite frankly they receive  letters saying “We intend to give you this amount from the city the city had more people than than  they thought they would to get this money.” So now

00:25:43 these projects who put their performer together  based on what they thought they were going to get from the city now they’re dealing with 500,000 100  I mean $500,000 $1 million shortfalls so I have businesses that I need to make sure survive which  bring in income tax which helps pay the bills for the city so this is not no selfish money grab  that people try to make it is more about being strategic and and methodical and trying to make  sure that the neighborhoods feel the impact and and and that we have a sense of urgency to make  sure that we address some of the neighborhood

00:26:18 needs so why are those businesses feeling that  why the city paying these guys why why and and and I’m not saying that based even off of your  thing cuz I was going in another direction but I want to stay on this one a little bit because  that’s one of the big things we getting a lot of we getting a lot of conversation and talks from  people who saying they got invoices the city is not paying these invoices they can’t get stuff out  and I know you guys hear it and that comes and not to point fingers to say “Hey this on the mayor’s  office,” but it does it comes out of that part of

00:26:47 the hall so why is it why does it take so long  to get paid from the city i do not know that’s something that has been concerning and the problem  that I have is I had one group that actually did a project and uh they did a renovation project  with some dollars that council allocated and uh they didn’t get paid and they were almost about  to get sued by all of their subcontractors wow so because the subcontractor was like we’re we  need to get paid and what happens is you know if you have a small business and you have to  wait a year or 18 months to get paid you can

00:27:24 mess around and go out of business so these guys  were upset and we get those calls all the time but Ken once again that’s an administrative  function right our job is to appropriate the budget provide oversight of departments and  write legislation and public policy their job is to deploy resources hire fire and make the  operations of government function that’s the executive branch so at the end of the day that’s  a question you have to ask the administration but the public is uh frustrated frustrated with it  so I’m going to ask the question this way i’m

00:27:56 going ask it this way there’s importance to  what you talked about as it relates to what um this group want to propose to do with the block  grant money for community development even with what you talked about with the budget with what  want to have what he would like to do or anybody in that position so I guess the question is how  important is it that relationship between the council president and the mayor and what I mean by  that is there’s a level of serious trust that has to take place and what I mean by that is that we  have when you have a mayor that um a budget that

00:28:39 you need to pass hold on excuse me okay so if we  have a situation where you got um what you want to do with this group that’s trust because if you do  that and the mayor decide I don’t want to do the money that way he can always spend it or put you  through a thing what you’re talking about doing with the budget even though you knowing that mayor  you know the funds are there you could do it but the the to have the ability to feel like I trust  that council is working with me that I can give them this money they may not want to do everything  I want but they going to do some good things with

00:29:18 it to help the city overall so giving them the  resources that they’re asking for shouldn’t be such a big deal why is it that we’re having and  it’s not that is a big deal but to me and you and we talk about this why is it such a big deal why  is council why are you and council getting blamed for all of the stuff that’s taking place and it  seems like that’s where it ends you know that’s a philosophical question um but let me tell you why  it’s philosophical because what I told you earlier we’re accessible uh familiarity breeds contempt  mhm so sometimes because somebody can frame the

00:29:58 mayor or his administration as bulletproof  and they can frame council as these greedy money grabbers that don’t want to do anything  but you know run fifoms that’s not the case um and and that’s unfortunate because you know  you got to do crisis management in these kind of situations because that group shouldn’t be allowed  to to to you know to frame counsel in that way um but the reason why people blame council is because  we’re accessible you can come to our public meetings and you can say whatever vow despicable  things or give misinformation or disinformation

00:30:34 which is dangerous that you want um you can  get a council person’s attention more likely can I sit on my porch sometimes and people just  walk up randomly and air their grievances um unfortunately one of my colleagues is dealing  with some threats councilwoman Jasmine Santana from some unscrupulous coward that um is sending  threat letters to her i saw that in the thing so we’re accessible we you know people can get to us  so who are you going to go and complain to you’re not going to go and yell you know and swat flies  and and yell at people who you can’t access you’re

00:31:11 going to go to the people who are accessible and  you’re going to try to hold us to say you need to be fighting for us but but the mayor does have  people that are accessible well my point is you know what I mean and all I would tell you I don’t  I I haven’t been able to figure it out i would tell you that once again I think familiarity  breeds contempt i had a a gentleman came to uh council last week and he you know called us uh  all of the old guys and first of all I’m not old okay but he said “All of the old guys you guys  shouldn’t be giving him a hard time you guys

00:31:44 should be helping mentor him.” Listen I don’t  get into arguments with this guy every day i don’t dislike this guy i’m just here to represent  who I’m here to represent but sometimes in doing that Ken leadership is lonely and there’s  a group of people who I I’ll leave nameless uh but they’re activists they’re media people  that they want um sometimes the person who they picked to succeed and are very hesitant to  criticize but they want to find a villain or a boogeyman in the process so in order to make a  superhero you got to give the superhero a villain

00:32:24 so I think that the media activists and other  people uh have done unfortunate job of trying to make some council members um look like they’re  they’re villains but one thing about council and one thing about Cleveland the people know when you  talk to the people and you you know I go out here and I’m talking to people i’m you know I live on  Larch and I tell people I live seven houses away from um MLK so even though somebody uh from the  suburban communities or affluent people wanted to try to make Larchmere a part of Shaker my gas  bill says Woodland right so I’m in the community

00:33:03 a friend of mine came over to the house one day  and said “Man you here with your screen door open and you’re sitting here with your flip-flops on  on the porch sitting here reading like you know I thought you would be barricaded somewhere.” No  I’m accessible to people so the bottom line is I know you’re saying that the mayor and others have  a lot of accessibility but not like that council person and and quite frankly they know we’re going  to pretty much call them back well most of us do i do uh they know that we’re going to try to address  their issue um people just want to have access and

00:33:35 and and the best way to have access sometimes um  on every issue is through your council person even when it came to the conflict between Hamas and  Israel con council got put in the middle of that now here I never signed up to be Henry Kissinger  but I had to learn small nuances because if I would have put one or two words in then it would  have offended the Palestinian community if I would have put one or two words in the resolution or  some things then it would offended the Jewish community both of them one wanted a resolution bad  the other one didn’t want a resolution at all so

00:34:13 at the end of the day when we finally did make  a decision nobody was happy right remember both sides was pissed both sides was upset so my point  is you know you don’t always get an opportunity to to to do that but you know what man i’m at a  point now in life where I’mma do what I need to do and if uh somebody gets upset and they want to  take me out they can bring it on well you know is is is and it’s only it’s a Cleveland thing with  that because I’m in Cleveland Heights if I have a problem with any services or anything I have  I call city hall i call right to that department

00:34:46 the department people every hey you guys forgot  to get my garbage they come oh we’re sorry we They take care of it i just don’t understand  i have never called a councilman in Cleveland Heights for anything and I understand cuz I grew  up in Cleveland and I understand like you usually will call them i just don’t know why it’s a  Cleveland thing where the the the residents of Cleveland rather call the councilman instead  and the reason why I’m saying that not that it’s a bad thing don’t get me wrong I’m not saying you  should but I think that they missing that step of

00:35:18 really trying to get the help that they really  need by just going directly and if I don’t get the help then I will call counsel right really  people should call 311 right and really it is an administrative function to implement and provide  the service that’s correct however in Cleveland because we have such a a large group of people  in poverty uh because we’ve lost a tremendous amount of the middle class um and I’m going  somewhere with this so bear with me we run into a situation in Cleveland where the culture and  uh years of council people being advocates and

00:35:55 um budsmen for people who often times can’t  speak for themselves that people have relied on council through the years through legends like  Fanny Lewis that’s correct frank Jackson other uh you know council people who just made themsel  available and people get used to that that’s true now I will also tell you this which is a question  that I would beg your audience to ask who is government there to serve um I would tell you  that government you know people look at government different rich people look at government as  government should just get out the way and let

00:36:30 the free market run its course middle class people  rely on government because a lot of middle class people are from the labor and union background  so they recognize that government is a tool for them to be able to level the playing field poor  people often time government doesn’t serve them so the only person that poor people and some of  the middle class that’s left in Cleveland it’s not a whole bunch come to to be their advocate  to advocate on their behalf i had to do a meeting this morning for Board of Building Standards where  I’m advocating for a longtime building that’s been

00:37:08 in neglect for 20 years to get torn down and the  developer or the person who bought it they just keep flipping it to a new owner new owner comes  in and say “I need another six months.” I’m like “No I need this building down.” If you leave it  to government who’s government gonna serve right they’re gonna serve that developer that’s correct  i’m there to fight for that neighborhood so as an advocate the people are relying on me to be their  advocate because sometimes if you leave government to itself they’re only going to serve the wealthy  and sometimes the middle class but never time the

00:37:42 poor so we going to stay on that point because as  we getting going through the stuff um this year no it was last year end of last year right middle  of last year you guys passed that I’m losing track that legislation on the uh community oh that was  about uh two years ago so we’re about almost two years it’s been two years yes it’s about two years  so you might have came on the program we talked a little bit about that but yeah that was a big  thing as it relates to community um making sure cuz that’s again where you talk about government  and and community you want to give us a real quick

00:38:12 one on that Bla it’s still a big thing and what  you know we did is we passed a community benefits ordinance that anytime you do more than $250,000  worth of work that um you have to have a community benefits agreement okay um as part of it now that  may be part of the special improvement district where some people being a part of areas like in  University Circle and downtown central business district you have what’s called the special  improvement districts where people help clean up and they help have eyes on the ground and other  things like that to try to provide that extra

00:38:48 layer of service uh it could be making sure that  NBE FBE uh and and CSB participation is in place uh it could be something as small as you know are  you going to provide access or affordable housing for a certain amount of units but bottom line is  we want to see some kind of way that the community is going to get a return on their investment so um  the community benefits ordinance uh was very very um groundbreaking i would tell you in the past  people have done it um just because it’s the right

00:39:20 thing to do but I’ve learned that if something is  not in writing it’s not enforceable so I really pushed the envelope to make sure that we have a  community benefits ordinance and I want to make it clear to your audience this ain’t no DEI this is a  return on investment for the people that live work and play in the city of Cleveland so when we talk  about community benefits ordinance this is to make sure that the people who are the taxpayers paying  for your project are the people who are getting

00:39:49 something out of it so you’re saying there’s  no DEI this is here this is here this is real and let me say this no community no business  nobody does projects or does anything without making sure that they get some kind of return  on their investment so I almost wish we didn’t call it a community benefits ordinance because  people automatically associate it with oh they go blame trying to do more for black folks first  of all I’m wrong with that i’m I’m unabashedly black so yes I’m always going to advocate for who  I’m there to represent but I also have a lot of

00:40:24 uh white folks in the community i have Democrats  I have Republicans I have a tremendous amount of women uh where 73% of our city are single female  heads of households so this is about the people that live work play and are stakeholders in the  city of Cleveland that they actually can get a return on their investment that’s how I better  describe it and I wish people would articulate it more as opposed to allowing it to become some  buzzword as I said to you earlier where people can frame it demonize it and try to use it to  their advantage you you don’t think um because

00:40:59 of everything that’s going on in Washington with  them killing DEI and all of this how will any of that affect they’re going to try to categorize  it um but let me say this to you we don’t have to pass a project m so you can come and you can say  well Washington says that you know we don’t have to abide by hiring people in your community  we don’t have to abide by making sure your community benefits from you know this development  or whatever else like that well you know what go see Washington for the dollars because we don’t  have to have you here if you don’t want to be

00:41:31 here and you don’t want to play by the rules we  put in place then we don’t need to vote for your uh thing i’m going to vote for something  that’s going to be helpful to the community now sometimes people come to the table and they’re  providing a tremendous amount of jobs if they can show that and show that you know it’s harder to  do some of the other things because they’re so intent on growing the workforce and doing mentor  protege programs and helping bring people out then that’s important cuz Ken one of the things that  I really really try to tell people is that when

00:42:03 you look at these different kind of programs they  should have three different tiers it’s like you’re building a three layer cake um the people in the  middle should we should be trying to figure out how we scale them up so that they could be joint  ventures that’s correct so that they can have JVS and be partners and I talked to you about this  on some of these projects so that we’re not just subs or we’re not just getting a piece but we’re  actually real partners um when and we’re going to talk about the stadium but one of the things  I was already talking with the stadium when we

00:42:29 were trying to get them downtown was that hey you  know when you do the construction on this we want you to consider having instead of just having  some big multinational company from around the country we want you to work with uh a firm to make  sure that you’re growing a firm to become a prime that’s correct the second thing we need to do is  some of those lower tiered people we want to move them up to the mid tier where they can start  competing and growing their business so that they can be in the mid tier of those things but  then we also have to scale up the workforce in

00:43:01 general which is why council put about $10 million  into several workforce programs in order to try to grow the workforce so that we can have more  carpenters plumbers and electricians and welders and hopefully scale them up so that they can  at least start a business so that they can grow so this is like a growth process and how we  actually are saying this is how you create wealth in communities this is one of the tools you know  home ownership is another tool but wealth creation deals with having your own business and one of the  things we know we joke about millennials they want

00:43:33 to start their own business right the days of  somebody saying I’m going to go to the factory and I’m going to go to TRW or Lincoln Electric  i’m going to put in my 30 years i’m going to retire well Trump bringing back manufacturing man  stuff is going to be tough though bring it back home but my point is a lot of these people they  they want to start businesses yeah they want and and they don’t want to go and and do this i mean  I’ll be honest with you when I came out of high school and my father you know you know my father  um you know I never forget I came home one summer

00:44:00 and I worked at General Motors in Lordstown and  I was making about 1,500 a week and I was like I ain’t going back and he was like this is short  term son you need to go get an education so you can have options and a lot of people think that  way even college educated people like if I just go to this factory and I could put in 30 years  or I go get me a city job or a county job and I go put in 30 years I could retire and I’m sweet  them days are dwindling and and now people need more tools and the talent that people need and  the talent acquisition to fill some of these

00:44:34 positions even when you talk about manufacturing  um we need to make sure that people have the kind of certifications in order to be able to fill  these jobs i’m tired of going to companies and they tell me “We have thousands of open positions  but nobody’s qualified to fill.” Yeah cleveland don’t have a workforce to fill it that’s that’d be  the biggest thing so talent acquisition is huge if anything that’s one of the things that I’m really  um hoping and working on with several partners to try to help um how we can improve our talent in  the region in order to make sure we grow let’s go

00:45:05 through a couple of these things so I can get you  out of here we’ll speed through these sure let’s talk about um safety in the city of Cleveland and  the two safety issues I want to talk about is one the police and the second was EMS you know my  man Ed Galla is starting to become a contributor on my show and he comes in and he tells us stuff  and I like Ed because I don’t I don’t always You can always say you agree you just he gets the  information you take the information and you can either go look into more of it yourself or  get what you get out of it so I appreciate him

00:45:36 doing the stuff he did but I’ve been following  him and the EMS seem to be a real big mess right now in the city of Cleveland as it relates to  response times and um people some of it is EMS some of it is back up in the system i know it was  a special that said the EMS were taking um people to the hospital but hell they get in the hospital  and and and they they’ll keep them on the gurnies in there for like hours and hours man i’ve seen  people in the hospitals and I’ll tell you off air a very prominent person had to speak I know you  told me days Wow in the emergency room until they

00:46:12 found a room and speaking again of an advocate  this person called me because they were sitting there like Blaine I’m sitting here for two to  three days and I still don’t have a room wow i’m not in charge of the hospital i don’t run anything  in that hospital but you know what i’m an advocate i pick up the phone i called that president of  the hospital i called that government affairs person and I said such and such needs a room that  person got a room that day so my point is this is how you advocate and often times that’s not my  job but if you care about people when they call

00:46:44 you with a need you got to respond um I’m going to  get to EMS in a second one of the biggest crisis that I’m concerned about right now is uh the food  program that’s been cut at the Cleveland Food Bank so here you got two major federal programs  that’s going to create tons of food that not come to the centers guess who’s going to have to  pick up that flack and that slack oh that’s going to come out that block grant money and all that  stuff they going they already people are already lining up so these are things that you know  we don’t have a social got cut what happened

00:47:15 the Trump administration USDA basically cut um  two major federal programs that come out of the Department of Agriculture that bring tons of food  to the Cleveland Food Bank that now have been cut and the state budget reduce the amount of money  that they were given to the Cleveland Food Bank so when those kind of things happen then they’re  going to come back gave away this you know what I’m saying well let me say this and it’s not just  about the food bank it’s also about those farmers that now either they’re going to have to eat it  or find other markets to put it in and with the

00:47:49 tariffs that they can’t export it it puts them in  a bind so these things are all interconnected but guess who everybody’s going to come to because of  this need president Griffin so even with social services the county receives almost $400 million  through social health and human services levy uh they have other things that they receive it  and they’re really charged with providing the social service safety net even though most of the  money goes to Metro Hospital and and the county you know I I’m very good friends with Ronain and  I work closely with the county council so this is

00:48:20 no no no shade or no slide but the county really  technically and you know this from when they had the three commissioner um body that the county  actually has the responsibility for the social service safety net oh yeah but because they’ve  moved a little bit towards the workforce and a little bit away from the social service safety  net guess who gets more requests to help with that community social program sickle sales um heart  association awareness programs all these different things that are important that used to be funded  that are now getting cut by other federal state

00:48:58 and county um agencies falls back because the need  is still there and the city has to come up not our job mhm but we care and we got to address it so  what about EMS ems is underst staffed we have in the budget talking about reconciliation we um  put in there that we wanted 11 more positions so that they could be fully staffed um EMS also  had a huge problem with billing where it was a department that quite frankly I think it was  eliminated by neglect but bottom line is most people use a third-party vendor in order to try  to collect bills when people get taken out on

00:49:38 EMS and weren’t bringing in the revenue that we  needed to council passed the law to try to bring in more revenue um that’s what we were told given  the projections so now we’re hoping and working and watching to try to bring more revenue and we  have budgeted for more EMS workers once again I don’t run a department i can’t tell you why the  functionality i will tell you that during the operational hearings they said that they needed  more bodies we gave them more bodies so they have more staff they we gave them the bodies the  administration has to hire the problem with and

00:50:14 you’re going to mention police as well the problem  with a lot of these EMS these police and others is that one the private and suburban communities  often pay more yeah and we have to put provisions in place that if we’re going to put training in  place to train you you got to stay you got to stay we ain’t going to train you just so you can  say senior you know what I mean so we had to look at doing provisions like that um heard that last  class that we we staffed up yeah exactly we we we’re not staffed up yet they got to actually hire  we’ve given them the positions we’ve done our job

00:50:49 they have to hire i Well you Listen I I I ain’t  going to let you off the hook on that because I watch y’all mhm and I know y’all have committees  for all of that you got to say “So what is the cog in the wheel why isn’t it moving?” Once again  is it people we do not hire we do not no I’m not playing you that what I’m saying is the problem we  can’t figure out why people are not applying or we can’t so part of part of it is applying and part  of it is applying part of it is people who leave part of it is working conditions um but that’s an  administrative function it’s the same thing with

00:51:24 the police department um we you know are 2,000  understaffed police so let me ask a question on police uh are we safer we you know that was one  of the numbers that the administration is going around saying the numbers went down Cleveland are  we safer than we were are we making any strides to doing things better than it was when I know we’re  making strides i don’t want to give that’s an easy one are we better than we were two three years  ago when you came in yes i think that a lot of the issues that we have in Cleveland is that some  of the crime problem has moved to the inner ring

00:52:02 suburbs that’s true so once again my theory is  that you know it’s coming soon to a neighborhood near you also a lot of the crime that happens in  the city of Cleveland are not city of Cleveland folks when you look at brevity reports a lot of  times it’s people from other outer ring suburbs coming into Cleveland because I also tell people  love to come to Cleveland to pray play and stay but they I mean people love to come and play and  pray and maybe work but they don’t want to stay you know they want to go home to their nice buolic  suburb but they want to come to Cleveland and do

00:52:32 all of their dirt or come to church or come live  their social life or come live their memories but then they heading right back out that’s great so  my point is I think that part of it is migratory i think that part of it is um you know that some  people have just stopped reporting because in no neighborhood that I go to they say we’re safer  today than we were two or three years ago and hence why we need more money for cameras and other  things and some of the things I’ve seen on large mirror this year like Airbnb parties where 200  people show up and I’m going out there at 2:00

00:53:06 in the morning in my shorts and t-shirt like man I  ain’t never seen nothing like this on large mirror right you know so some of these neighborhoods that  have not traditionally had problems are starting to have problems and some of the people that live  in some of these neighborhoods they hear gunshots they like I’m not even calling which is why I’ll  I’ll pivot to technology which is important and plays a huge role in this but Ken I’m going say  this and you said it’s unfiltered um a lot of times when you see government and people say  things it’s a lot of statistical masturbation

00:53:40 it looks like the right thing feels like the right  thing but it ain’t the real thing say it ain’t the real thing i believe that i I I’m a firm believer  in that i got two questions for you and we going to let you go that That was really good you didn’t  tell your audience i’m a little controvers yeah you’re a little controver He’s just being really  nice and that’s his controvers and I said we unfiltered but I got to get him here after six and  we really be unfiltered i’m going to ask you two questions the we going to jump on this Cleveland  Browns thing and then I’m going to hit you with

00:54:09 your final one which is a really good one but  the Cleveland Browns situation Cleveland Browns we know and I know you were out front on that  early on and things of that nature so my question as it relates to the Cleveland Browns man I I’m  going just go right to it i looked at the plans of what they’re trying to do there and all of the  stuff that the Hasslam’s trying to do did do the did the city of Cleveland really stand a chance of  really offering him something that was comparable to what he was trying to do out there or he it  what he was trying to do no matter what we just

00:54:43 couldn’t put the land together we couldn’t really  give him what he wanted and and we going to fight for the city cuz we got to because that’s what we  do but at the end of the day do we really got what we can can we put apples to apples with what he’s  trying to do it’s never apples to apples and it’s a broader question to that and you know to you  know know he’s a billionaire they him and his wife they want similar to what you see when you look  at the football games in Kansas City in Dallas uh where you see rows and rows of parking that’s  revenue that all it goes out to them um they also

00:55:17 want um to be developers they actually want to  create hotels and restaurants and everything else we also do have some infrastructure issues where  um I actually got you know tapped and hit by a car going to a game about 6 years ago really yeah  i actually was constantly uh on Ninth Street and the freeway was coming out and a guy pulled out  and fortunately I was a little agile so I jumped up and rode i did a little I did a little roll  and really Yeah but I but it was good you know so traffic issues ingress and egress into the stadium  is a challenge um so those are things that they

00:55:51 felt were operational challenges um let me say  this um I think Brook Park is not a good deal okay um for several reasons part of it is because it’ll  be a self-licking ice cream cone um nobody would really benefit from it um I would be more worried  if I was Crocker Park and um and Strongsville Mall and some of those places if they go forward what  they need to do m I have a hard time believing that anybody’s going to buy a a half a million  dollar condo watching airplanes fly in and out every day and hearing airplanes um I think that  there’s going to be some operational challenges

00:56:28 but it’s a broader conversation and part of it  is we’ve done a tremendous amount of work on the lakefront so I think some of the conversation  around there has been no progress on the lakefront is wrong once again council allocated money we  put money on into this um and let me say this they do have a plan for downtown okay and that’s  part of the reason why I don’t try to kick them too hard because I believe in my opinion I think  Brook Park is going to be a challenge to pull off economically especially if and I want to give  Chris Rona credit especially if you know Chris Ron

00:57:01 and the county continues to hold the line they’re  not going to be able to find it and then if the state can find and muster up enough courage um to  to to listen to the local leadership and not the u you know not just one group that represented  but Ken think about it the millions of do and then you also Brook Park can also take away from  a lot of events not just in Rocket Mortgage where we put a lot of money so if you look at the amount  of money and the big bets that we made in downtown Cleveland with convention center public auditorium  Rock and Roll Hall of Fame um you know uh uh the

00:57:37 Great Lakes Science Center when you look at all  of the money that we put into that whole area when you even look at uh the global center for  innovation these are bills that we’re still paying we made big bets and a lot of those big bets even  some of the hotels that you mentioned earlier that we just have a theme around sports grounds  so if you take a major corporate partner out of that ecosystem that affects all of these big bets  that’s almost like you’ve done renovations on your house and then you just going to rip out your  living room and and hope that the whole house

00:58:11 is still viable so it’s it’s it’s it’s you know I  have to advocate for the central business district those businesses it would be a reset button that  probably would be 15 to 20 years and I ain’t going to be here for another 15 20 years but it’ll be  a reset button it’ll take a year to tear the damn stadium down well years in stadium now you bring  up a good point when you say that because we have this conversation i know you probably seen some  of the information in the news this week i know the mayor and the Browns have been disputing a lot  of things i’ve been pretty much trying to say “Hey

00:58:42 wait a minute guys i look at this in a little bit  of a different way.” Okay um I want to continue to engage the Browns because one I think Brook  Parker’s going to fail i I know that they believe they have this as a slam dunk i know that our  uh local newspaper has flipped and at first they were like “Oh this is horrible.” And they did no  business person calls out another business person in person in public but they have all come to me  and said “Bla this is horrible.” And the downtown Cleveland Alliance have now issued letters to that  I joined with them to the the state government

00:59:12 saying “This will hurt downtown.” Mhm so you’re  starting to get leaders to say this doesn’t look good so I think the Brook Park deal is going to be  challenging to pull off and I think they’re going to have to come back home so I look at this almost  like a marriage either we going to have a partner who we got to spend the next 30 years with who  we can’t stand each other or we going to have a partner that we got to figure out a way to work  it out or if we have a partner that the courts and everybody else saying “Hey it ain’t gonna  work y’all need to walk y’all separate ways.”

00:59:43 Then I need us to be made whole i don’t need us  to just be left hang you know with the bag which means that we need to discuss how we going to tear  down a stadium how we going to invest in a vibrant lakefront everything else so I’m never going to  give up the fight that they shouldn’t be downtown but I’m going to always keep my relationship and  conversation open with the Browns because at the end of the day even though I’m not a part of the  negotiations the administration once again handles

01:00:09 that um I’m enough of a leader that I know when  to step in and lean in and have a relationship with one of our major corporate partners you  think the administration is handling this in a a a good manner i think that the biggest  mistake that the administration as well as the Browns have made is to negotiate in public  one of the things when you’re dealing with these big sensitive deals you don’t negotiate in public  and the fact that they’ve negotiated in public is the reason why this thing has gotten unwieldy and  went in certain ways um if I was in a position to

01:00:43 have these conversations we would lock oursel  into a room in some hotel or even in the red room or wherever and we would spend three days  until everybody’s so exhausted they say you know damn it let’s just sign the paper but where’s  the transparency in that Bla you’re not being transparent y’all in a smoky room you don’t  negotiate in public when it come to council then it’s transparent hence another reason why  council gets blamed because the sausage is made behind the scenes but when it comes to council  that’s when everybody wants to give their two

01:01:15 cents because now it’s transparent in public  but the actual negotiations of the dotting the eyes and crossing the tees should never be done  in the public and if it’s one criticism that I would have of the entire conversation is that too  many tit fortats in public have taken place and it is now turn personal that’s correct and with me  it ain’t never personal right it’s always about who I’m here to represent and I’ve learned that I  learned that a long time ago when I used to work for Frank Jackson and in the morning I would meet  with the police union and the police union would

01:01:47 say “Hey I’m just representing 1500 guys with guns  and they hold me accountable to say this is what we want you to do.” Um the Black Lives Matter  people I meet with and they saying we here to fight for civil rights whatever else and I learned  something through that you never get mad at a man or woman for who they’re there to represent and  that’s how I approach this job that’s a good way i got a question Brian go ahead yeah so did that  Modell law have any teeth to it and what else do you think we can do with that stadium like you  know cuz soccer is real big right now could we

01:02:26 do anything else besides tear that stadium down  well the stadium is too big to try to use for something else so I would not lend the stadium  to that and once again they have a rendering that they will not show the public that I know  that’s out there that shows how they can have an ergonomically correct stadium that mitigates some  of the weather issues in that area and can host more events that you’re talking about because  it would actually create more event space and other things like that so there is something out  there that shows how they can do that and to me

01:03:03 I think that the lakefront is more vibrant more  successful with the stadium there that’s my take i I think originally the biggest mistake was that  they should have never built the stadium there it should have been cluster built over by uh the uh  gateway complex where all of that was at so to your point about the Modell law the Modell law is  valid it is a legitimate law um council originally was the one because the administration was not  the one that stepped out first we actually backed um our colleague Councilman Brian Kazy when uh  council said “Hey we want you to enforce the

01:03:42 Modell law.” So we literally passed a resolution  demanding that the law director enforce the Modell law um once again council doesn’t get that credit  but we actually called the question long before the administration pulled the trigger um but  what I will tell you is the Modell law is valid what the Modell law says is if you plan on  leaving the location in the city then you have to give local investors an opportunity to  buy and I will tell you there are billionaires in Cleveland that are interested so uh one I think  that the Modell law is valid i think that that’s

01:04:20 the reason that they’re trying to take it to  federal court because they know that if they keep it in a common please court that the judge  in the common please court will be concerned because of you know they may vote in favor of the  community and not in their way so that’s why they tried to take it to federal court so the reason  that they tried to file in federal court and the reason why it’s simultaneously filed in in local  court because local court stands a better chance than federal court but the Modell law is very  valid there are investors ready to think about

01:04:52 trying to buy it and part of the reasons I think  that D and Jimmy are good people i like them but um I think that Ken you know this and we always  had this conversation i mean I don’t shy away i shouldn’t even say it but I’m going to say it  i moved I moved from Youngsttown to Cleveland in 1992 but people still say I’m not from here  right you know I’ve been here longer than most of the people that got those uh uh uh questions  but my point is you know a lot of times outsiders in Cleveland don’t take the time to understand  Cleveland right we have a ve we have a big city

01:05:24 but a small town and correct it’s very intimate  the relationships so at the end of the day the one thing that I think that the HMS did not have they  did not have somebody who had that local touch that’s correct who helped them understand the  dynamics and all the moving parts i would have went and begged Michael White to be a consultant  for me or I would have went and talked to some people who actually knew the nuances to this stuff  but I would tell you anybody that worked on the past deal and everybody that’s looking at this  Brook Park deal saying that this is not a good

01:05:57 deal um I’m a little concerned about Jimmy and D  because I think that at the end of the day they’re smart business people but I think that some of  their calculations are not going to pan out and I’m really concerned that um you know we would  have a corporate partner that doesn’t understand you know how much this means to Cleveland and  how much Cleveland has invested and committed to this the blood sweat and tears over the years  a poll was just done by Channel 19 that says that 57% of the region not just Cleveland 57% of the  region says that that stadium should stay downtown

01:06:33 channel 19 is going to be doing a special report  um one of these days in the next few days that I hope people look for to really analyze this and  show what people’s thoughts are my colleagues Chris Harsh and Danny Kelly went down to the  stadium for a game one day they surveyed 3,000 people the overwhelming majority probably 70%  said it should stay downtown so at the end of the day I think that the Modell law is valid i  think that um you know you know we still have to keep a relationship with one of our key corporate  partners that no matter what whether we stay in a

01:07:08 marriage we going to have to get along and make  it work or whether we exit the marriage we need to make sure that all of the taxpayers and the  people in the city of Cleveland are made whole what y’all going to do with Burke um Burke is  very hard to shut down federal because it’s a reliever airport um some council members think  it should stay open i think it should be shut down um I have the privilege of having an office  that I look out the window i’m lucky if I see five planes fly in and out of Burke every day lucky  and I mean I literally have sat there some days

01:07:39 and said “Let me literally write down how many  planes come in and out of here every day.” Um there’s a lot of corporate people and our senators  have been adamant that they’re not in a hurry to close down Burke um so Burke is a reliever airport  there’s a lot of red tape with FAA that’s one of the reasons why when I actually floated i was one  of the first people that float out that we should try to build this the dome if you want the dome  let’s do it at Burke um they said “Well we may not be able to make our timeline.” And they said that  the challenge may be that in Brook Park they’re

01:08:10 going to build most of the stadium underground  like eight stories but in Burke they’re gonna have to move it further up which means that the  costs are going to go up and they say guess who we going to come to and ask for that money if  the costs go up so Burke is a challenge but I do think it’s workable but if Burke was workable  I think we would have to extend this present lease for probably another five years until we could  work out all of the federal guidelines and get through all of the federal politics around closing  Burke and Burke is and they say at one point you

01:08:42 couldn’t even build on certain things right you  can build the ironically the western part of Burke is more environmentally and um structurally sound  than the eastern part and you would think it’s the other way because it used to be a landfill right  but most of the contamination is more towards the eastern part and not the western side it’s always  that way it seem like it seem like the east side always getting that well it ain’t necessary  it’s it’s bottom line is like the west side it fixed itself up already see like the east  side still always having east side is always

01:09:16 a challenging you know what i I I get a little  frustrated because sometimes that’s our fault i can we don’t we don’t you know we always looking  for greener pastors one of the things that drives me crazy is when I hear black folks be candid man  when I moved over here it was all white people on the street or I’m moving out here to XYZ community  because I want my children to go to a better school we lost the black middle class in Cleveland  the black middle class left the white middle class said we staying right over here on the west side  send our kids to Catholic schools pay our house

01:09:48 off create wealth and we are always looking for  greener pastures at some point in time man we got to take a stand because you can’t tell me if  this group of people in this room right now stayed on the same street man we have an outstanding  street our kids will be wealthy and successful we’ll we’ll look after each other um but we always  want to go to somebody else’s community we need to quit me and my wife could have left large  man we could have left that Buckeye community 20 years ago we had enough money to move but  we felt it was important to be stable steady

01:10:19 uh especially a project kid like myself or a young  kid that grew up in Youngsttown that moved six times before I was in the eighth grade you know  what I mean i’m happy just to buy a house my house paid for now just about so I’m not trying to run  to no other community yet until I get this nice condo that I’ve been looking at down in Florida  and me and you know the misses can go down there and spend time but I mean we run we need to quit  running from each other and that’s the problem with I think in black Cleveland because the black  middle class has totally abandoned the east side

01:10:49 and now they looking back saying “Look at that  raggedy ass east side.” That’s correct that’s unfortunate so let me ask you this that’s my last  question for you i’m going on Siru Island and let you in on this lots of controversy coming up to  you this year coming through there you had the controversy of the redistricting people’s council  members wanted to get certain areas they wanted to have in their wards you had the people in  the community who were saying “Oh my god you moving the lines and now I’m not going to have the  CDC as if the CDC couldn’t really still work in

01:11:21 those neighborhoods.” You had that issue that came  about you Joe Jones issue that came about with the stuff that he had said and then our our our young  millennials got on a damn hot mic they they worser than the brothers out on the what was that i love  them they they they done got caught up like my man did over there u with Trump and them with the hot  taxes and car and all so they done got in some So we talk all the time and one of the things that we  struggle with is the u the the job of the council

01:11:54 president in managing and trying to put all of  that stuff together and catching the blame for it joe Jones situation wasn’t Blaine Griffin but  Blaine Griffin gets the blame for it anthony Haristen and um some of the other council members  who might have said what they said which is their right to say in my opinion to say whatever they  want to say they said that but the person who catched the most heat out of that was you and  then they went to him also you know council president what are you going to do they said this  the redistricting thing catching hell because you

01:12:24 know just everybody’s not going to be happy and  there’s some people who know that you knew what was coming you if you didn’t play good as we all  say you don’t play good in the sandbox you can’t expect people to come running to your offense  you know your uh when you get in trouble so with all of that man uh my question is what makes you  really want to continue to do that job if that’s something you want to continue to do and if so why  that’s a good question and believe me it’s tough days um and I would tell you that at one point  in time I had to live with people protesting

01:13:01 in front of my house when my granddaughter had  to look out the window i’ve had activists that have made threats and said certain things to me um  I’ve gotten criticism from several media outlets um mainly print outlets that have figured to make  some people a hero and try to make me a villain um I’ve had to fight with different council  members friends and allies and friends and foes um Ken I would tell you um two things you know and  and and I I I pray about this and ask myself this question all the time one am I you know am I still  up for this i’m I’m going through that process

01:13:36 right now where do I best serve am I still up for  this because I don’t ever want to do this job just for a paycheck i’ve done this job for a purpose  mhm um it’s called NIA in African principles the Akan culture um two things that I would tell  you your mentor your friend our friend um Lenny Pow one day said something and I complaining and  hearing all my grievances and and Frank Jackson actually said the same thing to me you know the  old guard sometimes y’all all need to check in y’all young folks with the old guard because they  are pretty wise but she said “Leadership is lonely

01:14:12 and it’s times when I don’t have many friends  it’s times when nobody agrees with me on council outside of council.” Um but I’ve learned to lead  i’ve learned to lead and I learned to lead because I really love the people that I serve i really  care um so as long as I have that compass of caring then I feel like I could lead effectively  that’s number one the other thing I would tell you is that one of a poem that I’m very fond of that I  almost wish I could put on the screen for you and your audience because it’s something that I think  every uh parent should tell their child uh it’s a

01:14:47 poem by Frederick Kipling called If and it talks  about if you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs but blaming it on you if you  can trust yourself when all men doubt you but make allowance for their doubting too if you can wait  and not be tired of waiting or being lied about don’t deal in lies and yet don’t look too good nor  talk too wise it also goes in to talk about if you could bear to hear the truth you spoken twisted  by names to make a trap for fools um when you read that poem it hits my soul and I read it every  morning because it helps me set my compass that

01:15:22 and prayer and and just trying to focus on why am  I here what is my purpose what am I doing this for um whenever I lose that then it’s time for me to  go do something else but right now I strap it up and I go out and I suck it up it’s tiring i’m  tired today i still got two more events to do today um but when you when you feel that in your  core in your heart um that something bothers you about the conditions of the people in this city  um you know we need advocates and somebody got to do it so um I love Cleveland um the good the  bad and the ugly believe me I get more FU’s than

01:16:00 thank yous but at the end of the day um I stand  tall in what I believe excellent brother well we appreciate you coming on our program man you did  a great job as always we do our thing and like we do when we close our program man we’re going to  give you your camera that’s you right there get opportunity to say whatever you want man i think  you should leave a word to the people what’s on your mind what’s on your heart some words of  wisdom to the folks out here in the city and anything you want to say Blaine that might the  camera is yours my friend i have a call to action

01:16:31 for Cleveland the call to action is we need more  advocates we need more everyday people i want to start that over i want to make sure you pull the  mic i want to make sure we have No problem i want make No don’t pull it up just pull it closer  because you moved over a little bit okay that’s all I Yeah there you just want to make sure you’re  good in it there you go good all right i I I just would tell you that you know my call to action  is for Cleveland um we got to fight for our city you know my whole theme this year is fighting for  Cleveland’s future um if we really love this city

01:17:01 and we really love the culture and the history  um that so many have um done to really make us a national beacon um we need to embrace this city we  need to quit running from the challenges we need to embrace the challenges we need to come together  things like you did last year with a thousand uh black men you know boots on the ground uh  the women’s efforts that are going on with my colleague Stephanie House Jones and you know uh  Deborah Gray and how they’re put together a black women’s commission to deal with the conditions  of black women we need to quit relishing in being

01:17:36 last in every damn thing and we need to come  together as a community and start being first we need to be innovative we do need to embrace  the next generation even though sometimes they’ll drive you crazy because they they oftentimes  live in a microwave generation where we come up where we had to prepare things but at the end  of the day it’s time for Cleveland really to come together and fight for our future um we are in  a point right now where we’re fighting for our survival and I don’t say that lightly if the  center city and the core cities in Cleveland

01:18:07 and Cleveland’s neighborhoods crumble the problem  will come to you soon so you may think that you’re moving to soul in Richmond Heights Twinsburg  and all these other places to get away from your cousins but your cousins eventually going to  follow you where you go so at the end of the day we got to fight for Cleveland’s future we need  to quit running away from the problem we need to embrace and engage the issue and at the end of  the day um I need partners i need people that are willing to work with me work with Cleveland  City Council work with the administration

01:18:38 um work with strategic resources and other people  that really have a heart to try to provide public service i’m not a politician i’m a public servant  i’ve always been a public servant i think it’s an honorable profession to be a public servant and  at the end of the day all I would say is I love you and there’s nothing you could do about it  everybody that’s Council President Blaine Griffin in the house doing another check-in this is his  yearly check-in with us here on Strategic Moves with Kenda you can reach look in the description  we’ll have everywhere where you can reach out to

01:19:14 Blaine Griffin his office and all the information  you can to reach out to him and talk to him he say everybody talking to him anyway so you might  as well do it too so go ahead we’ll leave that in the description and y’all can reach out to him  can I give some love to my Q brothers oh go ahead all day brother i always got to give some love to  my purple and gold man love y’all man fats keep up the good work gentlemen all right everybody we  want you guys to remember to always stay engaged keep things right and let’s keep up for the fight  for what’s right peace all right good job brother

01:19:45 all right man off to my next he said “You be  making him watch that stuff man.” I was like “Ben got you over here watching all that crazy stuff.”  That’s good though yes sir listen I’m giving them civic lessons that’s the only way you’re going to  learn what the heck happened because other than that and I ain’t even turned him on the county  council that’s a whole another i just got to watch the city council right now whole but the  thing I’m trying to tell him and the people that watch it if you really want to know where the  resources is and the funds y’all sitting down

01:20:21 just sit right there right here yeah right there  you need to watch that so that you can know where to go get the stuff you looking for if you’re  in that business let me put this up too much make sure you send that to me oh she cancelled she did next week  so right here this is her second time say she done now you know her michael Dixon and I’m good we can pack up and go but  you know we done with that okay awesome once a year got slam in his pictures over the years millennials live in a microwave society what’s the

01:22:04 It’s not a bad thing but millennials  it’s a balance so let me say this it’s not a bad thing but millennials  want stuff you’re good watch your feet millennials have a tendency to want  stuff right now where we had to spend time preparing the meal we had to put it on  the stove top we had to boil the water