CLEVELAND, Ohio — A bill to prohibit minors from receiving gender-affirming care and trans females from playing girls’ and women’s sports is on its way to Gov. Mike DeWine’s desk.
We’re talking about the anti-trans legislation — and why Republicans are pushing it — on Today in Ohio.
Listen online here.
Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with editorial board member Lisa Garvin, impact editor Leila Atassi 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 here: https://joinsubtext.com/chrisquinn.
Here’s what else we’re asking about today:
Why are Ohio’s lawmakers working so hard to pass anti-transgender legislation? Is there a public outcry to discriminate against these people?
Lawmakers seemed to be busy Tuesday, but did they leave for the year without touching the marijuana law that voters passed in a landslide?
Cleveland’s civilian police commission is exerting its will over the police in a way the mayor finds offensive. But why does the commission even have to do this. Doesn’t the charter require what the commission is demanding? Please explain this dustup?
We have bipartistan agreement from Ohio’s two senators on steel imports from Mexico. What’s their beef, and what do they want done about it?
How could this be happening already? Why is MetroHealth making big changes to its big campus project, before it is even finished, at a significantly higher cost?
Cuyahoga County is doing a major about-face on where to build the center that can house kids who now sleep in a county office building that is in no way designed for them. Where is the center planned for now, and what happened to the plan that was announced just months ago?
Prosecutors had great catch phrases to open the trial of two East Cleveland cops accused of accepting bribes from an illegal dump operator. What were some of them?
Larry Doby is a renowned Clevelander, and he received even more renown Wednesday. What is it?
Pete Chakerian had an interview with the Corky and Lenny’s co-owner, which added a lot of detail to the discussion we had yesterday on the closure of the beloved restaurant. What did we learn?
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Read the automated transcript below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it contains many errors and misspellings.
Chris (00:01.248)
We have so many stories today to talk about. We can’t fit them on this podcast. We’re saving a couple of hot ones for Friday. Legislature did something truly outrageous, maybe the most outrageous thing they’ve ever done other than get bribed. Yesterday, it’s going to result in death and suffering and they did it for the almighty dollar. It is a reprehensible set of lawmakers we have in the house in Ohio. But we’re here to talk about other stuff today on Today in Ohio, the news podcast discussion from
cleveland.com and the plane dealer. I’m Chris Quinn here with Lisa Garvin, Leila Tasi and Laura Johnston. Laura, we are starting off with the Ohio legislature because they did stuff so much stuff to talk about. We can’t fit it in one podcast. Why are Ohio’s lawmakers working so hard to pass anti transgender legislation? Is there some kind of public outcry we’re missing to discriminate against these people?
Lisa (00:33.194)
I’m just going to deal with Lisa Garvin, Ule Wotasi, and Laura Janssen. We are starting off with the Ohio legislature because they did so much stuff to run the back. One contest why Ohio’s lawmakers worked so hard to have the anti-Semites gender registration? Is there some kind of public outcry we’re missing to discriminate against these people?
laura (00:57.594)
No, and like you said, I would also put this in the reprehensible category, although, and also the head-scratcher of why this is such an important thing for them to do on the very last day, shove it all in on this last day of legislating for 2023. And I haven’t heard of an outcry against transgender people. First of all, they make about 1% of Ohio’s population. This is not overwhelming. And a lot of the people who testified
Lisa (01:02.488)
Although it also is a head-tractor of why they do such an important thing to them to do on the very last day, to shove it all in on this last day of legislating for 1.13. And I haven’t heard of an outcry against transgender people. Once they make about 1% of Ohio’s population, this is not overwhelming. And a lot of the people who testified in these anti-trans bill in the State House are opposing it.
laura (01:26.078)
in these anti-trans bill in the state house are opposing it. But the answer seems to be polling. And Laura Hancock is looking into this over the holidays for her story, but she did mention a couple of polls in her story now. This anti-trans legislation appeals to a very conservative base. And you know if they’re concentrating on trans rights, then they don’t have time to reveal HB6 or do things that would actually help the state of Ohio.
Lisa (01:30.442)
But the answer seems to be polling. And Laura Hancock is looking into this over the holidays for her story, but she did mention a couple polls in her story now. This anti-trans legislation will still carry conservative faith. And you know if they’re concentrating on trans rights and they don’t have time for it, because they feel they should be sick. So do things that would actually help the state of Ohio. So this is a half hour.
laura (01:56.13)
passed the House earlier, then it went back to the Senate and it passed there along 24 to 8 along party lines. So now it’s just headed to the governor’s desk. And we’ve talked about this a lot before that these are sports bands for trans girls to play sports and just a blow to the LGBTQ community.
Chris (02:20.32)
It’s just it’s a solution in search of a problem. They’re using this to play to their base. Look, let’s face it. The legislative Republicans have taken a beating this year from voters. In August, the voters slapped him silly in November. They slapped him silly again. They’re reeling because they don’t have the finger on the pulse of Ohio. They’re so gerrymandered. They live in a bubble where they all talk to each other and and, you know, sing the Frank Lerose playbook or something. But
But this is to get back to that. Let’s enrage people. Let’s get people pounding the table again when it’s not really an issue, but this is what they do. They don’t deal with reality, they deal with fiction.
laura (02:59.986)
Right. So one of the things that HB68 does is prohibits gender affirming care of minors, even if their parents consent to it. And I just said, you know, one percent of the state is probably transgender. I mean, the number of kids who would be getting any kind of surgery for this is infinitesimal because kids are still growing. Like, you don’t change their body. Like, you don’t even get, you don’t get lasik until your eyes are done growing. So I just don’t understand why this
There is some hope here because the LGBT community has said that despite polls Attitudes are shifting more transgender people are sharing their stories people understand the medical science and I know that in, Ohio We’ve kind of had a troubled year when we look at those Drag brunches and the violence that went along with those but remember it was just 2006 right that Ohioans voted to ban gay marriage and then things swung so quickly I have to believe
that even though there’s polling, even though they’re appealing to the conservative base, that young people growing up with understanding transgender are gonna be a lot more accepting in the future.
Chris (04:10.516)
Yeah, and if we get rid of gerrymandering, we can wipe out these clowns that are sitting on these jobs because they don’t represent the center of the state. They are cartoonish, but they’re doing a lot of evil things. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Lisa, the Fox News and the conservative media have brainwashed a significant portion of America into thinking that Joe Biden is a criminal because some of them send me emails about the Biden crime family.
Congress, the Republicans in Congress are playing to that fringe theory with an impeachment hearing. How much of a role will our Jim Jordan play in that proceeding?
Lisa (04:51.654)
Well, obviously a large role because he’s chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, one of three committees that have launched an impeachment inquiry into President Biden’s family business dealings. It was a party line vote. All Republicans voted yes. That means all Ohio Republicans voted yes and all Ohio Democrats opposed it. And they’re saying, the Dems are saying all efforts to dig up dirt on Biden have come up empty so far.
Chantelle Brown, our Democrat from Warrensville, went as far as to say this is hogwash, a big nothing burger, it’s a waste of time and resources. Chantelle Brown is on the Government Oversight Reform Committee, which is chaired by James Comer of Kentucky. That’s the second committee. The third committee is the House Ways and Means, which is chaired by Jason Smith of Missouri. Now, Jim Jordan says, this vote is necessary to compel witness cooperation and compliance with document requests.
He says, you know, the…
Chris (05:47.488)
Wait, wait, wait. Let’s point out Jim Jordan is the guy that defied a congressional subpoena involving Trump. I mean, it’s hilarious that he’s using that as his argument because he completely ignored a congressional subpoena.
Lisa (05:52.636)
Yes.
Lisa (06:00.946)
Yes, he did. And the irony is pretty rich there. He says though that the House majority going on record sends a message about the investigation. Now, Max Miller, the Republican from Rocky River is a little more circumspect. He says he’s stressed. It’s not an impeachment vote. It’s just an inquiry. And he says the White House is stonewalling Jordan and James Comer. He says, we’re just looking into getting more information.
But the White House came out with a statement. It’s a baseless stunt, not rooted in reality or facts. Hunter Biden was very defiant. He went out and had a press conference and said, look, I’ll be happy to testify as long as it’s on TV and the public can see it. And the Republicans didn’t like that.
Chris (06:45.344)
Yeah, I this is just a fiction. I think it’s because Trump is going to be all over the place on trial next year. And they’re trying to make a false equivalency. I get it all the time. I get notes from people. And I got a note from somebody yesterday with a Fox News link to say the economy is in complete shambles and you should read Fox News. And I sent a note back saying, you realize that Dow is about to hit. It’s all time record. The economy is roaring. Interest rates are coming down. Inflation is down.
Lisa (07:10.447)
Mm-hmm.
Chris (07:14.816)
And then she sends it up, saying, well, I prefer the economy of 2020. And I responded, I said, okay, that’s got, that was the highest unemployment in my lifetime. The supply chains were completely broken. Nobody wants the economy of 2020. I don’t blame Trump for it. It was the pandemic, but they’re just, it’s brainwashed and these people just cannot think independently. So there is a significant portion of the American public that truly believes that Biden is a dictator.
Lisa (07:18.909)
Oh dear lord.
Chris (07:43.544)
who runs a crime syndicate when there is absolutely zero evidence to support it. Because why? Because Fox News tells them to and they click their heels, salute and say, thank you, Fox News. It’s really kind of amazing that Jim Jordan is one of the leaders when he defied a similar investigation by his colleagues.
Lisa (08:05.15)
Yeah, so all their calls for transparency kind of fall flat through that lens.
Chris (08:08.992)
I know it’s just, but for him to stand there and say, subpoenas, we’re going to issue subpoenas. It’s like, they mean nothing to you, man. You could have been held in contempt of Congress. He’s talking about holding Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena when he defied the subpoena. And nobody in his circle can see what is wrong with that picture. It’s shocking state of affairs because so many Americans are buying the nonsense they hear from
You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Cleveland’s civilian police commission is exerting its will over the police in a way the mayor finds offensive. But why does the commission even have to do this, Laila? Doesn’t the charter require what the commission is demanding, at least in part? How about explaining this dust up?
Leila (08:53.724)
Yeah. For anyone who needs a refresher, I mean, the Community Police Commission was created a couple of years back when voters in Cleveland approved issue 24. That changed the city charter to create this very powerful group that has final say over police discipline, policy, and training regimens. They’ve had a rough and chaotic start. And earlier this year, the city denied the group’s request for additional money in their budget to pay for an attorney who advised them on legal matters.
And you could argue that had they had an attorney, they might have avoided what happened this week under an attorney’s guidance when one member of the group, Kyle Early, made waves in a way that some people say was completely unnecessary. So this is what happened. Kyle Early was seeking a passage of emotion to require police leaders to obtain pre-approval from the commission before issuing or modifying general police orders, divisional notices.
or other communications that can be construed as official policy or procedure. He was leaning on a line in the city charter that gives the community police commission final authority over police policies, procedures, and training regimens. GPOs, the general police orders, these are the communication tools that police leaders use to issue or update departmental policies. But the divisional notices are very different. They’re like a memo or email.
use them to notify officers of things like job openings and disciplinary action or software updates. But sometimes they’re also used for sensitive police information, such as notifications from neighboring police departments that the cops on the street need to know about. So Mayor Justin Bibb was sounding the alarm this week about this in a memo to police. His argument is that, you know, fine.
Commission has final say over policy, but once you draw those divisional notices into it, you’re creating a system where time-sensitive notices that are critical to the safety of the police and the community could get gummed up in bureaucracy. And he said, that’s a really dangerous proposition. Kyle Early, on the other hand, said, Bibb is just being dramatic about it. He said, clearly his proposed motion is only referring to those GPOs and divisional notices that…
Leila (11:12.736)
actually do seek to set new policy. And he was putting this forward because he says there’ve already been 20 GPOs issued this year without approval of the commission. And that is alarming to him and he needs that to be clarified. So we’re going to follow up to find out how this meeting went last night, whether there were fireworks, because we’d certainly expected it to be the case.
Chris (11:33.656)
What I don’t understand about this is that Bib had a path and he didn’t take it. There’s a really simple answer to this. Yes, of course the charter speaks to this commission looking at policies. So if the police are going to put a policy out in any of these orders, the policy should get reviewed by the commission. But a lot of these orders are not that. Some orders are reiterating existing policy and those divisional ones have nothing to do with policy.
Lisa (11:53.99)
but a lot of these orders are not that. Some orders are reiterating the existing policy, and those divisional orders have nothing to do with policies. So, you could have said, look, I support a decision. I do think that these policies should be examined by the commissioners, but we haven’t had any policies compared to the other ones. None of these orders are going to be addressed. Okay, we have these addressing policies, and we’ll start sending them over.
Chris (12:03.68)
So he could have said, look, I supported this issue. I do think that these policies should be examined by the commission, as the voters said, but we haven’t had any policies we’ve created this year. None of these orders address that, or, you know, okay, three of these address new policies, we should have sent them over, we’ll start sending them over. Instead, he’s created incredible friction. Hey, police, this is dangerous. I want you to hear it from me first. They’re coming after you, and this is gonna put your lives in jeopardy. What the hell is that?
Lisa (12:22.914)
I’m reading an incredible fiction. Hey police, this is dangerous. I want you to be careful first. I’m an actor.
Leila (12:33.724)
I know, and especially considering from the start, it already was an adversarial relationship between this commission that was formed because the community demanded it and the police who feel like they’re already under so much scrutiny with the consent decree. And so this kind of did feel like it ramped up that adversarial nature of what this commission is trying to do. The concern here, and I understand it.
Lisa (12:38.338)
who already was an adversarial relationship between this commission that was formed because the community demanded it and the police who liked it already.
under so much scrutiny with the consent degree. So this kind of did feel like it ramped up that adversarial nature of what this commission was trying to do. You know, the concern here, and I understand it, is that if you’d sent the divisional notices from this policy, then the police could dump all their new policies in there to avoid the commission’s oversight. But what if it’s right that you can’t demand
Chris (12:54.945)
Yeah.
Leila (13:01.308)
is that if you exempt the divisional notices from this policy, then the police could dump all their new policies in there to avoid the commission’s oversight. On the other hand, Bibbs write that you can’t demand pre-approval of every memo that goes out to cops. But the question is then who would be policing the divisional notices and the GPOs to see which ones need to go to the commission for approval? And otherwise they’re going to slide by, wouldn’t they?
Chris (13:10.912)
Yeah, but…
Chris (13:27.064)
They’re pub, they’re public record. So they can see them. I just, I don’t buy that argument that, well, if the police have to do this, they’ll cheat. You don’t know that. I mean, you can’t just predict.
Leila (13:36.764)
Well, if they issue the GPO, that’s not pre-approval. If they put them out there already, then you have to request them through public record, which takes forever. They’ve already been circulated. Cops are already abiding by them.
Chris (13:48.637)
But if the mayor says, hey guys, I don’t know what percentage of these orders are new policies, but if you’re creating a new policy, one, I wanna see it, I’m the mayor, so send them my way, but also send them the commission’s way. Most of these orders don’t do it. We’re conflating two different things. We’re conflating policy changes, which they don’t make a whole lot of, with this flurry of paperwork, which is used to announce policy changes on the rare occasion they do it.
So the easy answer for BIB is to say, hey, when we change policy, let’s have a procedure that makes sure it goes to me, to my public safety chief, to the commission, and the rest of the time, let’s continue with the orders as they are and make sure that any orders do go to the commission so they can review them after you’ve sent them out to make sure things aren’t slipping through the cracks. That’s the way to put the oil on the water to kind of calm things down. Instead, we gotta…
gigantic fire going. The Commission doesn’t need to do anything. Subodh Chandra, we quoted him in the story, is right. The Charter says what it says. They get to approve any policy change.
Leila (14:54.556)
Yeah, you’re right. So, Bode Chandra did say that it’s pretty clear in the charter and that this was an unnecessary step to put forth this motion. He did sound like he was kind of still in support of them doing it, I guess, just to emphasize it. But the commission co-chair, Jan Ridgeway, told Courtney Astolfi that she thought that this was all a stunt.
on Early’s part because several police officers and police leaders and community activists were going to be at that meeting last night to talk about the consent decree. And she thought that he was just trying to stir up tension while they were in the room.
Chris (15:30.708)
Okay, so again, bring maturity to it. I’m a little bit surprised at Bibb because he has shown kind of a level of maturity that you don’t expect from somebody as young and inexperienced as he is. Not here. This is where I think he made the mistake of making it worse instead of better. There was a clear path to make this work. You’re listening to Today in Ohio.
We have bipartisan agreement from Ohio’s two senators on steel imports from Mexico. Lisa, what’s their beef and what do they want done about it?
Lisa (16:02.747)
Senator Sherrod Brown and J.D. Vance are working together again. They’re part of a bipartisan group asking the National Security Advisor and the Biden administration to enforce a 2019 pact on imported Mexican steel. They pointed out in the letter that in 2022, the annual iron steel imports rose 73 percent
from a baseline that was set in this 2019 agreement. Also semi-finished steel products rose 120%, steel conduits coming from Mexico, 577%. Senator Brown says that Group Osimek is closing Republic Steel plants in Canton, Ohio and Lackawanna, New York and relocating them to Mexico. That’s 500 jobs lost. He says that shows they’re really not serious about complying and they wanna set a deadline for.
implementing an export monitoring program. And if they miss that deadline, they need aggressive action to counter steel imports. And apparently they’re looking at steel and aluminum imports to Mexico from third-party countries that are then passed on to the U.S.
Chris (17:10.284)
It’s a rare moment, I guess, of agreement between the two senators who could not be further apart in their politics.
Lisa (17:17.81)
Yes, but we are talking about Ohio jobs here. I mean, if they’re closing the Republic Steel, we all know what happened when they were closed Republic Steel in Cleveland back in the 70s. It was not pretty. But yeah, so, but they have, they’ve worked together on rail safety and other things. So.
Chris (17:33.608)
Okay, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. How could this be happening already, Laura? Why is Metro Health making big changes to its huge campus project before it’s even finished at a significantly higher cost?
laura (17:47.918)
I feel like this is a surprise. I feel like this is like anybody who ever does a construction project, you end up changing it and it costs more money. But this is Metro Health Systems Outpatient Health Center. It was formerly called Apex. We don’t know exactly how it’s going to change or how much it’s going to cost, but they’re rethinking how to make health cares, how to meet health care’s changing future. And one reason, well, one thing they’re doing with that is they’re removing the administration and building offices that they thought were going to be in there.
and refiguring that space. Because they planned this before the pandemic. And it was under Boutros who, all sorts of questions about this. So CEO Eric Esteed inherited this project. They still are doing a lot of the $1 billion campus transformation plan slated for completion. Well, it was originally in about a year. They’re going to tear down those iconic towers that are mostly empty at this point. They’re still wanna create the hospital in a park.
And that will happen around 2025, they say. But they are just going to figure out the best space for this outpatient health center.
Chris (18:56.94)
You know, you compare this to a home project, but I don’t really think that’s fair. They spent years analyzing what their long-term needs were for this hospital campus, built this billion dollar project around it. It’s not even fully open and they’re doing a huge redesign of a significant part of it. That stands to me like either they blew the planning on the front end or Erica Steed came in, looked at what her predecessor had done.
Lisa (19:00.555)
Mm-hmm.
Chris (19:23.224)
found it to be inadequate and has decided to spend a bunch more money to fix it.
Lisa (19:27.65)
I think the pandemic, yeah, go ahead. No, I was just gonna say the pandemic, yeah, the pandemic upended healthcare for everybody. So I don’t see any, you know, any problems here.
laura (19:27.83)
Well that’s a-
No, go ahead, Lisa.
laura (19:35.191)
Yes.
Chris (19:39.392)
You don’t see a problem with adding greatly to the debt that taxpayers could face if Metro Health can’t pay its bills?
laura (19:39.82)
I mean, yeah.
Lisa (19:48.282)
You know, honestly, I’m not a planner, but I mean, think about it. I mean, they were, you know, the way they treat inpatients and outpatients is completely different now. We’re cl—
Chris (19:50.429)
Ha ha ha.
Chris (19:58.836)
Yeah, but think about their bonds are taxpayer funded. If they don’t make the money to pay the bills, we’re on the hook for that. And the bill just went up significantly without any real public discussion, mind you. Laura.
laura (19:58.998)
I do agree.
laura (20:13.638)
I don’t disagree with you. The money is troubling, but I also do think that the pandemic changed everything. It changed everything for everyone and especially healthcare. We don’t know. I mean, I just, sorry, I said Armin, not Akron Boutros. I think that it’s fair for the new CEO to come take a look at that and say, look, I think we need to change this. It would be worse if they finished it. Then they said, oh, we did this wrong. We’re going to redo it.
Lisa (20:21.131)
Mm-hmm.
laura (20:43.35)
That would be worse.
Lisa (20:43.857)
Right. And have empty hospital beds, exactly.
Chris (20:47.692)
But wouldn’t it make sense when you have a county guarantee on the loan for the county council which represents us in those matters to review this before it goes down the path? Well, it’s like who’s looking out for the taxpayer here? We’re going to be on the hook for this if it fails and this the adding the cost increases the likelihood they won’t be able to meet the debt. I just where’s.
laura (20:59.638)
Because you love the county council so much and you think they’re so reasonable.
laura (21:16.226)
I agree there should be more public scrutiny.
Chris (21:18.252)
Where’s the oversight? This is, this is on us. Everybody that lives in Cuyahoga County that owns property, it’s on us. And with Cleveland absconding with its responsibility to pay its share taxes, it’s even more on us. You’re listening.
laura (21:30.63)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, we should have public hearings on this.
Chris (21:34.208)
You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Cuyahoga County is doing a major about face on where to build the center that can house kids who now sleep in a county office building that is no way designed for that. Where is the center plan for now? And Lila, what happened to the plan that was announced just months ago?
Leila (21:50.284)
Oh, great questions. This was really perplexing this week because back in July, County Executive Chris Ronane had said he planned on using the county-owned Metzenbaum Center as a child wellness campus that was going to be a 16-bed housing unit for youth. And the plan was to put an end to the crisis of kids staying overnight at the Jane Edna Hunter Social Services office building when they were in between housing placements.
Ronane at that time said he wanted to have the doors of this facility open by the end of the year. We also noted, however, that he was putting out an RFP at that time to vet other possible locations that could possibly be open sooner. So that’s a key there because here we are at the end of the year and the county announced that in fact, that contract is instead going to the Cleveland Christian Home. On Cleveland’s west side, that facility is operated by the centers.
Ronane said he’s going to seek $450,000 in county money to help the centers hire the staff needed to get the campus up and running. But in capital costs alone, this new wellness campus is going to cost an estimated $8 million and they’re supposed to have it up and running sometime in 2024. Now the head scratcher here is that the county has already given the centers about $11 million to reserve eight emergency beds.
at its wing of the Cleveland Christian Home, we had assumed that would really help the crisis of kids staying at that office building, but it never did. My understanding from our past coverage of the situation is that the solution that was set up at the centers was only intended to deal with the kids with the most challenging behavioral or mental health issues and that they couldn’t co-mingle those kids with the ones with fewer needs because it could be a dangerous situation.
Lisa (23:15.99)
really helped the crisis of kids staying in that office building, but it never did. And my understanding from our past coverage of the situation is that the solution that was set up at the centers was only to have them deal with the kids with the most challenging behavioral or mental health issues, that they couldn’t co-mingle those kids with the ones with the most dangerous situations. Even though that was happening at Jane Ender Hunter for years with the medical staff and supervision. And so in reality…
Leila (23:38.628)
Even though that was happening at Jane Edna Hunter for years with inadequate staff or supervision. And so in reality, that place, the centers, it’s been kind of underused. We’ve paid millions of dollars for just a handful of kids to fill the beds since it opened. And now we’re giving them another $8 million to build out another unit of 16 beds when we had a county-owned facility at our disposal. So…
Chris (24:01.384)
Right. This stinks. I mean, I really don’t feel like we have an adequate explanation for it at all. They had a plan. They celebrated the plan. It was a big deal. Hey, we’ve got this solved. We’re going to get the kids out of the county building. We’re just months down the road, a complete about face and huge amounts more money going to this one place. I just don’t, again, we talked about Metro Health. Where’s the oversight? Where is somebody to ask questions saying, hey,
What are you doing? You just told us you had a big solution. We were all excited about the use of the Metzenbaum Center. Why did you abandon that?
Leila (24:38.62)
You know, and not only that, but back in April, before they made the Mets and bomb announcement, the county during a meeting acknowledged that there would probably always be kids staying at that Jane Edna Hunter building as long as that was considered the front door for kids who are getting dropped off in the middle of the night because they had no place else to go and their living situation had to be sorted out. Well, so now I want to know is now they were throwing another $8 million into the centers. Is this going to be the solution?
Is this going to be the front door? Are kids going to go there? And will that be the base, you know, the intake facility for any kid in the night who needs a place to stay? Because we cannot have kids staying in an office building anymore, especially if we’re going on $20 million into trying to solve this problem.
Chris (25:29.108)
I wonder if the explanation is that even though they made a big fanfare about the Metsimum Center, they never intended to, they just wanted us to shut up. We’ve been constantly putting pressure on them. Our editorial board has hammered them, we’ve talked about it, we’ve played them podcasts, we’ve had lots of stories saying, what are you doing? Why do you have kids still sleeping in this building? Chris Ronane campaigned on this as I’m going to fix this and then when he got into office, he became a complete ridiculous person. Remember we caught him talking to…
county workers saying that all that stuff we reported was pretty much made up. I mean, he’s just not an honest person in that. But I wonder if that was what he did. I want them to stop hammering me. It’s a lot of bad publicity. Let’s tell them we’re going to put it at the Metsunbaum Center and then come up with another solution.
Leila (26:14.784)
You’ll notice it was with that little asterisk of, but we’re also putting it out on RFP to see if there are other solutions. He, faster, that was the key, faster. We are at the end of the year, which is when he promised that this would be up and running and he says we’re going a different direction with it, which is going to take months more. You know what I’ve noticed about him is that he is a big fan of having press conferences
Chris (26:22.572)
Faster, faster though.
Chris (26:40.961)
Yeah.
Leila (26:41.552)
with it to roll something out that is half baked and it ends with you know and stay tuned ellipses and then you know.
Lisa (26:49.092)
It depends with, you know, thinking with these. I’m just kind of thinking that you’re right. You’re the devil. So I’m just kind of thinking that you’re right.
Chris (26:51.188)
You can’t be fully baked when you’re traveling back and forth to Dubai. I’m going to say it again and Laura’s going to smack me, but I think the County Council has a role to play here in asking the administration all these questions. What are you talking about? What happened? Dale Miller does seem like the one guy over there that’s asking sensible questions. Maybe he’ll stand up and Laura, you can now say, but you have no faith in the County Council.
Lisa (26:57.954)
I think the town council has some questions right here.
laura (27:16.642)
Well, you don’t have any faith in the county council, but they would be having a public hearing, right? And therefore, people could go and they would be asking questions and then it would be in the open. So I’m always for more public scrutiny. And you’re right, Dale Miller is a policy wonk who knows the budget. He has always been the detail oriented and he’s known the county government forever. So yes, he’s a standup guy that should be asking these questions.
Chris (27:19.145)
Hahaha
Lisa (27:30.518)
Dale Miller is a policy wonk who knows the budget. Like he has always been the detail oriented and he’s known the county government forever. So like, yes, he’s a standup guy that should be asking these questions. That’s cool. There was an email. On the good news though, Larry Gove.
Chris (27:46.24)
Let’s hope it wasn’t today in Ohio. Let’s end on a good news note. Larry Doby is a renowned Clevelander and he received more renowned Wednesday. Laila, we knew this was coming five years ago. Took a long time to happen. What is it?
Leila (27:58.972)
Yeah. Back in April 2017, Senator Sherrod Brown had sponsored a bill to honor Doby with the Congressional Gold Medal for his 17-year playing career and his contributions to the American Civil Rights Movement. The bill had 72 co-sponsors. Doby was Cleveland’s all-star center fielder and the first black man to play in the American League just two months after Jackie Robinson became the first black man to play in the big league in July 1947.
He also served in the Navy during World War II. He died on June 18, 2003 at the age of 79. Well Dobie’s family finally received this congressional gold medal on Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol. Larry Dobie Jr., Dobie’s son, accepted the award. Unlike Jackie Robinson, who first played in the minors, Dobie came to the majors from the Negro League where he played for the New York Eagles. So he was unknown to his teammates when he signed with Cleveland.
And his experience was that he was very segregated at the beginning. He was on the team, but he had to eat in separate restaurants and stay at separate hotels. So he was a true trailblazer who had to overcome a great deal of adversity. He appeared in seven All-Star games. He played in the 1948 and 1954 World Series with Cleveland. He had 273 homers and 1,099 RBI in his career.
Lisa (29:17.956)
He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in this town in 1998. And he spent 10 of his 17 years in the Big League. He was put in the pretty one. In 1948, he became the first black man to get a home run in the World Series. And in 78, the Chicago White Sox hired him as their manager. He was the second black manager in the So I loved his story. I think that’s a great story.
Leila (29:22.048)
And he spent 10 of his 17 years in the big leagues with Cleveland. In 1948, he became the first black man to hit a home run in the World Series. And in 78, the Chicago White Sox hired him as their manager. He became the second black manager in MLB history. So I love this story. I thought this was delightful.
Chris (29:40.076)
Yeah, much deserved honor, very cool. That does it for the Thursday episode, but you are gonna wanna come back from the Friday episode. It’s gonna be Outrage Central. We just got noticed that the Cuyahoga County Council have scheduled an emergency vote to raise the sales tax to pay for the jail, something Chris Ronane vowed in his campaign he would not do without a vote of the people. We’ll be talking about it Friday. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks, Leila. Thanks, Laura. Thanks to everybody who listens to this podcast.
