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CITY OF CLEVELAND ANNOUNCES TOP-DOWN HEALTH DEPARTMENT SHAKE-UP
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THE CITY OF CLEVELAND
has announced sweeping organizational changes within its public health department after an internal investigation into a culture of hostility and discrimination. The department will now be housed under the Office of Prevention, Intervention and Opportunities for Youth and Young Adults, overseen by Chief Tracy Martin-Thompson. The city’s commissioner of the division of environment, Brian Kimball, will step in as interim director.
CDPH’s former director, Merle Gordon, a former city councilwoman, has been reassigned as a special assistant to the Mayor and will assume the title, “Executive Manager of Population Health.”
“This critical role will assist in creating the structures and systems necessary for the City to fully integrate a public health approach and strategy into the region’s recovery,” Gordon said in a prepared statement included alongside the city’s investigatory report…. “I continue to be committed to this community every day and look forward to working with you in this new capacity as we strive towards improving population health in Cleveland.”
Scene reported on an alleged culture of workplace hostility this summer, including multiple discrimination complaints filed by epidemiologist Karen Aluma and two other employees who allege the city retaliated against them when they spoke up about treatment in the department.
The Ohio Civil Rights Commission last month found “probable cause” that the city discriminated against Aluma. The city’s internal investigation found “no credible evidence” of discrimination against Aluma but is reassigning Aluma to work with another supervisor.
The city also will also hold predisciplinary hearings for Aluma’s supervisor, Katherine Romig, and the Commissioner of Public Health, Heather Persis Sosiak.
The city investigation was led by Martin-Thompson, who will now oversee the department, and Martin Flask, a former safety director and special assistant to the mayor.
The investigation did not “demonstrate intentional or unintentional mistreatment of employees based on a protected class” such as race, age or nationality but instead found that employees of “all races and ethnicities were treated unfairly due the lack of skill in supervising employees.”
Nevertheless, the city is instituting additional antidiscrimination and bias training for the entire department including an “Anti-Racist Toolbox” for supervisors.
“The City did find leadership within CDPH made decisions which were profoundly and severely damaging and counterproductive to workforce trust, respect for others and employee confidence,” according to the report.
Stephanie Pike Moore, who spoke out about discrimination and has a retaliation complaint pending with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, said in an email:
The City of Cleveland has had multiple opportunities to conduct a fair, timely, and appropriate investigation and has failed to hold individuals accountable to a set standard of ethical behavior as laid out in their own policies. They have made it abundantly clear that the City cannot be trusted to protect its employees let alone the health of the population it is supposed to serve...
I will acknowledge that I’m glad they’re shaking things up a bit but what is disappointing is | clevescene.com | September 23-29, 2020 5
Cleveland Christian Rock Concert Hailed as Covid Super-Spreader Event of the Season
HEEDING GOD’S COMMANDMENT TO “WHACK THY
neighbor,” hundreds of Christians gathered maskless and without social distancing for a concert in Edgewater Park last week. The goal was to spread the Good Word. And try to kill each other.
The event was organized by Sean Feucht, a Christian rocker and failed Republican congressional candidate. He’s on a national tour to counteract Black Lives Matter protests over police killings. Feucht’s tour, titled “You Call That Killing? Get a Load of This!” promises to show BLM’s “violent paid protesters” that white people are dying too. It’s just by their own hand.
Video of the concert depicts the flaxen-haired frontman roaring through a medley of megachurch hits. His breathy, plaintive anthems had the crowd dancing in rapture, which was exactly the point. By gathering without precautions, they appeared to be hastening the End Times.
That’s the Biblical prophecy that a pissed off God will smite Earth in a ball of fire. Disciples of lesser religions will be baked to an unappetizing crisp. Yet evangelicals will ascend to Heaven, where they will be served free decaf lattes, plus a wide selection of white bread and Jell-O.
Concertgoers did their best to bring about the rapture. They gathered tightly in prayer, dancing and jumping to celebrate God — who apparently has little regard for epidemiology, even though he invented it. Some were baptized in Lake Erie. There’s no word on how many contracted E. coli.
Cleveland health officials praised the concert as “the superspreader event of the season.” By sharing airborne pathogens, then transmitting them to waiters, hoteliers, friends, kids, bus drivers, teachers, and older relatives, the city can finally gain prominence in the national death standings.
“We needed that,” said an exuberant Rhonda Kendricks, spokeswoman for the Cleveland Health Department. “Our death rates really aren’t as high as they could be.”
Yet her enthusiasm never reached Metroparks police. They cordoned off the area and issued concert organizers a citation. Feucht wasn’t worried. He lives in California. And after hosting concerts from Kenosha to Portland, he plans to be dead before it’s time to pay.
Norm Osborne, who drove in from Wadsworth, called it a “beautiful night for music and attempted mass suicide.” At age 23, he isn’t particularly worried about dying himself. But he hopes to pass the virus to older uncles and aunts who are Catholic. “By giving the gift of premature death, they won’t have to spend eternity in a deep-fat fryer.”
Missy Emery wants to give the virus to older coworkers at Bed Bath & Beyond. “We’re expecting layoffs,” she said. “If God could take out people with more seniority, it’s just proof of his loving wisdom.”
It will take two weeks to know if their prayers were answered, when intensive care units begin to fill. But either way, it’s a win-win for Jesus. “I’ve been hugging every old person I know,” said Emery. “A job’s bound to open up somewhere.” -Pete Kotz | clevescene.com | September 23-29, 2020
UPFRONT
the lack of accountability. This sends the message that it’s okay to subjugate employees to the point where employees leave en masse because all you’ll get a special assignment and a slap on the wrist.
In a press conference last week, Mayor Frank Jackson defended the restructuring and said it was designed to make the health department more responsive. Under Martin-Thompson’s office, the department will work closed on quality of life issues including addressing racism as a public health crisis, and the effects of violence and trauma among youth.
-Rachel Dissell, Sam Allard
In Real Shocker, Rob Portman Totally Cool Being a Hypocrite and Liar About Filling Supreme Court Seat
Stunning two or three people, Rob Portman, the esteemed and gonadless Senator from the state of Ohio, issued a statement late Saturday evening regarding the vacant seat on the Supreme Court that directly contradicted his fervent and widely disseminated statements from a mere four years ago concerning a very similar scenario.
A little more than 24 hours after Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg passed away at the age of 87, and a scant 44 days before the election, Portman joined other Republican Senators in backtracking from sentiments and promises made in 2016 when they argued an open seat on the court shouldn’t be filled during the tail end of a contentious election year.
Let’s compare and contrast. 2020 Rob Portman says: “In the more than two dozen vacancies on the U.S. Supreme Court during a presidential election year in our nation’s history, the sitting president made a nomination in every single case. Leader [Mitch] McConnell has said that he will hold a vote on any nominee President Trump sends to the Senate, and I intend to fulfill my role as a U.S. Senator and judge that nominee based on his or her merits. The president was elected in 2016, in part, based on a commitment to nominate men and women to the judiciary who would fairly and impartially apply the law and protect the rights guaranteed by the Constitution, not advance public policy goals by legislating from the bench. Likewise, in both 2016 and 2018, the American people have re-elected a Republican Senate majority to help President Trump fulfill that commitment.” 2016 Rob Portman said: “With a spirited and partisan presidential campaign well underway in the last year of a president, the question is whether this is the right time to go through what would be a highly contentious process with a very high likelihood the nominee would not be confirmed, or is it better to let the people have a voice through their choice for president and have a nominating process in a less partisan atmosphere? I acknowledge this is not an easy question to answer, but I think there is a wisdom in this leader’s words:
UPFRONT
“‘It would be our pragmatic conclusion that once the political season is under way, and it is, action on a Supreme Court nomination must be put off until after the election campaign is over. That is what is fair to the nominee and is central to the process. Otherwise, it seems to me …we will be in deep trouble as an institution. Others may fret that this approach would leave the Court with only eight members for some time, but as I see it … the cost of such a result – the need to reargue three or four cases that will divide the Justices four to four – are quite minor compared to the cost that a nominee, the President, the Senate, and the Nation would have to pay for what would assuredly be a bitter fight, no matter how good a person is nominated by the President …’”
“Mitch McConnell? No, Vice President Joe Biden, when he was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee during the last year of
DIGIT WIDGET
381,009 Cleveland’s population estimate, according to the U.S. Census’ 2019 American Community Survey, down from 383,793 in 2018.
30.8% Percentage of Clevelanders who live in poverty.
1 Cleveland’s rank, among large U.S. cities, for people living in poverty, taking the top spot from Detroit.
$29,008
Median household income in Cleveland, less than half of the national average ($60,293). a Republican president. There have been similar statements from the current Senate Democratic leader and the next one, but the point Biden made about the legitimacy of the nominee and the institutions of government is persuasive. I agree with him that it would be better to allow this confirmation to take place in a less partisan atmosphere once the people have spoken by factoring in this important issue as part of our presidential vote.” 2020 Rob Portman says: “In 2016, when the vacancy occurred following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, I said ‘the president has every right to nominate a Supreme Court justice … But the founders also gave the Senate the exclusive right to decide whether to move forward on that nominee.’ Since the 1880s, no Senate has confirmed an opposing-party president’s Supreme Court nominee in a presidential election year. In contrast, when the presidency and the Senate are controlled by the same party, the precedent is for the president’s nominees to get confirmed. In the 19 occasions that a vacancy has occurred when the President and the Senate are of the same party, the Senate has confirmed the nominee and filled the seat in every instance but one. I look forward to seeing who President Trump plans to nominate and thoroughly assessing his or her qualifications for this important role.” 2016 Rob Portman said: “Some argue that the American people have already spoken. And I agree they have. Both the president and the Senate majority were fairly and legitimately elected. The last time we spoke as a nation, two years ago, the American people elected a Republican majority in the U.S. Senate in an election that was widely viewed as an expression that people wanted a check on the power of the president.”
“The president has every right to nominate a Supreme Court justice, and I’m certainly willing to meet with his nominee. But the founders also gave the Senate the exclusive right to decide whether to move forward on that nominee. For the reasons Biden described above, it has been common practice for the Senate to stop acting on lifetime appointments during the last year of a presidential term, and it has been 80 years since any president was permitted to fill a Supreme Court vacancy that arose in a presidential election year.
“I have concluded that the best thing for the country is to trust the
American people to weigh in and to have the confirmation process take place in a less partisan atmosphere. Awaiting the result of a democratic election, rather than having a nomination fight in this contentious election-year environment, will give the nominee more legitimacy and, as then-Senator Biden pointed out, better preserve the institutional credibility of the Senate and the court.”
Portman is expected to face little to no political repercussions for being a sackless liar, once again.
-Vince Grzegorek
Lake Erie Wind Farm Back on Track after State Power Board’s Decision
The LEEDco. “Icebreaker” Project, which envisions six wind turbines 8-10 miles off the Cleveland coast of Lake Erie, could finally be on a realistic path forward.
A state regulatory board voted down a prohibition last week which would have forbidden the turbines from operating at night between March 1 and November 1 every year. Without that prohibition, the nation’s first freshwater wind project, which has been touted both on its power-generation and regional economic merits, just might happen.
The Ohio Power Siting Board reversed its stance on the nighttime ban during a virtual meeting Thursday after pressure from Northeast Ohio lawmakers. The nighttime ban had been called a “poison pill” by LEEDCo. because it would handcuff the turbines’ operation so much that the $20 million project wouldn’t be feasible.
There are still plenty of kinks to work out, and some environmental groups and trade associations remain concerned about the safety of migratory birds. The nighttime prohibition was initially made to protect birds, and LEEDCo. needs to present a satisfactory plan to mitigate their harm before the Power Siting Board can give it the official go ahead.
But for those who’ve been watching this saga play out for a decade or more, Thursday’s vote was a significant step forward.
Cleveland City Council recently passed a resolution decrying the board’s earlier decision when Leed Co. had provided plans to mitigate the harm to birds and bats that even the US Fish and Wildlife Service was satisfied.
Council President Kevin Kelley released a statement saying that council would remain vigilant to ensure that upcoming decisions on the project are made fairly and transparently.
“I’m pleased they did the right thing, but we have to be cautious because the special interests that tried to kill this project are not going to go away,” he said. “There will always be groups that fight renewable energy efforts.” -Allard
Here Today, Not Gonna Stay: I-X Center to Close After 35 Years
Cleveland’s International Exposition (I-X) Center announced Wednesday that it would close at the end of the year after 35 years of operation due to Covid-19.
“The global pandemic has decimated the event industry as well as many other businesses and has ultimately led to this decision,” the I-X center wrote in a statement provided to the media. “The I-X Center would like to thank all its customers, employees, and attendees who helped make the I-X Center a success over the past 35 years.”
Known for its annual boat show, home and garden show, the I-X Center Piston Autorama and the iconic I-X Indoor Amusement Park, the massive event space, adjacent to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, first opened in 1985 after decades of use as a manufacturing plant for warplanes and tanks.
It was billed for years as the largest single-building exhibition facility in the world. In addition to its annual calendar of conventions and exhibitions, the I-X Center hosted President Donald Trump for political rallies in both 2016 and 2018. Cleveland owns the real estate after they ceded NASA Glenn to Brook Park in exchange for full ownership of the IX Center and more land for the airport.
The news comes only months after the IX Indoor Amusement park jingle was covered, in appropriately downbeat fashion, by a local band.
Speculation abounds about the massive facility’s next life, but local real estate professionals see potential as a distribution facility. Locals on social media seemed to prefer the idea of destination retail, a la IKEA. -Allard
scene@clevescene.com @clevelandscene
