Weekly Chatter: Campaign Fundraising, ShotSpotter Viewing, and Unemployment Trend

Bank statements: Mayor Justin Bibb and the Cleveland City Council are preparing to discuss the latest Common Fund budget, having just reported their finances to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.

January 31 was the deadline for candidates to submit campaign finance reports for the second half of 2022.

Bibb said he made almost $151,000 in the last six months of the year, according to an unaudited document filed with the board of directors. During the reporting period, he spent almost $159,000, leaving him with less than $104,000.

That’s a high burnout rate for a first-term mayor who wants to save up as much money as possible if he runs again in 2025.

Among the mayor’s major contributors were the construction trades. The construction unions opposed him in the 2021 elections but bridged the gap with a fundraiser last year.

Another Cleveland politician who was fired in six figures is Council President Blaine Griffin. He had over $126,000 earlier this year. But he only made $15,800 in the second half of 2022.

The council’s leadership fund, the political action committee, or PAC, overseen by the president of the council, is in a better position. In a report dated September 9, 2022, PAC listed over $175,000 in stock.

Donors to the leadership fund have included labor unions, law firms, and real estate developers, who are typical benefactors of Cleveland politicians. One notable donation: $13,700 from PAC, which is run by Rock Holdings, the company of Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert.

Better Cleveland for All, the PAC created to nominate progressive candidates for city council, is far behind the leadership fund. He said that he had only $7,143 on hand.

Watching the spotter: The Bibb administration is looking for a consultant to evaluate how well ShotSpotter actually detects shots.

The Cleveland City Council last year approved Bibb’s request for $2.75 million in federal incentives to expand the technology of listening in on city blocks.

Director of Security Carrie Howard on January 30 sent a request for proposals from firms interested in doing this work.

“The purpose of this assessment is to quantify the ability of ShotSpotter, Inc. differentiate between high decibel gunshot and non-gunshot sounds within the target area, as well as determining the impact of ShotSpotter to build community confidence,” the letter reads. signed by Howard.

The assessment will help the city decide whether to upgrade or expand ShotSpotter in 2026, Howard wrote.

Learn more from Signal Cleveland’s Doug Bril-Pitorak about why the city adopted SpotSpotter and what concerns have been raised about the technology.

Don Draper, meet the county council: According to District 3 Council member Martin Sweeney, few people know what the Cuyahoga County Council does.

Sweeney says the council should hire a branding consultant to improve the image of the 11-member organization. (He was once president of the Cleveland City Council, a more prominent body of government and a high-profile arena of local politics.)

This is just one of the recommendations Sweeney made to the county government in a Dec. 29 memo. In a memo, he recommended that a $250,000 request for proposals be submitted to complete the work.

Sweeney’s committee chairs heard presentations from two marketers on Tuesday. One of them was Jeremiah Guappone, general manager of Cleveland marketing firm Data Genomix.

Another was former Cleveland City Council member Eugene Miller, who now runs an automated call and text messaging company. As a proof of concept, Miller said he automatically sent meeting reminders to board members.

Fighting the trend of unemployment: According to a report from the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in Greater Cleveland has dropped so much over the past year that it is lower than the unemployment rate in Ohio.

The unemployment rate in Greater Cleveland was 3.5 percent in December 2022. In December 2021, it was 4.6 percent. Ohio’s unemployment rate remained at 3.6 percent between December 2021 and December 2022.

The unemployment rate in Greater Cleveland is often higher than in Ohio. The report, published on February 1, does not indicate the reasons for the fall in the local exchange rate. The Cleveland signal will report some possible causes. When the government first releases unemployment and other data, the numbers are considered provisional and usually change as more information becomes available.

(The Cleveland report does not use seasonally adjusted unemployment rates. Ohio and the U.S. monthly jobless rate reports use seasonally adjusted figures that take into account “predictable seasonal patterns.” For example, Ohio’s unemployment rate adjusted for seasonally was 4.2 percent in December 2022.)

The federal government defines Greater Cleveland as the counties of Cuyahoga, Geoga, Lake, Lorraine, and Medina.

The monthly report on unemployment in urban areas showed that most of the indicators fell.

“The unemployment rate in December was lower than a year earlier in 244 of the city’s 389 districts, higher in 115 districts and unchanged in 30 districts,” the BLS said in a press release.

It takes two: At the Cuyahoga Community College Women’s Summit next month, they should be hearing not one, but two Bastons.

College President Michael Baston will deliver the acceptance speech. He will be followed by his wife, Tasha Baston, who delivers the keynote speech. Tasha Baston is the founder and CEO of Women Impact the Next Generation of Sisters, according to the event’s online agenda. The Bastons moved to Cleveland when Michael began his Tri-C presidency in 2022.

College officials said there was no conflict of interest, adding that neither speakers nor panellists would be compensated. According to officials, Tasha Baston was nominated by the event organizers, who met with her and thought her “tale of resilience and overcoming hardships in her life” would be a good place to start the event. Other speakers were also considered. April Thompson, Executive Chef and Owner of Wild Thymez’s Personal Chef Service, will give a final presentation.

Local leadership of the Republican Party unchanged: Republican Lee Weingart, who lost his bid for Cuyahoga County Executive in November, has lost his bid (for now) to knock out Cuyahoga County GOP Chairwoman Lisa Stickan. Weingart collected enough signatures from the party’s central committee to vote on whether to replace Stikan. But last Saturday he failed to reach a quorum – so the planned vote on the leadership of Stikan did not happen.

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