First, congratulations to Judge Emanuella Groves for her solid victory in the 8th District Court of Appeals race against three other challengers. Her vote total more than doubled that of her nearest rival, which is quite an accomplishment, but not surprising considering her long stellar service to the community.
While two of the other three candidates no doubt would have done well on that bench, the outcome is welcome assurance that voters were paying attention and selected wisely.
The “non-vote” has to do with the unusual situation concerning the reduction of Cleveland City Council and the members’ pay. While enough signatures were gathered to put the issue before the voters, a last-minute deal was struck to withdraw it, but not before the ballots was printed.
This resulted in the unusual situation where voters could still see the issues on the ballot, but the votes, yea or nay, didn’t count, at least not officially. But that doesn’t mean some voters didn’t mark their ballots anyway, nor did it mean that some curious folks at the Board of Elections didn’t tally the votes up.
City councilpersons in Cleveland should take serious note: Rumor has it that the voters who did mark their ballots were overwhelmingly in favor of both issues, the reduction in the number of seats, as well as the reduction in pay.
While I was vociferously in opposition to the issues even being on the ballot since I, like many others, felt that the attempted reduction was a petty move by a Westlake businessman, Tony George, to play get-back at Council for not awarding an energy contract to a company he was representing. It smacked of dirty politics.
Nonetheless, I also stated when I wrote about the issue that I was all for taking a serious look at the size of city council by qualified individuals from the Cleveland community and making any adjustments deemed necessary. That’s still my position and, based on the responses I got, many people were in agreement.
Alas, human nature is such that once danger passes people often return to business as usual. That should not be the case with this issue. Once the pandemic is over, a commission should be established to examine the size of city council with all deliberate speed. Otherwise this issue will appear on the next ballot, and no doubt will pass with flying colors.
Sticking our collective head in the sand on this issue is not a viable — or wise — option.
One Response to “MANSFIELD: A Local Election and a Non-Vote”
Pam
Just happy that Byers didn’t win.