Cool Cleveland Interview with Mayor Jane Campbell

Cool Cleveland: I've reviewed your Economic Stimulus Plan and the 200 initiatives. Even though I've spent some time with the plan, it seems confusing. Could you talk about these projects and how they will be accomplished?
Mayor Jane Campbell: We're looking at infrastructure. Historically, the way we've done things when it's time to rebuild a road, there's not the kind of coordination to turn it into an economic incentive. OK, we're going to rebuild, say Kinsman, because of the real need and the symbolic value. And we rounded everybody up, from the sewers to SBC, because we don't want to have to dig it up again next year, and you create efficiencies. So you have some resources to do a streetscape: you can do some lighting, you can change the way the street looks. You have a school building, and the county has a library there. In that way, when you get everyone planning together, you can make a huge difference. We've created an Infrastructure Coordinating Committee and they meet with the Community Development Corps. Now that we've wrapped up the W. 117th project we can be adding retail to that.

Why do you think these initiatives haven't received more positive attention?
A piece of the problem is that we have such serious financial problems, and the city's problems are generated from the problems of the community. For income tax this year, we got $18 million less than in 2000. We're dealing with people only paying 2% of their income. That means over a billion dollars has left the city. Companies have left, people don't have jobs, and the city still has 38% of the jobs in the County. We really had to spend the first couple years getting the finances in order. We had to deal with the underlying infrastructure of the financial and law department, so we can tell you exactly how much money we don't have. But now, you can start to build. In the '90s you had both state and federal governments contributing. When Clinton, Celeste, and Voinovich were in office, they had a love for Cleveland. But we now see disinvestments in Cleveland; we have had a cut in the local government funding at least once a year. It took some retooling to think that we have to live within our means, and going through the layoffs was torture. But we are presenting a budget to council that doesn't spend more money than what is coming in.

Why the recent shakeup in your administration?
We made some adjustments so people would be in places where they will be the strongest. First, there's operations: people care about basic city services. That's hard to do with the cutbacks financially. And second, more engagement with the community.

Take the Cleveland Public Schools for example. Four schools are being built now, there are twelve in design, and in two years we'll have thirty schools [under construction]. They all need water, sewer, and gas. David McGuirk [former Operations director] is a good project person, he's the go-to. It's our biggest public works project - he will be there to focus on just that, not the whole city getting their water. That made a hole in City Hall, so we brought over Darnell Brown, because he has a good staff. He was the Water Pollution Control Commissioner, ran the city sewers, and had a really strong department, so he comes in to do Operations. His focus is how do we do more with less?

Then in Communications, what we have is an enormous challenge getting our message out. Part of it is gathering information from 10,000 employees and sharing it with the community organizations, the block clubs, as well as using my time more effectively. We brought up Galen Schuerlein from the Law Department [who was Chief Counsel] as Executive Assistant for Communications and Labor Relations; one of the most important jobs. We have to make sure our employees know these things, since this is the year for labor negotiations with all the contracts. This also allows Lorna Wisham to be Chief of Public Affairs, who makes sure our events work right. We also have the 117 cities and 50 countries coming to the Children's Games [in July 2004]; it's a huge undertaking. The Classic historic black college basketball game is coming, and we'll have a football game as well.

In Economic Development, since the last state of the city when we announced the 500,000 [population goal for the city], we've had a terrific guy, Lewis Adkins, who is on loan from Roetzel & Anderess law firm. He's done a great job and he'll stay with us part time. So we'll take our entrepreneur-in-residence, Tim Mueller, to be full-time as our strategic planner and go from a plan to a reality to make this really work. Because of the importance of ED issues, they will report directly into Deb Janik, my Chief of Staff, that includes Steve Sims, ED Director, Community Development director Linda Hudacek, City Planning director Chris Ronanye, and Building & Housing director Jimmy Williams, who are all reporting to Deb.

What about Cuyahoga County Commissioner Tim Mueller---what will his role be?
To engage the community in the public private partnership that is necessary to move economic development forward.

What is your reaction to the Defense of Marriage Act passed by the Ohio legislature this week?
There's no question that the state legislature's totally a detriment to economic development. I have been married for almost 20 years and I'm not threatened by gay people.

Will you speak out against this legislation?
I have said that to the legislative folks. They did this so quick. It is such a sideshow to our basic efforts to build economic development in this community.

Describe your vision for Cleveland's future.
My vision for Cleveland's future is to build on our medical technology, our financial services, our technology, our universities and NASA as the tech basis, to intentionally develop the spring-off business that we provide to the incubators. We're also engaging and understanding the manufacturing that's still here and understanding how that can become advanced manufacturing so they take the next steps to stay here for the next generation. The second part is that we have a community that has strong neighborhoods; recognizing that part of the excitement of living in the city is the diversity of arts, culture, and the races all living together. We need to engage with the churches, mosques, the synagogues, and the schools.

What is your public relations strategy for getting the good word out on your vision, initiatives and successes?
The next key step is the State of the City on February 19th. That is sort of the mid-term for the last two years, as well as what we're doing for the next following two years.

Many people have suggested that we need more of a regional approach in order to be competitive in the new global economy. Talk about how you see Cleveland working with other municipalities in the region in a more regional manner.
Cleveland works with other communities on a regular basis. The experience with regionalism has been taking assets that are really Cleveland's and giving them to the region, then you end up with less services to Cleveland. If you take the bus system, you take the Cleveland Transit System and turn it into the RTA, and you get less service for Cleveland. Now the current crowd at RTA has been very helpful. The interesting thing is, if you listen to the regional folks, they don't want to regionalize the school system. If we had a regional school system and every child had an opportunity to have the same quality of education, that would be a very interesting concept.

It seems that the city would benefit from a regional approach, since there's more growth in the suburbs where a lot of the investment is happening. Some people feel that the suburbs have a good reason not to think on a regional basis because they feel there's this donut hole which would suck resources into the city.
Take this conversation that we've been having about Homeland Security; instead of being given to the city directly, it is given to the State and then to the County. They identified 20 targets, 18 of which were in the city, but the County then gave the money to every community. Now, this just doesn't make any sense. Eventually we were able to negotiate 50% of the money, but we have 85% of the targets. For all the challenges we have in Cleveland, we still have some of the best services in the city. When you see the fire in the suburbs of Garfield Heights, the city of Cleveland responded quickly - we had our trucks there. If there's a catastrophe you want the best equipment and the best trained folks. Now we call on the suburbs, for example, you take the Case Western [Reserve University] shooter, and we used our SWAT team; but hours later Euclid brought their SWAT team which was smaller than ours, yet they were there and helped us with the FBI. Ultimately, 93 people got out without being injured and the leadership came from the Cleveland police. When you really think what's best for the region, we should talk about what works for the region. I think what works for the region is for the core community to be very strong and to have resources to share with the region, and for the suburbs to be strong and willing to share, also. If you look at our water system, for example, we serve 1.5 million people and 72 communities beyond Cuyahoga County; it's the 8th largest in the country. Because it is a large and well capitalized system, when we faced the blackout, we had water restored much more quickly than they did in Detroit, however we had uphill battles, really uphill, in every way it was uphill! At the end of the blackout, we had the Water Commissioners look at what happened, and how could we protect against it next time. We are taking a proposal to build an electrical backup system to our water system. We're taking this proposal to Cleveland City council on February 2 to pass it by April.

Many of the suburban Mayors have been getting together to discuss Meeting Regional Needs Through Cooperation and Common Action. Are you interested in participating in these discussions, and why was the City not represented at the most recent meeting on January 15?
We have a rep who works with Mayors & Managers Association who had been quite ill, Eric Janus. We know that when people say where they come from, they say Cleveland. So, the best ways to make the region strong is to make Cleveland strong. If people want to work with us, that's great.

Some people have expressed surprise that the Mayor's office and the Commissioners haven't been able to work more closely together; as you were once a Commissioner, why do you think this is happening?
We work more closely together than people think. We just sent in an application to EPA for brownfields. If the city or County did it on their own, it would be for $1 million each, but we could do it together for $3 million, and the city gets 1.5 million, and the County gets $1.5 million. And the successful implementation of the Cleveland division of water serves 1.5 million customers, so we're now discussing delivering water to Aurora as we have good infrastructure, good pumps, and it's a national security issue. So it's easier to do on a larger scale. And we also have the success of the airport; for the first time Cleveland is not at risk for losing their hub.

Why do you think Tim Hagan is running against fellow Democrat and sitting Commissioner Tim McCormack?
The two of them are very different kinds of Commissioners. Hagan is very focused on the outcome and getting it done; he doesn't care who gets credit. He doesn't care really all that much about the public process. He's about getting it done. He was an extraordinary partner for Mike White. He felt the county was all about helping the community accomplish their dreams. McCormack is as interested in the process, the public engagement, the creation of a vision as he is in getting things done, and he honestly believes that that county is the one who should lead.

Who will you be supporting?
I'm for Tim McCormack, but I'm going to have to work with whoever wins. My principle concern is that the city work with the County to help us. When Hagan was there, it was about getting two votes and getting things done. Both Dimora and McCormack believe you gotta have three, and you don't do anything until you got three. But I think you gotta move. Obviously, it's better to have all three, but when it was Hagan, McCormack and I, we voted on 250 things and McCormack only voted once. We designed welfare reform, we created the early childhood initiative, and we created the brownfield initiatives.

Do you plan to run for reelection?
Yes.

What will the major planks of your platform be?
That we were successful in our development of housing. That we've created neighborhood economic revitalization even in difficult economic times. That we've been able to make progress in terms of economic development, and that we're successfully building schools inside and out.

Do you have political ambitions beyond Mayor of Cleveland?
We'll cross that bridge when we get there. My youngest daughter graduates from high school in 2007 and I'm not going anywhere outside of Cleveland until she is out of school. I love my job, but my first priorities are that my kids are strong and OK. That will be my legacy.

Why do you think everything becomes politicized in Cleveland?
I don't think Cleveland is any different than any other place. My husband works in Youngstown now, and when he makes a public statement, the [Youngstown] Vindicator writes, "Expert says this..." and he lives in Shaker Heights! But you still have to engage the politics and state what you're going to do.

Talk about how important you think the arts and culture are for Cleveland's future.
I think it's one of the things Cleveland has that is world-class and it reflects our diversity. Our Museum and Orchestra are the best in their class in the world. But you also have smaller venues like Cleveland Public Theatre doing fabulous experimental work, and my daughter takes acting classes at the Beck Center, and then you've got our impressive art galleries. When you campaign, you go to the festivals, like the Lincoln Park Arts Festival, and it's really fun.

Are you in support of the upcoming arts and economic development levy Issue 31, which is on the ballot in March?
I am not yet really understanding how the money will be distributed and what the plan is, but there has got to be some clarity to it. I do know there are good people who are working on it.

Is it a mistake to try to pass a levy during such a short timeline? You can always figure out ways to wait, but it's harder to move forward. Most importantly, will the school levy pass?

Could arts help pass a school levy?
Yes. But a lot of those partnerships also still rely on the schools still having school buses to go on field trips, so it's just a matter of how everything fits together.

What will you be doing to support the measure?
I have not been asked to support it; I have not been approached by anyone.

What if I asked you, as a citizen?
I need to see the plan and I need to see what the Commissioners will do with the plan. I like the theory of getting people involved. I was a Commissioner, and you can adopt a formal resolution adopting this mechanism, then they can't change it without going back and having a public engagement.

Why didn't the City send a representative to Vienna with the Cleveland Orchestra last fall to bask in the glow of the world's best Orchestra and make business connections?
We didn't have the financial resources to do it at the time. We have thought about doing that kind of tour, but to make it successful, you have to sort it out in advance and you have to invite people. What we're doing on the international side is the International Children's Games. We are creating from that an international village and international connections. We did go to New York and worked on business connections and convention-type things, and we got a couple of convention leads. The Orchestra is a huge draw.

What are you doing to do to support and develop Cleveland's creative class?
Working on the live-work districts, the arts summits we had at City Hall, and working with City Council, we continue to engage economic development issues. We have worked closely with Cleveland Public Theatre on financing, and we're using Urban Development Action Grant loans. We continue to work with the Cleveland Playhouse and the folks in that neighborhood trying to get rid of the old grocery store, right in the heart of everything. Then we do fun stuff like [the city-wide arts program] Sparx in the City, in which even the fire chief judged the fire hydrant art. And we're re-doing East 4th Street to keep businesses like [restaurant] Pickwick and Frolic vital. We decided we'd work with our artist community instead of utilizing ugly old scaffolding; we'd have people paint whatever they wanted on balsa.

You have high goals for housing in the city of Cleveland. Do you see a connection between arts and housing?
Art makes things fun and makes the city a destination. Lillian Kuri [of Cleveland Public Art] lit up the Cleveland Trust Building [with the Luminocity Project in 12/03]. We need more like that. It's too bad it's over. When I was a little girl, my dad worked at the Huntington Building, and we would put on our little white gloves, get on the rapid, and go downtown too see Mr. Jingeling. The message was: come Downtown. You know, Cleveland is an amazing place; we have to find a way to make that spill over. We need to have more easily accessible stuff for people to walk to without having to drive.

I'm also highly supportive of downtown housing. We've got 8,000 or 9,000 residents, and if we can triple that to 25,000, it would be the same size as a Ward. Think about the Warehouse District, and if we can develop the 12th and 13th Street parking lot. The Stonebridge and Stonebridge II condominiums are creating residential neighborhoods in the Flats, so you're not relying on people coming in from the suburbs, and you can market to the young professionals and empty nesters. Now we are able to generate some for-sale housing.

Why do you think the police and fire unions are giving you such a hard time about helping to balance the city budget?
Both the EMS and fire decided to take some personal cuts for the greater good of the city and their colleagues. They saved 20 EMS and 80 fire fighters by cutting uniforms and overtime. Uniforms alone cost about $500 a year.

Were your most recent announcements of severe job cuts in police and fire designed to reign in those unions, or am I giving you too much credit?
We just dealt with the reality. When public safety is over 65% of your budget, there's no way to balance the budget without looking at public safety. Public safety only took an 11% cut instead of 15% across the board. Other departments took a 20% cut. We're now in negotiations for the three year contract, so we just have to deal with the reality. We have to be able to balance the budget and manage overtime, and we have to deal with scheduling issues.

Do you think the union mentality of entitlement has hurt the city and the region's ability to be competitive?
I think we have to engage our employees to build the best quality city services, and I'll tell you what, I think we are making some progress. The fact that both fire and EMS are willing to make concessions means that we have other unions working with us.

How would you suggest a new approach?
Fundamentally, it's about being honest about the finances, which we now have the information to do, and working with our unions and employees to make it happen. That is clearly the old thinking, and we have to demonstrate that there are unions and government that can work together. We showed the same thing with ISG. The reality of the steelworkers who came in to cut a deal for, what is it, 1,200 jobs? It was only 4,000 jobs at its height. You know how many people Cleveland Clinic employs? Over 25,000. Look at National City Bank. If you take our economic plan, look at the top 10 employers; Cleveland Clinic is first, there's National City, the Cleveland Schools, University Hospitals, Metro Health, the City of Cleveland, Case Western Reserve University, and then financial services. People say we're not part of the new economy, but yes we are.

Is there anything else that you'd like to cover?
I want to be the one to interview you. That would fun. Let's do it the week after next when I come back from Washington.

Interview and photo by Thomas Mulready

Check back with Cool Cleveland next week for Mayor Jane Campbell's interview with Cool Cleveland founder, Thomas Mulready.

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