Council Meeting Highlights

Mar 18, 2025

City Council held a special meeting in person today in Council Chambers, which was also live-streamed. Council's next meeting is March 24th. Here are today’s highlights:

Council Passes City Budget for 2025: Council approved the third reading of the city's 2025 budget. The budget must be approved by April 1st under state law.

Council leadership and the Mayor's administration agreed on amendments that added about $15.2 million to the General Fund budget. Even so, the city ended the year with record reserves, including nearly $67.6 million in its rainy day fund (approaching the state-allowed maximum), $73 million in a payroll reserve fund, and nearly $61.3 million in General Fund carryover from 2024.

Additions to the budget include:

• Infrastructure Investment
  An additional $8 million for roads and resurfacing is included in the amended budget to provide more quality streets and transportation in our neighborhoods. (Paid for through bonds.)

  Public Safety

• Eleven full-time EMS positions have been added to provide more quality emergency medicine services for Clevelanders.
• The additions of Auxiliary Police funding to support community events and traffic situations and serve as neighborhood watchdogs.
• Providing funding to implement a Cleveland Fire program to install carbon monoxide and smoke detectors in Cleveland households
   

Community Engagement and Equity

• Investing in community relations with the introduction of a Spanish Language translator
• Introducing an LGBTQ+ Liaison within the Community Relations Board (CRB), to demonstrate a push for greater inclusivity and accessibility
   

Youth Investment

• Providing an additional $500,000 in funding for summer jobs and violence prevention through Youth Opportunities Unlimited.
• Adding up to 13 recreation instructor positions to provide more leadership and recreational opportunities for young people
• Providing more recreational opportunities in neighborhoods with no recreation centers through Neighborhood Leadership Institute’s School as Neighborhood Resources programming.
   

Economic Development
 

• Creating a “Small Business Mentor Protégé” position to help improve success outcomes for Cleveland’s small businesses. 
   

Council also restored its Neighborhood Equity Fund, sometimes referred to as the Neighborhood Improvement Fund, back to $600,000 for each Ward as it had been in 2024. This is up from $329,000 the Mayor's budget estimate had included. That $4.6 million addition for neighborhood improvement projects will come from the nearly $61.3 million in carryover that wasn't spent, bringing the 2024 carryover to nearly $56.7 million.

Members have used or are using these funds for park improvements, road resurfacing, new playgrounds, safety cameras, neighborhood revitalization efforts, and other public amenities and improvements in their wards.

Introductions  

A resolution was introduced, sponsored by Councilman Kevin Conwell, to strongly encourage the Cleveland Metropolitan School District to install school bus stop-arm safety cameras to capture drivers who fail to stop when the bus stop-arm is out and pass school buses that are loading and unloading children. The program would fine drivers who do not respect the bus’s stop arm signals. Res. No. 333-2025