Council Meeting Highlights (9/19/22)

Sep 19, 2022

Cleveland (Sept. 19, 2022) – City Council held its regular Monday meeting tonight, both in person in Council Chambers and through live streaming.  The next regular meeting will be Monday Sept. 26. Here are tonight’s highlights:

Black Women’s Equal Pay Day: A resolution recognizing Black Women’s Equal Pay Day was passed by council, with all 17 members sponsoring the resolution. Black women made 63% of what white, non-Hispanic men made, closely resembling the gender wage gap of the 1960s and based on today’s wage gap, Black women in Ohio would lose more than $800,000 over the course of a 40 year career.

The resolution noted that Black women have the highest labor force participation rate of all working women, but Black women are paid 58 cents for every dollar paid to white men and they face higher rates of poverty than their male counterparts.

“If the wage gap were eliminated, an average Black woman working full-time, year-round would have enough money for approximately: over 2 ½ years of child care; more than 2 ½ additional years of tuition and fees for a 4-year public university or the full cost of tuition and fees for a 2-year community college; …174 more weeks (more than 3 years’ worth) of food; 15 additional months of mortgage and utilities payments; more than 22 more months of rent; enough to pay off the average student loan debt in 1 ½ years,” the resolution noted. (Res. No. 957-2022)

ARPA Funding Allocated: Council passed numerous pieces of legislation tonight for organizations, primarily providing needed services, to receive American Rescue Plan Act funding. Other ARPA legislation introduced last week will go through the committee process or brought up later. The legislation passed tonight include resources for victims of domestic violence and rape, for children services, expanding high quality pre-school, eviction prevention and more. They include:

• Dash Cams (Ord. No. 896-2022) for every squad vehicle - $2.3 million

• Dollars for (COVID Vaccine) Doses (Ord. No. 897-2022) - $300,000

• Journey Center for Safety and Healing for domestic violence services (Ord. No. 907-2022) - $1,750,000

• Canopy Child Advocacy Center (Ord. No. 903-2022) - $500,000
• Cleveland Rape Crisis Center (Ord. No. 904-2022) - $2.5 million
• Starting Point (Early Childhood (staff) Recovery Initiative ) (Ord. No. 905-2022) - $2,668,750
• Starting Point  (Early Childhood Education Expansion Scholarships) (Ord. No. 906-2022) - $1,888,750
• Right to Counsel for eviction defense (Ord. No. 908-2022)  - $1 million