The Browns moved to Brook Park.

Dominated the news cycle this year, as the city and county battled unsuccessfully to keep the team downtown.

The mayor of Cleveland Heights was recalled, and the mayor of East Cleveland was convicted.

And Cleveland schools are consolidating, while Akron schools have another superintendent.

Ideas.

A look back on the top local stories of 2025 is next.

Hello, and welcome to ideas.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thanks for joining us.

As we look back on the biggest local stories of the year.

Well, the biggest local stories before we taped this show, December 10th.

Topping the list was the saga of the Browns relocation to Brook Park, opposition from political leaders in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County dissolved.

The state kicked in $600 million, and the Browns now are as good as gone.

With a long, steady drop in students, Cleveland schools approved a plan to close a number of buildings and operate 29 fewer schools.

After complaints and an outside investigation.

Akron School Superintendent Michael Robinson was shown the door as the board accepted his resignation this year, and Cleveland Heights residents voted to recall the first mayor they ever elected, Kahlil Seren, while East Cleveland's mayor, Brandon King, was convicted of corruption charges and had to leave office.

Joining me to discuss those and other top stories of 2025, from news five Cleveland reporter Michelle Jarboe and from Edina Stream Public Media.

Reporter Abby Marshall, who concentrates on Cleveland, and Anna Huntsman, who covers Akron and Canton.

And our deputy editor of news.

Andrew Meier, let's get ready to roundtable.

A Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb and Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne battled the Haslam Sports Group this year over everything from the model law, which is meant to make it hard for Ohio sports teams to move from their home cities to the height of the proposed Brook Park Stadium to a refusal to kick in public money for the Browns.

By December, the fight was all but over.

The Browns are moving to Brook Park.

the county remained steadfast in its refusal to kick in any funding.

The Browns move forward without it.

So, Michele, the fight really seemed to pivot toward the Haslam after the state funded $600 million of the project using unpaid or unclaimed funds.

Was it mostly game over right at that point?

I don't know that it was quite game over, but that decision by the state was a significant blow to Cleveland, and city officials have said that they never expected the General Assembly to give the Browns a $600 million grant.

That amount is unprecedented.

So that certainly changed the entire conversation and put Cleveland on its heels.

And what was surprising to me as the county stayed with its vow not to give public money, you would think without the county money.

We're not having a stadium.

They found a way.

They didn't need it.

That's right.

The Haslam, the owners of the team, have have said, look, we have a private solve for this.

We will fill that gap.

Now they are still anticipating generating about $300 million from Brook Park from new tax revenues associated with the Stadium District, but that deal has not been approved yet.

So we're talking about roughly a $300 million gap that they needed to fill, because they were looking for the county to issue bonds tied to Brook Park and the county.

There was a deal eventually reached where Cleveland dropped its lawsuit.

Don't worry.

It's going to is in the process of doing that.

Yeah.

And that involved 100 million bucks from the Haslam as part of that to demolish the existing stadium.

That deal was negotiated by the mayor himself, not city council.

They had a problem with that?

Yeah.

I think a lot of the council members felt that they were left in the dark.

They didn't feel briefed on this.

Some said it wasn't enough.

But ultimately it did go through with only two no votes.

Earlier in December.

And that was basically because the mayor said this is a take it or leave it deal.

I we could end up with nothing at all.

If the courts don't rule in our favor.

So a lot of them said, you know, we don't love this, but we don't want the taxpayers to be on the hook in a few years when they have a stadium that we now have to pay to demolish.

I mentioned the county didn't kick in money.

Michelle and Chris Ronayne, has been staunchly against this.

He's a former downtown planner.

He talked about how important the stadium would be to downtown.

Where does he stand now?

In fact, I think he even made comments at a council meeting, in early December where he's worried about traffic and those types of things, but he doesn't seem to have come around and said, boy, this is a great idea.

Yeah.

The county executive has not changed his position, and he has urged members of county council not to buy in to contributing to this project in any way and with with the financial situation that the county is and with having to look closely at its budget and, you know, facing some serious headwinds.

I don't know that realistically, the county is in a position where it would be smart to do much financially to participate in this.

Yeah.

The the what council member has called the the worst budget they've had since this new form of government was formed in 2011.

I mean, worst meeting, biggest cuts.

Yeah, they're dealing with a lot right now.

So let's talk about the lakefront then, without a stadium.

There are a whole lot of potential.

There is a whole lot of potential on a whole lot of possibilities.

Where does that stand now, Abby?

Yeah.

So earlier this year, the mayor put out a request for proposal from developers to see how they could develop about 50 acres of downtown land, which included that brown site.

So last I talked to them, they have been interviewing and maybe by the time this airs there will be a developer for that site.

But basically they're looking at how can we turn this into a place that's going to get people downtown.

Obviously, there's never going to be, as many people coming downtown, you know, for a Browns game all at once.

But, how can we really make sure that we get momentum to, to create a place where people want to go downtown and don't just, you know, stay in the suburbs or stay in their respective neighborhoods?

Here's the thing that Cleveland has done a lot of just pave it all for parking.

Is that is that your request for proposal?

That's your proposal.

A lot of it is currently just pay for parking.

If you've been down there.

It's a big parking lot in a stadium, right.

So what we're looking at and I've seen some of the proposals, but there is there would be retail housing but also public space.

I mean, the whole idea is we have this lakefront that isn't being used in the way that it could be.

Yeah.

You look at Chicago.

Chicago's brought up a lot in these conversations and the big parks and green space down there.

And even this summer, the city set up, on the on the North Coast harbor, just, you know, a little recreation space.

And they had thousands of people come to it.

So they said, this is an example.

People want to be downtown.

They want to have a space where they can be on the lakefront and access it.

You know, we have a two waterfront city that a lot of cities would kill for.

So why are we using?

It is kind of that idea.

And we're using 400 plus acres of it for an airport right now.

That became hot right after this deal.

Chris, Renee basically reached out to Mayor Bibb and said, all right, let's get moving on.

Burke.

Now, after this deal was essentially sealed.

What does that mean?

Let's get busy on Burke.

It means get rid of Burke Lakefront Airport.

And what could happen with that property?

Yeah.

Mayor Bibb has not been shy about saying that he is in support of looking at how to reassess that, that lakefront space that has a lot of lakefront space that is being used for honestly, a lot of people are using that.

They're going to Hopkins.

It's a private airport.

So there is a coalition that is against the closing of that.

And obviously, if you've seen the air show, there's not really another home.

They say for that.

But as we're looking to redevelop the entire lakefront now is kind of the time to to reassess that.

I guess holistically, in their minds, there are small airports that, the smaller planes could land, Cuyahoga County Airport there.

There are other options.

They just aren't directly downtown where you can hop to your meeting or your sport event and get back in and fly back to where you came from.

Yeah.

What's going on with the with federal help to do that?

I know that the mayor had reached out to the congressional delegation to Senators Michel.

Are they amenable to helping the city get rid of Burke?

It seems as though they're very open to a conversation.

Senator Bernie Marino told one of my colleagues that he specifically asked Mayor Bibb and County Executive Ronayne to write a letter formally requesting the closure of Burke, and Marino seemed supportive, with two caveats.

One is that he wants to see a real plan for what would go on that property.

He doesn't want us to close an airport and just have that property sitting there with nothing going on for a long time, and then he he wants to be assured that there is broad community support for doing this.

And, you know, as A.B.

mentioned, there are some opponents to that, including tenants and users of the airport.

And they have been trying to lobby Congress as well.

A.B., you know Mayor Bibb pretty well.

Is there any chance that he would jump into a bulldozer?

I was going to say Chicago.

If we're bringing up Chicago, that's always an option.

Just overnight.

I think the penalties for doing that are a lot higher now than they were.

Literally, they just put X's right through the runways.

I know, it's so awesome.

Yeah I don't I don't see him doing that.

But I do see him wanting to get momentum to to kind of see his lakefront vision go through.

The board of the Akron Public School District accepted the resignation of Superintendent Michael Robinson after less than two years on the job.

And then, without a search, appointed his successor.

And, let's start with Robinson.

His fate was essentially sealed when a report found credible complaints that he was bullying staff.

What were the allegations there?

It seemed like a horrible place to work.

Yeah, that's one way to put it.

There were 16 people interviewed, former and current staff.

Who?

I'll just go through some of the things that they said.

He yelled at people.

Sometimes there was one allegation that he.

Well, I guess it's not an allegation.

It was found credible.

He yelled at someone in the hallway so loud that people to force down could hear, he made some sort of threats about a school board member saying that her children will reap what she sows if she's not careful.

Things like that.

But it was mostly a target around this, toxic, bullying, work environment.

Michael Robinson said that he has high standards and that perhaps the school district and its staff, weren't held to these high standards before and weren't used to that management style.

And he shrouded a lot of that in a religious mission, a biblical mission.

Yeah.

He said he was anointed for the position, and often made religious comments like that.

So this had been going on for quite some time.

We heard rumors.

We heard allegations.

Finally, one of the school board members wrote a letter, detailing, you know, what she was experiencing.

And then this investigation kind of happened.

And as I mentioned, much of it was found to be credible.

So he is ushered out the door with an acceptance of his resignation.

And then immediately then successor is hired, somebody who's been on the staff for many, many years.

That struck some is unusual because wouldn't you do a national search and get the best possible candidate.

Right.

And and before Michael Robinson was Christine Fowler Mack, who was not on, the superintendent for very long either.

So that didn't work out.

And then Michael Robinson didn't work out.

And so then suddenly, at the very end of this meeting, they pick Mary Utley, who's been a long time staff member in Akron public Schools, I think over 30 years.

She's from Akron.

She's well known in the district.

And they it was a split vote.

They voted 4 to 3.

And that is because some of the board members said, hey, isn't this kind of unethical?

We're not following our own policy about wanting to conduct conduct a search of, you know, casting the widest net possible and instead kind of just picking.

She was the interim superintendent at the time, whereas some people on the other side say, well, she's the best candidate for the job and she's already doing the job, and let's kind of move forward with her.

And we know we don't have those kinds of allegations about her yelling at people and those types of things.

She's worked with them and obviously works play plays well with others.

Right.

And she had actually interviewed for the job previously.

And who knows why.

You know, she ultimately wasn't picked.

But yeah, as you mentioned, she doesn't have those allegations.

She's been with the district for a really long time.

And, you know, in 2026, we'll be hearing more from her about how that's going.

And it seems to have quieted now as far as the the complaints about how she was picked.

Andrew, as we mentioned, three superintendents, since 2023 and now, the division on the school board shows itself.

By year's end, voters ousted two members of the board.

And coincidentally, no, not at all.

Not at all.

In this case, the two of the incumbents who lost, one of them was, Diane Autry.

She's the one who pulled that 1130 maneuver at that board meeting where they decided to separate with Robinson, said, hey, let's make Mary out.

The superintendent went on a search without any further ado.

There was blowback from that.

Also, the board president at the time, Carla Jackson, also lost her bid for reelection.

So there were some big changes at the school board.

The, Board of Education, as a result of, I think, the, upset, over the, superintendent, procedure.

The Cleveland Metropolitan School District will shrink its footprint to account for a steady enrollment decline due to population loss.

decline.

The goal, the district says, is to make sure all students are learning and quality school buildings with offerings spread around the district.

Instead of focusing on some schools dedicated to high level pursuits such as science, engineering, technology and math.

To do that, the district decided to close dozens of buildings, buildings and consolidate other schools.

And Abby, it's an issue that's deeply personal.

Parents we've been covering at Counter Morris has been out there covering parents, saying, listen, this is our school and now you're going to screw that up.

But the district says, listen, the population makes this necessary.

Of course.

Yeah.

There's not enough enrollment for it to keep these buildings in the kind of, condition that the district would like to see.

But this is very personal to parents and also council members as well.

Council member Mike Valenza has been very outspoken about this, particularly when it comes to Collinwood and Glenville High School, which are rivals, and are going to become one, and that's a move that he said, if we continue to take away things from, students in this district, particularly on the East side, parents are going to move to the suburbs.

It's going to add to more population loss.

They might send their kids to charter schools.

We got to give them a reason to stay.

And he said neighborhood schools is a big part of that.

Meanwhile, you have the superintendent, saying we have we have to deal with this budget cut problem that we're facing.

And how quickly is he saying that will happen?

It's going to happen by next fall.

So yeah, it's it's going to happen quickly.

They have to contend with this budget shortfall.

And so they're starting plans to to do so with this, approval at the earlier meeting this month.

So we mentioned Collinwood and Glenville high schools combining.

What are some of the other highlights, Andrew, that the consolidation plan would bring?

Well, number, the magnet schools that have multiple campuses, they're going to be consolidated in some of the older buildings.

The district will be moving out of those and moving students to, newer, more, more recently built schools.

Some of them in the case are just a few miles away.

But a lot of parents are raising concerns.

Even just a few miles is a big change for their kids.

And we're going to be left then with a number of empty school buildings.

Michelle, you've looked into what alternate uses could be for these.

And it's not easy.

It's, you know, you can't make them Halloween stores.

I guess.

You know, they you've got to do something with these buildings that's worthwhile.

And it's a difficult thing to do.

Developers say it's tricky.

It is tricky.

And I think the city and MSD would not go for Halloween.

So I want to be clear.

But yeah, there are two particular reasons that these are such tricky projects.

One, think about older school buildings in particular.

They have wide hallways.

They have gyms, they have auditoriums.

All of these are spaces that developers can't rent out.

They don't make money.

These buildings are a lot less efficient than if you were building something with new construction or converting a building that had like narrower corridors.

The second is that a few years ago, the General Assembly changed the rules of the game, and they block developers from being able to use historic preservation tax credits and low income housing tax credits on the same projects.

And that might sound wonky, but what it did was it killed a bunch of redevelopment deals for existing empty CMS schools, and it's going to be a big challenge for some of these buildings that are opening up, that are historic and that are in neighborhoods that could use affordable housing but can't necessarily support, like luxury apartments.

East Cleveland Mayor Brandon King was removed from office after his conviction on corruption charges.

Sandra Morgan was appointed while King was under indictment.

But Council President Latif Shabazz, pointing to the city charter, assumed the role after King's conviction.

The dispute over who rightfully is mayor was settled by voters in November, who overwhelmingly picked Morgan.

There's a lot of mayors, Michele, a lot of mayors, and a lot on track.

So a judge appointed Sandra Morgan as the interim mayor for some months.

She's going to be returning now to that job.

The citizens said so resoundingly.

That's right.

Yeah.

She she won in a landslide.

Yeah.

I think something like 80% of the vote.

She'll be back after, being elected to a full term now a full term.

She says she welcomes placing the city's finances under state control.

Receivership?

That's something that Shabazz was against.

Why does she say it's a good idea?

If it seems that she feels there's a need to get to the bottom of what's going on there?

You know, she talked about uncovering the truth and trying to rebuild to create a more responsible city government.

And she sees that state intervention and the resources that the state can bring to be a route to doing that.

I know that, one of the council members here, Pat Slovak, who emails in and in fact, if we were live today, we would be getting an email right now about this because it's not a great idea.

They don't need the receivership that it's, essentially the state has been a part of the problem.

We'll see how that plays out when the new mayor takes over.

Yeah, there's certainly people who a variety of people who are anxious about that idea.

They don't know what it will mean.

I think there are a lot of fears in East Cleveland, which is so economically depressed about gentrification and displacement of residents.

And, you know, the possibility that came up years ago about whether East Cleveland might be annex or absorbed in some way into Cleveland.

But it's clear something there needs to change.

Voters recalled the first ever elected mayor of Cleveland Heights, Kahlil Seren, in September.

And the former mayor's wife pleaded guilty to criminal trespass for entering the home of someone who had a sign in their yard supporting the recall.

voters said, listen, you're out.

First of all, we're we're calling you.

And then they they voted subsequently for a new mayor.

That's right.

So in the interim, though, the city council president is the interim mayor until January 1st, when Jim Petrus, who was elected in the November election, will take the office.

A lot of this came from the mayor's wife, her behavior, people said that she was abusive in in the hallway, yelling at people.

But then the one big thing and she eventually, pleaded guilty to this was a trespassing charge, a criminal trespassing, where she went into the house of a resident who had a recall sign in their yard and in the sentencing, or in the plea, rather, it was she she entered what's called an Alford plea or an Alford plea, which is where you're convinced you're not guilty, but you are not so sure you're going to win.

Actually, when it's, I think the judge, though, said you've got to take responsibility for this.

And in fact, it, offered or ordered, psychological counseling and two years probation on that.

Yeah.

She needs to do that within 30 days of the, court appearance.

Okay.

Policing issues remain top of mind for Cleveland and Akron throughout 2025.

Both cities police departments are working to make their operations more transparent and to regain public trust.

Cleveland's policy changes are the result of a federal consent decree that was implemented a decade ago.

City wants to get out of it.

The federal monitor says.

No, you still need to have some more time.

Andrew Cleveland's been under that consent decree since 2015.

A report from the Federal Monitor just this month was critical of arrest patterns.

If you are black and you're driving, you're three times more likely to be pulled over than if you're white.

I mean, it's still pretty damning about what has not been accomplished.

Now, the monitor did cite improvements in policy and procedure earlier in the year for the department, and certainly the city wants to get out from under the consent decree, the one of the main drivers.

Here's how much it cost tens of millions of dollars each year to go through this process.

But there's still, you know, from what we're seeing from this most recent report from the monitor, there's still issues, serious issues that need to be dealt with.

It started because they found a pattern and practice of unconstitutional policing, not constitutional if you're targeting, certain groups of people.

So that's another one of those issues.

And there's still a number on the list that need to be picked off.

Yeah.

For them to to do that.

And the other hand, nationally, we're hearing from the administration don't really care that much about consent decrees.

So one way or another, Cleveland's time under the consent decree may be coming to an end sooner than expected.

Who knows?

And let's talk about, Cuyahoga County.

The sheriff's downtown safety patrol, now known as the Community Support Unit, faced scrutiny over two fatal chases that killed bystanders.

There was a push, though, then to expand the unit.

So there's been a lot of discussion, Abby, about this downtown safety patrol.

Yeah, but a lot of that is contingent on the budget and the funding.

As we talked about this year, it's particularly tight.

So they recognize that there is a need for that.

But, you know, money constraints.

But the idea, though, that there were these chases and that people lost their lives as a result of it, brought up a lot of criticism.

There is this balance of, do we need this happening in our city?

On the other hand, the city of Cleveland is thankful for the help.

Yeah.

And they say that, you know, there has been council members that have pushed for the city to help pay for it, if the city receives most of the services.

But that's something that's controversial and unclear if that's going to happen.

All right.

Let's talk about the jail.

That's another criminal justice issue.

County is, in progress to build a new jail.

There's been a lot of renderings released.

Michele, where are we at?

Have they have they put a shovel in the ground?

Not quite.

But the construction fencing is up on the site and Garfield Heights and the county hopes to start demolishing the existing buildings there in February.

Now, we know they're in financial crunch, but that doesn't necessarily affect the capital budget for something like this.

Well, well, this would be a situation where there would be bonds issued in order to pay for the project, like, $890 million.

Yeah, I think we're talking about a budget that, yes, is approaching $1 billion.

This is almost a stadium.

I mean, it's getting close anyway.

All right.

In Akron, and and I'm going to ask you about this.

The fatal shooting of Jasmine Tucker in 2024 continued to reverberate in the community, especially after a grand jury did not indict the officer involved.

And just this week, at a council meeting, Jerome McLendon, who goes by 52 keys on social media, sang a pointed Christmas song to city council.

Here it is.

We know that.

And crowds, in dismay is filled with lots of drugs and killings every day.

And the folks we pay to fight the crime are the first to shoot us every time.

And so I'm offering the simple phrase tickets from one and 93 should not have to say anyhow.

Anyway, please don't shoot us.

Please don't shoot us.

Please don't shoot us APD.

Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom.

Wow.

I mean you know I, I started to watch that and I thought oh this is you know this is kind of flippant.

This is and, and as I listen to this guy, the commentary that he made, this is what Akron and a lot of police departments are facing this lack of trust.

It doesn't have to be a consent decree.

This seems to even carry more power than that.

The same sentiment is said every single week in council meetings in Akron.

It's just not always saying, this has been an issue for many, many years in Akron about this distrust, especially among the black community with the police.

And it was elevated again this year when the grand jury did not indict the officer who, shot Jasmine Tucker.

But on top of all that, you also have the police auditor, Anthony Finnell, is continuing to do these, kind of internal investigations looking into use of force incidents.

And time and time again, he's bringing up a concern, that police are using force too.

Too much and too often.

And so things like using he's this is what he, he kind of brings up all the time is using tasers when people are on bicycles, property damage that police are doing while having these pursuits, and head strikes is something that he continues to bring up so that on top of the community's demands, has led to a use of force policy review.

And so the city is undergoing that right now, trying to get their standards up to the national standards when it comes to use of force.

So that's definitely something to come in 2026.

In the meanwhile, there's there's still an investigation on the Tucker shooting.

So it's, the the Bureau of Criminal Investigation has wrapped up their investigation there.

But the police department is doing its internal investigation.

That's basically to see where policies correctly followed.

And then final, Anthony will do his investigation and come out with his report as well.

So again, much to look forward to in 2026.

Okay.

Monday on The Sound of Ideas on 89 seven KSU, we'll rebroadcast law of the land discussions led by host Stephanie Haney on social media laws impacting teen access and prop betting.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thanks for watching.

Happy holidays and stay safe.