Cleveland Heights Mayor Khalil Seren released a video this week denying allegations against his wife that have prompted some residents to call for his resignation.

Cleveland and Cuyahoga County severed ties with the Greater Cleveland Partnership after the chamber backed the Browns move to Brook Park.

And the coming summer crime increase has prompted proactive safety plans for Cleveland and Cuyahoga County.

Ideas is next.

Hello and welcome to IDEAS.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thanks for joining us.

Cleveland Heights Mayor Khalil Ceron.

After residents called for his resignation Asian due to what they called his wife's hostile behavior denied in a social media video this week that his wife made anti-Semitic comments.

The battle over the Browns plan to move out of downtown escalated this week with Cuyahoga County executive Chris Ronayne claiming the team tried to fleece Cuyahoga County taxpayers.

But the region's Chamber of commerce, the Greater Cleveland Partnership, endorsed the Browns Brook Park Dome plan, prompting the county and the city to disconnect from the organization.

There's now a lawsuit challenging the Cleveland Clinic's plan to begin requiring co-pays be made before doctor's visits.

And the arrival of the Memorial Day weekend has placed the focus on safety.

Joining me to discuss this week's top news from Ideastream Public Media, local government reporter Abby Marshall and supervising producer of newscasts Glenn Forbes.

In Columbus, Statehouse news bureau reporter Sarah Donaldson.

Let's get ready to roundtable.

Cleveland Heights Mayor Khalil Sarin posted a 15 minute video on social media Wednesday denying that his wife made anti-Semitic remarks.

This after residents angrily confronted him at Monday night's city council meeting demanding his resignation.

He's been under fire since March.

That's when former Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan resigned as city administrator just three months into his tenure, saying the job was untenable because of a relative of the mayor.

Questions about the actions of the mayor's wife have persisted.

The council will hold a special committee meeting later today in which it will discuss the mayor's comments.

Glenn the text messages as part of an EEOC and equal employment opportunity Commission in Ohio, civil rights complaint filed by a former assistant of the mayors.

Yeah, this assistant, Patrick Cast, again, is accusing Saroyan's wife, Natalie McDaniel, as you mention, of creating a hostile work environment at City Hall.

They've provided some of these text messages.

And interestingly, the mayor says the text messages were altered, but Saroyan does say that his wife did refer to this other city employee as a as a broodmare, which is a female horse kept for breeding.

And according to the complaint, that is like a coded slur, if you will, toward an Orthodox Jew.

That's what the complaint says.

Now, for Saroyan's part in this video, which was not only responding to the accusations against his wife, but also responding to this complaint, really, he said in that exchange, I'm going to I'm going to use the quote here.

His wife used it to reframe the power dynamic and help reduce the negative impact of that experience on me.

I think that's like a tit for tat.

Basically, what the mayor is saying is I was insulted first.

My wife was trying to, you know, reduce that that that pain on me.

And saying, too, that it wasn't an anti-Semitic response.

Right.

Calling her a broodmare was not.

Don't read into it that it's an insult against an Orthodox Jew.

Right.

And he says, you know, we love our Jewish friends and things of that nature.

Also said this was a statement made in private, never intended to be shared, never intended to embarrass this other city employee.

The other thing that was in this video was kind of what cost against attorney is saying a bit of negotiating in public cost against attorney is saying this was kind of a normal, you know, negotiation of a settlement.

Sarah mentioned this $300,000 that cost again, wanted to drop the lawsuit.

He made it sound like a shakedown.

Right.

And what the lawyer was saying is, this is what this is.

This is to settle a lawsuit.

This is part of a negotiation.

This is part of the, you know, trying to settle the complaint.

So a lot of back and forth.

You mentioned Dan here, Dan Horrigan, the former mayor of Akron.

I want to touch on that, too, because he was the third person to resign from that city administrator position in three years.

And, you know, he told the Beacon Journal, this is a wonderful community, great staff.

He says he raised a number of workplace safety and hostile work environment issues that involved a member of the mayor's family.

As you mentioned, Haugen says those were not addressed and it kind of made the administration of my duties untenable.

So this kind of started back in March where we we heard you were hearing rumblings of this.

And it has gone to this point where at noon today they're going to be discussing this in a committee meeting.

In addition to these comments, it's simply the role that the mayor's wife is playing and that she apparently, you know, telling city employees what to do and making these types of comments.

That's, I think, what all of this centers on.

The mayor is saying, listen, we're just being targeted here and in fact, said that they're getting threats because of all of this.

Yeah.

And he said, you know, some of you may not care that we're dealing with this kind of harassment, this abuse.

And then the mayor said, I hope that enough of you can see a path toward more empathy and understanding to, you know, allow us to move forward together and things like that.

So it's like I said, the mayor is saying this is kind of a tit for tat thing.

And while we do have this complaint that's out there that needs to be addressed and a lot of residents unhappy, unhappy with the delay in the response from the mayor, he says this has been a painful experience.

He was more or less trying to get his thoughts together before he came out with something publicly.

The city of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County cut ties this week with the Greater Cleveland Partnership, the region's Chamber of commerce, after it sided with the Browns ownership by endorsing the plan to leave downtown for a new football complex in Brook Park.

Abbey.

City and county leaders have accused GCP the Greater Cleveland Partnership of standing for the ultra wealthy rather than the city's downtown.

Yeah.

Kerri McCormack, who represents Ward three, where Huntington Bank field currently is, said, quote, It is the worst kept secret in town that GCPD leadership is disinterested in the work of revitalizing our region's core.

And he called for a change of leadership.

And I want to note in this in the segment that Dee has them the CEO of the has on sports group is on that executive committee.

It should be noted the vote the vote was by the executive committee, not all of the members of the Greater Cleveland Partnership.

And on that executive committee, you mentioned Dee Haslam.

She recused herself, as did Nick Arledge, who is the Cavaliers president, as did Mr. Dolan, who is in charge of the Cleveland Guardians as well.

So there were people that recused themselves.

But the point being the downtown folks, the people who are supporting the downtown stadium, Chris Ronayne, Justin Bibb, the mayor, they believe that endorsing anything that brings the team outside is a is a challenge to downtown.

Right.

And that has been kind of the drumbeat this entire time with county and city leaders, of course.

And the argument there is that this is a it's not a win win at all.

That's what Ronayne is saying.

He's saying, you know, if you have a new domed stadium that is going to take away from our existing venues that we already have, you have the Huntington Bank or the Huntington Convention Center, you have the rocket arena things like that.

So he's saying it's actually going to create more competition, take money out of downtown and be bad for the region in addition to small businesses.

We've known how their opinions have been for a very long time.

You know, Ronayne saying they should stay downtown and Bibb as well, and the Brown saying this is going to be a benefit to the entire region and in fact, to state officials buying into that by at least so far, looking to approve $600 million in bonds.

But the letter from Chris Ronayne last week was different, and it was after the Browns basically wrote a letter saying, listen, this is why the region is mired in its bad leadership, like your bad leadership.

He came back with some pretty strong words.

Yeah, and this is an example of the escalating tensions that we have seen.

The gloves are kind of coming off.

It has been less nice over the last few months.

It's even gotten litigious in some aspects with the city of Cleveland suing over the art model law to try to raise these obstacles to keep the Browns from leaving.

But Chris Ronan's letter was pretty scathing.

He accused the Browns leadership of being greedy and fleecing Cuyahoga County taxpayers.

And when I spoke to him on Monday, he basically said, you know what, this letter where they said, we will do this with or without the county after the initial ask that he said was about 600 million from the county last year, admits that they didn't need us at all.

And if they don't need us, then fine, we're out.

Don't come asking for us.

Don't come asking money later from us.

But they do need 600 million from the state, Sara.

And that is still in progress.

Yes, they do.

And obviously that's a huge piece in whether this project moves forward as the Browns want it.

You know, the Senate is set to release budget amendments publicly in the first week of June.

So that's when we're going to get the first glimpse as to how the Senate is handling these $600 million in bonds.

Senate President Rob McCauley, he's a Republican.

You know, he was asked about kind of you have these numbers from the legislative Service Commission, which is an objective body that analyzes legislation and proposed projects like this.

And, you know, they said that the numbers that the Browns were presenting were a little rosier than the revenue numbers that they're analyzing.

McCauley said On the flip side that obviously the Browns have professionals behind them.

So, you know, you don't really have a great picture as to what McCauley wants and what the Republicans in the Senate want.

There are Democrats opposed to this.

But, you know, there are some Republicans behind closed doors who are opposed to this as well.

And we know that this is the linchpin here.

This is this is crucial because the owner of the Browns, co-owner of the Browns, Jimmy Haslam, had said we'll know by June 30th, which is the deadline for the budget to be completed.

And even and this was a couple of weeks ago intimated that we'd go to plan B if we don't get that $600 million.

So the state really does hold the decision here in its hands.

Despite the rancor, Ronayne said he's still hopeful that the downtown plan will move forward.

And it seems like momentum is moving to a point where everyone says it's inevitable.

Try to get some money out of them to redo the lakefront.

But he's still holding on to the fact that it could be downtown as a renovated stadium.

Yeah, I think that, of course, again, no one wants to be the one that loses the Cleveland Browns from downtown.

Again, Mayor Bibb has said in the past, you know, we will welcome them if they if they choose to stay.

But he's kind of he said God bless them if they go, he's released a statements saying, you know, my priority is for Cleveland residents.

I'm going to continue to focus on Cleveland.

I do not I don't represent an NFL team.

Of course, Ronayne Brook Park is still in Cuyahoga County, but he he wants to keep the Browns downtown.

And even when I spoke with him on Monday, I asked, this has gotten, you know, less than friendly.

How do you see a partnership going forward if the Browns do choose to say, I don't see that going very well or cordially?

And he didn't really have an answer for that, but I would be interested to see how that plays out should the Browns stay downtown and all of this rhetoric has come out of the Mayor and Cuyahoga County executive.

I'm guessing he won't get an invitation to a suite in Brook Park, perhaps?

Probably not.

The Memorial Day holiday marks the unofficial start of summer, and if history is an indicator, that means a spike in crime is on the horizon.

Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb told reporters this week that the city will target hot spots and would put more police officers on walking patrols.

ABBY The city will again fund programs that have worked in past years.

What are some of those programs?

Yes.

So this will be the third summer of Mayor Justin Bibbs raising investment in safety or called RISE initiative.

And that is basically a leverage of state, local and federal partnerships, which, again, I asked him when when we spoke if some of the tensions with the federal government that he's discussed will affect this.

And he said not as it relates to law enforcement, but basically it's an increased focus on violent crime, on getting guns off the streets, illegal guns off the streets.

And last year, Cleveland saw a 13% reduction in violent crimes as compared to the previous three summers, which he attributes in part to that initiative.

But I want to note that violent crime is down across the country.

How will possible cuts in federal funding grants, those types of things, because a lot of that is volatile.

How would that impact this effort?

So the city increased this neighborhood or they created this neighborhood safety fund in the last few years using federal ARPA, American Rescue Plan Act dollars from President Joe Biden.

That was federal pandemic stimulus relief.

And basically they set up this endowment, this $10 million fund, to give money to grassroots organizations that did violence prevention.

And they have done two runs rounds of that so far.

They've given out $2 billion.

And Bibb told me that they're working.

He's reviewing the third round of applications.

So he told us that he is glad that the city had the foresight to fund that, especially with those federal dollars being cut, because a lot of nonprofits and grassroots organizations rely on that kind of money.

Meanwhile, you need police officers to patrol if you're going to put them out walking, and then you need others that are in cars, etc..

Staffing is still a big challenge in Cleveland.

Yeah, and staffing.

And that has been something that Bibb has really tried to reverse with pay increases, with relaxed policies like officers are allowed to have beards now and tattoos and things like that.

CLEVELAND When we spoke on Monday, Bibb said a sorry police chief, Dorothy Todd, said that they currently have 1238 officers on staff and that includes cadets out of 1350 budgeted.

So they have a, like I said, done pay increases and tried to make Cleveland an attractive place to work.

And a lot of that be contribute to what they say is a change in culture in police in the last decade under the federal consent decree that has aimed to address use of force and kind of the culture of police in Cleveland.

Cuyahoga County has a plan for summer crime as well.

Glenn, what is that?

Yeah, they're going to create a new office, an Office of Violence Prevention.

County Executive Chris Ronayne says, you know, they're taking names right now and the emphasis is on not just enforcement, but opportunity and connection keeping kids busy camps, things of that nature.

And they did relay the statistic that in 2022, Cuyahoga County had the highest rate of gun violence related homicides in the state, more than double Ohio's average.

So city problem, a county problem.

And Ronayne says that we're going to create an office for this.

Now.

And they're looking for the for somebody to fill that position.

Okay.

And then one last thing is it was a safety conference, but you took the initiative to ask the mayor, Abby, about the consent decree, because we see signals from the federal government once again that they're looking at stopping consent decrees that are in place in a number of police departments to to overcome violations of civil rights and to have proper constitutional policing.

What do you say would happen in Cleveland if if that was canceled?

First of all, he wanted to be canceled.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Cleveland is ten years into its consent decree.

It has cost tens of millions of dollars, the city says, and like I said, Bibb and the police chiefs say that the culture has changed and they have made progress on that.

But Bibb has been critical of the consent decree monitor and the federal government for, quote, moving the goalposts.

And he said it's hard to make progress when we don't know where we're supposed to be.

But he expects to be out in 2 to 3 years anyway.

But regardless of what happens on the federal government level, he says that they are committed to upholding the policies.

He's he wants to codify the Office of Police Accountability.

He wants to make permanent a job held by Lee Anderson, who leads that oversight and has really done a lot of work around the consent decree because he says he wants to maintain that culture of police accountability in Cleveland, regardless of what happens in D.C..

The Cleveland Clinic was sued this week over its plan to require payment of co-pays before patients can be seen.

The clinic announced last week that beginning in June, with few exceptions, including emergency room visits, co-pays must be made or the appointments will be canceled.

It's a drawn a lot of backlash, including from Cleveland City Council, which called it a slap in the face of residents.

Abby, City Council, not happy with this, brought executives from the clinic before them for really a tongue lashing.

Yeah.

And it was it's so disappointing that I was not at this caucus meeting because I was speaking to Chris Ronayne about the Browns.

And contrary to popular belief, I cannot be in tries.

But I missed Richard Starr.

Council member Richard Starr wearing his iconic Who's getting fired t shirt.

I love when he wears this thing but he he was among many of the critics.

He said that council had no idea that the clinic was going to do this.

And he said this really should have been a discussion that was had with city leaders and people will note that this email went out with an 18 day notice of this copay change.

They were not thrilled.

They pointed to poverty levels in the neighborhood and saying that people might not seek the care that they need, which might lead to further health problems down the road.

So counterpoint to this is the co-pay is owed.

You have to pay it.

And so, you know, and it's not hundreds of dollars, it's usually 30 or $60, something like that.

So what's the big deal?

Pay your co-pay, right?

I mean, that's kind of what the clinics Chief community officer told city Council that with $70 million in unpaid co-pays in 2024 and a slim 1.7 operating margin, they they said, you know, we're a business.

We do need this money to continue to operate.

$70 million in unpaid co-pays is not a small amount.

Right.

The point that the council members are making and other critics know is that if you require it upfront, you're basically blocking access to health care.

And in fact, people might.

I think this is the point maybe Richard Starr made, which was they think it's all about the money, that you don't really care about their health.

You just care about let's get that money on the books.

And so they're less likely to trust the medical care that they're giving.

Right.

And that has been a criticism of the Cleveland Clinic.

And when you look at some of the statistics that the United Way of Greater Cleveland says that 43% of Cuyahoga County households were struggling with cost of living.

And we do know that Cleveland is among the poorest in the nation.

So at that does make that barrier to health care access even more for some people that just maybe might not seek medical care.

Yeah, So now we mentioned that there's a lawsuit.

Cassandra McDonald has filed.

What she's essentially asking is that it it get thrown out that they don't that they don't do this co-pay requirement.

Yeah and she said that this change is a violation of Ohio public policy and discriminatory practices because the state policy does favor equitable access to health care and prohibits discriminatory discriminatory practices that disproportionately affect the low income residents.

Like I said, in Cuyahoga County, where you have a lot of households that are struggling with poverty.

State Senator Andrew Brenner wants the spirit of Senate Bill one, which bans most diversity, equity and inclusion programs on college campuses to apply to elementary, middle and high schools to He said, I harm students of color and is a modern form of racial discrimination.

And he wants there to be the same legislation that applies to grade schools.

Did he modeled this after SB one?

Yeah, it's my understanding that he did.

And I'm going to throw another number at you because there is a companion bill in the House.

House Bill 155.

So obviously, this is an idea that's caught on between both House lawmakers and Senator Andrew Brenner.

And it is it just extends the provisions of Senate Bill one down through that K through 12 level.

And there is an argument that the if we're trying to do diversity, equity and inclusion, somehow that that excludes Christian groups.

That's one of the arguments.

Yeah, that's what the proponents are saying.

They say that it can be, in their opinion, discriminatory toward like faith based programs, alternative programs, except more students in accept all students in.

You know, this is obviously DTI diversity equity and inclusion has become a big buzzword at the state House as well as at the federal level.

And these bills, both in the House and the Senate, are already being pursued by the federal government as well.

The Trump administration has also wanted to ban these diversity equity and inclusion programs at the K-through-12 level.

So it's, you know kind of the state house mimicking the Trump administration or back and forth.

It's kind of a chicken or an egg thing.

All right.

Let's talk about one other state House issue that we had today.

I think on the website.

I had heard it on our air this morning as well, A provision tucked into the governor and the House's version of the budget would impact public school buildings, forced districts to sell property.

So tell me about the back story on that.

Yeah, So my understanding, based on my colleague Joe Ingles reporting, is that there's this provision in the budget right now.

If a public school closes one of its buildings, it's required under state law to sell that building or at least offer that building to a charter school or a private school at market value or slightly below it.

This provision would require schools under 60% capacity.

The state would close them, and then those buildings would be sold off to private schools or charter schools at below market value.

So it's kind of extending what's already in state law, giving it a little more clause.

But you've got public schools who are especially large public schools, who are concerned about that 60% requirement.

The governor, though, is saying this is necessary because even though it's the law that they've got to sell these things somehow, there's a conspiracy afoot where public school systems are not selling them because they don't want the competition.

Yeah, I think it goes back to you know, there is obviously a consistent back and forth right now at the state house between public schools and lawmakers and the governor, you know, the governor and legislative leaders have been supportive of private and charter schools and alternative schooling options.

And I think public schools sometimes say that they feel a little bit left out of the equation.

And so in this situation, specifically, you know, public schools are telling us and have told Joe that, you know, there are reasons for why a building be under that 60% capacity, you know, programs for special needs kids, programs for different like technical things.

They need more space for students to do work that they wouldn't be able to fill the school to above 60% capacity.

So it's not a bunch of schools, they say, that are way under capacity and they're just keeping them open to like, make sure that a private or charter school doesn't come in.

perhaps my favorite event of the year, the Scripps National Spelling Bee, kicks off Tuesday on the TV network Ion.

It's now a three day event with the finals on Thursday night.

just in time for that, the spelling bee, which I know you'll know all the words to, is the Google Trends release of words that we can't spell we mere mortals have no idea how to spell, and I use some of them at the beginning of this thing today.

Definitely.

That's a word the number one word people apparently have trouble spelling.

I see that as I see that written as defiantly far too often and I sometimes see it as definitely like in eighth grade stuff and they defiantly separate.

Now that's another one.

Is there an E in there before the last one?

Is it separate or separate?

All right.

Anyway, those good, you got it.

Sarah.

Now I need to ask you guys, this is apparently they did it by state to Illinois has trouble with congratulations.

I think they do it Like what?

Like graduation with a D?

We get to Ohio, and I said, stick to your knitting because apparently we can't spell the word crochet.

cr0 please get this t h e t Yes, right there you look.

Media comes through.

So there you go.

There's our spelling bee for today, everyone.

Crocheting was the big word, crochet.

Monday, the sound of ideas is off for the Memorial Day holiday at 9 a.m. on 80 97w KSU Enjoy a special focusing on mental health and military service.

At 9 p.m., another special looking at the evolving role of women in combat and efforts to boost recruitment and retention.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you so much for watching.

Have a great holiday weekend and stay safe.