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Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson names Reverend Grady Stephenson interim director of the city's Community Relations Board to replace now Ward 6 Councilman Blaine Griffin, and Stephenson rallied against violence against women

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Ohio's most read digital Black newspapers. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email:

 

editor@clevelandurbannews.com



By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief

 

CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM- Cleveland, Ohio- Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson has named the Rev. Grady Stephenson, pastor of Damascus Road Ministries in Cleveland, as interim director of the city's Community Relations Board to replace Blaine Griffin, who was appointed last week to city council in Ward 6 to replace the retiring Mamie Mitchell.

 

Griffin had held the job since 2006 and took a $25,000 pay cut from his $105,000 a-year salary to join the 17-member largely White Cleveland City Council.

 

A request for comment of Stephenson's exact salary was met with opposition by the human resource department, a ranking employee there saying 'do a public records request,' and then rudely transferring the phone call to an operator.

 

A married father of young children who leads the Damacus Road Ministries Church of God and Christ at 99th and Harvard Avenue on the largely Black city's majority Black east side, Stephenson is also a community activist who has rallied with local Black clergy against neighborhood violence, including violence against Black women.

 

He was formerly the project coordinator for the faith-based youth outreach crisis intervention venue for the city.

 

Neither Stephenson nor mayoral spokesman Dan Williams could be reached for comment.

 

Cleveland Ward 2 Councilman Zack Reed would not comment pro or con on the appointment of Stephenson, saying only that he is Griffin's "right hand man."

 

"I have no comment," said Reed, who is currently a in a political brawl with the three-term Mayor Jackson as he fights to seek to unseat him in this year's mayoral election, among a crowded field of a host of other possible mayoral candidates, including Ward 10 Councilman Jeff Johnson, and former East Cleveland mayor Eric Brewer.

 

" He [Mayor Jackson] can appoint whoever he wants too," said a perturbed Reed.

 

Ohio's most read digital Black newspapers. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com


Last Updated on Friday, 26 May 2017 22:51

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