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By Kathy Wray Coleman, Associate Publisher, Editor, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com
CLEVELAND, Ohio- The public is invited to speak today, Sept. 18 at the regular meeting of the Cleveland NAACP, which will be held from 6pm to 8pm at the church of Bishop E. F. Perry, The Cathedral Church of God in Christ, 2940 Martin Luther King Drive in Cleveland.
Last Updated on Wednesday, 26 September 2012 21:58
By Johnette Jernigan and Kathy Wray Coleman, Cleveland Urban News.Com (www.clevelandurbannews.com
)
Cleveland, Ohio-Organized by The Imperial Coalition, a group of over 20 Cleveland area grassroots organizations, a debate was recently held at Lil Africa on the proposed 15 mill tax levy for the Cleveland Municipal School District, which is on the November 6 ballot.
At the recently held debate, leaders of the activist groups putting on the event, including The Imperial Women Coalition, voted 29 to 12 against the levy.
Click On This Link To Read The Sept. 2 Cleveland Plain Dealer Article That Discusses The Vote Against The Schools Levy By The Imperial Women Coalition At The Recent DebateDebating for the levy was Cleveland Ward 8 Councilman Jeff Johnson (pictured in gold tie), and against it were Cleveland 2013 Mayoral Candidate and Community Activist Donna Brown (pictured in white blouse), and Kimberly Brown (pictured in grey suit jacket), a social worker, author and community advocate.
State Rep. Bill Patmon (D-10) )(pictured in red tie) served as the moderator while Frances Caldwell (volunteer director of the African American History Museum , a Ward 8 precinct committee member, and member of the Imperial Women), Debbie Kline (executive director of Cleveland Jobs With Justice and a member of the Imperial Women), Roz McAllister (running for Ward 12 council seat, leads Ohio Family rights, and is a member of the Imperial Women) and Dr. Eugene Jordan (local dentist, member of the grassroots organization The Underground Railroad, and 2nd vice president of the Cleveland NAACP) were the debate panelists.
Among grassroots factions and other community affiliates in attendance were councilpersons Zach Reed (Ward 2), T.J. Dow (Ward 7), Kevin Conwell (Ward 9) and Mamie Mitchell (Ward 6), all of whom spoke at the community gathering.
State Rep. John Barnes Jr. (D-12), a Cleveland Democrat, was also there.
Former Cleveland School Board Member Genevieve Mitchell outlined the struggle of Black students in Cleveland schools from desegregation to mayoral control and Community Activist Ernest Smith, who leads the oppressed People's Nation, spoke of the plight of Black boys and teens in a racist society that routinely stigmatizes them.
If the tax levy passes it would cost the owner of a $64,000 home $294 a year, and would be applicable for the next four years with voters them getting a chance to decide whether to renew it. It would generate $65 million in revenue for Cleveland schools, a hefty sum by most standards.
Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and schools CEO Eric Gordon were not in attendance, though both were invited to debate on the controversial issue of public concern.
Some of the grassroots organizations represented at the debate were The People’s Forum, The Imperial Women, Peace in the Hood, Black on Black Crime, The Oppressed People’s Nation, The Cleveland African-American Museum, The Northeast Ohio Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, Ohio Family Rights, People for Parental Equality, Cleveland Jobs With Justice, Stop Targeting Ohio’s Poor, The Joaquin Hicks Real People’s Movement, The Carl Stokes Brigade, Organize Ohio, The Underground Railroad, The Movement and the Save John Marshall Campaign. (Editor's Note: Neither the Imperial Women nor the Imperial Women Coalition has endorsed Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson's education plan as falsely reported in an article last week in the Call and Post Newspaper. Community activists, however, still support the Call and Post, Ohio's Black press).
Kimberly Brown’s stance on the levy is that the Ohio State Legislature must find a way to properly fund schools and that the levy is an attack on Cleveland homeowners. She argues that levies do not guarantee a return on the investment and that there has to be transparency of how the funds are spent.
“At this point, I must say no," said Kimberly Brown, who is of no relation to Donna Walker Brown.
Donna Walker Brown vehemently argued that money has been misappropriated and that the Cleveland Board of Education, appointed by Mayor Jackson under a state law that gives the city mayor control of the largely Black school district, should be elected as it once was.
Councilman Johnson, a licensed attorney and former Ohio state senator argued that the state legislature’s unconstitutional school funding formula, which the Ohio Supreme Court has deemed unconstitutional on three occasions since 1992 pursuant to the case of DeRolph vs. State of Ohio, should be fixed.
But Johnson said that kids must come first and that as long as property taxes are the vehicle for educating Cleveland children, he supports it.
“I support the levy," said Johnson.
During intermission at the debate activists called for the Ohio State Legislature to be held in contempt of its order to fix its unconstitutional funding formula and Rep. Patmon said that he would introduce a bill seeking its revision to help poor kids in Ohio get their fare share.
Also on hand were a group of activists led by Santinder P. S. Puri, who has lodged a crusade to keep John Marshall High School, a west side school, open, though a new high school is currently under construction.
Whitney Young High School student Xavier Thomas-Hughes asked who came up with the decision to seek a schools levy that is '$15 million' and Johnson explained that the 15-mill figure does not mean $15 million.
Donna Walker Brown stated that another reason that she opposes the levy is because she believes that there is no accountability. She said that it's nothing more than “the same crooks, and a different levy.”
Donna Walker Brown urged Cleveland voters to be aware of House Bill 269, the state law that handed control of Cleveland schools to the mayor, and took effect in 1998 when then Federal District Court Judge George White, who has since died, released the State of Ohio and the school district from the desegregation court order.
Such release came about after Judge White granted unitary status to the state and the school district, and ruled that the disparities between Black students and their White counterparts are due to socioeconomic factors, and not because the vestiges of racial discrimination had not been remedied to the extent practicable as required by the desegregation court order.
And she said that district parents are denied entrance to the schools to see about their children if they have a felony record, a gesture that she says contributes to the ongoing disrespect of Black parents by school officials and the mayor.
Kimberly Brown stated that “we are in a $125 million deficit.”
She believes that the mayor’s educational transformation plan, that needs passage of the levy to be fully implemented, is no plan of substance, and she demands that the mayor “show us where the money is going.”
Johnson, a Mayor Jackson loyalist, said that the levy is the right thing for Cleveland schools.
Art McCoy of Black on Black Crime and Denise Taylor of The Imperial Women, Black on Black Crime, and the New Black Panther Party presented Criminal Defense Attorney Edele Passalacqua with the Grassroots Outstanding Attorney Award for her tireless work on the Joaquin Hicks case.
A Cuyahoga County common pleas jury convicted Hicks of setting up the robbery that led a teen, tried as an adult and now serving a long prison term with three other Black men, to murder, execution style, two White Cleveland Clinic employees who were reportedly trying to buy marijuana in outside of a downtown Cleveland night club.
He was sentenced to serve 61 years in prison, but, due to the tireless efforts of Attorney Passalacqua, and his appellate attorneys, the case was overturned earlier this year by the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals, that ruled that the negligence and prejudice by Common Pleas Judge Daniel Gaul tainted the jury’s outcome.
Hicks was ultimately set free by a judge that replaced Gaul after Passalacqua entered the judicial race against him as a Republican contender this year for a seat on the common pleas bench.
Community activist Willie Stokes received “The Hidden Warrior Award” for his activism around the Imperial Ave. Murders and his support of causes to empower women and the Black community.
Reach Cleveland Urban News.Com by telephone at 216-659-0473 and by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com.
Last Updated on Wednesday, 26 September 2012 22:01
By Johnette Jernigan
The Greater Cleveland Sports Commission kicked off The Second Annual Cleveland Classic football game on Sept. 15 at Cleveland Browns Stadium with Winston-Salem State University Rams defeating Morehouse College Maroon Tigers 55 to 21.
The Cleveland Classic highlights historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU), some 80 of which exist in the United States.
The halftime show featured the marching bands from Morehouse College and Winston-Salem University, and Shaw High School, under the direction DeVon Wilson that stole the show.
Last Updated on Wednesday, 03 October 2012 04:15
By Kathy Wray Coleman, Associate Publisher, Editor, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com
CLEVELAND, Ohio- Barry A Withers (pictured), the director of public utilities for the City of Cleveland since 2010 and a top administrator under former Cleveland Mayor Michael R. White, has lost his wife.
City officials and other city employees received an email today that states that Withers' wife had died.
A city employee speaking under condition of anonymity said that Dianne G Withers, 61, had suffered a long illness.
And in Withers' absence Northeast Ohio residents that the Cleveland Water Department serves and the employees of the embattled department, have said that the department is in disarray, and has been for sometime.
Community activists, whom Cleveland Mayoral Candidate Donna Walker Brown led in a picket of City Hall last week over efforts by city officials to ditch First Energy for another company that supplies electricity and is expected to charge Cleveland residents 42 percent more annually, say that they have had enough. Click Here To Read The Plain Dealer Article On Walker Brown's Protest
Coleman said that Withers usually runs a tight ship and that it might be his subordinates that are the problem, but that a clear problem exists.
"Our condolences to Mr. Withers and his family for the loss of his wife but we are planning a picket which has been delayed because of this unfortunate incident," said Kathy Wray Coleman, leader of the Imperial Women Coalition. "Our research reveals that the Cleveland Water Department is in complete disarray, that poor people, community activists and Blacks are being harassed over water issues and denied water for political reasons and due to greed and corruption, and that city officials are violating state and federal law through excessive water bill charges and other illegal activity to the detriment of residents of Northeast Ohio."
Coleman said that "even Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine is tired of the malfeasance and complaints to his office and said that he would sue the City of Cleveland for its water bill discrepancies if he "had jurisdiction."
Coleman said that when she called customer service at the water department to investigate community concerns she was told so what, that the telephone call was being taped without her permission or prior notice, and to "picket us."
Complaints from homeowners and tenants include the following:
-Billing customers as much as $800 in excess of the actual usage bill and then allegedly harassing them by phone, only to reduce the bill days later, often in instances where the mayor's office gets a phone call.
-Colluding with mortgage companies like Chase Home Finance Mortgage Company and illegally cutting off homeowners water in retaliation for litigation between the mortgage company and homeowner, and telling them that they cannot pay their water bills and must consult Chase (Editor's note: Chase Home Finance is also using some of the 34 judges of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, such as Judge John O'Donnell, to steal people's homes by using ghost mortgage companies that don't exist to foreclose and then having Cuyahoga County Sheriff Bob Reed to reduce the home value by up to 80 percent to hand foreclosed homes back to mortage companies that buy them at a fraction of the price. An example is a home that is appraised by the county for some $125,000 for purposes of property taxes and then Chase buys it back at a foreclosure sheriff's sale for under $40,000 after Reid's appraisers reduce the value with the sanctioning of Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald and the 11 member Cuyahoga County Council).
-Denying tenants water to their homes and apartments that have a constitutional and statutory right to water services, in violation both federal and state law
-Using the water department to harass people that Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson disagrees with on political matters such as the Cleveland schools 15 mills property tax levy that is on the November ballot by denying them water illegally.
-Charging customers a monthly bill of some $80 for water when the water is turned off in what community activists say is theft.
-Hanging up abruptly on customers, refusing to discuss excess charges, being constantly rude, and disrespecting Black and elderly people in a religious fashion.
-Refusing to permit mistreated customers to speak with a supervisor
Coleman said community activists want to meet with Withers when he returns to work and have requested that anybody with a complaint about public utilities services spearheaded by the City of Cleveland call the Imperial Women at 216-712-2641. She said that activists are still organizing around the issue and will apprise the community in the near future of the date of the picket, which will likely occur at City Hall but might involve pickets at the homes of select city officials that are allegedly harassing people for Mayor Jackson and his cronies.
Reach Cleveland Urban News.Com by telephone at 216-659-0473 and by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com.
Last Updated on Saturday, 15 September 2012 13:37
By Kathy Wray Coleman, Associate Publisher, Editor, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com
CLEVELAND, Ohio- Famed television and radio personality and community activist Tavis Smiley (pictured), and Dr. Cornell West (pictured in glasses), one of America's most noted scholars and authors on Black issues, will hold a poverty tour suggestion today, Sept. 12, 2012 from 5 to 7 pm at Cuyahoga Community College Eastern Campus in Highland Hills, Oh., a suburb of Cleveland.
Smiley and West are targeting key battleground states for the November 6 presidential election to emphasize the extent that the poor community has been disenfranchised by Republican Part agendas designed to silence the Democratic vote.
In addition to Ohio, the states for the tour are Pennsylvania, Virginia and Florida.
The event is free and open to the public and a press release to Cleveland Urban News.Com reveals the following
Cleveland, Ohio
Cuyahoga Community College
Eastern Campus | Performing Arts Center | Liberal Arts Building
4250 Richmond Road, Highland Hills, Ohio
Admission: Free and open to the public
5 pm – 7 pm
Space is limited, please arrive early. Doors open at 4 pm
Reach Cleveland Urban News.Com by telephone at 216-659-0473 and by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com.
Last Updated on Wednesday, 12 September 2012 19:52
