Updated: Oct. 18, 2021, 6:15 p.m. | Published: Oct. 18, 2021, 6:12 p.m.

By Robin Goist, cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio – While outgoing Mayor Frank Jackson’s plan for spending $121 million of the city’s stimulus windfall makes its way through City Council committees, council members are simultaneously formulating their own spending plan, and it’s unclear how the plans will be reconciled.

Council on Monday held its second special meeting to discuss members’ ideas for spending the American Rescue Plan money. The working group is expected to produce its spending plan by Nov. 1.

Meanwhile, the mayor’s plan continues to wind through committees. The plan’s public safety expenses – totaling about $26 million – were detailed in council’s Safety Committee on Wednesday. They called for $10.2 million for the police department, including vehicles and equipment for “social unrest,” which generated concern from council members and the public.

Councilman Kerry McCormack, who has led the process of council developing its own spending plan to the chagrin of Council President and mayoral candidate Kevin Kelley, asked Monday why the mayor’s plan is moving through committees before council has completed its process of developing priorities.

“In the beginning, the idea around this process was to establish council’s priorities and then to reconcile them with the plan that the mayor put forth,” McCormack said. “Is the plan, in parallel with this process, to continue to move the mayor’s proposal through council committees? Or is the plan to wait for our Nov. 1 deadline, to then continue to figure out what we share in common with the mayor’s administration, and then move forward?”

Kelley said it’s important for council to consider some shared priorities sooner rather than later. If the city decides to purchase new ambulances, for instance, it could take upwards of a year to receive them, so it’s prudent to move forward with those expenses expeditiously.

“If there are those items that are of common agreement, we’re going to move on two tracks,” Kelley said.

McCormack asked whether there will be any action on the mayor’s $122 million omnibus legislation before council’s Nov. 1 deadline to develop a separate spending plan.

Kelley replied: “If there’s legislation that goes through three committees, it gets the vote of council, it’s assumed that it is therefore a priority of council. And I’m not going to ask that everything be halted until this [council spending plan] is put forward.”

McCormack again asked to clarify whether council will have “real space to make amendments” to the mayor’s spending plan before it is passed. Kelley said, “Yes.”

Throughout the two-hour committee meeting, council members reviewed a spreadsheet listing spending priorities, but the document was about two months old and contained several errors. For instance, it listed the amount earmarked for revenue recovery as $80 million, but Jackson’s Finance Department has since revised that to be about $110 million.

About half an hour into the meeting, Kelley left, saying his daughter is going back to school and it was his last opportunity to see her off. Councilman Blaine Griffin took over as chair.

Council members suggested nonprofits or programs they would like to fund. Councilman Charles Slife said he would like to see money go toward Senior Transportation Connection; Councilman Mike Polensek suggested Youth Opportunities Unlimited or other summer youth jobs; Councilwoman Jasmin Santana said many residents struggle with language barriers to access city services, so she asked whether the city could create a new organization to address that.

McCormack mentioned the $17.5 million request from the Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition, saying the investment is “the least we can do” to address the health of the city’s babies and children.

Although council members had previously supported the request, and were even in favor of increasing that dollar amount, Councilman Kevin Conwell was critical Monday.

“I would never give someone $17.5 million up front,” Conwell said. “You would get it in increments – for example, $5 million. If you hit your goals and objectives this year or that time, then you come back and you show us an evaluation, then you get another $5 million. I can’t tie $17.5 million up in one big hit. You have to give them incentives to hit their outcomes.”

McCormack said he appreciated that Conwell is “Mr. Results,” but added that the coalition could unlock additional private-sector dollars by obtaining public investment.

“I’m open to the conversation, for sure, I just want to make sure that we, as a council, from a policy perspective, say with our money… that our babies and children who are poisoned by lead are a priority,” McCormack said.

Last month, Conwell was among a majority of council members who voted in favor of an ambiguous $20 million plan to expand broadband in the city, which did not include any accountability measures.

In a tweet, the Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition thanked McCormack and Councilwoman Jenny Spencer for their support.

“Lead poisoning prevention has consistently been elevated as a top need in #CLE,” the organization wrote. “ARPA Treasury guidance specifically lists lead remediation as an eligible use. Our $17.5 million request is ‘shovel-ready’ & would be spent in every ward.”

Ahead of council’s next special meeting next week, Spencer asked for the documents to be updated and for council staff to provide information about the landscape of stimulus funds, including county expenditures and funding for utility assistance.