Our fruit trees have started to bloom at 3654 Shannon Rd.

All are welcome.

From a reader:

I just spoke with the service director in University Heights. I asked him if there would be a special garbage pickup in on Friday. He said there was.

He stressed that this applies to food garbage only, no swing sets or anything like that.  It should be put on the tree lawn before 12 noon on Friday.

We are pleased to announce that Rabbi Akiva Feinstein has been named Menorah Park Director of Spiritual Living, following in the footsteps of our beloved Rabbi Howard Kutner, of blessed
memory. Rabbi Feinstein, since joining Montefiore in 2005, as Director of Spiritual Care and Hospice Chaplain, has already had an important role in our campus, working collaboratively with
Menorah Park’s excellent spiritual living staff for many years now.

In his new role he will ensure that we as an organization continue to be a home for every member of the Jewish community, making each and every person feel welcome and for Menorah Park to be a place where everyone can gather, pray, and learn together guided by our rich Jewish traditions. Rabbi Feinstein will maintain his established office location at Montefiore and in serving our
growing hospice program, but will expand his role to include leading and developing our already outstanding spiritual living activities across the expanded campus. This includes one of his most
important missions which is to serve as an ambassador to Cleveland’s synagogues, organizations, and other places of worship, helping to make a bridge between our campus and the robust
community around us.

Our expanded Spiritual Living Department enjoys an excellent staff of trained professional chaplains and mashgiachs (kosher supervising rabbis), including Menorah Park Associate Director of Spiritual Living, Rabbi Joseph Kirsch, Hospice Chaplains, Rabbi AJ Kushner, and Chaplain Ann Smith, as well as Rabbi Ezra Brody, Cantor Gary Paller, and Rabbi Yossi Nisenbaum. Rabbi Dov Fishbane is our full time Kosher Supervisor.

Update From Agudah. Rabbi Yitz Frank from Agudath Israel.

YOU can help us achieve the goals we have laid out in the video message above.

In numbers there is strength, and every person associated with the Agudah makes our voice and work for Klal Yisroel that much more effective.

For this reason I would like to ask you to have every one of your family members registered in Agudath Israel’s Nationwide Machatzis HaShekel Campaign to be counted, by name, as a constituent of the Agudah.

In a time when it’s harder than ever to make sure that the voice of the Orthodox community is heard, please help us maintain our strength in numbers by registering every family member to be counted as echod min haminuyim. Have them join the ranks, and bring up our numbers, so Agudath Israel can continue to fight for the rights of “Reb Yisroel and Klal Yisroel.”

Please visit www.theagudah.org to register your family members in this special campaign.

In the “MEMBER ID” area please put in the word OHIO so that we can have specific count to impact our Ohio advocacy efforts.

Please sign up to strengthen our voice!

Many thanks and all good wishes,

Rabbi Yitz Frank
Executive Director, Agudath Israel of Ohio

Mindi Garfunkel saw all of the litter piling up as the snow in her Cleveland Heights neighborhood began to melt, so she recruited some young people who live near her and they got to work.

Originally reported at news5cleveland.com.

Naaleh congratulates Momo, Bentzy, Shmuel, Chachi, and Mr. Neil Vaiselberg, who under the leadership of Rabbi Nosson Kielski, ran in the A1A Fort Lauderdale, Florida Marathon this week. These teens trained for over 4 months, while raising awareness for those struggling with substance use and mental health concerns. The commitment and dedication that went into this marathon was in honor of our dear friends, Yoni and Danny Vaiselberg, two young Read more and view pics

The city’s Planning Commission has approved the site plan for South Taylor Place, a 30-townhome development planned for the Cedar-Taylor district.

City Council will vote Tuesday (Feb. 16) on approval of the plan, which would result in the construction of luxury townhomes expected to sell in the $350,000 to $400,000 range.

Full article at Cleveland.com

Former Ohio state Treasurer Josh Mandel on Wednesday became the first Republican to jump into the state’s open Senate race to replace retiring Sen. Rob Portman.

Mandel, a 43-year-old Marine veteran, is making his third run for Senate after losing the 2012 race to Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and a 2018 campaign that he cut short because of family health concerns. He enters the race with statewide experience and more than $4 million left over in his federal campaign account.

Excerpt from Politico.com

Join the global initiative to bring unity to Klal Yisroel! Visit cchfshalom.org/cleveland to register or to create a team.

What do I get when I join? A 4-week journey to Shalom— in all your relationships. Every morning, you’ll get an email or whatsapp with a 2 minute video or thought & a quick action step you can take to better relationships.

You’ll learn things like:

• How to appreciate someone else’s opinion even when they are wrong
• 4 mindset changes that will help you stay strong and move on … even when somebody really hurts you
• What is a Shalom Account and how you can use it to bounce out of conflict
• The most powerful piece everybody misses when they apologize
• And much, much more…

New Benny Friedman and Joey Newcomb video promoting the Challenge.

DeWine announced Monday that his state budget plan will include his “Hands-Free Ohio” plan, which would allow law enforcement to pull over motorists solely for handling a cell phone or other handheld device.

From Cleveland.com

From Cleveland Jewish News

The expansion and renovation will touch nearly every facet of the building, Bookatz said, from the foyer to the morgue, with several amenities added, most notably a mikvah, or ritual bath, that will be used solely for the performance of taharah, the ritual bathing of the deceased. A mechanical lift will be installed to allow for transfer. Typically, that function is handled through the use of buckets of water.

AMIT Children concluded the calendar year in record fashion – raising almost thirteen million dollars to help educate AMIT’s 41,000 children in 104 schools across Israel.

“This year presented unique challenges on every level and I am so very proud of what
AMIT collectively was able to accomplish,’ said Audrey Axelrod Trachtman, AMIT’s president, “We exceeded our pre-COVID annual campaign goal because our partners around the world are so committed to our students who they view as their own children.”

When COVID hit Israel’s schools last March AMIT staff nimbly shifted to remote learning while ensuring that every child had what they needed to continue their education as
effectively as possible. In many cases, that meant providing a computer, internet access and, for the most at-risk, a range of vital support services including counseling. “COVID presented many challenges to our students but we found that our principals, teachers and students worked together as a team to meet obstacles head on and found creative ways to overcome them,” said Joyce Straus, AMIT’s Board of Directors co-chair, “In some cases it even meant providing nutritional support to those feeling the impact of the COVID induced economic crisis.”

AMIT charted out a plan for every student in the network individualized to meet their
needs. “1:1 attention is one of the great strengths of our network,” said Sharon Merkin board co-Chair. “Every child has an individualized plan to help see them through this crisis. That culture, along with AMIT’s revolutionary Gogya teaching methodology, enabled us to hold our students close virtually throughout the pandemic.”

Broad donor support helped AMIT to send an extra million dollars to help cover COVID
induced expenses. “When the crisis hit, we knew we needed to respond immediately. I’m thrilled that our supporters on every level were so responsive even when facing challenges here,” said vice-president Shari Safra, “They gave our staff in Israel the ability to respond immediately and put our students’ needs first.”

Helping meet a national challenge is nothing new to AMIT – in its 96-year history AMIT
has evolved to become an integral part of the fabric of Israeli society with over 320,000 alumni across the Jewish state. AMIT enables Israel’s youth to realize their potential and strengthens Israeli society by educating and nurturing children from diverse backgrounds within a framework of academic excellence, Jewish values and Zionist ideals.

Last November Cleveland Heights voted to change its form of government to elect its own Mayor and next November it will. Isn’t that easy? With me so far? Any questions? What if I told you that beginning January 1, Mayor Jason Stein of Cleveland Heights will no longer be Mayor? Let me guess. Now you are full of questions. Let me start over.

Currently, Cleveland Heights has what is known as a Council-Manager form of government. That means that the people elect a council that hires a manager to run all the departments from Police to Refuse Collection and Recreation. It also means that the City Manager answers to Council and not the people. There are some advantages to this form of government, but it’s most successful in younger cities where infrastructure is newer and less problematic. The older and bigger the city, the less it works as well. This is because the Manager has to report to a majority of the council. No one person, then is really in charge and without consensus, nothing can move forward.

Also, since the Manager’s job is tied to the pleasure of Council, when something needs to be done, if the Council has no appetite, job security encourages the manager to hide unpleasantries until they grow too big. An example you might recall was the big jump in the Cleveland Heights water bill. It had been leaking for a long time, but the leaks grew too big to repair easily over time as they went ignored while the City Manager ignored it, failing to bring it to Council’s attention. By the time Council became aware of it, the only remaining options were bad, worse and even worse than that. It was a system failure as well as a personal one. That City Manager was there a full 25 years before Council ended his term. Only a quorum of Council can fire a City Manager. He was never answerable to the people.

In November of 2019, we voted to change to a form of government that effectively has two branches instead of the one. That change will be effective when Cleveland Heights swears in its first Mayor in January of 2022 following his or her election in November of this year. Following the amendment, Council retains the legislative and budgetary powers, but the Mayor will be the Chief Executive. This form of government is commonly called the Strong Mayor form.

Not wanting to give up the idea of having a professional run the departments, the new amendment calls for the Mayor to appoint a City Administrator who will answer to him while maintaining the professional standards that a City Manager would have brought. In cities like Shaker Heights, the City Administrator will remain in that position, assuming he’s good, through many mayoral administrations, but since he will serve at the pleasure of the mayor, a new mayor could certainly make a change any time.

Called the best of both worlds, Cleveland Heights voted for the leadership a Mayor can bring to problem solving and development while maintaining professional standards at the highest level of management. Further, this mayor is directly elected by the people and so the executive function of the city now answers directly to the people. Therefore, it would be more accurately called a Hybrid Strong Mayor.

So is Jason Stein Mayor now or isn’t he? Well that’s a sleight of tongue. In a Council Manager form of government, the council of seven would elevate one member to be their chosen leader, technically Council President. Since the 1980s and in response to the fact that all our neighbors had mayors, it was decided to also use the title Mayor to refer to the council president even though under the City Charter, he lacked the powers that most mayors have as those belonged solely to the City Manager. This Council President/Mayor ran the meetings. The City Manager ran the city and its departments. So when Jason Stein was sworn in as Mayor in January of 2020, he was really President of Council and allowed, under the newly passed amendment, to use the title of Mayor only until January of 2021 when that title is stripped from the city altogether for the year. Stein will remain Council President until the end of the term in January 2022. The only change until then is the loss of the title of Mayor.

There were two reasons the crafters of the amendment (Issue 26) made that in name-only change. One was to prevent anyone from being able to run for the first mayor of Cleveland Heights by “seeking re-election”. No one is an incumbent to the newly created position of Mayor, and the goal was to keep the playing field level so no individual could claim that leg up. The second goes to answer the question “Is it just that easy?” By removing the mirage of power implied by the title of Mayor from someone who didn’t have it anyway, council will be forced to begin thinking of themselves in their new role and in regard to the new relationship they will have with the city functioning. It’s the first step in the transition to this new form of government, but there’s more to be done.

Citizens for an Elected Mayor didn’t scurry away after the 2019 victory. They formed a Transition Subcommittee to assist the city in working to see that transition happen as smoothly as possible. They provided council with suggestions of a timetable for when setting the salary for Mayor should occur to give those considering a run time to prepare; which they did. In addition, there are many laws on the books at the statutory level that refer to governmental proceedings under the old form. They will need to be updated to apply to the new form. This is a process that will take time and has already begun. Additionally, the Transition Subcommittee suggested a “guide book” that is currently being drafted including time tables, costs, who answers to whom in each department; a veritable “How the City Runs” to give to the Mayor-Elect. It was also suggested that our city would benefit from learning from other cities of similar size that have made the transition. What went right? What can we do better? What glitches to expect and plan for. Further, there is the education piece. That goes both ways. The citizens need to know what to expect in a Mayor and the Mayoral candidates need to know what the citizens expect and are looking for.

To that end, CEM, and a team that included Councilwoman Melody Hart and some individuals also active with Future Heights held an online forum with mayors from South Euclid, University Heights and Warrensville Heights to talk about their experiences, what works and what doesn’t, and their relationship to their Councils as well as reflections on their first day in office. It’s an excellent lesson in government from lively and informative speakers. Viewing it would make a great extra credit project for any civics class. It can be viewed at citizensforanelectedmayor.com.

Councilwoman Hart is also planning another online forum on Wednesday, January 20th, at 7:00pm to deal with transitional issues as experienced by East Providence, a city of similar size that has recently made the same transition. While open to the public, its target audience is City Council, prospective candidates and those active in city politics. Anyone interested in governmental processes will find it an informative presentation that will include upcoming glitches that the city can prepare for and those cultural adjustments we can count on. East Providence Mayor Dasliva and Dylan Conley, Esq., who walked them through their transition, will both be on the panel.

Future Heights and CEM will be co-sponsoring a final event intended to inform candidates about issues important to the citizens. “Electing Our First Mayor: Moving Cleveland Heights Forward” will take place via Zoom, from 7 to 8:30 p.m., on Wednesday, Feb. 3. Visit https://conta.cc/2LSDmv3 to participate in an online survey open to all in Cleveland Heights to target which issues have the most interest.

As reported in Heights Observer, “Community input is an essential part of shaping what our first elected mayor’s priorities should be,” said Tony Cuda, Campaign Manager of CEM. “We believe this will not only help candidates create their platforms, it will help citizens evaluate candidates and identify the qualities, experiences, and qualifications that a mayor would need to address the issues.”

More from the Heights Observer:

In addition, the groups are asking members of the public to play an active role in the event by submitting a 15- to 30-second video clip expressing an important challenge for Cleveland Heights’ first elected mayor (see instructions below). Videos should be submitted no later than 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 26.

For more information and to RSVP for the forum, visit https://tinyurl.com/y76adqn3.

Here are a few details and requests for your video:

• Record your video by holding your phone horizontally (landscape orientation).
• Make sure that your room is well lit with ample light in front of you, and try to eliminate all background noise.
• Can’t decide what to wear? Solids always work best on camera.
• Be brief; a maximum of 30 seconds is ideal.
• Once recorded, upload your video by going to www.wetransfer.com. Drag the video file into the website window, enter your e-mail address, and enter digizoommedia@gmail.com for the recipient e-mail address. If you prefer, you may use Dropbox or Google Drive, also using digizoommedia@gmail.com as the recipient address; and
• Submit your video by Tuesday, Jan. 26, at 9 p.m.

Questions? Contact us at info@futureheights.org or 216-320-1423.

The first forum received high ratings. Reviewing it and participating in the upcoming ones is highly recommended.

Trash talking is not usually the fare of respectable religious types, but in this case, Cleveland Heights City Council has just approved a resolution to change the Refuse and Recycling system in the city and has increased the billing to reflect  the 2020 costs, so just this once, let’s talk trash.

Quick History Lesson

The discussion began in January of 2018 when China, who previously was the biggest importer of trash, abruptly stopped taking the world’s recyclables. The US market has been slow to create its own infrastructure leaving sorting centers officially called Materials Recovery Facilities or more commonly, MRFs, with recyclables they could no longer sell. What was once a profitable market, has now become an expense. Cities were paid for their recyclables and contracts were not up yet. Cuyahoga County has a consortium on recycling and the MRFs appealed the contracts which stipulated that the cities must be paid a minimum for their goods, even as they incurred costs for the same loads. The reply, to paraphrase, “This is what a contract’s for”  Sorry, no relief. But the MRFs were bleeding and the contract was set to expire in September of 2020. As expected, renewal contracts folded in their losses in much higher costs.

So in 2018 Cleveland Heights commissioned a Refuse and Recycling Task Force (RRTF – full disclosure I was on it) to deal with the two issues that would hit when the contract ended: Rising costs and the end of the Blue Plastic Recycling Bags.

The bags created a political conundrum: If we are trying to be environmentally friendly, why are we using plastic in the first place. Second, the MRF centers are large conveyor belts with a combination of machine and hand sorting going on. Whenever the plastic gets caught in the gears, the entire facility shuts down, all the employees unproductively wait, and the repair crews untangle the mess and fix the damage. That costs. So one step the MRFs promised was the end of taking plastic bags at the end of those contracts.

Another cost is contaminated recycling. Wish-cycling is the term for people throwing in items that cannot be recycled or throwing in dirty or wet items  Items for recycling need to be clean and dry. Cleveland Heights’ high contamination rate means that those items sent to the MRF that are unusable then have to be sent to the landfill anyway. This too, raises costs which are then folded into the future recycling contracts.

For most cities already outsourcing to Kimble, Rumpke, and Waste Management, the local haulers who all use containers, little adjustment would be needed. Not so Cleveland Heights. Cleveland Heights boasts its own Transfer Station and takes care of Refuse and Recycling as part of its Public Works Department. Garbage is taken there first, before being sent to either Landfill or the MRF. This asset needs repair and upkeep but affords the city the ability to customize services in ways outsourcing would charge extra for if they did it at all. What was clear was that the city’s trucks were old, many needing replacing, and should the city want to continue to provide services, it would have to address these issues for which it was not budgeted.

The task force was charged with looking at the three options: Continue using bags for garbage which doesn’t address the recycling concerns; Move to containers for both garbage and recycling but outsource the pick up and processing service.  Or move to containers for both and have our department enter the 21st century with the appropriate equipment. The task force painstakingly looked at the pros and cons or each of these, their costs and their effects on the homeowner with special consideration for bulk pickups, holiday pickups (Yom Tov as well as December’s fir trees), lawn and leaf refuse and rental property move outs as well as other public locations. After eliminating the first option as undesirable and impractical and after extrapolating from the new contracts offered to other cities and using our residential numbers, it found that the costs of outsourcing would end up being similar enough to keeping it in-house.  The benefits of pride in doing it ourselves would be preserved. If we take care of our own, and  we will do a better job and be able to provide  the extra touches we are accustomed to. Outsourcing means impersonal service, and any requests for accommodation of the sort the city now gets, would be a separate charge or unavailable altogether. Other advantages to doing it inhouse included not having to lfire any employees. Going automated would cut down the number of employees needed with the greater efficiency the new technology would provide, but that  would happen through regular attrition instead of  firing, upcoming retirements and moving resources within the department. Additionally, automation provides greater safety to our employees which is just responsible management. It also lowers liability and mandatory  Bureau of Workers Compensation costs for the city.

The task force did not look at Enterprise pricing versus our current system and therefore had a lower number in mind for any increases to fees. Enterprise pricing implies that homeowners are billed for the entire cost running the department.  Currently, some of the costs are born by the general funds, and therefore the entire cost has never been included in the landfill bill. Put another way, each homeowner pays a fee for part, but income taxes subsidized the rest.  An outside firm later introduced the city to the concept of making the fees actually reflect and cover the entire cost of the refuse and recycling enterprise. They also ratified the belief that costs would have been similar no matter the option chosen.

The city could lower costs by suspending recycling temporarily until market value makes it more affordable such as the city of Cleveland and Richmond Heights have done, but in Cleveland Heights, that remains an unpopular solution. As Sandy Moran, a citizen who watched the task force meetings commented, “We may as well remove the tree from our (city’s) logo,  if we do that.”

The first steps were taken earlier this month as the measure passed City Council. Cleveland.com reports that homeowners’ monthly sanitation fees will be increasing from the current $11.50, to $16.17 in the first year, up $4.67. It will be followed the next year, by an increase to $16.48 per month, and $16.83 in year three, with similar annual increases, finally reaching $19.32 per month in year ten. These costs remain $2 lower than the original propositions.

The approximately 900 residents using the homestead exemption program, would see their bills rise from $3, currently to $7.67 in 2021 and in ten years, $10.82, just over half of the regular costs.

One reason for the higher numbers is that prior to this, Council had not budgeted the cost of replacing the vehicles into the annual forecast. Cleveland Heights will be applying for a loan to finance the new equipment. The fees are set with the knowledge that considering the daily beating garbage trucks take, there is a new need for trucks every ten years. This rise in cost will reflect both the current loan and the realization that ten years will pass in ten years and the city will need to be ready to purchase new equipment as well as the contract realities in the new recycling economy.  The cost of garbage collection has simply increased and the fees reflect the new reality moving the city closer to the enterprise formula.

The rise in costs has been long in coming. These fees reflect the correction in cost for recycling, the upgrades to the transfer station and purchase of new and upgrades to the fleet of vehicles as well as new carts for every household. It is not recommended that there be separate costs based on quantity of use, so large families can breathe easily there. A homeowner needing more than the single garbage bin provided by the city, one for garbage, one for recycling, will need to purchase any additional containers, and purchasing them at bulk pricing through the city will keep that cost for homeowners down, but they will be a onetime cost not incur additional monthly fees. The new system is expected to be in place by the end of 2021.

Click the post title to view more maps of the entire route. Please note that this year, there will be a live parade tracker! Also, we will be giving away Chanukah goodies to kids masked not gathering. Check out www.clemenorahparade.com for more information.

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