Local Jewish News

By Jessica Chavi Cohen

On September 14th , Cleveland Heights will vote for its first mayor in over 100 years. This is a critical election with tremendous consequences for the future of our city. Only one candidate is qualified to lead Cleveland Heights as mayor: Barbara Danforth.

Cleveland Heights is a municipality with an over $50 million operating budget, over 400 employees, and about 40,000 residents. Barbara is an experienced CEO and served as a leader in city, county, and state governments. As the former Chief Prosecutor for the City of Cleveland – she knows how to get criminals off the streets and keep our neighborhoods safe. She is respected by the Cleveland Heights police department. No other candidate has the leadership, legal, or public safety experience that Barbara has. Barbara knows how to work with businesses and will focus on the economic development projects our city needs to succeed: Tudor-Taylor, Severance and more. As a lawyer and a recognized leader, she will be a tough advocate for our community to ensure the Cleveland Heights University Heights School District does not neglect Millikin School in the heart of our neighborhood. Barbara knows how to manage complex multimillion dollar budgets, hundreds of employees, and large organizations. None of the other candidates have that experience or knowledge.

This election is too important to sit by and let the other two candidates – with much less experience and leadership abilities – to take the lead.

Barbara understands and respects our community. She has lost endorsements from local liberal political groups for her moderate views on social issues. Barbara is committed to representing our interests and has the support of the Jewish Voters Association (JVote). This is a critical primary where only two of the three candidates will proceed to the general election in November. We need to make sure Barbara advances to the general election and wins.

JVOTE is the organization dedicated to representing the Orthodox Jewish community residing in Cleveland Heights. Our mission is to build bridges with our local government, elected representatives and fellow citizens to educate them on those issues and needs important to our community. JVote has endorsed Barbara as the best candidate to represent the frum community’s interests when elected as mayor of Cleveland Heights. JVote’s endorsement of Shontel Brown for U.S. Congress and our work to ensure her primary election win demonstrated the power of our communal vote. We need to demonstrate that strength again by voting for Barbara Danforth on September 14th.

If you have questions about Barbara Danforth or to request a lawn sign for your front lawn – email JVote613@gmail.com.

For questions about voting – email vote44118@gmail.com.

Learn more about Barbara at www.barbaradanforthforCHMayor.com.

Learn more about JVote at www.jvote.org.

Mayoral primary? Since when? When Cleveland Heights passed Issue 26 overwhelmingly two years ago, part of the amendment stipulated a special primary election in the event that more than two people are running. Three are running and you can vote for only one. The two top vote getters will run off in the November election which will determine who will actually be Mayor

Susan’s Endorsement – Melody Joy Hart

We have two talented women vying for the position, Councilwoman Melody Joy Hart and Barabara Danforth. Councilman Khalil Seren is also running and has voted in friendship with our community in the past, but his background lacks the management experience both women possess giving them a strong edge. Both women bring good things and different strengths to the table. What we should be looking for in a leader includes:

Knowledge of City: Hart and Seren trump Danforth here. While all have deep backgrounds of civic involvement, Hart has a longer history within Cleveland Heights while Danforth is just beginning to learn its inner workings and neighborhood individualities. Hart and Seren are currently on council. Danforth’s history is with the county and other institutions but not local to our city. Seren has been on council the longest and works in governmental affairs at the county level, and this is where his strengths lie making him, in my opinion better suited to council than mayor. Hart attended council meetings for years prior to running and has been engaged in the city otherwise as well.

Leadership Abilities: Both women have deep backgrounds working with people and managing organizations. Danforth as a CEO (City Prosecutor, YWCA) and Hart (Quaker Oats, Goodyear, Signet Jewlers, Fisher Price in a 35 year career) managing and setting up financial departments. Danforth shines as the clearly stronger speaker and is more charismatic, a quality that gave her an edge and won her the JVote endorsement. It is something that will come in handy promoting the city. Hart has the better reputation for collaboration and a reputation as a hard worker who does her research before forming an opinion. Both have extensive work and management experiences that qualify them.

Ability to lead us through the transition to the new form of government: There will be many changes needed to have city ordinance and charter keep in synch with the fact that we are moving from one branch of government to two. All candidates have been supportive of the idea, Seren being the biggest advocate. Hart worked with the campaign on promoting it. Hart also hosted several forums and located other cities who have undergone this change to learn from them. Hart possesses a deep understanding of the cultural and legal challenges we face. Danforth moderated the last one hosted by Hart, but likely has the bigger learning curve about this and city services altogether. Hart’s time on council gives her the greater knowledge of our departments making her more ready on day one to lead them.

Fiscal Management: With millions in dollars budgeted each year, our city needs someone who has an understanding of public money policy as well as strong financial experience. Failure in this area can potentially cost the tax payers much in fines, lost opportunities and interest charges if our credit ratings are not maintained. While Danforth’s work history is more diverse than Hart’s, Hart’s strength as a CPA is in financials having been hired to manage billions in international accounts and setting up the departments to carry that out during their business transition giving Hart the superior mastery on finance.

All have solid agendas and have reached out to our community with good ties, but it’s Hart’s grasp of issues important to us and her record on council that stand her apart. It’s worth mentioning that both women are seen as strong supporters of the police, and all candidates understand the problems that an empty Severence Mall creates. As a councilwoman, Hart has worked to bring the Taylor Tudor project to a point where some promise can now be seen from it. She has promoted the need for housing refurbishing in the DeSota Altemonte area and has reiterated the need to communicate with us, it’s neighbors, for input. Hart understands that there are subtleties our community would appreciate such as having the developer clued in on what makes a kosher kitchen appreciated by a Jewish family and has asked the developers to meet with and consider such standards. Most impressive was Hart’s understanding that some have created an atmosphere in their rhetoric when directed at our community about voucher usage that belies the city’s newly adopted theme of “All are Welcome” and Hart’s willingness to call it out. She also, in my opinion, has the stronger grasp in general of issues relevant to our neighborhood ranging from smaller ones like our need for more parking on Taylor instead of a the proposed bike lanes to larger ones like the development of the Milikin site and strengthening our business sector. Her record as a strong ally for our community and willingness to work closely with us should be appreciated. Vote Melody Hart