What is the City's Plan to make Cleveland Lead Safe?
What is the City's plan to make Cleveland Lead Safe?
Back in 2019 when CLASH forced City Council to enact the Lead Safe Certificate Program, the deal was that City Council and Mayor Frank Jackson would enact the ordinance and their public-private partners, the Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition, would implement the program.
Cleveland has two operating entities providing lead safe programs.
City Departments that have legal authority to implement city and state laws concerning lead using tax revenue, fees, and grants. Departments include the Department of Building and Housing, Cleveland Department of Public Health, the Department of Community Development, and the Cleveland Law Department.
In an effort to coordinate among the City Departments, CLASH asked Mayoral candidates to appoint a cabinet level Lead Czar to coordinate the lead programs across the departmental lines. In 2022, Mayor Justin Bibb appointed Karen Dettmer, a former Health Department employee, to be his "lead czar". Her independence quickly evaporated as she joined the LSCC Board and and moved her base of operations the City Department of Building and Housing, not the Mayor's office.
The Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition (LSCC) carries out lead related programs (public information, loans/grants for property owners, and research using mostly private donations from corporations, United Way, and private foundations through their non-profit operating entities including the Lead Resource Center, the CHN Housing Partners, Enterprise Community Partners and others.
LSCC is an unincorporated association of nonprofit entities each of which receives funding through LSCC and each of which has a vote on the Steering Committee of LSCC. There are two "chiefs". The Mount Sinai Health Foundation (Mitchell Balk) and the Enterprise Community Partners (Ayonna Blue Donald).
Over the past four years (2019-2022), LSCC has gained control of the oversight of the city program without offering much, if any, information about how LSCC operates.
Examples of LSCC control of city departments:
Ms. Blue Donald is the former Director of Building and Housing who set up the overall strategy for the Cleveland Lead Safe Certificate program, before moving over to Enterprise, the fiscal agent for LSCC.
While Director of B&H, Ms. Blue Donald gave an unbid contract to the Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) Center on Poverty to be the independent Lead Safe Auditor for the Department of Building and Housing. Dr. Robert Fischer is the primary staff person who is evaluating the city's progress at implementing the Lead Safe Certificate. Dr. Fischer is on both the City's Lead Safe Advisory Board and the LSCC Data Committee.
The 2019 Lead Safe Certificate Law established a Lead Safe Advisory Board includes Dr. Fisher, and 7 citizen members, five of whom are nominated by the LSCC and appointed by the Mayor. The auditor reports, meeting minutes and videos are posted on the CWRU website, not a city-controlled website.
From it's inception, LSCC has promoted strategy of voluntary cooperation through financial incentives. In a presentation in 2019, Dan Cohn of the Mt. Sinai Foundation wrote "Older, post-industrial cities such as Cleveland, Ohio, and Buffalo, New York, have found that the vast majority of childhood lead poisoning occurs in rental units—often one- and two-unit properties—that are owned by thousands of small-time landlords. These landlords are key partners in protecting children from lead hazards and therefore play a pivotal role in shaping the future of our country’s cities and towns." In a 2023 article, former Director of Building and Housing Ayonna Blue Donald stressed that "....the Lead Safe Coalition wants to work with landlords, even those who are naysayers to the entire process: 'We have a unique opportunity here to influence with carrots and to support landlords. That’s why we’re very willing to listen and shift things.' ”
2023-2024-By 2023 it was becoming obvious that the strategy was failing.
Here's some signs of change
Here's some signs of change
The shit hits the fan in October 2023. See Lead Safe Certificate
October 25, 2022. Cleveland.com. Compromise saves Cleveland’s $17 million lead safety law: Stimulus Watch. A proposed $17M grant to LSCC was trimmed to send funds to the City Law Department to support enforcement
Sep. 20, 2023. cleveland.com Cleveland prosecutes 50 owners of homes that poisoned children with lead "It’s a prosecution strategy that City Hall has not pursued in decades, and one that aligns with the city’s 'moral obligation…to fight for equitable, fair neighborhoods,' Bibb said."
September 2024 -- Bibb proposes Residents First Legislation
March 18, 2024 Ideastream Public Media Cleveland takes aim at absent landlords with 'aggressive' policies to help residents like these
June 2024--Dan Cohn, the architect of LSCC makes a sudden departure from Mt. Sinai Health Foundation.
June 2024 -- Mayor Bibb asks for citizens to apply for a vacant position on the Lead Safe Advisory Board.
Public - Private Partnerships
The history of public-private partnerships in Cleveland is that the the private investment continues, but the program begins to shift towards the public sector after about 5 years as other public private investments grab the awareness of the Civic Elite.
The Lead Safe Certificate program is 5 years old this year. In the life cycle of past public-private partnerships, the partnership is reaching maturity when philanthropy turns operating costs over to the city and uses "it's money" for paying off landlords, hiring consultants, and running demo programs for the non-profit service sphere.
Consider "Say Yes to Cleveland" which spent most of 2023 scrounging for public funding as the funds for "wrap around services" disappeared. Next up for CMSD? Cuts and a possible property tax increase. More on "Say Yes" below.
And...Mayor Bibb is standing up a new Violence Prevention Trust Fund with ARPA (temporary) dollars and foundation grants.
What is a Public - Private Partnership?
A public - private partnership takes place when the public sector (Mayor, Council) wants to start a program without raising taxes or fees. The Philanthropic and Corporate sectors step forward to provide financing and management through a network of private non-profit corps.
In the case of lead safety, the Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition was formed to provide lead info to residents through the Lead Safe Resource Center and financial assistance to landlords through the CHN Partners..in exchange for control of the city program through 3rd party advisors. Private sector jobs; no public accountability. Then, after a while, the private sector funding is converted to public funding going to the private non-profit corporations.
Example: Mt. Sinai Foundation (fiscal agent for LSCC) is seeking $800.000 from Cuyahoga County for operation of the Lead Safe Resource Center--so far no itemized budget, list of goals and objectives, or staffing positions or salaries. Did Mt. Sinai Health Foundation run out of money to pay for this program they created? Hardly: Mt. Sinai Health Foundation awards medical school $2 million to accelerate new treatments for devastating diseases. What starts as a public-private partnership shifts over time to a system where the public sector pays and private sector hires without any public accountability.
Meanwhile Environmental Health Watch which operates the LSCC funded Lead Safe Resource Center is a partner is a consortium of agencies providing technical assistance on environmental organizing thanks to a $10 million grant from US EPA. The Blacks in Green grantees recently sent staffers to the Climate Conference in Dubai.
In fact, in 2022, one of the representatives to the City's LEAD SAFE ADVISORY BOARD told the other board members that the city-paid City Lead Safe Auditor (CWRU) was not allowed to evaluate LSCC operations...he's only allowed to audit the City Departments.
Another example: In 2019, civic leaders formed a public-private partnership to bring Say Yes to Education to Cleveland. "Say Yes to Education helped provide startup experience and funding but has fully wound down its operations as anticipated in June 2021, with Say Yes Cleveland now fully independent and locally governed." Part of that "full independence and local governance" has turned out to be frantic public appeals to the City of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County to provide funding for the health, education and social service non-profits who provide supplemental services to students in the Cleveland Municipal School District. More on the struggle to find public dollars to support the private Say Yes employees. UPDATE: Say Yes Cleveland family support specialist program gets $4.5 million from state budget