Strong candidates vie for Ward 14 City Council seat in General Election
by Joe Narkin

(Plain Press, November 2009) Beneath an atmosphere of low-key rancor and a climate of crass campaign tactics, both Brian Cummins and Rick Nagin are running on a platform of progressive change in their campaign for the Cleveland City Council seat for Ward 14 in the November 3rd general election.

The challenge for Ward 14 voters will be to look beyond the cloud of campaign invective and analyze the subtle distinctions in the platforms of the candidates in order to determine who can best lead the Ward 14 community in reversing a decades long pattern of socio-economic decline and begin the difficult process of neighborhood and business revitalization.

NEWS ANALYSIS

The slogan for Cummins campaign is, “the experience to lead… and the record to prove it.” In support of his experience and his record, Cummins cites his four year term as council representative for the redistricted Ward 15, his tenure as the Executive Director of the Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation, and nine years of community organization experience as a volunteer and employee in foreign posts with the Peace Corp.

Nagin’s campaign slogan is “for the people,” and he cites twenty-one years of community activism in the local community as evidence of his capability to take a leadership role in representing the interests of the residents of Ward 14. He emphasizes that his experience includes handling over 40,000 resident complaints during 7-years working as council assistant to former Ward 14 Councilmember Nelson Cintron, his role as Labor Coordinator for Dennis Kucinich in the 2008 primary campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives, and his longstanding role in the efforts of organized labor.

While both Nagin and Cummins express a high degree of confidence that they can effectively advocate for the provision of city services and secure funds for community development projects in Ward 14, they also believe that inspiring the active involvement of ward residents on their own behalf is the most critical factor in achieving a safe and vital ward.

“One of my primary missions, if elected, will be to revitalize a vibrant network of block clubs and community organizations as a means of communication between council and grass root concerns and ideas,” said Nagin in a September 21st interview with the Plain Press. “In my role as council aide, I became recognized as a grievance man for almost the entire city administration,” he said. Nagin believes that his history of forming partnerships with the Hispanic community would be especially valuable in representing the ward.

Both Cummins and Nagin speak Spanish as a second language. As part of his Peace Corp experience, Cummins worked in the Dominican Republic, where he believes that he was able to achieve an understanding of Hispanic culture and values that has proven helpful in his role as Ward 15 councilperson.

“Since I have been in council, I have been very active in working with community groups and that experience counts for something; it is what is shaping me as a politician,” said Cummins in an October 12th interview with the Plain Press. “People that know me (and my council assistant Johanna Hamm) know that we can be effective in constituency services,” but it is equally important to teach people “how to work together to use city services and hold the (city) administration accountable,” he said. “Helping empower people, helping them work in partnership, is critical,” said Cummins.

A big concern for the residents of Ward 14 is the manner in which community development services will be delivered within the ward in the future. Under current Councilmember Joe Santiago, who was defeated as the incumbent in the primary election for the council seat in Ward 14, the Clark Metro Development Corporation (CMDC) lost its block grant funding, and the services formerly provided by CMDC were partitioned out to community development corporations in surrounding communities.

How services will be provided to the ward through community development corporations (CDC’s) by the new councilperson after current contracts expire in July 2010 is an area where Nagin and Cummins most differ.

While he does not preclude a role for CMDC in providing some services “in turning around and rejuvenating the area,” Cummins, mindful of the current trend of consolidating CDC’s for efficiency and effective deployment of expertise in providing specialized services, anticipates that services in Ward 14 would most likely continue to be supervised by CDC’s located outside of Ward 14 boundaries.

Cummins intends, however, to create an office at a centralized location within the ward to house staff providing services in order to afford ready access to residents seeking services. “An oversight board or advisory committee with people who live and work here (Ward 14)” would also be formed, said Cummins.

“To push on to reduce the number of CDC’s just on efficiency grounds, I don’t think that this is going to go over well with the people of Ward 14 and I do not support it,” said Nagin. “CDC’s are service providers for the block clubs” and, through canvassing the ward, “the general consensus is that we need to have our own CDC,” he said, while recognizing that the performance of CMDC was substandard and warranted address by the City of Cleveland and Councilman Santiago.

“A fundamental issue is that we need to reestablish a strong, legitimate CDC that is focused on the ward; we have got to find a way to establish a functioning CDC that can mediate between the councilman, residents, and commercial development interests,” said Nagin.

Citing “a plague of vacant houses” in Ward 15, Nagin believes that a critical function of a CDC “must be to stay on top of vacant houses through code enforcement and to use every tool available to resolve the problem.”

Nagin is particularly intrigued by the possibility of using court receivership, a tactic that he says has been used to good effect in the distressed Slavic Village by Ward 12 Councilman Tony Brancatelli, in addressing abandoned homes. “Under receivership, neighbors can lay claim to nuisance property that has been abandoned by a mortgage company or bank” and return the land, and possibly the building, to productive use, said Nagin. “While some of these properties need to be demolished and land banked, each of these properties has a different story and some of the structures are pretty good, even if they have been stripped,” he said.

Cummins also sees that the problem of vacant housing is partly a result of a “lack of code enforcement” and that it is an issue that needs to be prioritized, but he believes that CDC’s are not the only community resource that can be called upon in the community to help stabilize the housing stock. He sites precedent in the current Ward 15 where, as councilman, he “pulled (Community Development Block Grant) money from (Old Brooklyn) CDC and awarded it to the Brooklyn Centre Community Association” when he found it advisable to do so in order to assure community accountability and involvement.

Active community-based civic associations are critical to the healthy functioning of a community, especially when they “need to address an issue that takes in a larger area than covered by a block club,” said Cummins. In addition to helping the Brooklyn Centre Community Association secure incorporation status as a non-profit organization, Cummins saw that it was within his role as a council representative to help facilitate the growth and independence of civic associations as an independent link between residents, block clubs, city council, and city administration.

“My number one priority if I am elected will be the reduction of crime and improvement of safety,” said Cummins. “Violent crime might be down (in the City of Cleveland), but, clearly, there are nuisance issues in non-violent crime that have gone up,” he said. Cummins recognizes, as does Nagin, that substandard housing conditions, poverty, a lack of job opportunities, and a deteriorating infrastructure are issues that must be addressed in tandem with crime and public safety.”

“A combination of failing infrastructure (due to a lack of public resources) and the physical deterioration of neighborhoods produce a feeling of hopelessness – a lack of respect – that fosters a climate in which people can feel helpless” in addressing crime and impoverished circumstances. Here too, Cummins believes that a high-quality partnership between block clubs, civic groups, and the councilperson is critical. “If you empower on the local level, you create more synergy in resolving issues around larger planning areas,” said Cummins. “How we empower a working relationship is critical,” he said.

Partnerships are also critical in the estimation of Nagin, but he believes that previous council members in Ward 14 have largely missed an opportunity to cultivate partnerships with other organizations in the community and he uses the MetroHealth Medical Center as a primary example. “It (MetroHealth) doesn’t really partner with the community; it doesn’t really do outreach,” said Nagin, also expressing a concern that the current hospital administration is dominated by “efficiency experts” who may be leading the hospital in the direction of privatization.

Nagin also believes that his involvement with labor unions offers partnership opportunities for Ward 14 in creating jobs and maintaining manufacturing jobs. “I am not sympathetic to people who say that manufacturing is passé; manufacturing has been Cleveland’s strength and it could be revived and needs to be saved,” said Nagin. An apprenticeship effort on the part of the building trade unions could also improve housing stock while creating jobs at the same time, according to Nagin. A promising apprenticeship housing repair program was funded with CDBG funds under Councilman Cintron, but eliminated by Councilman Santiago, he said.

While the differences in approach between these two strongly qualified candidates may be subtle, the differences are important enough for Ward 14 voters to carefully consider which candidate’s platform would best address the needs of the ward. Both Cummins and Nagin agree in encouraging Ward 14 residents to make an informed decision and to vote in the General Election of November 4th.

Despite the tainted atmosphere of invective surrounding the way that the candidates have conducted their campaign, both candidates have the potential to engage in politics other than usual if elected and serve Ward 14 in effective fashion. But both candidates would also do well, however, to keep in mind that, in the words of Cummins, “Clearly, residents in Ward 14 want results.”

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