LWVGC concerned about proposed Cleveland ward map
TO: Cleveland City Council Members
DATE: January 2, 2025
While we appreciate that the City Council has released its proposed ward map and given the public an opportunity to comment on those maps, we still have several concerns about both the map and the process that City Council has undertaken over the past several months.
City Council has known, for nearly four years, since April 2021, once it received the apportionment results from the Census Bureau, that the map would have to be redrawn, with a decrease from 17 to 15 wards. Nevertheless, City Council took no action for three years, until May 2024. It held no public meetings and sought no public input until mid-October 2024, when many stakeholders were busy prepping for a major election. Although City Council had a proposed map in late November, that map was shared only with City Council members, not the public.
Then, when City Council finally released its proposed ward map to the public in mid-December, it provided only a PDF file that does not have every street name listed, rather than in a format, such as Dave’s Redistricting, that would allow citizens to effectively assess the map and its impact on their communities and neighborhoods. Also, at the time, Council President, Blaine Griffin, indicated at the press conference on December 10 that, prior to voting in January to approve the map, there would only be minimal changes, indicating that any comments or concerns brought by the public would likely be ignored. Finally, we recently noticed, less than two weeks before the public hearing, that the map that is now on the website is slightly different than the map that was originally posted on December 10. These additional changes were made, without any notice to the public, including when and by whom those changes were made.
With respect to the map itself, we have concerns that several communities of interest have been split unnecessarily, without respect for things such as SPA Neighborhood Boundaries or Block Clubs, which are generally expected to be kept whole. Examples of this include Shaker Square, which has been split east and west, the Hyacinth Community, which was cut up along E 65th Street north of Bessemer Avenue, and Cudell and Edgewater Park, which were also cut up. There are likely several other neighborhoods and communities which have been split nonsensically. However, given the shortened time frame, we are unable to assess the full extent of those splits. We are also concerned with the significant
and unnecessary differences in population between the proposed wards, with the west side wards overpopulated up to the limit and the east side ward underpopulated up to the limit.
We also have concerns that the proposed map was drawn to ensure incumbent reelection. City Council President, Blaine Griffin, made it clear in a recent interview on Ideastream’s Sound of Ideas that, at the beginning of the process he consulted with each member of City Council to find out if they were running for reelection and had each member meet with the consultants. Then, each member was not only provided a copy of the initial draft map before any member of the public, but was given an opportunity to comment on that draft map before the final proposed map was drawn. All of this was done outside the view of the public.
While City Council has stated that a new map must be provided to the Board of Elections no later than early January 2025, as noted above, City Council had more than three years to ensure the public had a fair opportunity to participate in this process and provide their input. Instead, the Commission is breaking every good government rule for fair, transparent, and public redistricting.
This entire process has been incredibly disappointing considering that City Council unanimously passed a resolution in support of Issue 1, the statewide effort to take Ohio redistricting out of the hands of politicians and create a fair, transparent, and public process. However, we have not seen that same commitment to fairness, transparency, and public engagement during this process. Instead, you have followed a similar playbook to that of the Ohio Redistricting Commission; delaying the process until the very last minute, drawing maps in secret, providing for very minimal, if any, public input, prioritizing incumbency over keeping communities and neighborhoods together, and, most notably secretly making changes to those maps without any notice to the public.
All of this is exactly why the League has fought for decades to remove politicians from the map making process, regardless of who is engaging in gerrymandering and whether the motivation is partisan advantage or incumbent advantage. When politicians, even though elected in nonpartisan races, are responsible for drawing maps, they have a strong incentive to draw maps that ensure their continued reelection, essentially picking their constituents, rather than the other way around.
We hope that you take a step back, listen to the concerns of your citizens, and propose and adopt a map that reflects the communities and neighborhoods of those citizens. We would be happy to meet with you or to answer any questions. You can reach us at president@lwvgreatercleveland.org.
Best Regards,
Nadia Zaiem and Lisa Cech
Co-Presidents of the League of Women Voters of Greater Cleveland