- Our question screeners - Jill Tatem, Judith Beeler, Cris Rom, and Maryann Barnes screened 150! questions and combined those which overlapped and clarified the wording and ruled out some which didn't pertain to the role of Mayor.  (Seventeen questions were asked.)  And our question runners - Cindie Carroll Pankhurst, Monica Gordon Pershey, Jennifer Bier, Robin Koslen and Kathy Petrey had quite the challenge navigating through the crowd to pick up and deliver questions.  They also attempted to pass around the sign-in clipboards but the people were just coming in too quickly to get everyone.

- Kathy Flora  and Cassie Talerico were spot-on with their response timing,  And  Blanche Valancy, Janice Foster, Eefje Kolkman and Carol Spackey maintained order in the outer hall - signing in the candidates,  directing the guests, and answering questions.  

- And most of all, major thanks to Betsy Tracy for beginning these plans back in March to make sure we had meeting rooms and a videographer (who made an excellent video PLUS a successful live-stream), making sure we had enough volunteers, and responding to many shifting issues with the addition of the recall issue and possible challenges to the rules.   All while also coaching Janice Foster in her new role with Voter Services as she prepares to organize some of our upcoming forums.

- And did I mention our "official" Chapter Photographer Jack Valancy, whose photos were even picked up for the Cleveland.com article!  (Although the picture below was "borrowed" from a facebook post and not attributed. It's just the best capture of the crowd in the room, and even this was not at peak crowd size.)

 

And while we are talking about the primary, let me give a shoutout to Future Heights, which formatted and printed our Voter Guide for the primary, posting it online and including it in the Heights Observer.  Lee Chilcote, the new director of Future Heights, met with us a week (?) after starting the job to learn about Voter Guide and his organization's role in the process.  And he said sure, and they did a BEAUTIFUL job!  With thanks also to the candidates who submitted their information, perhaps with a reminder or two from Emily Gregory, and to Kathy Petrey, Blanche Valancy, Wendy Deuring, and Betsy Tracy who proofed the copy.   And yes, there will be a second Voter Guide for the regular election in November.

 

A Bright Light for Democracy

 

For those of you who are worried about the state of our democracy (and rightly so), democracy is alive and well and on full display in Cleveland Heights. 

- The residents were paying attention to their city's government and became concerned about the actions of the elected mayor.

- The concerned residents came together and developed a petition to recall the Mayor from office, following the rules of the city's charter and the local and state laws regarding ballot initiatives.

- They went out and collected signatures on the petitions - many more signatures than were required, and in a remarkably short period of time.

- The free press reported on the activities of the mayor and also on the recall petition, helping to inform more residents about what was happening.

- The petition signatures were submitted and approved by the Board of Elections in time for the issue to appear on the primary ballot.

- Also on the primary ballot are FIVE! qualified candidates to be the next Mayor of Cleveland Heights.

- The current mayor was unable to secure enough signatures to also be a candidate per the laws of Ohio and so he is not a candidate. 

- We held a candidate forum for which all five candidates were present, and prepared.

- Not only were all five candidates present, but HUNDREDS of residents were present, or watching the live stream, and more than 1000 have watched the recording.

- The primary will be held in 3 weeks.  It will, I'm confident, be a fairly run election and we will know soon enough afterward which two candidates will be on the November ballot, and the outcome of the recall petition.  And if anyone questions the data, the Board of Elections will be able to confirm the accuracy of the data, with an audit if deemed necessary. 

 

And speaking of supporting democracy, some of our members have been out and about at community events, talking to voters, helping them check their registration, giving out mail-in ballot applications, and best of all - registering first-time voters.  :-)  Unfortunately we don't have photos from the Cedar/Fairmount Summerfest event, but our table was well-situated at the corner in front of the brand new Grocery Outlet! With thanks to Monica Gordon Hershey, Linda Tobin, Amy Vegh,  and Kathy Petrey who helped with that event, and to Carol Spackey who arranged the event and provided the materials.  

 

With thanks also to Carol Spackey and Amy Vegh for volunteering this past Saturday at the Heights Family Resource Fair for the back-to-school event, where they helped with vote by mail. address updates, and one excited 18-year old who is ready to vote.  The pictures below are from the Family Resource Fair. Nice tent!

 

Do you know of any other events coming up?  Especially University Heights!  Reply to this email, or contact Carol Spackey directly at carolspackey@gmail.com.  We do love to be out and about with the people.  :-)

 

In case you missed the news, our Cuyahoga County Board of Elections has moved a bit further west and north to

the former Plain Dealer Building - 1803 Superior Avenue.

For those of you who have been in the current building at 30th and Euclid, you will probably agree this is a good move.

 

Going forward the directory will be updated quarterly and posted to our chapter's website at www.lwvgreatercleveland.org (and emailed to new members.)  But here is your first (in a very VERY long time) member directory.  With major credit to Janice Foster who just couldn't believe we didn't have such a thing.  Thank you Janice!

* With apologies to people who have joined this year - I have not been able to update the roster, which is a manual process.  If anyone is interested in doing a Review/Replace process, reply to this email and let me know.  Otherwise, I will hopefully have time after the upcoming elections.

Mayoral Primary Candidate Forum  8/9/25:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0-g48JfumM

 

For the report on the Public School Funding Meeting held on May 5th with State Sen. Kent Smith, and suggestions of follow-up steps, go to https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JiFYYO97YkdYMpGo8vqZr5cK-Gi2DSB4xsJTtP2GnrQ/edit?tab=t.0

 

 

CHUH Chapter Leadership