Heights Chapter E-News -
Do you want to serve on Council?
(and more, of course) | - Free time! Read a book on history, or democracy, or watch all your favorite holiday movies, or take an extended nap! | Each City Council has an Emtpy Seat - Are you Interested?
With November's election of Jim Petras and Michele Weiss to the position of mayor, they left their uncompleted terms open. Each city will appoint someone to fill the remaining two years of these council seats. This is an opportunity to serve on council initially without having to campaign, and with a two-year term of service the appointee will have a significant opportunity to become an experienced member of council before seeking election in 2027. You might be interested to know that both Sue Pardee and Michele Weiss started as City Council Observers for League before running for office.
Per the Cleveland Heights Charter, the city has 60 days to fill the seat after Jim Petras is sworn in as the mayor on January 1st. Please submit your resume and letter of interest by email to the Clerk of Courts at ABalester@ClevelandHeights.gov NO LATER THAN midnight December 15th.
Per University Heights' Charter, the City of University Heights has 30 days to fill the seat after Michele Weiss is sworn in as the mayor. They ask that all resumes plus letters of interest be emailed to KThomas@UniversityHeights.com, or mailed to City Hall c/o Clerk of Council Kelly M. Thomas, 2300 Warrensville Center Road, University Heights, Ohio 44118. The press release doesn't list any specific requirements for the position. Applicants for University Heights have until noon on December 29th to submit their materials. |
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Tell Governor to Veto SB 293!
Action Alert: Call Governor Dewine to urge him to veto SB 293. AS OF MONDAY NIGHT the bill is still sitting on his desk.
The Ohio legislature passed Senate Bill 293, legislation that would throw away thousands of valid absentee ballots mailed on time from eligible Ohio voters— but Governor DeWine can still stop it from happening.
Currently, absentee ballots that are postmarked by the Monday before Election Day are counted as long as they arrive within four days. SB 293 takes those four days away from voters. If SB 293 were to become law, it would especially hurt Ohio seniors, voters with disabilities, rural voters, college students, and working Ohioans who depend on voting by mail. SB 293 does nothing to make our elections more secure, it only makes our elections less accessible.
No one should lose their vote because of slow mail. Call Governor DeWine and urge him to veto Senate Bill 293. If his mailboxes are full, keep going to leave messages for his staff.
Gov. DeWine's office: 614-644-4357
Gov. DeWine's Deputy Policy Director: 614-644-0929
Gov. DeWine's Legislative Affairs Director: 614-466-2828
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| | | A Note of Thanks from Linda Striefsky
Wendy, I am writing to express my deep appreciation to the League for its forum and Voters Guide providing information on the Charter amendments. I believe that the League's sharing of this information was very important to the passage of the Charter amendments, particularly because there was not really a formal "YES" campaign operation to support the amendments..
Honestly, I had concerns about whether the Charter amendments would pass. I was very pleasantly surprised by the strong "YES" vote. .It helps me stay optimistic about the power of voters in our community.
Yours in the fight for democracy!
Linda
Note: Linda Striefsky did the long hard work of leading the committee which reviewed the existing Charter, debating the rules which were no longer working in an elected mayor form of government, or which had been found to be confusing or vague or contradictory over time. The committee met for two (long?) years. They did not all agree, and coming to consensus on which items should be advanced to Council to consider for the ballot was a laborious task. But they persevered under Linda's leadership and the proposals were brought to the ballot. Our Chapter had spoken to Council, asking that a Charter Review Commission be formed because we saw how the government was being hobbled by the contradictions and omissions in the charter. We are grateful to Council for agreeing on the need, and to each of the members of the CRC who stepped up to volunteer their time
<THIS IS HOW DEMOCRACY IS SUPPOSED TO WORK>
| Summary of the Forums, for the record
This was a more expensive year than usual for candidate forums. We had the (presumably) maximum number of forums with a primary race, two mayoral races, a city charter, and all offices being contested (having more candidates than seats.) Because of the primary race for mayor, we also had two separate Voter Guides. We spent a total of $5,474.00 - $847 over budget. We went over budget because the second voter guide had to be extended to 12 pages instead of 8, we hired a sign language interpreter for two of the forums, and we hired security for the mayoral primary forum.
On the other hand, we collected $217 in cash donations at the forums, an attendee contributed $200 to pay for the security, and we receive a number of generous donations specifically because of the value of our forums and Guide to the community.
One of our newer costs is $2,100 for streaming, videotaping and posting all six forum. However, based on the number of people who watch the livestream or the posted recording, we have decided the cost is well worth it for its ability to extend our reach to more members of the community. We posted all 6 video recordings of our candidate forums onto our League's YouTube channel. YouTube provides data regarding the number of views, and the number of Unique Viewers. The numbers are interesting:
| Community |
Date |
Race |
Viewers |
Unique Viewers |
| Cleveland Hts |
August 7th |
Mayoral Primary |
4.2k |
unknown |
| Cleveland Hts |
Sep 10th |
City Council |
1.1k |
624 |
| Cleveland Hts |
Sep 17th |
Mayor / Charter |
733 |
352 |
| CH-UH |
Sep 25th |
Board of Ed |
724 |
582 |
| University Hts |
Sep 11th |
Mayor |
778 |
523 |
| University Hts |
Sep 18th |
City Council |
225 |
120 |
In a new development this year, the Greater Cleveland League decided to help all chapters by covering the costs of the video recordings, security and interpreters, reducing our costs by $2,480.00. This was a wonderful help, especially for the smaller chapters who have fewer donors. Our local voter services are truly our best service to the community. It is an honor that we have the members, and the funds, to provide these forums. Thank you to each of you who helped, whether by volunteering, donating, providing helpful information, or by attending. We couldn't have done it without each one of you. | Cuyahoga County Election Profile for November 4, 2025 Election
| Instructions for Living in a Broken World
lean into community
seek out love
applaud the good you see
keep paying attention
talk to your neighbors
dance to the music and embrace art
look for love and small joys
take breaks and relish in nourishing your body
donate what you can
linger at the dinner table with friends
check in with your people
let yourself grieve
love one another as deeply as you can
the storm is upon us and we must hold on
don’t give up, we’re here together.
(this was read to my yoga class. I have found it online but with various attributions. My gratitude to whomever wrote it.) | From the Card Campaign: The Constitution and Voting Rights
Some of you are aware of the "Card Campaign" which was started last year to provide informational handouts to voters. They have just issued two new cards - on our Constitutional Amendment Rights and our Voting Rights. These cards are designed to be printed out or shared in social media.
| MEMBERSHIP ROSTER IS HERE!
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. | Links to things you might have missed:
- From our gathering last Sunday - The Council Overviews and Chapter Chat for the past year are now included on our page on the LWVGC website. Go to https://lwvgreatercleveland.org/chuh and scroll down to the orange block labeled Chapter Chat to read up on what happened in both city councils over the past year.
- Emergency Meeting on School Funding 11/11/25 Note that the link is to the slide deck from the presentation but it is very readable. PUPS School Funding Deck
New and not-so-new member orientation program:
The program was recorded and has now been posted on our chapter home page. If you're interested in watching the presentations you can go to www.lwvgreatercleveland.org. You'll need to log in as a member so click in the upper right corner where it says Member Login. (If you haven't set up your login yet, you'll get a chance to do it now.) Then, in the top menu bar click on "Chapters" (just to the left of "About Us") and scroll down to "Cleve Hts/Univ Hts. . Then scroll down on our page past the calendar and the Observer Corp.
The LWVUS "Impact on Issues" book, summarizing our national positions and priorities from the 2024 National Convention is available from Amazon for the low low price of $6.99! (It is also available online at LWV.org which is searchable but extremely long.) LWVUS Impact on Issues
| Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble. - John Lewis
No one can terrorize a whole nation unless we are all their accomplices. Edward R Murrow, Journalist
The best portion of a good man's life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love. -William Wordsworth, poet (7 Apr 1770-1850)
All the goodness and the heroisms will rise up again, then be cut down again, and rise up.
It isn't that the evil thing wins - it never will - but that it doesn't die. John Steinbeck
An inspiration from Martin Luther King (per Maya Wiley):
A man cannot be ridden if his back is not bent.
In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
Thomas Jefferson
| CHUH Chapter Leadership
We are delighted to report the following list of officers for the 2024/2025 year::
Chapter Chair: Wendy Deuring (2024-2026)
Voter Service Co-Chairs: Betsy Tracy (2023-2025)
Membership Development Co-Chairs: Joan Spoerl (2024-2026) Paula Goodwin (2025-2027)
Treasurer: Brenda Bagby (2024-2026)
Recording Co-Secretaries: Robin Koslen (2024-2026)
2026 Nominating Committee: Blanche Valancy, Chair; Eefje Kolkman and Judith Beeler
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For the Cleveland Heights City Council, the University Heights City Council, the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Board of Education and the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Library Board of Trustees. Watching government promotes good government: | |